The best vegetarian protein foods

It's probably the most common question asked of vegans and vegetarians: 'how do you get enough protein'? The truth is the vast majority of vegans and vegetarians are not deficient in protein.

If you're trying to lose weight, however, getting enough protein on a vegetarian diet can be challenging. Our Protein Balance philosophy recommends eating at least 25 g at each meal and around 100 g of protein each day.

Want to understand more about protein and weight loss? Read our complete guide to losing weight on a high protein diet.

As always, the key is planning

The key to all weight loss diets is planning. And because vegetarian foods are generally lower in protein, this is even more true if you're trying to lose weight on a plant-based diet.

Plant-based foods are available everywhere and are often cheaper than animal-based foods, so if you’re worried about the price of a high protein diet, this may be the way to go. Lots of people are now embracing a flexitarian diet where they limit the amount of meat the consume throughout the week.

The most common, high-protein foods

By eating a varied diet with foods from the list below you can plan a high protein vegetarian weight loss diet. And remember, plenty of products like dairy, tofu, bread and pasta have naturally higher protein or protein-enriched varieties that make the planning easier.

The CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet is designed to be a high-protein diet and many of our meals contain meat. However, fear not! Our digital tools allow you to swap meals in your diet plan, so you simply choose your favourite and available vegetarian meals and start cooking. And you can always substitute lentils, tofu or other healthy proteins to your meals.

CSIRO has not tested whether a vegetarian high-protein diet is as effective as an animal-based high protein diet but they do know that vegetable protein is similarly effective in reducing hunger.