Plant-based diets have been around forever, but the term is gaining serious traction in 2019. Between #plantbased sweet potato nachos piled with colorful veggies taking over Instagram and Beyoncé offering up free concert tickets to fans who adopt more plant-focused habits, there’s never been a more popular time to move toward plant-based eating.

According to Alexis Joseph, RD, who writes the popular Hummusapien blog "a plant-based diet means eating primarily whole plant foods rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, and healthy fats,". In other words, the majority of your diet comes from minimally processed fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts, and seeds. If you want to know more about this kind of diet, check out this Women's Health blog post

Registered dietitian nutritionist and NASM-certified personal trainer Whitney English Tabaie, MS, RDN shared that the The Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) states that we only need 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.

To figure out this number, just divide your weight in pounds by 2.2, then multiply that number by 0.8. Registered dietitian Leslie Langevin, MS, author of The Anti-Inflammatory Kitchen Cookbook said you can go a little higher and eat one gram of protein per kilogram of body weight. So for a 150-pound woman, she would eat between 54.5 and 68.2 grams of protein per day.

"Athletes should increase that amount and consume anywhere between 1.2 to two grams of protein per body weight in kilograms, Whitney suggested, depending on the intensity of exercise"

Use Beans in Place of Meat

Emily said if you want to ensure you're going to get enough protein by the end of the day, you have to start early with breakfast. Mash chickpeas or white beans into the bottom of your bowl or jar, then add the other oatmeal ingredients - you'll hardly notice the beans if you mash them well enough.

Sprinkle Nutritional Yeast on Everything

Plant-Based Protein Powders

If you feel like you’re not getting enough protein, you can always boost your smoothie with a plant-based protein powder. This is a particularly helpful option if you love intense workouts and want to retain and build muscle shortly after a training session.

Skip soy protein since it tends to be super processed. Instead, reach for pea protein (like this Chocolate Pea Protein Shake at the image) or hemp protein, which are both excellent, healthy plant-based protein powders.

Choose Chia & Quinoa!