Anyone else into vegan body building

[Thucydides]

I've been so off and on with the gym and eating most of my life , I've not been able to create and maintain gains.

A year ago, went vegan and the last two months have been hitting up the gym 5x a week, and playing hockey, once, sometimes twice a week.

Starting to notice some serious gains, for sure mostly in arms and shoulders.

Looking at ways to improve my meal plan . Any tips ? This is what I am eating :

Morning :

Oatmeal, berries, almonds .

Protein shake (vegan sport protein)with hemp hearts , chia seeds , veggemo , and berries and spinach.

Brown rice , veggie chicken breast, peas, red peppers, mushroom .

Spaghetti with veggies , and black beans .

Another protein shake.

Any other vegan body builders ? Any tips ?

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[FLYLine27*]

Is it even possible to get good gains on a vegan diet? Doesn't seem like enough fats and protein.

 

[UnrealMachine]

I've been so off and on with the gym and eating most of my life , I've not been able to create and maintain gains.

A year ago, went vegan and the last two months have been hitting up the gym 5x a week, and playing hockey, once, sometimes twice a week.

Starting to notice some serious gains, for sure mostly in arms and shoulders.

Looking at ways to improve my meal plan . Any tips ? This is what I am eating :

Morning :

Oatmeal, berries, almonds .

Protein shake (vegan sport protein)with hemp hearts , chia seeds , veggemo , and berries and spinach.

Brown rice , veggie chicken breast, peas, red peppers, mushroom .

Spaghetti with veggies , and black beans .

Another protein shake.

Any other vegan body builders ? Any tips ?

I've been vegan for almost 17 years. You can get gains just fine as long as you train correctly and eat a balanced diet. Your diet above looks to be low in calories and low in (healthy) fats. Here is my protein shake recipe that is filling, balanced and cheap:

1. 44lb bag of soy protein isolate from Honeyville ($.26/serving of 35 grams)
2. 50lb bag of milled flax seed from Honeyville ($.14/serving for 14 grams)
3. 1 cup of dry oats ($.18/serving)
4. 1/8 cup of Trader Joe's flake coconut ($0.15/serving)
5. 2 TBSP Peanut Butter ($.12/serving)
6. 1 banana ($.19/banana at Trader Joe's)

Totals = $0.94/serving, 965 calories, 61 grams protein (25%), 40.5 grams fat (38%), 91 grams carbohydrates (38%). 1/2 cup of oats may be all that you need for each shake, depending on your activity level. I drink two of those shakes a day and also eat almonds, cashews, prunes, tofu cooked in coconut oil with spinach and a sweet potato, textured vegetable protein, big salad with chickpeas, walnuts, dried blueberries and nutritional yeast. Typically I'm around 25% protein, 40% fat and 35% carbs. Since I get almost 2,000 calories for less than $2.00 from my shakes, it's not even expensive despite normally consuming 3,500-4,000 calories/day.

 

[Thucydides]

Thanks. I eat peanut butter, and chili as well as other things, but lately I've been eating what was in my original post . I also eat avocado on toast for a healthy snack.

It is easy to get good gains on a vegan diet , just google or check Instagram for vegan bodybuilding. It's quite popular now .

 

[Wood Stick]

How much protein do you guys get a day?

 

[UnrealMachine]

Around 250 grams/day. Depends on how much activity I do.

 

[Wood Stick]

Around 250 grams/day. Depends on how much activity I do.

I have no idea how you get 250 grams of protein a day without chicken/meat. Impressive.

 

[Thucydides]

Lentils, beans, quinoa , peas, hemp hearts, spinach, broccoli , almonds , chickpeas, peanut butter, etc. Really easy to get protein on a vegan diet . Plus the plant based milk I drink - Veggemo - has protein as well.

 

[Kitten Mittons]

I imagine it's hard to get a lot of protein on a cut though. Unless there's vegan protein powder or something.

 

[RayP]

I imagine it's hard to get a lot of protein on a cut though. Unless there's vegan protein powder or something.

Not difficult at all to find. Hell, I think even your "normal" (read: not Whole Foods) grocery stores by me even carry them now.

 

[Risingwind]

I'm mostly vegan, not exactly into BB but trying to live healthy. The last non-vegan food I've kept are eggs, using vegan protein powder daily.

1. 44lb bag of soy protein isolate from Honeyville ($.26/serving of 35 grams)
2. 50lb bag of milled flax seed from Honeyville ($.14/serving for 14 grams)
3. 1 cup of dry oats ($.18/serving)
4. 1/8 cup of Trader Joe's flake coconut ($0.15/serving)
5. 2 TBSP Peanut Butter ($.12/serving)
6. 1 banana ($.19/banana at Trader Joe's)

Totals = $0.94/serving, 965 calories, 61 grams protein (25%), 40.5 grams fat (38%), 91 grams carbohydrates (38%).

This sounds amazing. I'll have to try something like it. The only problem is the amount of sugar in peanut butter, maybe something like chia seeds could be used to give it structure (and raise the cost...)

 

[UnrealMachine]

I'm mostly vegan, not exactly into BB but trying to live healthy. The last non-vegan food I've kept are eggs, using vegan protein powder daily.

This sounds amazing. I'll have to try something like it. The only problem is the amount of sugar in peanut butter, maybe something like chia seeds could be used to give it structure (and raise the cost...)

There isn't much sugar in peanut butter. You could have even less with the "natural peanut butter". The issue with chia seeds is that they stick to everything. Put them in your blender a couple times and I'll guess you never do so again. Very annoying to work with.

 

[RayP]

We have a mason jar with a screw top lid. Canned lite coconut milk, water, pumpkin pie spice, and a banana. Blend it, pour into the jar, then let it thicken.

At least that's how I think my wife makes it. Little extra cinnamon for myself.

It's amazing.

 

[Thucydides]

You can buy lots of vegan protein powders. I like vega sport, vanilla. 30g of protein.

I've added tofu scrambles to my morning routine. Lots of protein.

Jon Venus is a good vegan body builder to follow.

 

[Mrb1p]

I dont understand how can get to 250g a day without high protein content.

Youd be looking at something like 400+g of carbs?

I have a hard time eating 250g of prots with 100 grams of carbs on a full meat diet.

 

[Minister of Offence]

The challenge on a vegan diet as far as bodybuilding goes isn't getting enough protein - that's totally do-able.

The hard part is getting enough protein in while dieting. Lentils, beans, etc all digging into valuable calorie space. Not impossible by any means -- just harder.

 

[Thucydides]

http://m.ajcn.nutrition.org/content...ract?sid=187de680-e319-4d4d-8179-da6ab0835359

A study confirming that plant protein is equal to meat when building muscle.

 

[SenorDingDong]

It's incredibly easy to get protein without touching meat. It just requires you to gain a little more knowledge and expand your known food groups.

 

[Kitten Mittons]

It's incredibly easy to get protein without touching meat. It just requires you to gain a little more knowledge and expand your known food groups.

Yes, it is easy to get protein without consuming animal products. But it is not easy to get a lot of protein while not consuming a lot of calories along with it (excluding supplements). The good news is that protein consumption is highly overstated so you don't really need that much anyway.

What's a vegan alternative to 2% fat yogurt? One serving has 24g of protein and only 170 calories. It's just magic. And it's good for you.

Edit: Actually, a quick Google showed me tofu. But tofu is nasty though lol.

 

[RayP]

Yes, it is easy to get protein without consuming animal products. But it is not easy to get a lot of protein while not consuming a lot of calories along with it (excluding supplements). The good news is that protein consumption is highly overstated so you don't really need that much anyway.

What's a vegan alternative to 2% fat yogurt? One serving has 24g of protein and only 170 calories. It's just magic. And it's good for you.

Edit: Actually, a quick Google showed me tofu. But tofu is nasty though lol.

For some reason my mind went to coconut yogurt, but that has virtually no protein in it.

And it's also nasty.

Not bad to cook with if you're trying to avoid dairy, though.

 

[Mrb1p]

Yes, it is easy to get protein without consuming animal products. But it is not easy to get a lot of protein while not consuming a lot of calories along with it (excluding supplements). The good news is that protein consumption is highly overstated so you don't really need that much anyway.

What's a vegan alternative to 2% fat yogurt? One serving has 24g of protein and only 170 calories. It's just magic. And it's good for you.

Edit: Actually, a quick Google showed me tofu. But tofu is nasty though lol.

Tofu is nasty only if you can't cook it right !

Toss it with curry and make it crispy toasty and youll eat them like theyre chips !

 

[LarKing]

http://m.ajcn.nutrition.org/content...ract?sid=187de680-e319-4d4d-8179-da6ab0835359

A study confirming that plant protein is equal to meat when building muscle.

For late recovery, plant protein is generally fine for muscle building. But in early recovery (the first 30 minutes or so), that isn't going to get to your muscles quick enough. Whey protein does the job much much better here.

 

[UnrealMachine]

I dont understand how can get to 250g a day without high protein content.

Youd be looking at something like 400+g of carbs?

I have a hard time eating 250g of prots with 100 grams of carbs on a full meat diet.

My daily protein & carb percentages are similar to one another. 250g of protein usually puts me around 275g of carbs. Again, I often have to eat at or above 4,000 calories just to hit equilibrium in terms of calories in vs calories burned.

 

[Mrb1p]

My daily protein & carb percentages are similar to one another. 250g of protein usually puts me around 275g of carbs. Again, I often have to eat at or above 4,000 calories just to hit equilibrium in terms of calories in vs calories burned.

Whats a sample day diet, if you don't mind me asking ? I work with a lot of athletes, but when it comes to vegan/vegetarian people, I'm lost.

 

[UnrealMachine]

Whats a sample day diet, if you don't mind me asking ? I work with a lot of athletes, but when it comes to vegan/vegetarian people, I'm lost.

I eat pretty much the same thing everyday. I only vary the quantity a bit depending upon my total activity for the day. So, in order (calories/protein/fat/carbs):

1. Protein Shake (soy protein, flax, oatmeal, coconut, peanut butter, banana): 965/61/41/91
2. Cashews: 210/7/16/9
3. Textured Vegetable Protein: 120/10/6/8
4. Tofu in coconut oil/spinach/sweet potato: 660/71/30/29
5. Almonds w/ dark chocolate chips: 250/9/18/20
6. Textured Vegetable Protein: 120/10/6/8
7. Prunes: 100/1/0/26
8. Protein Shake (soy protein, flax, oatmeal, coconut, peanut butter, banana): 965/61/41/91
9. Huge salad (lettuce, carrots, chickpeas, dried blueberries, walnuts, nutritional yeast, light Italian dressing): ~500 calories