High-Protein Vegan Meal Plan for Weight Loss on a Budget
High-protein, vegan, and cheap can all work together. Dry brown lentils cost $1.92 a pound at Walmart. That works out to roughly 58 grams of protein per dollar spent. This guide calls that protein-per-dollar: how much protein you get for each dollar you spend. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics' 2025 position paper found that well-planned vegetarian and vegan diets can be nutritionally adequate for adults and can offer long-term health benefits. But most vegan weight-loss plans online skip the two numbers that actually matter. You end up with 40-gram-protein days and a grocery list nobody ever priced.
This plan gives you both numbers for every day. Seven days, roughly 1,700–1,800 calories and about 80–90 grams of protein a day, with every gram traced back to the USDA FoodData Central entries linked below. The grocery list rings up at $67.13 at Walmart. The full plan, the priced grocery list, and a protein-per-dollar table are all right here on this page, free, with no signup needed. Once you see which foods earn their spot, you can rebuild the week around the foods you already like.
How much protein do you need to lose weight without losing muscle?
You need more than the bare minimum. A review in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that higher-protein diets help. Aim for around 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight a day, in meals of roughly 25 to 30 grams. That amount improves appetite control and fullness, and it helps you hold onto muscle while you lose fat. For a 150-pound (68 kg) adult, that's roughly 82–109 grams a day. That's right in the range this plan targets. Go slow: the CDC notes that people who lose weight gradually, at about 1 to 2 pounds per week, are more successful at keeping it off. The 1,700–1,800 calorie target here is built for one moderately active adult in a modest calorie deficit, meaning you eat a little less than you burn each day. Use it as a starting point, and adjust it to your own body and activity level. It's not a number to push below.
The $67 grocery list (Walmart, July 2026)
We used store-brand (Great Value) products where they exist, priced the same way as our gluten-free dairy-free budget plan: from walmart.com listings checked July 2026. Treat every figure as approximate. Prices vary by store and season, so check them again when you shop. Items marked ~ are estimates from search listings we couldn't confirm on an actual product page.
| Item | Size | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Proteins — $28.78 | ||
| Nasoya extra-firm tofu (2 blocks) | 2 × 14 oz | $5.84 |
| Dry brown lentils (2 bags) | 2 × 1 lb | $3.84 |
| Canned black beans (2 cans) | 2 × 15 oz | $1.72 |
| Frozen shelled edamame (4 bags — see note) | 4 × 12 oz | ~$7.68 |
| Peanut butter, creamy | 40 oz | $3.98 |
| Soy milk (2 cartons — see note) | 2 × 64 fl oz | ~$5.72 |
| Grains — $9.87 | ||
| Long-grain white rice | 5 lb | $3.37 |
| Quinoa | 16 oz | $3.38 |
| Quick oats | 18 oz | $3.12 |
| Produce — $19.14 | ||
| Russet potatoes | 5 lb bag | $2.97 |
| Carrots | 2 lb bag | $2.26 |
| Yellow onions | 3 lb bag | $3.96 |
| Green cabbage (1 head) | each | $2.59 |
| Fresh spinach | 10 oz bag | $2.28 |
| Bananas (about 6) | ~2.5 lb | $1.25 |
| Cucumbers (2) | 2 each | $1.52 |
| Roma tomatoes (3) | 3 each | $0.87 |
| Lemon (1) | each | $0.58 |
| Cilantro (1 bunch) | bunch | $0.86 |
| Frozen vegetables — $3.27 | ||
| Frozen broccoli (2 bags) | 2 × 12 oz | $2.00 |
| Frozen sweet peas (see note) | 16 oz | ~$1.27 |
| Pantry — $6.07 | ||
| Vegetable oil | 48 fl oz | $3.57 |
| Salsa (estimate) | 24 oz | ~$2.50 |
| Total | $67.13 | |
This assumes you already have salt, pepper, curry powder, cumin, chili flakes, and soy sauce in the pantry. The frozen edamame (~$1.92/bag), bettergoods soy milk (~$2.86/carton), and sweet peas prices are approximate, pulled from walmart.com search listings, so verify them at purchase. The bettergoods "Original" soy milk is sweetened. Grab unsweetened if your store carries it. The calories run slightly lower, and the protein stays the same. If you want a savory, cheesy flavor in scrambles and bowls, add Bragg nutritional yeast (~$5.99–6.48 for 4.5 oz). It's optional. Fruit is kept light on purpose, to protect the protein budget. If you'd rather snack bigger, a 3 lb bag of apples ($3.56) fits fine. The rice, oats, peanut butter, oil, and second bag of lentils all carry into week two, which is where this list gets genuinely cheap.
This list works because every item earns its protein-per-dollar spot. It's built for a generic shopper. Caullie learns the foods you already love, builds meal plans around them at your calorie target, and generates the grocery list for you.
Get Caullie on the App StoreBatch-cook these on day one (about 90 minutes)
- Curried lentil stew (4 servings): Sauté a diced onion and two chopped carrots in a tablespoon of oil, add curry powder and cumin, then 2¼ cups of dry brown lentils, a chopped roma tomato, and about 6 cups of water. Simmer 30–35 minutes and stir in a few handfuls of spinach at the end. Portion as two lunch-size servings (1¼ cups lentils each) and two dinner-size servings (1½ cups each).
- Plain lentils for salads: Simmer ¾ cup dry lentils in salted water for ~20 minutes, drain, and dress warm with lemon juice and a little oil — this becomes two lunch salads later in the week.
- Baked tofu (2 dinners): Cube one block, toss with a tablespoon of oil and salt, and roast at 425°F for ~30 minutes until golden. Keep the second block raw for scrambles.
- Grains: A pot of rice (2 cups dry) and a pot of quinoa (1¼ cups dry) cover most of the week; cook the rest fresh midweek if you prefer.
- Cabbage-cilantro slaw: Shred a quarter of the cabbage with a grated carrot, cilantro, lemon juice, and salt. It keeps for days and lifts every bowl it touches.
Edamame needs no batch work. It steams from frozen in five minutes, which is why it's the workhorse of this plan.
The 7-day plan (~1,700–1,800 calories, 80–90 g protein a day)
Calories and protein below are approximate. They come from USDA FoodData Central entries: firm tofu (~285 kcal and ~34 g protein per half block), cooked lentils (~230 kcal, ~18 g per cup), prepared edamame (~187 kcal, ~18 g per cup), cooked quinoa (~222 kcal, ~8 g per cup), canned black beans (~218 kcal, ~14.5 g per cup), quick oats (~152 kcal, ~5 g per ½ cup dry), soy milk (~7 g protein per cup — our sweetened carton runs slightly higher in calories than the unsweetened entry), peanut butter (~191 kcal, ~7 g per 2 tbsp), cooked white rice (~205 kcal per cup), and banana (~105 kcal). The protein tally counts only these major sources. Rice, potatoes, and vegetables add a few more grams on their own, so your real days will run a little higher than the numbers shown. This plan targets one moderately active adult. Scale the portions to fit your own goal.
| Day | Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner | Snacks | ~Day total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (batch day) | Peanut butter–banana protein oats: ½ cup oats cooked in 1½ cups soy milk, 2 tbsp peanut butter, sliced banana (~600) | Quinoa-edamame power bowl: 1 cup quinoa, 1 cup edamame, cucumber, carrot, lemon-oil dressing (~490) | Baked tofu (½ block) with 1 cup rice and roasted broccoli (~570) | ½ cup edamame with flaky salt (~95) | ~1,755 kcal · ~91 g |
| 2 | Tofu scramble: ½ block crumbled with spinach, onion, and skillet potatoes (~470) | Curried lentil stew (1¼ cups lentils) over ¾ cup rice (~510) | Black bean burrito bowl: 1 can black beans, ¾ cup rice, salsa, cabbage-cilantro slaw (~530) | Glass of soy milk (~100), banana (~105) | ~1,715 kcal · ~85 g |
| 3 | Peanut butter protein oats, no banana today (~495) | Lemony lentil-quinoa salad: 1 cup lentils, ¾ cup quinoa, cucumber, tomato, lemon-oil (~490) | Edamame fried rice: 1½ cups edamame, 1 cup rice, peas, carrot, onion, soy sauce (~605) | ½ cup edamame (~95) | ~1,685 kcal · ~83 g |
| 4 | Tofu scramble with spinach, onion, and skillet potatoes (~470) | Second black bean burrito bowl with slaw (~530) | Big bowl of curried lentil stew (1½ cups lentils) over ¾ cup rice (~565) | Glass of soy milk (~100), banana (~105) | ~1,770 kcal · ~90 g |
| 5 | Peanut butter–banana protein oats (~600) | Curried lentil stew (1¼ cups) over ¾ cup rice (~510) | Baked tofu (½ block) with 1 cup rice and roasted broccoli (~570) | ½ cup edamame (~95) | ~1,775 kcal · ~87 g |
| 6 | Peanut butter–banana protein oats (~600) | Quinoa-edamame power bowl with cucumber and slaw (~490) | Edamame fried rice with peas and carrot (~605) | ½ cup edamame (~95) | ~1,790 kcal · ~85 g |
| 7 | Peanut butter protein oats, no banana (~495) | Lemony lentil-quinoa salad with cucumber and tomato (~490) | Curried lentil stew (1½ cups) over ¾ cup rice (~565) | ½ cup edamame (~95), banana (~105) | ~1,750 kcal · ~82 g |
The cheapest vegan protein per dollar (the actual math)
This table is what built the grocery list. The prices come from walmart.com listings (July 2026, prices are approximate and vary by store, so verify at purchase), and the protein numbers come from the USDA values linked here. One thing to know: dry goods look better on this table than they really are. A dollar of dry lentils or gluten flour buys no water. A dollar of tofu or tempeh is partly water weight. Once you cook them and put them on a plate, the gap between dry and wet proteins gets a lot smaller. Treat this table as a guide to pantry prices, not a final verdict on which foods are best.
| Protein source | Approx. Walmart price | ~Protein per $1 |
|---|---|---|
| Vital wheat gluten (dry — for homemade seitan; ~75 g protein per 100 g) | ~$6.37 / 22 oz (out of stock when we checked) | ~74 g |
| Peanut butter (protein value approximate) | $3.98 / 40 oz | ~63 g |
| Dry brown lentils (~18 g per cooked cup) | $1.92 / 1 lb | ~58 g |
| Dry red lentils (protein estimated from brown) | $2.42 / 1 lb | ~46 g |
| Extra-firm tofu (~17 g per 100 g) | $2.92 / 14 oz | ~23.5 g |
| TVP — textured vegetable protein (~12 g per ¼ cup dry) | ~$6.30–9.14 / 10–12 oz (listings conflicted or out of stock) | ~16.5–23.5 g |
| Frozen shelled edamame (~18 g per cup) | ~$1.92 / 12 oz | ~21 g |
| Soy milk (~7 g per cup) | ~$2.86 / 64 fl oz | ~19 g |
| Nutritional yeast (~5 g per 2 tbsp — buy it for flavor, not protein) | ~$5.99–6.48 / 4.5 oz | ~11 g |
| Tempeh (~34 g per cup) | $4.52 / 8 oz | ~10 g |
TVP and vital wheat gluten aren't on the grocery list because Walmart's listings for both were out of stock or showed conflicting prices when we checked, so we couldn't cost them honestly. If your store carries them reliably, both are excellent. A ¼ cup of dry TVP adds 12 g of protein and only 80 calories to the lentil stew or fried rice.
Easy swaps
| If this doesn't work for you… | Swap it for… |
|---|---|
| Tofu (don't like it, or can't find it) | Tempeh ($4.52 for 8 oz — ~34 g protein per cup, so ¾ cup replaces a half-block), TVP (¼ cup dry = 12 g protein, if your store stocks it — prices ran ~$6.30–9.14 and listings were spotty), a cup of edamame (~18 g), or an extra cup of lentils (~18 g) |
| Soy milk (avoiding soy, or only sweetened in stock) | Unsweetened soy milk if your store carries it; otherwise unsweetened almond milk ($2.54 for 64 oz) works for the calories — but check the carton's protein line, because soy milk's ~7 g per cup is the reason it's here |
| Black beans | Canned chickpeas — same $0.86 per 15.5 oz can at Walmart |
| Quinoa | More rice (cheaper) — then backfill quinoa's ~8 g per cooked cup with extra lentils or edamame |
| Frozen broccoli | Frozen mixed vegetables ($0.98 for 12 oz) |
| Salsa | Chopped roma tomato with lemon juice and cilantro |
| Want a bigger protein cushion? | Equate plant-based protein powder (~$12.94) stirred into the morning oats — figure roughly ~21 g per serving, but that's approximate; check the label before you buy |
This is a legume-heavy week on purpose. If beans and soy in these amounts are rough on your digestion, ease into them over a couple of weeks. If you have IBS, our low FODMAP vegetarian meal plan solves a much stricter version of this same protein problem.
How do vegans hit 30 g of protein per meal?
You do it by building each meal around one dense protein source, instead of hoping the grains add up on their own. Research on higher-protein dieting points to meals with roughly 25–30 grams of protein as the sweet spot for appetite control during weight loss. Using the USDA values linked above: half a block of extra-firm tofu delivers about 34 g on its own, which is why the scramble and baked-tofu dinners clear that bar easily. A cup and a half of cooked lentils is about 27 g. A cup and a half of edamame is about 28 g. Breakfast is the hardest meal to hit. Oats, soy milk, and peanut butter together reach about 22 g, which is good but still short of 30 g, and that's the main reason this plan's mornings lean on all three at once. When a meal falls short, the cheap fix is a half-cup of edamame on the side, which adds about 9 g of protein and about 95 calories.
Is soy protein as good as animal protein?
Soy protein comes very close, and it beats every other cheap plant-based option. A 2022 review in Frontiers in Nutrition of protein-quality studies found soy products average a DIAAS of 84.5 and a PDCAAS of 85.6, two standard measures of protein quality. Soy protein isolate scores around 1.0, the same ceiling top animal proteins hit. That makes soy a complete protein: it has all the essential amino acids your body needs from food. Individual soy foods vary, though, and not all of them score as high as the isolate. This is why tofu, edamame, and soy milk anchor this plan, while grains and vegetables play a supporting role. The bigger picture agrees: the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics' 2025 position is that appropriately planned vegan diets are nutritionally adequate for adults. The key phrase is "appropriately planned." In practice, that means doing on purpose what this week does for you: putting a real protein source in every meal.
What's the cheapest vegan protein?
At Walmart in July 2026, the practical answer is dry brown lentils. At $1.92 a pound, that works out to roughly 58 grams of protein per dollar, and they're almost always in stock. A cooked cup carries ~18 g of protein for ~230 calories, a good ratio if you're eating in a calorie deficit (eating a bit less than you burn). On paper, vital wheat gluten (the protein in wheat flour, used to make homemade seitan) beats lentils at ~74 g per dollar. But the listing we checked was out of stock, and gluten flour takes an afternoon of kneading and simmering before it's actually food. Peanut butter's ~63 g per dollar looks great too, until you remember each 2-tablespoon serving brings ~191 calories with it. It's good for flavor and for keeping you full, but leaning on it as your main protein source will slow weight loss. All of these figures use approximate listing prices that vary by store. And the same caveat from above still applies: lentils win partly because you're not paying for water.
Keep the foods you love in the plan
The free 7-day plan, grocery list, and protein-per-dollar table above are yours to use, no signup needed. When you want a version built around your own tastes, Caullie learns which foods you love, builds high-protein vegan meal plans around them at your calorie target, and generates your grocery list automatically.
Get Caullie on the App StoreThis article is about meal logistics and cost. It isn't medical care or medical advice. Calorie and protein figures are approximate, taken from the USDA FoodData Central entries linked above, and the day totals count only the major protein sources. Weight loss results vary from person to person. The CDC's guidance of about 1–2 pounds per week is a guideline, not a promise, and calorie needs differ by body and activity level. Talk to a doctor or registered dietitian before starting a weight-loss diet, especially if you have a medical condition, a history of disordered eating, or are pregnant or nursing. Prices are walmart.com listing figures from July 2026 (several flagged as approximate above), and they'll vary by store and season, so verify them at purchase.