Originally Posted by aikigreg
See that was my problem. The majority of my protein intake came from soy, and it was a fairly low amount of protein anyway - maybe 15% of calories per day at most.
Obviously you can be vegetarian and be healthy - look at India for goodness sakes - but you'll never be muscular - you'll be tired a lot, and have other side effects as well. Just not smart, after having done the research myself over the years and having had enough anecdotal evidence.
WRONG!
You can indeed be muscular, I'm living proof. I added a net of ~10-15 lbs of muscle since I started working out over 4 months ago. I am a vegetarian although I do eat some fish. However, with closer attention to diet I could have substituted my fish protein gram count with other sources. I don't really drink milk, but eggs and some cheese were in my diet too (I'm not vegan). I also used protein shakes (mainly soy based) during my active training period to get me to ~110-140 grams/day of protein.
Doing any of this without soy (processed or in whole form) as a protein source would be hard, not impossible, but hard. There are some folks who question if that much protein is needed to increase muscle strength - as opposed to pure mass - not sure I agree, but regardless and personal anecdotes aside, it is not true that you cannot be muscular and a vegetarian at the same time - it does require some close attention to diet though