I am joined by MetPro Coach Kassy Dietle, and we will be discussing eating vegan on MetPro. Kassy, thank you so much for joining me.
Thanks for having me.
I want to dig in by getting an overview. I hear a lot of terms thrown around vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, all kinds of things. What are the differences between vegan and vegetarian?
It boils down to vegetarians will still consume the byproducts of animals, eggs, dairy, and honey, whereas vegans will not. They don't do anything that comes from an animal. They don't eat animals or fish themselves. They are solely plant-based.
Being solely plant-based, I would think that it is more restrictive and, therefore, difficult to eat. If you are trying to change your eating habits, it might be even more difficult to do. The first question is, can a client be successful on MetPro if they are vegan?
Yes, 100% they can. I will preface it with a couple of things. First, you have to be open-minded. Let's say your vegan client on MetPro gets to know your coach, trust your coach, and be open about the things that you want to use. Know that there's going to be a learning curve to try to figure out how to get all your macros to fit together, and know that you have to be creative with the foods that you are going to combine to hit your protein specifically. The last thing is to know that this is more of clean eating. That will probably be the biggest obstacle I see with my vegan clients. If you are used to using a lot of processed vegan foods, we are going to switch those over, and there's going to be that little learning curve we have to get through.
You have a non-vegan client and a vegan client. How is that different? How is MetPro different for those two different types of clients?
I would say the main thing is in the phases that we use. My vegan clients are going to automatically be on a higher carb and higher fat phases than my non-vegan clients because it's harder to hit your protein as a vegan unless you are combining foods. Those plant proteins always come packaged with carbs and fat. For the most part, get your plant proteins unless you are using a protein powder that has been made that way. The biggest difference is my vegan clients aren't going to go as low on phases as my non-vegan because we've got to keep the carbs and fat in there so that they can hit all of their macros.
What do you see as being the biggest struggle for people who are vegans? I know you said getting used to it, learning that you are going to have to be open-minded but once they are in the program, they've accepted the food. Where's the biggest struggle?
The biggest struggle would be twofold. One, I see struggles in the lower phases because it can get monotonous with the foods that you are using. You are limited on options. You are eating a lot of beans and legumes. A lot of my vegan clients have a lot of tofu that they are using. It can get a little boring. That's where you got to get creative with how you are seasoning foods not to get stuck in a rut.
On the flip side of my vegan clients, because I can't take them low in their carbs, we've got to build them higher on their phases to build up their carbs and calories. That can be hard for some of my vegan clients. That's why we've got to use that exercise lever to be able to build more contrasts and get the meeting more calories because I can't take away as many carbs when I have you on the lower face.
For those people who aren't familiar with MetPro, the reason it can be difficult right at the top of those higher levels is that you are eating so much food. Sometimes your body is like, “No more.” Is that the only reason or are there other things?
The main thing is you are eating so much food, and that's where the clean bulking comes in. Isn't that prose clean? We use a lot of vegetables. We use whole foods. They are high fiber. You feel a lot more full than if you are using, let’s say, from my vegan client, Impossible Burger, Beyond Meat or those vegan processed products that are calorie-dense but don't feel as filling. Our MetPro feels way more filling because of how clean and whole food it is.
I feel like now would be a good time to give people who are brand new to the idea of MetPro, a little background on what MetPro is. MetPro is a coaching company that helps individuals with highly specific goals, such as weight loss or performance. MetPro has an app, MetPro Basic. It pushes the boundaries of nutritional innovation by utilizing a unique algorithm that predicts how your body will likely respond and get smarter as you use it.
MetPro is not about gimmicks, fluff or oversimplified macro tracking. As Kassy is explaining, it is not a simple food logging app. You have to be willing to shop and prepare the meal plans. You can expect highly individualized adjustments every few days as it learns how you are responding. You are going to get in a detailed analysis of how your metabolism is responding and individualized adjustment to your meal plan, and the algorithm explanation of why it's making the expectation and what to do next.
MetPro even provides optional workouts for all fitness levels. If you are looking for a simple food logging app or are not willing to shop or prepare for the meal plans provided, MetPro may not be for you. If you are ready to invest in yourself and you want the most complete solution to mastering your metabolism, go to MetPro.co/basic, and you can try it free for fourteen days. Kassy, I’m curious. Having said all that, where is the best place for vegan clients to get their protein? Is it tofu or are there other options?
There are a ton of options, and that's why I always have my vegans get familiar with the foods in the app. The main proteins are going to be your beans and legumes, your nuts in your seeds, and you are nut butter like almond butter and peanut butter, even your seed butter like tahini. We have a lot of vegan protein sources that are similar to meat or used they would if someone were eating meat. That would be your tofu, tempeh, which is another form of fermented soy, and seitan, which is made from wheat gluten. That's a high vegan protein source as well. We also have bean and lagoon pasta like edamame pasta and lentil pasta.
Another one is we have nutritional yeast, which is also high in B vitamins, and it has a cheesy flavor. You can add it to pasta to make cheesy pasta. That also comes with a lot of protein. Specifically, if you were to put it in the app and use nutritional yeast, you would get a 0.25 cup for 1 protein on the app, which for vegans, that's a great way to get your protein. There are a lot of options that people don't realize. That's why I feel MetPro can be suitable for vegans, as long as you work with your coach, get familiar with the app, and build out the meals because we have a ton of options to hit your protein as a vegan.
I have a question about this nutritional yeast. I've seen that before but I didn't understand it. I thought that was for baking bread.
I didn't know about it because I was vegan for several years, and that's where I learned about nutritional yeast. The term can be off-putting. You are like, “Yeast. I don't know if I want to eat a 0.25 cup of that.” It has this cheesy flavor. You can usually find it in the bulk bins at the grocery stores or in the baking area of the stores.
It's high in B vitamins, and it has this cheesy flavor. You buy it, measure out your serving size, and add it on top of salads, pasta, and rice to make a risotto in a sense. You can add a little almond milk to make it a little bit more soupy if you want. You can even use it for your tofu. You can bread your tofu with it to make cheesy tofu.
People who aren't vegan but are looking for protein ideas could also borrow that idea.
My idea with the nutritional use, you can use it for breading on your chicken if you want. You could do chicken tenders and use the nutritional yeast to boost the protein.
You're blowing my mind here. I am super excited about this. You mentioned seeds, and I'm picturing hemp and chia seeds. I've used those before in salads. Is that something you can track in the MetPro app?
You can track all nuts and seeds. We have a good variety. The thing with your nuts and seeds is they are going to come packaged. You are going to get fat and protein with them. You will fill up two of your boxes in the MetPro app using hemp seed. The seeds are great. I love to use pumpkin seeds for snacks. Tip there, pumpkin seeds you want to be roasted and salted. You can get them roasted without oil. You can get dry-roasted but they are way tastier.
Don't go for the raw pumpkin seeds, toasted, roasted, salted, all the way. Another thing is to tahini. That is one of my favorite things for vegans as well. You will get fat with it but you also get protein, and it's great drizzled over sweet potatoes. Tahini is ground-up sesame seeds, and you can drizzle it over sweet potato. It is good.
Is the taste buttery? I'm trying to picture what tastes would taste good on top of sweet potatoes?
Buttery is a good term. Buttery, savory type of flavor, it's not sweet. It's different from almond butter but it is delicious, and it gives a little bit more savory salty kick to the sweet potato.
If a person is vegan and they are coming to MetPro, I know that a lot of people who are vegan have concerns about their meals being balanced. Does MetPro help them keep balanced nutrition?
Yes, and depending on how you ate prior to the program. We almost balance it even more because every meal and snack comes packaged with carbs, protein, and fat. If it's lunch and dinner, you are going to get veggie carbs. That's important as a vegan because, specifically with protein, you have to combine different plant proteins to get your full amino acids to make it a complete protein.
In MetPro, what we do well is each meal in your app is balanced with this amount of meal carbs, protein, and fat. All you have to do is go into the meal builder and select the foods that you like. The app does everything for you. It fills up your boxes to make sure that you are getting every single macronutrient that you need.
Also, with MetPro being way more veggie-forward, we are getting a lot of micronutrients, vitamins, and minerals in there for the vegan clients as well. You are getting a good balanced plate with MetPro. You don't even have to think about it. You've got your coach to look over you. You've got the app to adjust you. We've got it all done. You’ve got to go in there and fill it out.
I know that there are a billion products out there that say they are for vegans, “This is good.” You mentioned Beyond Burgers being an example that comes to mind. I know that is not necessarily something that you can have on MetPro because you are not getting all the other things that you need. Are there certain products that clients need to focus on?
I would say the only product that I would recommend clients invest in outside of plain the whole foods is a good protein powder. Finding a vegan protein powder can be a little challenging. There's a lot out there, and it's tricky. This is where you want to work with your coach if you are doing the concierge surface. Some plant protein powders are higher in carbs, which is different from my non-vegan clients who use a protein powder that's more straight protein.
With vegan protein powder, you want to look for a pea protein and rice protein blend. It's going to be the best with amino acid composition, similar to whey protein. If your goal is muscle building, it would be great for that. The only product as a vegan you would need to invest in will be a good quality plant protein to fill in those little protein gaps if you are not hitting it with your other foods. Aside from that, it's all whole food. You could do it all with that, no extra products needed.
Is there anything else that you want to make sure people know about being vegan on MetPro?
Get familiar with the app. That's my biggest tip. A lot of vegan clients get intimidated because they think maybe they can't check all of the boxes being a vegan or maybe that means they are going to be super restricted in food. That's not true at all. If you spend time with the app, building out different combos of foods, that's my biggest tip for vegans. Don't let it hold you back from trying it out because you would 100% can be successful, and your meals will be balanced, maybe even more so than when you were doing it on your own.
That is encouraging. I appreciate you taking the time to talk through this, Kassy. Can you give people your email address to reach you if they have questions?
My email address is Kassy@MetPro.co.
Thank you so much, Kassy.
Thanks, Crystal.
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