Can Vegetarians Really Build Muscle Without Protein Shakes?

 

Welcome to the 25th episode of Vegetarian Health and Longevity from Hurry The Food Up and Sports Nutritionist James LeBaigue.

I know so many people who use protein shakes. Almost everyone seems to have a bag of protein powder in their cupboard and I suspect you might too, or at least are considering it.

Most people relate protein shakes to muscle, in that they say you need protein shakes to build or grow muscle, or to take protein shakes to keep hold of the muscle that you already have.

And that is kind of true but that’s way too superficial and the truth is so much more interesting than that!

In this episode, we’re going to go through whether you really need protein shakes to build muscle, or whether you can do just fine without protein shakes and instead, focus on eating natural whole foods that don’t come blended, with some alluring design on that makes you think it’s going to be an absolute game-changer.

And if more people were able to understand this and improve it, I am sure that it would benefit so many lives. Now this could be about weight loss or just general healthy living because it’s something that crosses all spheres and walks of life.

I’d like to dive into this in this episode and show you just how powerful this change can be and how you can use it in your own life.

Listen to it here on your favorite provider.

Acknowledging Common Perceptions- An Introduction to protein shakes

Alright, I should acknowledge that not every protein shake smells like candyfloss and has heavily muscled people on the packaging.

But that’s what a lot of people associate with protein shakes

Now you may know a bit about protein already. It’s one of the three main macronutrients, the other two being fat and carbohydrates, and it’s a vital part of your diet.

Protein contains amino acids, and you may have heard these called the “building blocks of life” before, and that’s for good reason.

The Role of Amino Acids

Amino acids are required for so many different roles in your body including in your hormonal system, your immune system, and your reproductive system.

Consuming protein gives your body the nutrients to help these carry out their normal functions.

Protein is also the nutrient that, yes, is responsible for helping you to grow bigger, stronger, and more resistant muscle tissue.

So it’s a protein that helps drive the adaptations that will enable you to build new muscle, to make positive gains from your gym training sessions, your power yoga, or your high-intensity training.

There’s a process in your body called muscle protein synthesis (MPS), and this is the term used to describe the creation of new muscle tissue.

Muscle Protein Synthesis (MPS)

The way you create positive adaptations to training is this:

You exercise and create stress on your body.
Your body recognises this so it wants to get bigger or stronger.
It needs protein to be able to do; you consume protein.
That protein you’ve just eaten triggers MPS, so you grow new muscle tissue.

So the bottom line here is that you need protein in your diet to make positive improvements in exercise, which includes going to the gym to grow muscle.

That means that protein shakes make sense because they give you that super blast of easy-to-digest protein.

Optimal Protein Intake

To properly answer the question of whether protein shakes are required to build muscle, it’s worth first talking about what the gold standard ranges are for protein intake and how much protein you consume in your daily diet.

How much protein do I need to build muscle?

The optimal amount of protein to eat per day to build muscle is between 1.6-2.2g of protein per kg of body weight per day or roughly 0.75-1g of protein per lb of body weight.

For a 70kg or 154lb person, this would be about 115-154g of protein per day.

Now what I’ve frequently seen when I’ve analyzed diaries of vegetarian clients is that they miss this threshold, often quite considerably. They might be consuming more like 1g of protein per kg of body weight per day.

Building Muscle with Insufficient Protein

And if you’re not in that range, then as it might be obvious, your ability to build muscle is not going to be as good as it could be if you were in that range.

This is backed up by evidence, by the way, this isn’t just a number that I’ve plucked from thin air. A study called “Recent Perspectives Regarding the Role of Dietary Protein for the Promotion of Muscle Hypertrophy with Resistance Exercise Training” investigated this and this was the threshold they discovered on analysis of lots of different data sets.

So this is the region that people should be trying to get to if they’re trying to build muscle because you are going to get the best anabolic response from your food, anabolic response essentially means positive muscle benefits.

What happens if I don’t eat enough protein?

But there’s a clear question here, and it’s one we frequently get at HTFU: What happens if you don’t hit this threshold?

Because while science says it’s best to hit that range, this might not always be possible.

The Reality of Protein Intake

The truth is that you can still build muscle if you aren’t in that protein range, and don’t let anyone kid you otherwise.

You might not be able to build it quite as optimally as if you were in the range but it doesn’t mean that it isn’t possible.

So then back to the question of are protein shakes needed to build muscle, the answer is one of those slightly frustrating “it depends”, because there is nuance here.

It depends on how much exercise you’re doing and how much protein you’re consuming without protein shakes.

To build muscle you have to do resistance training or strength training, and I usually suggest a minimum of 3 times per week.

If you aren’t doing this then a protein shake isn’t going to make much difference. You can think of it as the exercise is the trigger to build muscle, and the protein shake is the vehicle.

Without the trigger, it’s not going to happen anyway so the vehicle doesn’t matter.

But then it’s about whether you need a protein shake. Because if you’re either already in that gold-standard protein range per day without having a protein shake, then including one isn’t going to be much benefit.

And as I mentioned before, you can still build muscle without being in that gold standard range.

Increasing Protein Intake Without Shakes

But what if you’re low on your protein intake and you want to be in that gold standard range, what can you do?

Well, the first thing to do is look at your diet and see where you can get some easy wins in terms of bumping up your protein intake through regular, whole food, so not through a protein shake.

One of the easiest ways here is to opt for low-fat dairy as opposed to full-fat dairy. You can think of low-fat dairy as the vegetarian equivalent to lean meat, where you’re getting more protein per gram.

So swapping to low-fat Greek yogurt or low-fat cottage cheese is a simple way of getting in more protein.

Then you could make sure you make use of other veggie foods that are high in protein, such as eggs, soy, and its derivatives like tofu, lentils, beans, and wholegrain carbohydrates.

And I love these last three because people are often surprised by how much protein is in them and just how powerful they can be for bumping up your protein intake.

Protein Shakes for Specific Scenarios

But let’s say you’re trying to increase your protein intake and are finding it difficult. Maybe you don’t like dairy, or you’re trying to lose weight so are in a calorie deficit and are finding it tough to get the protein up without accompanying carbs or fats.

This is one of the scenarios where a protein shake might come in handy.

They’re a low-calorie, easy option for getting lots of protein in, and are especially helpful when trying to lose weight because you’re naturally restricted with how many calories you can eat per day.

This is something we’re super conscious about at Hurry The Food Up, and super open about too. Our main goal of The Vegetarian Protein Fix is to help vegetarians lose weight healthily.

We create meal plans to help with this but getting that protein intake up while being restricted on calories is tough!

So we include protein shakes in many of the meal plans simply because it helps to achieve those optimum levels that are otherwise impossible without a diet that consists primarily of eggs and low-fat dairy. After all, that’s not particularly satisfying, sustainable, or supported by evidence.

So then we try to balance getting into that optimal range against not eating a super boring diet that makes you want to quit. Instead, we focus on healthy, satisfying food that makes you happy and lets you lose weight at the same time.

If you are interested in trying out one of our plans, head to our meal plan page, and you can download one for free. It comes with a shopping list, and step-by-step instructions for all recipes, and is full of speedy, tasty but weight-loss-friendly recipes. So get started now!

Protein Intake Considerations as You Age

So as well as a protein shake being reasonable if you’re in a calorie deficit and struggling with your protein intake, there are a couple of other scenarios where I think they could be helpful but still not necessary.

As we get older it seems like we need more protein to build and maintain muscle, so I think it’s quite reasonable to consider protein supplements to help with this as we age.

To trigger that process that I mentioned earlier, muscle protein synthesis, it seems you need more protein than when you were younger for the same effect, which means gradually increasing your protein intake as you get older.

In terms of that 1.6-2.2g of protein per kg of BW per day range, I’d be looking at the upper end of that range for anyone over the age of 60, because it’s going to give you the best chance of keeping hold of your hard-earned muscle.

Another scenario is for those who have specific restrictions on what they can eat. So for example, if someone has an allergy, or intolerance or just generally dislikes food and doesn’t eat it, protein shakes could help fill that gap.

Your list of high-protein veggie foods is limited and if some of those options are removed then it’s even more difficult.

Protein Shakes in Special Diets

This is even more true for those who follow a vegan diet because it is that much harder to get protein in without eating repetitively, and that’s not realistic for most people.

When it comes to exercise, my usual advice is that if you’re going to be eating a normal meal with a good protein source within 45 minutes of finishing then you don’t need to have a snack.

If it’s going to be longer than 45 minutes then a snack is a good idea, to give your body nutrients to kickstart the recovery process.

If you know this is going to be difficult, perhaps you’re traveling or you know you won’t be able to eat for about 90 minutes then a protein shake could make sense for you. You can kickstart the recovery process with

a protein shake which is just going to positively contribute to making beneficial adaptations to exercise.

In a nutshell, while protein shakes might help certain individuals in certain scenarios to build muscle, they are by no means a necessity and you can build muscle without them.

Final Thoughts

So I hope you found this episode interesting and gave you some helpful info about the truth behind protein shakes… If you did find it useful then please give the podcast a quick review on whatever platform you’re listening on.

It helps the podcast to spread to more like-minded people like you, and it’ll only take a moment. Thanks so much, and we’ll speak soon.

And finally, here is the easiest way to sign up to try our meal plans (free).

And a list of our vegetarian meal plans (all also free).

And finally: More vegetarian podcasts this way!

Studies used in this podcast:

Dietary Protein for the Promotion of Muscle