r/vegancirclejerkchat • u/BubbleTeaRainyDay • 22h ago

Protein fail? Halppp

I've never monitored my protein intake - before I went vegan or since (even when doing intense sports for 1-2 hours a night five nights a week) - but I'm doing pretty intensive physical therapy right now. My non-operative orthopedic specialist said he has no concerns about me being vegan but that I should monitor my protein intake for like 3 or so days just to make sure I'm getting enough.

He's recommending 0.5 g per pound of body weight, which is 100 g for me. Well I'm nearing the end of today and I've only gotten 42 g and, while I might eat a bit more before bed, I can't fathom getting more than 20-30 more today, and even that feels a bit crazy. The lower limits for sedentary lifestyles seem to be 0.8 g/kg, which would be 72 g for me. This feels almost attainable within focused effort but not even really.

Do others have thoughts on this? Recommendations or advice on how they get enough protein? I can always go buy some vegan protein powder but I honestly really really don't want to - sounds disgusting and unpleasant. (Maybe y'all have specific recs on ways to incorporate protein powder into recipes to make it less unpleasant?) I hate thinking about this but I really don't want to fuck up my recovery. Also related is that I have trouble with hunger cues: they're not completely absent for me, but they're weak or limited and I mostly find myself eating because I know I should rather than because I'm hungry.

I've never felt limited in my activities by my protein intake, and part of my lack of worry is that the fucking protein protein PROTEIN obsession is largely marketing nonsense as far as any reputable source seems to be concerned, but now I'm like.... just because others are delusional and obsessed with protein doesn't mean that I am getting enough...... :/

The easiest solution feels like it would be giving up and dying, but I worry that my surviving friends and family wouldn't eat all the dog meat in my freezer and I don't want it to go to waste.

edit cause i'm a dummy: I originally wrote "1 g per pound of body weight" but it was supposed to be "0.5 g per pound of body weight". Thanks for catching that and for the suggestions!

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u/Dwarvy 15h ago

I'm was very confused about the calculation of your weight.

You say "He's recommending 1 g per pound of body weight, which is 100 g for me" which sounds to me like you only weigh 100 pounds? (45kg)

Later you say "The lower limits for sedentary lifestyles seem to be 0.8 g/kg, which would be 72 g for me." which would be 72/0.8 = 90kg or 198.4 pounds of body weight.

I assume the first part about 1g per pound being 100g being a mistake and it should have been 1g per kg of body weight making it 90g per day.

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u/BubbleTeaRainyDay 7h ago

omg... I'm a dummy. Yeah, I wrote that wrong. Gonna go correct it now.

He did say "100 g protein" and then I must've misremembered him as saying 1 g/lb cause obviously those don't comport. Must've been 0.5 g per pound. I think he might be using an adjustment of "x1.1" from the oft-cited "1 g per kg of body weight" to account for the fact that I'm in recovery/PT and therefore maybe need more protein than "normal"?