Please help me with protein ideas

[Summerpigeon]

I'm currently dieting on 1700, calories a day .
Doing a lot of cycling and swimming,both every day for a few hours.
I'm so so tired ,it must be lack of protein, because I'm very careful to remember my vitamins.
If only protein was in a vitamin tablet .
I have absolutely no patience for cooking either ,
Why can I buy ...that's not got pea protein in it ,as it massively upsets my stomach

What not why ..

You can buy protein shakes, or incorporate lots of beans, legumes, tofu, seitan, green leafy veg and whole grains into your diet. You can buy stuff from Bol which is pre packed whole foods vegan meals from the supermarket, they usually say on the side how much protein they have.

How long have you been doing that level of exercise for? If recent, it may partly be you adjusting to it and partly not enough calories for the level of exercise you are doing. If you have been doing it for years, it would suggest diet is the only factor. The following link may help with some ideas
www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/best-sources-protein-vegans

Beans are the best option as mentioned above.

I just had a look, and Sainsbury's 500 g edamame beans are £2.50 per 500 g with 11 g protein per 100 g

RDI for women is around 40-50 g a day if not working out. So you've hit half your intake with around one pound spent. Add in random protein from everything else you'll likely eat, and you'll be fine. :)

Things which are quick to make which I eat are tofu and bean stir fries, scrambled tofu on seeded bread and bean salads. Basically loads of beans and tofu!

Use wholegrain breads, pasta and rice as they contain more protein

Add nuts, seeds and nutritional yeast to meals to increase the protein in them.

I also have an Alpro high protein yogurt each day which is 15g of protein.

Have you tried high protein porridge? Weetabix also do a high protein version.

I know someone with a pea protein allergy and it seems to be in an unbelievable number of products, so it does sound as if cooking from scratch is your safest option.

Soy milk has a lot of protein. Much more than the other vegan milks like oat and almond.

Even if you are careful to take vitamins you can still be low on them if you don't get enough from your diet e.g. iron. So you don't know what it could be really.

Anyway I get my protein from:
Beans and pulses
Lentils
Certain vegetables (worth a Google)
Chickpeas
Tofu
Tempeh
Daily protein shake
Nuts / nut butters

Also you will be tired from doing hours of swimming and cycling every day - that's not sustainable. Could you factor some rest days into your schedule? Your body is literally telling you to slow down.

I am active as I love running but I'd never do it every day as my body needs to rest and repair.

Have you looked up your BMR? I'm presuming you're overweight if you're dieting, so 1700 calories could be too low to lose a sensible amount of weight per week if you're exercising every day for hours.

I do 30 minutes to 2 hours exercise most days. If I did a few hours each day, I'd probably be tired too.

What do you eat in a typical day?

OP- what makes you think its a lack of protein and not that you are anaemic through being vegan and not getting enough iron in your diet? You are also doing alot of exercise- is that recent? Have you had a recent blood test to check?
I'm not vegan, but when I wasn't getting enough iron, doing more exercise etc, I was knackered. Always getting UTI's and felt generally rundown. It took months to recover fully, but once I did, I felt 100% better. Get yourself checked.

Not long ,just trying to make a huge effort to loose weight

I bought some protein shakes ,clear and milky ones ,the whole lot had pea protein in ,and literally 3 hours after drinking I'm in pain

Tbh ,,I'm to embarrassed to say what I'm eating,I know it's bad .
I get stuck eating the same foods for each meal ..( autism)
Currently I'm living of corn crispbreads and salad ,
But I go through stages of liking tofu and beans ,I just don't seem to be able to maintain a variety of foods ,I'm always limited to about 5 things a time for weeks .
So very embarrassing,but I am trying

Tofu
Avocado
Nuts
Beans

Tbh ,,I'm to embarrassed to say what I'm eating,I know it's bad .
I get stuck eating the same foods for each meal ..( autism)
Currently I'm living of corn crispbreads and salad ,
But I go through stages of liking tofu and beans ,I just don't seem to be able to maintain a variety of foods ,I'm always limited to about 5 things a time for weeks .
So very embarrassing,but I am trying

Don't be embarrassed. Autism can make food/eating very difficult.

I do think you may be lacking in quite a few things though based on what you've said, so it's not just protein that needs addressing.

As you can eat and have liked tofu and beans in the past, I'd try to get in the habit of having those every day in your diet. That will increase your protein as well as things like calcium and iron. Can you add them to your salads? If you can make those 2 things a habit, then add something else, like almonds or walnuts. Hopefully if you introduce things that become part of your daily routine, you can end up with more foods that you eat every day.

I do eat a good variety of meals/snacks but things I tend to eat most days are porridge with oat milk, tofu, beans, nuts, seeds, fruit and veg, some wholegrain rice, a protein yogurt.

You said you take vitamins, do you take one specifically for vegans?

As pp said, it might not be lack of protein making you tired. For me it's usually low iron levels when I'm exhausted (I am vegetarian rather than vegan). It might be a good idea to get a blood test if you can persuade your GP to give you one.

You might just have to get used to pea protein, especially since it sounds like you don't get much fibre. They make hemp protein powder but I've not tried it.

Agree it would be a good idea to get some bloods done. Besides iron vegans can be missing b12, zinc and selenium, among others. It's a tricky diet.