Do vegans get enough protein, and how much do you need?

The objection

“Animal protein is complete, concentrated and easy to absorb. Plant protein is less digestible and carries less of some essential amino acids, reviews find vegans eat less protein than anyone else, the new US Dietary Guidelines list protein among the nutrients vegan diets fall short on, and a 2026 trial found that older people who switched to a vegan diet lost muscle. Where does a vegan get enough, let alone enough to build muscle or keep it into old age?”

The answer

Vegans do eat less protein than meat-eaters, and on average they still eat more than the reference intake. A 2021 systematic review found that in the 64 studies that measured it, protein supplied 12.9% of vegans’ calories against 16.0% for meat-eaters, while calorie intakes were similar across the diets, and it judged plant-based intakes lower but “well within recommended intake levels” [1]. None of the studies reported an average below 10% of calories, the bottom of the acceptable range, though the authors note that averages cannot show how many individuals fall short [1]. Both authors were Unilever employees when it was published, and Unilever sells fortified foods and supplements [1].

Averages hide the people who fall short. In a 2025 study of 193 New Zealand vegans who kept four-day food diaries, men averaged 0.98 g of protein per kilo of body weight a day and women 0.80 g, and 78.8% of men and 73.0% of women reached the average requirement for protein [19]. Once digestibility was allowed for, only about half of them met their needs for the amino acids lysine and leucine, and legumes and pulses supplied most of their protein and lysine [19]. In a 2024 survey of 774 Brazilian vegans recruited through social media, each recording a day’s food, most met their protein and amino acid targets, and those who used protein supplements or textured soya protein had much lower odds of falling short (odds ratios 0.06 and 0.32) [20].

A 2021 review of 48 European studies, written with staff of the World Health Organization’s European office, also found vegan diets lower in protein than every other type of diet, and the deficiencies it warned of were in vitamin B12, zinc, calcium and selenium, with protein not among them [2]. The British Nutrition Foundation (2023) reports that average UK intakes sit above the reference, vegans included [3], and the British Dietetic Association (2021) says protein needs are easy to meet from lentils, beans, chickpeas, nuts, seeds, tofu and tempeh [4]. For adults, the US Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ 2025 position is that appropriately planned vegan diets “can be nutritionally adequate” [5].

How much protein do you need?

The UK reference nutrient intake, set by the Department of Health in 1991, is 0.75 g of protein per kilo of body weight a day [3]. Public Health England’s 2016 summary turns that into 55.5 g a day for men and 45.0 g for women aged 19 to 64 [6], and for a 70 kg adult it comes to 52.5 g. Pregnancy adds 6 g a day, and breastfeeding adds 11 g while the baby is under six months [3]. Other bodies set the bar higher for adults, and the spread between them is wide.

Who advises it	g per kg a day	g a day at 70 kg
UK Department of Health (1991), adults [3]	0.75	52.5
US allowance (RDA, 2005), adults [23][24]	0.8	56
European Food Safety Authority (2012), adults [3]	0.83	58.1
Vegetarian Resource Group (updated 2018), vegans [7]	0.9	63
PROT-AGE group (2013), over-65s [8]	1.0 to 1.2	70 to 84
American College of Sports Medicine, athletes, as reported by the BNF (2023) [3]	1.2 to 2.0	84 to 140
US Dietary Guidelines 2025 to 2030, general advice [9]	1.2 to 1.6	84 to 112

Protein requirements are set as the intake needed to maintain the body, judged by nitrogen balance, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s 2013 report noted a shift in research towards the intakes that best support health and function [15]. A 2003 meta-analysis of 19 nitrogen balance studies, covering 235 adults, put the average requirement at 0.65 g of good-quality protein per kilo and the level that covers nearly everyone at 0.83 g, and found no significant difference by the source of the protein [10]. The US reference values were published in 2005 and have not been updated since, and a 2025 systematic review funded by the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found few studies of requirements since 2000, particularly in pregnancy, breastfeeding, infancy, childhood and adolescence [24].

Nitrogen balance may set the bar too low. A 2023 review of 16 studies using a newer tracer method, indicator amino acid oxidation, found average requirements of 0.87 to 0.93 g per kilo for young adults in general and 0.85 to 0.96 g for older adults, with 14 of the 16 studies above the current reference, though they came from only three countries and did not cover every sex and life stage [21]. Two of them, in 12 women and 6 men over 65, put the intake that would cover nearly everyone at 1.29 g per kilo for women and 1.24 g for men [22][23], and the authors of the study in men concluded that current recommendations for older adults appear to be about 30% too low [23]. The New Zealand vegan women’s average of 0.80 g [19] sits below every one of these tracer estimates.

The same 2023 review put the average requirement at 1.22 to 1.52 g per kilo in pregnancy, well above the adult reference plus 6 g a day, and at 1.30 g in children, so the adult figures in the table should not be applied to a child [21]. The British Dietetic Association (2021) says carefully planned plant-based diets can support healthy living at every age and life stage, and that a GP can refer you to a dietitian [4], which is the place to start for a vegan pregnancy or a vegan child.

The Vegetarian Resource Group, a US vegetarian advocacy group, still adds a margin for vegans, to allow for some plant proteins being digested differently and for their mix of amino acids [7]. Some researchers have proposed raising the requirement for vegetarians and vegans by about 20%, mainly because plant protein is less digestible, and the 2021 Unilever review found that average vegan intakes, at 12.9% of calories, would clear that higher floor of 12% too [1]. The WHO and the US Institute of Medicine set no higher figure for vegans, because a varied plant diet supplies every essential amino acid and processing and preparation improve how well plant protein is digested [1].

The PROT-AGE group, appointed by the European Union Geriatric Medicine Society with other scientific bodies, argued in 2013 that people over 65 need at least 1.0 to 1.2 g a kilo to keep and regain muscle and function [8]. The UK figures in the 2016 summary for people aged 65 and over, 53.3 g a day for men and 46.5 g for women, stay close to those for younger adults [6], and the Unilever review warns that older people can find it hard to get enough protein from plant-based diets, because their needs rise while they eat less overall [1].

A 2026 randomised trial by Dutch researchers tested what happens when older people switch to a vegan diet of their own choosing. Seventy-two healthy adults aged 65 and over spent 12 weeks on their usual diet, on that self-chosen vegan diet, or on the vegan diet plus resistance exercise. In the vegan group that did no exercise, protein intake fell by 27.7 g a day in the first week and was still 19.3 g lower at 12 weeks, lean mass in the arms and legs fell by 1.15 kg while the omnivores’ barely moved (+0.05 kg), and the daily rate of muscle protein synthesis was lower, at 1.09% against 1.27% [25]. With resistance exercise the loss was 0.62 kg [25]. When the same group gave 34 active older adults a controlled vegan diet with a wide variety of plant proteins, matched to an omnivorous one for protein and calories, their daily rate of muscle protein synthesis over 10 days did not differ, at 1.23% against 1.29% [26]. Taken together, the two trials say that older vegans need to plan their protein deliberately and keep up strength training [25][26].

The US Dietary Guidelines for 2025 to 2030, published in January 2026, set the highest target for the general population and list protein among the nutrients in which vegan diets “show broader shortfalls” [9]. Their remedy for vegans is to “diversify plant protein sources for amino acid balance” [9], which is a matter of planning. The top of their range is above the ceiling of twice the reference that the UK Department of Health advised in 1991, though EFSA noted in 2012 that some active, healthy adults in Europe regularly eat up to twice its reference and that this is considered safe [3].

If you have kidney disease, talk to your kidney team or a dietitian before changing how much protein you eat. Some people with chronic kidney disease need to keep protein moderate, though too little risks malnutrition, and people on dialysis may need more [11]. PROT-AGE makes an exception to its higher targets for older people with severe kidney disease who are not on dialysis [8].

How much protein is in plant foods?

A portion of pulses, edamame or tofu gives roughly 6.5 to 14 g of protein, a portion of tempeh, seitan or mycoprotein 14 to 26 g, and a portion of oats, bread, peanut butter or soya milk about 4.5 to 7.5 g [12][13][14].

Food	g per 100 g	Portion	g per portion
Red lentils, boiled	8.1	120 g	9.7
Chickpeas, canned, drained	8.4	120 g	10.1
Edamame, boiled	12.2	80 g	9.8
Tofu, regular to firm	8.1 to 17.3	80 g	6.5 to 13.8
Tempeh	20.7	100 g	20.7
Seitan, shop-bought (US labels)	17.9 to 26.3	100 g	17.9 to 26.3
Mycoprotein (Quorn pieces)	14.0	100 g	14.0
Pea protein powder (one US label)	72.7	33 g scoop	24.0
Soya milk, unsweetened, fortified	2.4	200 ml glass	about 4.8
Peanut butter, smooth	22.8	20 g	4.6
Porridge oats, dry	10.9	45 g	4.9
Wholemeal bread	9.4	80 g (2 slices)	7.5
Chicken breast, grilled, no skin	32.0	120 g	38.4
Beef mince, stewed	21.8	100 g	21.8

Figures per 100 g come from the UK’s composition of foods dataset (2021) [12], except firm tofu, seitan and pea protein, which come from USDA FoodData Central [13]. Portions follow the British Nutrition Foundation’s 2021 guide for adults [14], using its 100 g portion for meat alternatives for mycoprotein, tempeh and seitan, its 80 g vegetable portion for edamame, and the label’s scoop for pea protein. Seitan is made from wheat [4], and a 2021 review puts the lysine in wheat protein at 1.4%, against a requirement of 4.5%, while soy protein has 4.6% and pea protein 5.9%, so seitan sits best in a day that also includes soya or peas [16]. The BDA says meat substitutes can help people adapting to a plant-based diet but suggests eating them in moderation, because many are high in salt and fat, and some contain egg or milk, so check the label [4].

How can you get 100 g of protein a day as a vegan?

Build each meal around pulses or soya and add a scoop of protein powder: porridge with soya milk and peanut butter, lentil soup with bread, edamame, a tempeh and chickpea curry and one scoop of pea protein come to about 101 g, using the figures in the table above [12][13][14].

Meal	What’s in it	Protein
Breakfast	Porridge of 45 g oats and 200 ml soya milk, with 20 g peanut butter	14.3 g
Lunch	Lentil soup with 120 g lentils, and two slices of wholemeal bread	17.2 g
Snack	80 g edamame and a 200 ml glass of soya milk	14.6 g
Dinner	Curry of 100 g tempeh and 120 g chickpeas	30.8 g
After training	A 33 g scoop of pea protein	24.0 g
Total		about 101 g

The food alone comes to about 77 g, which already covers the UK reference for anyone weighing up to 100 kg. The British Nutrition Foundation describes powders as a convenience for people in hard training, while advising food where possible [3]. Tests of protein powders have found arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury, and one study reported elevated levels of heavy metals in 40% of the 133 products it tested, though a 2020 risk assessment of the reported levels found no increased health risk at one or three servings a day, modelling adults [27].

Is plant protein as good as animal protein?

Gram for gram, most plant protein is lower in quality than animal protein, and soya comes closest [3][15][17]. In its 2013 report the UN Food and Agriculture Organization recommended a new measure, DIAAS, which scores a protein by the digestible content of whichever essential amino acid falls furthest short of human needs [15]. The report also cites human studies of a different measure, net postprandial protein utilisation, which tracks how much of a meal’s nitrogen the body keeps: 81% for milk protein, 78% for soya protein isolate and 66% for wheat [15].

Leucine, the amino acid that does most to switch on muscle building, makes up 11.0% of whey protein against 6.9% of soy and 7.2% of pea protein in the analyses a 2021 review reports, all above the 5.9% that the WHO, FAO and UN University set as the requirement [16]. The same review found that in short-term studies, soy and wheat protein produced a smaller muscle-building response than the same amount of animal protein, though only a handful of studies have compared them directly and not all of them found a gap [16]. It lists the remedies: eat more of the plant protein, blend sources so their amino acids complement each other, or fortify them [16]. Its percentages are for protein sources analysed on their own, many of them concentrates or isolates [16], and whole diets can fall short: in the 2025 New Zealand study, vegans’ plant protein carried 52.9 mg of leucine and 35.7 mg of lysine per gram, below the reference patterns of 59 mg and 45 mg (5.9% and 4.5%) [19].

Whether that shows up in muscle has been tested in trials. A 2025 meta-analysis of 30 randomised trials with 1,538 participants found that plant protein led to slightly less muscle mass than animal protein overall (standardised mean difference −0.20, 95% CI −0.37 to −0.03), which the authors describe as small [17]. Soy matched milk protein across 17 trials (−0.02, 95% CI −0.20 to 0.16), but other plant proteins such as rice, chia, oat and potato fell further behind (−0.58, 95% CI −1.06 to −0.09, 5 trials), and so did whole plant-based diets (−0.51, 95% CI −0.91 to −0.11, 7 trials) [17]. The authors conclude that animal protein may have a small advantage over non-soy plant protein for muscle mass, and that a wider range of plant proteins and diets needs testing [17]. The muscle-mass gap was in adults under 60, with no clear difference at 60 and over (−0.05, 95% CI −0.32 to 0.23) [17]. The trials found no significant difference in upper-body strength (14 trials) or physical performance (5 trials), while lower-body strength (11 trials) leaned towards animal protein without reaching significance overall and did favour it in adults aged 60 and over (−0.38, 95% CI −0.71 to −0.05) [17].

Two 2026 meta-analyses, both made up mostly of trials of soy protein, often as an isolate, found no difference in lean mass between plant and animal protein. One pooled 18 trials lasting at least six months, with 1,893 adults, and found no difference in strength or physical performance either; seven of its eight authors list an affiliation with the Danone Research and Innovation Center [28]. The other pooled 29 trials with 2,363 adults aged 50 and over, 25 of them using soy and 23 using isolates or isolate-based products, and found no difference in lean mass or handgrip strength, and its authors warn that this is not evidence that whole plant foods match animal ones [29]. In a 2025 controlled-feeding trial, 40 young adults eating 1.1 to 1.2 g of protein per kilo from a vegan or an omnivorous diet over nine days of resistance training showed no difference in the rate at which they built muscle protein [30].

In a 2021 trial, 19 habitual vegans and 19 omnivores, all untrained young men, lifted weights for 12 weeks with protein raised to 1.6 g per kilo using soy or whey, and both groups gained 1.2 kg of leg lean mass on average, with no difference in strength gains [18]. It was small and short, and the men chose their own diets, so it was not randomised. For anyone who wants to build or keep muscle, the evidence points to eating above the minimum and leaning on soya and on blends of plant proteins [3][16][17]. The British Nutrition Foundation adds that people in intensive training may benefit from spacing protein through the day [3], though in the 2025 feeding trial of young adults an even spread made no difference to muscle building on either diet [30]. There is more on each in building muscle on a vegan diet and vegan athletes. You don’t need to combine proteins at each meal, because a variety of plant proteins eaten over the day supplies enough of every essential amino acid when you eat enough food overall [3], which is what the US guidelines’ advice to “diversify plant protein sources” [9] amounts to, and protein combining has the history of the old rule.