How much protein should I be getting each day?

[Lawley]

I'm 16, 5'6 and about 108 pounds. I'm a vegan, so protein is hard to come by. I also run on cross country and track, so I'm pretty active year-round. How much should my intake be each day?

[HUNTER13]

.5 - 2g per lbs of bw

[alexna]

If you want exact figure of protein percentage in your body I must advice you to consult a doctor. Milk, soy milk, eggs, cheese, peanut butter, etc are rich in protein. Try to take it regularly because protein is necessary for the younger people. 

[Theo]

My best advice to you would be to expand your menu and make use of animal products. There's a lot of valuable nutrients in them and achieving your protein needs consistently is going to be a real struggle as a vegan. Proper Nutrition is still very important at your age and your life and health would be so much easier using animal products.

However, your views are yours so i'll try to help.

The RDA of 50g, or whatever it is now, is not sufficient. Not for teenagers, not for athletes. Protein is the most important thing in your diet, second only to calories. Aim for 0.8-1g/lb of bodyweight. I know this sounds excessive to you but you're still developing, you have to repair yourself after training. You're unlikely to make it but aim high, the more the better. There is some protein in everything but you're likely to end up increasing your calories significantly to achieve a good amount of protein as you've eliminated most of the good protein/calorie ratio foods. I assume you're not trying to lose weight because you're already pretty light for your height but it's worth mentioning that protein needs go up when you restrict calories also. I would also advise a multivitamin and mineral with a meal each day.

Hope this helps

Theo

[Dani Ani]

I have noticed tremendous benefits to supplementing my vegetarian diet with a product called Vega. I don't work for this company or anything. Hahaha I tried to just eat primarily raw foods and that wasn't cutting it for me. Vega is vegan and made from whole foods. I would suggest using something like nutridiary to track how much protein you are getting from food and then also using something like Vega to increase your intake.

http://sequelnaturals.com/

[HUNTER13]

I second Vega as a great product. I used it while I was vegan and when I became a meatatarian again. Berry was my favorite flavour and found the chia flavour disgusting.

[exercise10]

1g of protein per lb of lean body mass per day.