What my vegetarian teen athlete has eaten today
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Anonymous
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This is kinda a follow up to the other posts about protein.
DD is 13. Breakfast was 2 eggs on naan bread with cheese 24g protein Lunch ramen with veggies (corn/carrots/edamame) 14g protein Mango smoothie just now with greek yogurt, mango, almond milk, chia seeds. 16g protein That’s 54g already today and hasn’t had dinner yet. |
Anonymous
| Vegetarian teen athlete is an oxymoron. |
Anonymous
| Totally not healthy at all. Better off just eating steak. |
Anonymous
Go play in traffic. |
Anonymous
Whoa! You definitely need a snickers! |
Anonymous
It’d healthier than what I ate and sounds delicious. Good for your daughter. My daughter tried being vegetarian but just couldn’t get enough protein to build the kind of muscle she wanted for her training. She eats a lot of chicken now and even some red meat. To each their own. She’s a couple of years older than your DD. |
Anonymous
The amino acid composition of meat and fish protein is optimal for athletic development. Milk and eggs are reasonably good but whey and casein need to be supplemented. Plant based proteins are the worst. The issue is that if you want to eat whole foods and not extracts, supplements, powders etc, it’s hard to get the right nutrition without a source of high quality protein without fat and carbs. |
Anonymous
| I cringe thinking about the amount of salt and preservatives in this junk! |
Anonymous
I'm not a trainer, but it's going to be very difficult for a growing 13 year old to be a competitive athlete as a vegetarian. Some chicken or fish solves a lot of issues. A good steak would be best. My kids - boys - are athletes and there's no chance they could compete at their level as a vegetarian. Their caloric and protein intake is insane from an adult perspective. Adolescence alone requires a lot of nutrients. And then add heavy workouts. Almond milk and chia seeds don't do it. A vegetarian is going to be competing at a severe deficit. You can be a perfectly healthy adolescent as a mindful vegetarian that priorities other sources of protein. But I don't think you can be a competitive athlete in the teenage years as a strict vegetarian. We evolved to be omnivores for very good reasons. |
Anonymous
| What is the point of this post? |
Anonymous
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What is she shooting for?
I eat mostly vegetarian most days and last year when trying to lose weight I tracked alll my calories and protein pretty closely for a year. It was pretty depressing for me trying to stay under 1500 calories a day and get enough protein. The days I ate fish were basically the only days I hit my protein target. At 1500 calories I was averaging about 5@ grams of protein a day. And I eat a lot of milk, beans, lentils, eggs, etc. The protein content on meat and fish is just so much more dense. I guess if I were a teen athlete and could eat 2500 calories a day I could hit my minimal protein targets. But the whole experience led me to try to increase the meat in my family’s life. We eat locally produced meat mostly and still have vegetarian meals a few nights a week. But it sounds like your teen is doing a great job paying attention to their nutritional needs for a 13 year old so kudos to you. (I’m also surprised by how much protein naan has compared to regular bread!). |
Anonymous
| I think it's great if she can manage it. My athletic DS tried to be vegetarian for a while and said he was hungry 24/7. |
Anonymous
| If/when she has regular periods, she's probably going to need an iron supplement. Breakfast cereal is usually well fortified so that could be a good daily addition to a vegetarian diet. |
Anonymous
This is OP. To show that you can get plenty of protein as a vegetarian. There have been a few of posts recently about teens and protein. |
Anonymous
She does have regular periods now. Did bloodwork at last check up and iron was fine. The 2 eggs a day are pretty standard for her which helps with iron. She does eat spinach too and other green veggies, just not today. |