Vegetarian diet to build muscle? High protein, low cal?

[derrickdupler]

I'm an ectomorph through and through, and it also doesn't help that I'm a vegetarian. Most of the foods that I eat are high in protein but low in calories. I can easily get the gram of protein per pound of bodyweight that is recommended, but I get much fewer calories. I'm looking to put on muscle mass, and wondered if this was possible to do with diet. I just reworked meal plans to consist of the following:

low fat cottage cheese, low fat milk, eggs, yogurt, peanut butter, protein shakes (1-2 per day), and Morning Star veggie meals, which usually consist of about 10-12 grams of protein per serving and 100-150 calories (which I double up on).

Any suggestions? And are there any veg foods out there that are high in protein and calories?

[Boss Man]

Change Low Fat for Low Fat Cheese, it's got slightly higher Saturates, but slightly higher Unsaturates too, so you'll get about another 35 cals per serving.

You could also include things like Soybeans in there, as they are very good for Proteins, Fats, Carbs, Calcum, Magnesium, etc etc. However you could limit those to once a day, as there is supposed ups and downs with Soy, more than I know about, and you son't need Soy as a major protein provider anyway.

Broccoli Stalks. 10g's Carb per serving, so a very easy way if you want to get good calories and Micros into your diet.

Make sure if you have any Fruit, to give it 10-15 minutes to digest, so it's not impeded that much by other foods. If Fruit starts to putrify to some extent trapped in the Stomach, you could lose some of the nutrition.

Same with Fruit Cereals, a false prophecy in all likelihood, because of the Fruit combined with Whole-grain.

Have Whole-grain Bread if you want. You could include things like Lentils, Peas, Rice, (Brown and / or Wild), and Beans as well, as they are good for Aminos and Carbs.

So you've got some options there to help you.

[swanso5]

if protein is where it needs to be then increase carbs a LOT and healthy fats...not even fish??? bloody vego's...

[woodshedder]

Any suggestions? And are there any veg foods out there that are high in protein and calories?

How about nuts? Walnuts are good for vegetarians (of which I am one also) because they have Omega-3's, which are hard to work into the diet for vegetarians.

Your question seems a little strange, because if you have a protein rich food that is high in calories, then those calories are coming from something besides protein. Calories per gram of protein is not going to vary much from one type of (pure) protein to another. So if you want more calories but you are already getting enough protein, then eat more carbs or fats.

[Boss Man]

Good call on the Nuts, it slipped mind.

Also for Soy, Nattokinase might be a good one, as it's fermented Soy with Bifidus cultures added.