First of all I am a "lacto-vegetarian" according to the people that coin these terms I guess. I allow dairy products in my diet, although I don't eat or drink much dairy. I am active in Kung Fu, weight training, and my everyday life is just active itself. I don't count grams of protein, fat, carbs, etc. or calories. I have been a vegetarian for many years, it doesn't matter why. I don't have a dictionary handy, but I'm pretty sure you're not a vegetarian if you eat meat. Meat is flesh, muscle of animals such as fish, cows, pigs. You can build muscle without eating muscle. Our bodies are able to make protein out of amino acids, and muscle fibers out of protein. When you eat meat, beans, or any other food with protein, your body breaks it down to amino acids. It then uses these to make proteins it needs, for muscles and many other functions that most people don't even know about. I am not a "body builder". Body builders train to make their muscles grow, fill with sarcoplasm, a liquid made of glycogen used for energy. So they pump their muscles, drain their energy source and tear down the muscle by over stressing it. They refuel their body with carbs. Your body uses carbs for an energy source. It will make glycogen, low carb diet or not, because the type of training used by body builders uses a lot of energy and tells the body "more glyogen, please". Yes, your body also needs protein to repair the damaged muscle. So if you are a body builder, then get a lot of protein. Like Ironfist said, 1g/lb of body weight. But, as an athlete, you do not need to take up body building unless your particular sport/hobby requires great mass, like some positions in football. It can be good for wrestlers too, because they need all those stores of glycogen to wrestle for a long time and not get worn out. The way I train, it's for strength. Many of us are real confused about strength training, we confuse it with bodybuilding because that's what the media pushes on us. Read Pavel Tsatsouline's book, "Power to the People". Very short and simple, yes. But he will not try to pump you up and give you some confidence/ego booster. If you need that, fine. Train for it. That does not mean the rest of us, who could care less about body building, need to follow your rules for training. I do not require that much protein, and I do not require bulk. But I do require strength. So I must also make my muscle fibers stronger, which uses some protein, but not as much as you would think. Like I said before, I am a vegetarian. If I eat only legumes, for example, I will be missing certain amino acids that the body cannot produce itself. But if I eat a wide variety of plant based protein, I get all these amino acids. They don't have to be eaten at the same time. The same day is fine. I have taken the body building approach, and gained some mass fast. on a vegetarian diet. Say superior genetics or whatever, but that's not true. If you take in too much protein (more than your body needs), your kidneys filter it out. More water intake or not, this is stressful to your kidneys. More water intake just makes it a lot less stressful. So evaluate how much protein your body needs, not based on others needs, but on the type of training you do. Vegetarians can be very healthy, and many are great athletes. You must educate yourself on the diet first, though. Getting all the things you need minus the things you don't need is much healthier. No cholesterol, a low amount of saturated fats, no poisons (hormones, steroids, etc.). Healthy indeed. We watch what we are doing and eating. We are not stupid. If you saw me, you wouldn't know I was a vegetarian. I think almost everyone that finds out is shocked. Even people that have known me for a long time. They have to sit there and think if they can remember me eating meat or not. Some long time friends still say it's hard for them to believe I'm vegetarian. You can't tell us apart from any other healthy person, unless you watch us eat. A healthy person is a healthy person. Vegetarian life is just one way to get there.