When people hear “plant-based,” they often say two things. 

First, “Ugh, I could never do that, I love cheese too much.” And then,  “But how do you get your protein?”

We can’t help the cheese lovers, but the protein query is a fair one, so we’ll answer it here. 

To be clear, we aren’t recommending you eat a diet strictly based on our snacks. Here’s a great place to reach about getting ample protein on a whole-food, plant-based diet. Today, we’ll detail how to get enough protein just from snacks in the airfare marketplace when in a pinch.

Whether building muscle or simply striving for the minimum recommended protein consumption, we’ve got you covered.

Let’s dive in.

Whether it’s a full day of training, an18-hour flight to Jakarta, 10 property showings in the same day, or a cross country road-trip, busy, on-the-move days are familiar to us all. On days like these, meeting the minimum protein requirements is important, especially while keeping within the appropriate caloric intake window. This tool is a good place to get a personalized estimate.

The Recommended Dietary Allowance is the average daily level of intake sufficient to meet the nutrient requirements of nearly all healthy individuals. For protein, that’s only 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, which surprises many people.

That means for someone weighing 100 pounds (45 kilograms), that’s 36 grams of protein per day. At 150 pounds (68 kilograms), that’s about 55 grams of protein per day, and at 200 pounds (91 kilograms), that’s 73 grams per day. 

So an active person weighing 150 pounds eating 2,000 calories a day needs 55 grams of protein to meet this minimum requirement.

With that knowledge in hand, let’s get snacking.

We would start the day with two go-to staples, the Lupii Peanut Butter Cacao Nib Bite (9 grams and 200 calories) and the Gopal’s Apple Raisin Trail Mix (10 grams and 200 calories). 

That’s a good start—19 grams of protein (34% to our target) and 480 calories (only 25% to our calorie total).

A few hours later, we’d definitely munch on some Earthy Krunchy Sour Cream and Onion Kale Chips (9 grams of protein and 160 calories) and a Wellbean Peanut Butter Crunch Bar (8 grams of protein and 210 calories). Now we’re cookin’ with gas—cumulatively we’re at 36 grams of protein (65% of our goal) and only 850 calories (43% of the total).

Finally, we’ll finish with a popular pairing— a Jonesbar PB and J Bar (4 grams of protein and 170 calories) and some Healthy Truth Sprouted Pizzalmonds (7 grams of protein and 210 calories.

That brings us to 47 grams of protein, and just 1,230 calories. That’s 85% of the daily protein goal with 770 calories left for the day. 💪

One or two more snacks would get us over the protein goal, but plenty of people are trying to build muscle. They want to get 1.25 to 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight.

One of the best plant sources for that extra pump of protein is soy. While there’s quite a bit written about potential risks of soy, it’s mostly from uncredited sources. Instead, world health organizations and most recent meta analyses of the evidence conclude that soy is more than okay—it should be viewed as a healthy food. 

Following the prevailing science, we look to our friends at Seapoint Farms in  Huntington Beach, Calif. for a bag of their delicious Dry Roasted Edamame. For only 200 calories, we get a whopping 20 grams of protein, as much a serving of almost any whey protein bar on the market. 

With that final snack down, we’re at 67 grams of protein for the day and only 1,430 calories.

And that, friends, is how to pair plants and protein sticking strictly to the airfare snack marketplace. We can stay fit—yoked, even—even on a plant-based snack diet.