My Top Vegan Proteins FOR FAT LOSS these too!

I have gathered some common protein sources and what I think are the best ones and I want to review them so that you don't have to and you know how much protein you should be eating if you want to burn fat, maintain muscle and look clean. So my favorite protein product that I have ever found, drum roll please, yes. Okay y'all, the day is here. The protein debate. How much should you eat it while in a fat loss phase? Should you eat 150 grams? Should you not worry about it all? What let's talk about it. I have gathered far and wide some common protein sources and what I think are the best ones and I want to review them so that you don't have to and you know exactly what to go and buy and how much protein you should be eating if you want to burn fat, maintain muscle and look clean. And we're talking tasty snack as opposed to frail Victorian orphan because nobody got time for that. Before we get into good stuff, let's talk about why protein and does it actually matter? And I'm going to be really honest here. My views on protein have changed a little bit. Well, they will nuance now and I did a podcast probably like five or six years ago talking about how fitness influences and the online space in general is so protein obsessed. So it's ironic that I'm now here doing a video about protein. And the question has always been in my mind, especially as someone who's lost 40 pounds on a plant-based diet is how do you eat in a calorie deficit sustainably, which is required for fat loss. Like you have to eat less calories than you burn in order to lose fat in a way where you don't have to go hungry. And the problem traditionally with eating more protein that most people experience is that as soon as you up the grams of protein, you have to reduce everything else in order to make your macros fit. And as someone who's counted macros, it's really freaking difficult to do this. You need a lot of willpower and you go hungry a lot of the time, unless you do it in a smart way and you understand what's most important. And I've got to tell you, like come here, fat loss 101 hinges on you being able to consistently lower your calories. So whatever way you do that, even if you do lose a little bit of muscle in the process, but you can find a way to do that sustainably like I did for the 40 pounds I lost, that is your priority in a fat loss phase. And getting into a calorie deficit needs to be the thing that you make most important before hitting a high protein goal. Now in saying that, here's why protein does matter. When you eat less calories than you burn, your body is forced to dip into your stored fat cells. But it doesn't just break down fat, it also breaks down muscle. More protein helps more of the muscle to stick around while you're dieting. And in a lot of cases actually helps you to build muscle while also losing fat. And then you're getting the best of both worlds because you're looking more toned, not like soft and squidgy, while you're losing fat. And maybe you've seen people who have been on ozempic, it's kind of common right now, and like it's actually called I think like the ozempic look or like ozempic body or something like that. It's really just the look of someone who has lost a lot of weight, but they haven't preserved muscle at the same time, so they look kind of skinny fat. So if you preserve muscle mass while losing fat, when you gain some, then you avoid this. So win-win-win. When calories get lower, muscle breakdown increases, recovery gets like a bit harder, and your body becomes more likely to dip into your muscles for energy. But if you eat about 0.7 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight while losing fat, then you should be able to maintain the muscle that you have. Especially if you combine this, very very important, with regular movement, like getting your steps in, and then strength training about three times a week. Like you do need that resistance training in there. So if you're 150 pounds, that would look like between 105 to 150 grams of protein. And now maybe that's what you've heard on the internet as well, and this is where we have two schools of thought that make it difficult, especially as a vegan. You have the count that says protein doesn't matter, and then you have the other count that is probably saying what I've just said, which is you need to eat about 150 grams or at least 120 grams of protein a day, which can be difficult if you don't know how to do that. Especially if you don't want to eat a lot of processed foods, and like I've said, you know that tofu and processed like protein sauces are just higher in calories. So how the heck do you understand who to believe? The low protein camp, I'm going to say, is very accurate in that you don't need a lot of protein to be healthy. That's accurate. And even if you're eating enough vegetables, potatoes, whole grains, because all of those things do contain small amounts of protein, you're not going to be protein deficient. Nobody's going to be protein deficient. And I remember answering this question about six years ago when I was showing people how I'd lost the 40 pounds. My meals weren't centered around protein at that point. And honestly, I don't know how much muscle I lost because I didn't track it. I didn't do any kind of scans, and I didn't do a lot of exercise while I lost like the first 30 that I lost. But a meal that I ate all the time at that point was a pound of broccoli and a massive sweet potato, and I'd have something similar to that three times a day. Veggies and a potato. And the protein per meal just with that was about 20 grams. So I was getting at least 60 grams of protein because I also had some soy milk in there, and I did have tofu occasionally. Like 60 grams of protein a day, which means that you're getting an adequate amount. So it would be legit to say that you don't need to focus on it. And in fact, if it makes it harder for you to stay in that calorie deficit, which I used to think that it really was, it can be if you don't know how to do it, then it makes sense to not worry about it because it's not required for health, and it's not the most important thing for fat loss. Now, here's where the other camp comes in, which is the high protein camp, the fitness influencer for fat loss. And the studies on this are so consistent. Having more protein just helps you to preserve muscle mass. It's not really disputed. Strength training, it also helps you. So if you want to preserve muscle mass, and you don't have to go so high, you can achieve this by having about 100 grams. For most women, if you're having 100 grams of protein a day, which is very achievable, you're going to maintain your muscle mass while losing fat. And if you're strength training, you might even build some. Then I would go like, why would you not work smarter, not harder to preserve your muscle mass if it doesn't jeopardize your calorie deficit and just eat a little bit more protein in order to do that. So that's the nuanced position that I have. It's not super high protein. It's not 150 grams. It's not protein doesn't matter. It's somewhere in the middle at about 100 grams. And based on everything that I know, that makes sense. Let me know in the comments if this logic tracks for you. It's not about being perfect. It's about working smarter, not harder. So I'm going to show you now without further ado, my favorite protein sources and my whole ranking system. And then how I make this fit into a day where I can get that 100 grams that I talked about. So the protein sources that I've had, I've got things like protein powder, your kind of beans, chickpeas, more like bougie, soy-free tofu, another soy-free tofu, lupini beans, which I absolutely love, soy yogurt, tofu, then more of like your processed vegan meats. And the way that I have categorized these and put them into a graph, I'm not going to go over every single protein source. I'm just going to go over the ones that I genuinely buy and like and some that like this was bought for me and I haven't eaten because I don't like. But based on a rating system that looks at what is the protein content per 100 calories. So we're getting bang for a buck. And then we'll also have a look at the weight of it too because we want to be able to eat more food, up the volume, so volume is also really important. Just so you know, that's the scale that I'm working off. And my goal with all of this is to not need protein powder because I know a lot of people don't want to eat it. I don't mind it. It's a great way to get in a little bit more protein. Like you're going to get 24 grams of protein in one scoop for like 150 calories. It's damn good when it comes to bang for buck. And I like this brand from Macron Life. I never thought I'd be someone recommending protein powder. I'm not sponsored by them. It is what it is. But the goal of all this, like I said, you don't even need it. And we're going to go worst to best. So you have to stick with the whole video. Trixie, Trixie Hobbitses. That's me because I'm from New Zealand. Okay, worst up, first up, whatever you want to call it. We've got this pumpkin seed tofu. Packaging is so interesting on things because this is 17 grams of protein per serve. The servings are incredibly high in calories. It's 320 calories per serve, which means per 100 calories, we've only got 5.3 grams of tofu. So it's a no. Up next, we've got something like chickpeas. And like, don't get me wrong, I love chickpeas. I love beans. Anything that is a legume is amazing for your health and you should definitely be eating them. In terms of bang for buck when it comes to macros, they're not the best. I hate to say it. These are about 5.4 grams of protein per 100 calories, which means to get your protein from things like beans and legumes, you're going to be having to eat so many more calories that's going to get you into a fat loss phase. Like that's the unfortunate reality of it. Next on the radar, we've got like silken tofu. I love silken tofu. By the way, I eat this all the time. It's lower in protein because it's less condensed than something like firm tofu. So for the amount of volume that you get for this, it's not too bad, but we're looking at 8.9 grams. So like genuinely already double this bad boy, like actually bad, not like good bad boy, but naughty bad boy for something like silken tofu. Next, we've got like extra firm tofu. And this is something that I do eat every day. We're getting 9 to 10 grams of protein per 100 calories. And different tofus have like slightly different macros as well. The thing about tofu and the reason that it is higher in calories than fat. So anytime you have more fat in any kind of product, be that a takeout meal, be that a restaurant meal, be that tofu, be that olive oil, like whatever it is, you're going to have more calories because fat calories are like a power bomb. They are 9 calories per gram, whereas protein and carbohydrate are 4 calories per gram. So the more fat, the more calories. Bump up fast, like doubly fast. I've added some yogurt in here and I don't love that in the States you can't get a good soy yogurt. Soy is going to be the best when it comes to yogurt. If you know a soy yogurt supplier in America, please hit a girl up. I want to know. But this one here is the best that I've found. It's the Kite Hill Greek style yogurt. It is 17 grams of protein per serving. Remember serving is misleading. We're looking at about 11.3 grams of protein per 100 calories. But visually, you're not really going to get a lot of food for that. So I don't really eat this, even though the macros aren't like terrible. And it also has like soy protein isolate in it. So essentially it's getting its high protein content from something like a protein powder, which I'd rather have with all the flavors in it. I mean, chocolate caramel? Like sign me up. But this is great for dressings or adding like a creaminess to your meals without massively bumping up the calories from something like cashews, which is easy to do but can massively sabotage your calorie deficit when you're in a fat loss phase. Next on the list, I've put in lupini beans and I freaking love these. I just went to Whole Foods and bought so many of this brand right here. It's called Brahmi. I've never seen them anywhere else. I think it's like a Whole Foods thing in general. And these work out to 11.4 grams of protein per 100 calories. But the thing I like about this is that I can grab and go with this if I'm traveling, if I keep it in my backpack or my bag, I can always have protein sauce that doesn't need any cooking or preparation. And like for me, like I think that's a big deal. So I really, really love this product. Again, like packaging is so fascinating and it can be quite misleading, which is why it's important to understand some of this stuff and have that framework for yourself. Always, always look for no oil. That's the first thing that I'm looking for when I'm buying a product. Everything that I'm showing you here, save one thing, is oil free. And the reason for that is that it just adds too many calories. So even the framework before starting is probably the pick of the bunch in terms of protein sources. Don't even buy it if it has oil. It's just not going to be worth it for you. But talking about packaging. So if you look here, it compares the protein and fiber per 100 calories, which is you'd think what I'm doing from almonds, chickpeas, soybeans, and then these. And so these come out on top at 20 grams. And the thing that I thought was really fascinating was that's protein plus fiber. It feels a bit misleading to me because when I read this, you don't know which is coming from which. You don't know how many grams of those 20 grams of fiber and how many grams of those 20 grams of protein. It's only really telling you like combined. So when I read that, like I initially just took that as, wow, 20 grams of protein per 100 calories. That's flipping amazing. It doesn't mean that. It means 20 grams of protein and fiber, which is a great product. A little bit misleading in my opinion. We're going to move on to something like this. And there's a million variations of this kind of thing, which is some kind of seasoned flavored tofu. And I don't do much of that unless I find, you know what, actually I do. There's a teriyaki tofu that I can get at Whole Foods and like my local H-E-B here in Texas. There's also like this kind of savory tofu. I like them for being able to eat without cooking. This is a variety that you cook. But what they all have in common is that they don't have oil. So as soon as you add oil, massive calorie bump. As soon as you add things like seasonings, which typically also have sugar and oil, you've also got that massive calorie bump. So if you are looking for a seasoned tofu because you don't know how to cook tofu or you want to have something that is there like ready to go, then this can be a great option. This one's from Whole Foods, the lemon pepper tofu bites. Just look on the back when you're in the shops for something that's oil free. And this one happens to have pretty good macros. It's like 12 grams of protein per 100 calories. So you can see there is variation when it comes to different tofus. OK, this is something that like I will occasionally eat and I'm going to only eat it in very specific scenarios. And I buy this for my kids. It's the Tofurky deli slices. Why do I not have this on a daily basis? The macros are pretty good. We're looking at 12.7 grams per 100 calories. Here's why. The volume is tiny. Like this entire packet is not really going to fill me up, but it would be like 550 calories. So there's no way visually even if you look at that where I'm going to prioritize eating this when I could eat like this much tofu, like there's the weightiness of this matters. So I tried to figure out like a grading system that incorporated weight and then protein per calories and all that kind of stuff. It's very, very hard to do, but essentially I wouldn't go for this even though it's high up in the rating system. It also contains oil just from a volume perspective. And maybe that's more of a visual thing that you learn over time. It's the same reason that I wouldn't really go for this very often because I just get more bang for my buck when I choose something like tofu. But where I do sometimes use this is if I'm on a picnic and I just want to grab one of these and then I might like wrap up some veggies in it. But again, like that's rare. That might be like once every three months, but I don't hate giving it to my kids. This I found the other day and I haven't tried it in terms of taste. Everything else I've tried for taste. I love tofu. I'll get into taste in a second, but I found this in Whole Foods and the macros are also pretty good. And of course it doesn't contain oil. This is soy based steak strips and I'm going to cook this up right now while we're talking so we can taste it together. How do we do that? Preheat a lightly oiled frying pan. No, no, no sister. Medium heat. Remove the soy. Remove the soy stress. Okay, we're gonna do some of that. Oh my. I don't know fam. Okay, we're gonna whack a bit of this in to cook. This is what I'm seeing. And so those soy strips are 15 grams of protein per 100 calories. The volume looks pretty good. The verdict's out on them. But if I was building some kind of like Mexican bowl or some kind of component bowl or some kind of salad, I can see myself using them if I end up liking them. The thing that I do love does not always love me. I'll be clear. I fart when I eat this stuff. But I freaking love it and I will subject my family to it at times for that reason. Is this Uptins chorizo. There's a chorizo version. There's a normal version and a seitan. And this stuff you can actually get loads of places. I can get it at H-E-B. I can get it at Trader Joe's. The macros are amazing. At 17 grams of protein per 100 calories. But the volume isn't as good. So a whole pack of this, which is there's not really a lot here, is about 400 calories. Volume wise there's not that much. This is so much more weighty. This is just like regular firm tofu. Calorie wise you're looking at about the same. But you can see like even visually how there's just way more food here. So for this entire pack I'd be getting 40 grams of protein about. And then for this I would be getting about like 68 grams of protein. Which is like significantly more fat volume wise. So I do a bit of a combination. So that's why volume also does matter. Okay that surprisingly does smell like a steak. Don't know if I love that. So next up on the list. The elephant in the room. Chocolate caramel in the room. Protein powder has amazing macros. We're 17 grams per 100 calories. Volume is crap. Obviously because you're going to add this to things. You're not going to like guzzle down like a pack of this. You're not going to like stir fry some protein powder. You're going to put it in some water. You're going to put it in ninja creamy. You're going to blend it up in a smoothie. So that's kind of irrelevant. But the reason that people have protein powder is it's an easy low calorie dense way to get more protein in without sacrificing on like your calories. I will tell you what I do. I've used protein powder and I've used it for the past like three four years. When I get it I get this brand because it's the only plant-based brand that I like. It's also incredibly difficult to get this macro mic brand in the United States. Like the only way that I really get it now that I live here is to get it shipped to New Zealand from Australia and then whenever I go back to New Zealand or someone comes over from New Zealand they bring me like a whole shipment. So that's probably not feasible for most people. Like you probably don't conveniently have some New Zealand relatives that you go and see all the time. Or that come to see you all the time. I'm guessing if you do great kudos to you. Or if they're Aussie that's that's not what this video is about. I don't eat this every day anymore. I've been on a mission for the past I want to say two three months to really avoid a lot of bloating and a lot of gas. It's never something I've prioritized in the past because I've just thought you know that's this part of life like I don't really care. But I've wanted to I've just wanted to do that recently and I'm shocked that I've been able to. And I think one of the things that's difficult for me personally is protein powder. My body just doesn't seem like it digests it really well along with broccoli and some other foods. So I just don't really have it and if I have it it's very rare. So I get my protein needs met from like these other products that I've shown you. Okay so my favorite protein product that I this soy free fava bean tofu. I'm gonna be honest I don't love the texture or the flavor of this as much as I like tofu. But the macros are so good and part of the reason for this is that it's much lower in fat than regular tofu. Which means that you can pack more protein into a lower calorie option. This is about 23 grams of protein per 100 calories. Which means that this whole pack it's weighty is about two-thirds of the calories of this. But more than double the protein. Which is insane and mad. So what I like to do is I like to combine the two. Because this is also quite a lot more expensive. It's about like five dollars a packet. Whereas tofu you can get for like two bucks. And if you shop at your local Asian supermarket like I do you can get it even cheaper. But what I'll do is I'll add half and half of these two to make a scrambled tofu. And I'll prep up a massive batch of that. Which that I can use at like most of my meals. So I'll be eating this combination at normally two of my meals per day. And then towards the end of the day I'm making some tacos with this Teresa mix. Which I just showed in the video that I did recently. Check that out here. Or I'll do something where I'm cooking up a meal that might have something like this. Just to make it a little bit more fun. But most of what I eat is component bowls. We're gonna do a taste test on this together. I didn't taste test anything else because I've cooked with them all before. This one's okay by the way. Not my fave. But let's try this vegan steak. It did not need oil by the way. Do not ever cook with oil. I forbid it. Oh yes. Actually I like that. It's juicy. How much fried jerky? You know when you get those like plant-based jerkies? They're all right. This is actually pretty good. I would definitely put this in a bowl. I like it. Volume wise it's not as much as tofu. Which makes sense. It's more dried. So that's a list of all the protein sources that I would choose for fat loss. And that I do use. And if I see things like the steak then I'll buy it and I will try it. I'm gonna tell you a story that I think is very exciting. And that is about three or four months ago I embarked on a very intentional fat loss phase. Where my goal was to see if I could get bodybuilder lean and a six-pack. Which I don't have. Because I gained a little bit of weight back. I went on holiday and I'm cool with that. I'm back on track. And maybe that's another video that I can talk about. Because I also want to have freedom in my life. I digress. But the main thing I wanted to share is what happened for me when I was eating a calorie deficit. Eating as much food as I wanted. Potatoes. Loads of tofu. Loads of veggies and fruit. And over a five to six week period I took a body scan at the beginning. And then a body scan at the end. And I had lost three pounds on the scales. But five pounds of fat. And gained nearly two pounds of muscle. And it was only strength training between like two and three times a week. That my friend is the power of something like tofu. And adding a bit more protein to your diet. The fact that I could build two pounds of muscle while losing five pounds of fat is a perfect body recomp. And that's what we're looking for. We're working smarter not harder. And I've done it the other way around as well. Where I've done like a bulk. Gained a whole lot of muscle. Gained some fat in the process. Gone into a fat loss phase again. And lost a lot of the muscle. Because I didn't really understand how to really utilize protein sources the way that I do now. So my goal is always about like a hundred grams of protein. And I'm going to break down how easy it is to achieve that. Even without something like protein powder. When you eat the way that I do. So I have three meals per day. And I always do something like a component bowl. I've switched from oats to having tofu or some kind of protein sauce. At every single one of these meals. That's how I got the best results recently. And it's how I'm going to be eating moving forward as well. What I do is I cook up a combination of firm tofu and the fava bean tofu. But actually you know what? Sometimes I don't even use that. Sometimes I just use regular old firm tofu. With a ton of nutritional yeast. Some vegeta stock. And then I'm going to plate that up with about half a Japanese sweet potato. Maybe some cucumber salad. Some kimchi. And then about a cup to two cups of watermelon. Or some other kind of like juicy fruit. Juicy juicy melons. I have to get that in at some point. And some strawberries. Something that makes my plate look massive. High protein but relatively low in calories. So a meal like that in that framework of some low calorie fruit. A protein sauce. Some potato or sweet potato. And then a load of vegetables. At least a pound of vegetables at every meal. Gets me to about a 500 calorie meal. Protein in that meal is about 30 grams. Sometimes even more. Which means that as one of three meals mixing up the different proteins. Mixing up the different fruits. Putting different condiments in there. Like hot sauce or kimchi. I'm able to hit about 90 grams of protein. I also always have soy latte. Which gives me about another 10 grams of protein. So I've hit that 100 grams very easily. And if I was to add protein powder. I'd be adding about 130 calories. And I'd be getting my protein to about 125 grams per day. Easy. The biggest thing I want you to take away from this. Is to work smarter not harder. With the products that you choose. And the way that you build your plate. Protein is important. But it's not as cult-like in terms of what you need to do. As a lot of fitness influences and people online would lead us to believe. Remember most of them are sponsored by some kind of protein powder company. Protein is always hot. I don't know why. But getting about that 100 grams is very doable. It's not bad for your kidneys or anything else. Like it's very healthy. And soy especially. A reason that I love to have soy in my diet. Is it's shown to be protective against testicular cancer. Which fortunately I am not in the running for. And breast cancer. Which also maybe I'm not in the running for. Debatable. I do have some boobs. They're just tiny. And very low. That's a side quest. All in all. I hope that you found this video helpful. Go cook up some tofu right now. See if you can get hold of this. And if not. Don't be pedantic about it. Just eat a little bit more. Just get to your local Asian grocery store and get some silken tofu. Whatever else you can find. I'm gonna go eat those steak strips. Let me know what you learned. If anything from this protein conversation. And if you want to learn more about how I lost the 40 pounds and keep them off. By changing my behavior. Which is the most important part of all of this. Because even if we know what to do and it's perfect. But we can't stick to it. Then it doesn't matter. I've got a free training coming up. And I outline everything in there. So go look in the link. You can check that out. And I'll see you in my next video. Bye.