Your recommendation is that people eat 18 tablespoons of peanut butter a day to get their protein?

Not at all. Just pointing out that 75g isn’t some breathtakingly large number to hit without meat.

A wheat bread PB&J hits about 23G of protein with 4TBSP of peanut butter.

White rice and tofu, the most boring meal I can think of already gets you to 14g or so.

Hitting 150g of protein is really difficult and arguably a gross way to eat if you’re just eating meat anyways. That’s over TWO POUNDS of ground beef.

The issue with the PB&J is that it's > 700 calories (440 just from the PB, call it 100 for a TBSP of jelly, probably 100-200 for the bread), whereas a grilled chicken breast might give you 30 G of protein with maybe 250 calories. If you were getting 150G of protein from PB alone, you would have to eat ~3.5k calories.

Some more data points:

* 150 g of protein from lentils: 1.9k

* 150 g of protein from chickpeas: 2.9k

* 150 g of protein from grilled chicken breast: 750

* 150 g of protein from whey powder: 675

* 150 g of protein from egg whites: 640

My experience is that I don't need to worry much about "getting meat in" when I'm bulking up, but when I'm cutting calories to lose weight (and trying to keep protein extra high in order to maintain lean mass/increase satiety -- I'll have as much as 200-230g per day on maybe 2400 total calories), it's really tough to hit without having a lot of lean meat in my diet.

> but when I'm cutting calories to lose weight (and trying to keep protein extra high in order to maintain lean mass/increase satiety

You need to cut down on broscience, To go into catabolic mode you need a hig caloric deficit for a long time combined with inactivity.

I do cut calories (I bulk at maybe 3500 and cut at maybe 2500), I'm mostly saying that I find it much easier to feel full on a very high protein diet. I also believe there is some research suggesting that you should err on the higher side of the acceptable range when in a deficit. I would be nervous eating 150 G of protein in an extended deficit, weighing ~175 lbs.

Okay I mostly agree with that. It’s difficult to lose weight while not eating meat and maintaining a high protein diet.

But my point isn’t that, it’s that for an average person eating average calories it’s not difficult by any means to get enough protein.

To be fair though, plant based protein powder is about 700 calories for 150g of protein too :)

I think the point being made is about the "density" of protein per serving. Sure you can get 75 from PB but that would also give you diabetes, and excessive fat too.

Same goes for plans, yes in powder form it's a few scoops but you probably would be way too stuffed if you eat the actual veggies.

On the other hand, 95% of Americans don’t eat enough fiber, which means they aren’t getting any of the other benefits of plants like vitamins and antioxidants.

I’d wager that’s much more important than the average muscleless flaboid getting 150g protein.

4 tablespoons of peanut-butter on a sandwich? Isn’t that quite a lot? That’d cover a most of the bread without even having to spread it.

This is misleading, and demonstrated the complexities of meeting protein goals. Peanuts are not a complete protein [1]. If you ate 1kg of peanut protein a day, you would still be deficient.

1. https://www.livestrong.com/article/465113-is-peanut-butter-a...

I don’t get it. Even Google’s blurb for “are peanuts complete protein” points out that they are a complete source. Putting peanuts into Cronometer (nutrient tracker) also confirms they have all 8 essentials.

Yeah, the complete protein thing is bunk. Most plants are "complete" but can be low in something. Eating more than one kind of plant is all your need to counter that - so a peanut butter sandwich should do the job.

The sad truth is, though, that you'd end up with too many calories if you try to get all your protein from peanut butter sandwiches (unless you do some cardio to cancel it out).