The site's page on protein targets, Protein Goals on GLP-1s: Protecting Muscle While Losing Weight, makes the general case: protein intake commonly cited for GLP-1 users runs roughly 1.0 to 1.5 g per kg of body weight daily, some clinicians go up to 1.6, and the challenge is fitting that much protein into an appetite that has shrunk. That page is written as if meat, fish and eggs are simply on the table. For a vegetarian or a vegan they are not, and the arithmetic becomes genuinely different, because the plant sources people reach for first are often the weakest per bite.
This page is about that arithmetic. It endorses nothing about vegetarian or vegan eating; the reader has already chosen, and the job here is to make the chosen diet work inside a smaller stomach, not to argue with it. The shopping side has its own page at A GLP-1 Grocery List: Staples for Small, Protein-First Meals, and how much to plate is covered at What a Portion Looks Like on a GLP-1.
The problem is volume, not appetite
Before a GLP-1, a vegetarian short on protein could fix it by eating more: another ladle of dal, another scoop of beans, another serving of rice and peas. Volume was the release valve. On a GLP-1 that valve closes. The medicine slows gastric emptying and quiets appetite, so the amount of food that fits comfortably in a day drops, and it can drop a long way. Whatever protein goal a person is aiming at, they now have to reach it through a smaller total quantity of food.
That flips the number that matters. In ordinary nutrition writing, plant protein is discussed per serving: a serving of this, half a cup of that. But servings are conventions, sized for appetites that no longer apply. The measure that matches the actual constraint is protein per unit of food eaten, grams per 100 grams as prepared. Plant sources vary enormously on that measure, and the variation is invisible as long as you think in servings rather than in volume. On a plate that has to be small, it is the whole game.
The figures, per 100 grams
Approximate figures from the USDA food composition database, protein per 100 g of the food as prepared. Brands and preparations vary, so treat these as honest approximations rather than promises.
| Food, as prepared | Approximate protein per 100 g |
|---|---|
| Tempeh | 20.3 g |
| Tofu, firm, prepared with calcium sulfate | 17.3 g |
| Edamame, frozen, prepared | 11.9 g |
| Cottage cheese, lowfat 2% milkfat | 10.4 g |
| Greek yogurt, nonfat, plain | 9.5 g |
| Lentils, cooked | 9.0 g |
| Chickpeas, cooked | 8.9 g |
| Black beans, cooked | 8.9 g |
Read as a ranking, the table is more dramatic than any listicle of plant protein foods, because it is ordered by density rather than by familiarity. Tempeh and firm tofu carry roughly twice the protein of lentils, chickpeas or black beans for the same weight of food. Edamame sits a clear step above the cooked legumes. And for vegetarians who eat dairy, cottage cheese and Greek yogurt land at the high end of the list, above every bean on it.
The table also explains a quiet failure mode. The foods a vegetarian reaches for by default, the dal, the chickpea curry, the black bean bowl, are clustered at the bottom. Someone can eat a genuinely plant-forward day of food, feel full doing it, and still land well under the protein intake they were aiming for, because the volume that used to carry those meals is no longer available. Nothing about that is a discipline problem. It is arithmetic.
GLP 1 Tracker AppProtein logged as a number, day by day, privately on your phone. The difference between thinking you get enough and knowing is a fortnight of entries.
Get the app
Density first, then combining
The first lever follows straight from the table: when volume is the constraint, spend it on the densest sources. A small serving of tempeh or firm tofu does the work of a much larger bowl of legumes, and leaves room on the plate for everything else the meal needs to be. Edamame earns a similar place. None of this bans the lower entries; it just means they stop being the main protein vehicle and become part of the supporting cast.
The second lever is combining rather than substituting. A bowl built on two or three sources stacks protein in a way one source cannot: tempeh and edamame in one dish, tofu with a ladle of lentils, Greek yogurt alongside the chickpea curry for vegetarians who eat dairy. Combining also does things for taste and texture that monotony does not, which matters more than it sounds on a medicine that can make food itself feel like an effort. And on the days when solid food is unappealing altogether, Protein Shakes on a GLP-1: When They Help is the page for that situation.
What combining does not do is change the underlying limit. However the sources are arranged, the total has to fit inside the day's volume, which is why density comes first and stacking second rather than the other way around.
What a food table cannot tell you
This is a composition table, not a nutrition plan, and the difference deserves stating plainly. The figures say how much protein sits in 100 g of each food. They say nothing about amino acid profiles, nothing about iron, nothing about B12, and nothing about whether any particular person is getting enough of anything. Those questions exist for every eater, and a vegan or vegetarian diet on a shrunken appetite compresses the margin for error on all of them at once.
That is why the most practical sentence in this article is a referral. A registered dietitian can look at an actual pattern of eating, at labs where relevant, and at the medicines involved, and say something specific; a table on the internet cannot. This is said here as a recommendation rather than a throwaway, because the situation it addresses, a chosen diet plus a suppressed appetite plus a protein target, is exactly the combination where professional input pays for itself. The site's supplement stance lives at Supplements on a GLP-1: What to Ask Your Clinician About, and no supplement advice will be given here.
One more thing belongs in this section rather than anywhere else. Everything above assumes the goal is hitting a protein target. The risk sitting underneath all of it is simpler and more serious: eating too little altogether, which these medicines make easy and which has its own page at Eating Too Little on a GLP-1: Why It Happens and What to Watch. Protein arithmetic is worth doing only on top of an adequate total intake, not instead of one.
Making the number visible
The last piece is feedback. Protein is the one macro with a commonly cited target on these medicines, which makes it countable, and countable things beat guessable ones. The app logs protein as a number, alongside food entries, so a vegetarian day produces the same kind of evidence a meat-eating day does: a figure to compare against the aim, a pattern visible over weeks rather than an impression. That is the whole feature claim, and it is what turns an impression of getting enough into an answer.
Between the table above, the combining habit and a logged number, the vegetarian problem on a GLP-1 reduces to something manageable. The densest foods carry roughly twice what the defaults do, bowls can stack more than plates, and the fortnight of entries will say whether any of it is working. The dietitian handles the rest, and the rest is real.
Frequently asked questions
How much protein is in tempeh versus lentils?
Figures from the USDA food composition database, per 100 grams of the food as prepared, put tempeh at approximately 20.3 g of protein and cooked lentils at approximately 9.0 g, so tempeh carries roughly twice the protein for the same weight of food. Firm tofu sits near 17.3 g, and chickpeas and black beans near 8.9 g. Brands and preparations vary, and on a shrunken appetite the per-weight comparison is the one that matters.
How do vegetarians hit protein goals on a GLP-1?
The same way anyone does, with one added constraint: less room to do it in. The commonly cited guidance for GLP-1 users is roughly 1.0 to 1.5 g of protein per kg of body weight daily, with some clinicians going up to 1.6. The practical levers are choosing the densest plant sources per unit of food eaten, tempeh, firm tofu and edamame ahead of the legumes lower on the list, and combining two or three sources in one bowl rather than leaning on a single one. Dairy sources sit at the high end for vegetarians who eat them.
Is plant protein enough on a GLP-1?
A food composition table cannot answer that question, and this article does not pretend otherwise. The figures here say nothing about amino acid profiles, iron, B12, or whether any particular person is getting enough of anything. A vegan or vegetarian diet combined with a shrunken appetite is exactly the situation where a registered dietitian earns their fee, and that referral is the most practical advice on this page rather than a throwaway. The site's stance on supplements, at its own page, is that they are a clinician question.
What if I cannot face solid food on a GLP-1?
Plenty of GLP-1 users have days when solid food is unappealing, and vegetarians are not exempt. The site's page on protein shakes covers when they help and what they do not fix. The other direction matters just as much: someone whose appetite has collapsed may be eating very little of anything, and treating a genuine shortfall as a discipline win is the wrong read. Eating too little has its own page on this site for a reason.
Can I track plant protein in the app?
GLP 1 Tracker logs protein as a number alongside food entries, which is what turns a feeling of getting enough into an answer. Vegetarian and vegan days look the same to a protein counter as any other day, which is the point: the number does not care where the protein came from, only whether it arrived. Everything stays on the phone, with no account and no data collection.