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Build Muscle & Lose Fat By Eating Plants
PLANTS BUILD MUSCLE: 7
BRILLIANT (AND SLIGHTLY BADASS) EXPERTS EXPLAIN
I’m not entirely convinced going vegan is for everyone.
I am convinced
we would all benefit by eating more plants and less meat. Our
collective health, humanity, and planet would start to revitalize.
“But, Chris, why would you say going vegan isn’t for everyone?”
Careful observation, research,
and a healthy dose of common sense. As it turns out, there are hundreds of
individual differences in biochemistry, genetics, blood type, etc. Although the
percentage of people who react unfavorably to a vegan or vegetarian diet is low, it matters
to have integrity when talking about these things.
I don’t think a diet exists
that’s perfect for 100 percent of the population.
I am also convinced that it’s
possible to gain size and strength from eating a plant-based diet with proper training.
Despite the prevailing archaic
belief we need to eat meat to build muscle, I know this
from personal experience.
The good news is, it’s getting
harder and harder to defend that outdated noise when guys stronger than Arnold
in his prime are vegan. And I mean this literally. Two
examples off the top of my head are world-record-holder strongman Patrik
Baboumian and 300-pound NFL defensive lineman David Carter.
The problem is, most people
aren’t aware that vegan athletes are performing at this
level. VegetarianBodybuilding.com and our other friends mentioned in this
article are trying to change that.
Interest in veganism is indeed on the rise,
but the bodybuilding and fitness community at large
remains skeptical and hesitant. This is mostly attributed to
the profoundly effective and pervasive meat industry marketing machine.
You don’t have to look far to
catch a glimpse at how powerful, even hypnotic, advertising can be. It has been
over a half century since the disastrous health risks of smoking cigarettes was
first suggested by scientists, and it’s just now finally dying off – sort of.
There’s still over 42 million smokers in the US alone.
We will see a similar trend
with meat eating, I believe.
Just like with the health risks
of smoking catching on, many of us are waking up to the health risks of eating
animal-based products.
With an emphasis on the way
meat is being produced.
I caught wind of how truly
unhealthy most of our food in the US is just a few years ago. And only then did
I realize what was possible in the gym with vegetarian bodybuilding.
This article is for those who
are as curious as I was back then about plant-based fitness. I put together an
expert panel to address the following question:
Q: What are
your top 3 tips for building muscle while using a vegan bodybuilding diet?
I hand-picked some of my
favorite experts on the topic (I even make a cameo appearance); each one
provides their three top tips for vegan bodybuilding.
Brenda Carey, founder
of Vegan Health & Fitness Magazine:
TIP 1: First of all, work out with
intensity and frequency.
TIP 2: Don’t get sucked into marketing
hype about supplements. If you’re doing #1, you will
get results.
Supplements are, at best, a
waste of money. At worst, they can wreck your health.
TIP 3: Learn the nutritional content of your foods. Eat higher protein and less fat (and
mostly, if not all, whole unprocessed plant foods that you prepare yourself –
or find a very trustworthy source to prepare your foods the right way).
That means no oil, no chips or
candy. Smoothies, salads, stir-frys, soups…
Robert Cheeke,
best-selling author of “Shred It!” and “Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness,”
two-time champion bodybuilder, and founder/president of Vegan Bodybuilding
& Fitness:
TIP 1: Effectively establish your true
daily caloric expenditure. Determine what your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is,
and combine that number with the number of calories you burn through physical
activity.
A simple way to establish these
figures, which evaluate your caloric expenditure based on gender, age, height,
weight, and activity level, is to use a BMR calculator and a Harris-Benedict
calculator. These calculators are easily accessible online.
For example, my BMR is 1,740,
meaning I burn 1,740 calories just lying in bed and doing nothing else. When I
factor in the calories burned throughout the day during my physical activities,
from running errands to working out, my caloric expenditure nearly doubles at
3,230. That means in total, I expend more than three thousand calories each
day.
Therefore, just to maintain
weight, I should eat roughly 3,230 calories per day from nutrient-dense whole plant foods. The
reason we establish this figure is so we can construct a nutrition program to aid in building muscle based on real metrics, to
put ourselves in a position to succeed.
If I were to grossly under-eat
in relation to my true caloric expenditure – say, consuming 2,500 calories per
day while burning more than 3,200 a day – it is unlikely that I would put myself
in an adequate position to build muscle.
“To effectively build muscle, we need to eat a surplus of calories beyond our minimum
caloric requirements necessary to maintain weight, in order to gain weight
(muscle).”
For these calories to go toward
muscle gain rather than fat gain, we’ll
need to ensure we eat nutrient-dense whole plant
foods, not processed or refined foods, and of course,
combine that effort with an exercise program, preferably one of
resistance weight training.
TIP 2: Create a nutrient-dense whole plant-food nutrition program
to follow with consistency, accountability, and transparency.
Once you have established how
many calories you expend each day, you’ll want to construct a nutrition program
that exceeds that figure and aim to have the majority of your calories consumed
coming from whole plant foods.
In my case, since I am burning
3,230 calories a day, I aim to consume about 3,700 calories per day, combined
with resistance weight training, in order to repair, recover, and build muscle tissue damaged from exercise.
Since the surplus in caloric
consumption beyond expenditure (in my example, about 500 extra calories per
day) is coming from whole plant foods naturally high in
nutrient-rich carbohydrates and low in fat and protein, I am unlikely to have
these extra calories hang around as fat, but rather go toward repairing and
growing muscles.
“Five hundred extra
calories daily is significant enough to see some changes in lean muscle growth over time, perhaps as soon as four
weeks after starting your program.”
If you fear that this
additional caloric consumption beyond your requirements to maintain weight
might cause fat gain, simply add some fat-burning cardiovascular
training in the morning a few days a week to put your mind
and body at ease.
TIP 3: Build an exercise program and
create a routine that leads to new habits. What goal setting and achieving
really comes down to is creating productive and efficient positive habits.
Whether we’re talking about burning fat or building lean muscle, your likelihood of
achieving success weighs heavily on your ability to create the habits necessary
to attain the results you’re striving for.
“To effectively build muscle, you’ll want to focus on performing compound, multi-joint,
free-weight exercises, using barbells, dumbbells, and your own bodyweight (such
as pull-ups, push-ups, squats, lunges, and dips).”
My preference is to focus on
one or two muscle groups per workout and train hard with free weights for 60-90
minutes. My current routine looks like this:
Monday = Chest
Tuesday = Back
Wednesday = Rest
Thursday = Legs
Friday = Arms
Saturday = Shoulders/Abs
Sunday = Rest
Most importantly, be safe and
have fun. My motto is to train hard, eat well, smile often, and lift others up.
It if isn’t fun, you’re unlikely to stick with it. If you find meaning and joy
in your pursuit of elevated levels of health and fitness, you will look forward
to exercising often.
Following these three tips with
consistency, transparency, and accountability will help you build lean muscle on a whole-food,
plant-based diet and help you achieve your goals. I wish you all the very best
in health and fitness. Let’s get shredded!
Debbie Baigrie, founder
of Natural Muscle Magazine:
TIP 1: Drink at least three plant-based
protein shakes daily.
TIP 2: Always keep cooked beans on hand
and eat them with brown rice for a complete protein.
TIP 3: Other great foods to eat for building lean muscle are:
- Quinoa
- Almonds
- Tofu
- Chia seeds
- Lentils
- Hemp seeds
Chris
Willitts,
founder of VegetarianBodybuilding.com and Mindful Muscle:
TIP 1: Although I derive protein from multiple food sources,
my primary whole-food protein sources are quinoa,
tofu, black beans, and veggie burgers.
I also
utilize combinations of incomplete proteins to make up a complete
protein meal, such as peanut butter and sprouted bread or beans and Brazil
nuts.
I get 40 to 50 percent of my protein from vegan protein shakes to keep my
carbs at bay (unless I’m bulking up).
And don’t assume you need a
gram of protein per pound of body weight as
suggested by many mainstream bodybuilding magazines. Some need less, while
others need more.
Be willing to perform the
diligence of learning about your body instead of blindly assuming
what works for the latest bodybuilding expert will automatically
work for you.
“Try starting with less protein at first, and then write a meticulous food journal for a
period of three to six months to nail down the optimal amount of protein
intake for you.”
Naturally, you will need to
adjust your intake of protein as your fitness goals change as well.
TIP 2: Get enough quality calories.
Eating only plants all day every day won’t cut it; you need calorie-dense
foods, as well. If you want to build
muscle, it doesn’t matter if you’re a vegetarian or meat-eater, you have to eat
like a horse.
Ask any bodybuilder who’s
trying to pack on mass. They will tell you that most of the time they eat until
they’re full, and continue eating slightly beyond that point
until it’s mildly uncomfortable.
TIP 3: Train hard! And be mindful of what
your body is telling you. No book or magazine article can tell you what’s the
best method of training, but your body can if you learn how to listen.
“Most of us require dynamic
change in routine/exercises to stimulate the body for growth, while others
respond better to slow and steady methods.”
I can’t tell you what will work
for you. But I know of a process that will guide you there. Start with one credible strategy,
remain consistent, and journal about your experience. Then allow enough time
for change to take place without interrupting the process with the next cool
thing you read in a magazine. Eventually you will discover the right path for
you.
And even that path may change
over time. The main thing is to get dialed-in to what your body is telling
you. Meditation and mindfulness practices
will fine-tune this ability.
Samantha Shorkey,
first-ever vegan WNBF bikini pro and founder of the Jacked On The
Beanstalk blog:
TIP 1: Not to go down the annoying,
“where do vegans get their protein from” path, but vegan
or not, I can’t stress the importance of getting enough protein in your diet.
Truth is, if your body can’t
find enough to sustain itself, it takes it from your muscles, not your body fat.
“And if you don’t give your
body enough protein, it will actually cannibalize its own tissue to get what it
needs.”
TIP 2: Don’t consider nuts a main source
of your protein. Yes, there is some protein in nuts, seeds, and nut butter.
And yes, they’re good for the
heart and nutritious, but they’re also super high in calories,
and a caloric surplus = fat storage. So consume them sparingly unless you want
a layer of flab covering your hard-earned, plant-built muscles.
TIP 3: Just because you’re vegan doesn’t
mean you can eat as much fruit as you want, either. Fruits are still carbs,
which get used as your body’s main source of fuel, and yes, they are essential
for providing energy and mental clarity.
But all carbs get broken down
into glucose (sugar) and is either used immediately for energy, stored as
glycogen in the liver and muscles (for easy access), or turned into fat for
longer-term storage.
Eating too much fruit (like any carb source) will overload
your system with energy it cannot use, and in turn, make you fat. So make sure
to eat fruit earlier in the day or before your workouts to ensure you can burn
them off.
Fraser Bayley,
co-founder of Plant Strong Fitness:
TIP 1: Consume enough calories from
predominantly whole foods.
Very often when switching to a plant-based diet or someone struggling to build
muscle, people grossly underestimate how much more food
they potentially need.
Make sure your total caloric
intake is high.
Muscle will grow in an
environment with a caloric surplus of predominantly whole foods, and you need to
take into account how active you are with that, too.
If your energy expenditure is
high, you will need
more total calories to maintain a caloric surplus – which is the perfect
anabolic environment for muscle growth.
It doesn’t mean add more
protein necessarily; sometimes, you need to add more plant based fats and carbohydrates, which
is usually the
case.
TIP 2: Make sure you intentionally have
some diversity in your eating regiment. Nothing says poor results like
one-dimensional food choices.
If you want to maximize your amino acid profile uptake, maximize your
phytonutrient/mineral/vitamin balances, which all assist the body in optimizing
hormonal function, and in turn, help the body maximize how it uses nutrition.
Then get a bit more diverse!
Add in chickpea-based meals, quinoa-based meals, rice-and-bean-based meals,
etc. Use other variants of foods like tempeh, tofu, hemp seed, and a range of
fruits and veg. Combine different nuts and seeds and mix them through a couple
of staple recipes.
You don’t have to cook up 1000
different meal options, but you do want to add a colorful, diverse range of
nutrition to each meal to really cover all your bases for maximal muscle
growth.
TIP 3: Pay close attention to your own
biofeedback. What I mean by this is that the kinds of foods you eat, the size
of the meals, and when you eat them all have a variety of effects on your own
unique physiology.
For example, if I personally
eat too late in the day or my meals are too large, it can impact my sleep patterns,
leaving me feeling very unrested and under-recovered.
This then slows my recovery from training the next day and
affects my performance in the gym, which affects the nervous system and
anabolic response for muscle growth in a negative way. Not ideal.
So play around with your meal
timing; see what foods add energy and which ones leave you feeling bloated or
tired. It could be as simple as removing a certain kind of bean and using
chickpeas or sweet peas instead.
“All these little cues and
signals the body sends us are so important in figuring out what foods/portions
and timing we thrive on most. This creates a positive
hormonal environment for muscle growth, fat loss, and recovery.”
Marzia Prince, IFBB
Pro, former Ms. Bikini Universe, and founder of The Healthinista Blog:
TIP 1: It is often the main topic of
conversation for many people that vegetarians and vegans “don’t get enough protein” on a
plant-based diet. But that couldn’t be further from
the truth.
“According to the World
Health Organization and the American Dietetic Association, a vegan or vegetarian on a well-planned balanced diet has no
trouble meeting their protein requirements.”
And if you really think about
it, how many people do you know with a protein deficiency?
I know that I have never met
anyone that was ever deficient in protein.
In bodybuilding and fitness
world, the standard amount of protein is one gram per pound of bodyweight. You
need to divide that number up according to how many meals you are eating a day.
Taking in the proper nutrients
every two to three hours ensures that your muscles will always be fueled and
nourished, providing the best opportunity for growth and achieving desired
results. Remember not to exceed too much protein per meal. Your body can only
assimilate what it needs at that time.
Like any of the macronutrients,
if you eat too much, it will store as fat. So be careful on your macro
portions. My favorite plant-based protein sources are vegetables
(especially leafy greens), beans and rice, quinoa, amaranth, and plant protein
shakes.
TIP 2: Besides proper plant-based nutrition, you need to have a
consistent workout routine that incorporates weights. I train with weights five
to six days a week at the gym to build lean muscle and feel strong.
Since I don’t compete anymore,
I use the winter for my off-season and I eat more calories while I train, and I
treat the summer as my stage and eat cleaner plant-based foods and less cheat
meals to look leaner in a bikini. I play with my macros. Trial and error is the
best way till you find what works for you. Progress pictures don’t lie!
TIP 3: Water! To this day, I still train
clients who don’t drink enough water, and it blows me away they are even still
alive. I had this client tell me she drinks two cups a water a day and then
gripes about why she can’t lose fat and make gains.
Dehydration occurs when the
amount of water leaving the body is greater than the amount being taken in.
The body naturally loses water
through breathing, sweating, and using the restroom.
You have to replenish the body
with a significant amount of water to make up for this loss. Our bodies are
about two-thirds water, so that means every cell in your body needs water from
head to toe.
Being 2 percent dehydrated for
your body can have serious mental and physical functions. Being 15 to 20 percent
dehydrated is lethal. Dehydration will reduce a person’s protein synthesis,
which is required for building and repair.
That is why being hydrated is
very important to fitness and fat loss. Chug it. I always
suggest to my clients to aim for a gallon a day.
It’s Time to Get into
Action
The well-informed suggestions
by these experts will help build a solid foundation in vegetarian bodybuilding and plant-based fitness. Each expert
clearly expressed a unique voice, experience, and path, and
yet you can sense congruency within our collective experience.
“This is true in life,
there can be different paths to the same destination. Now it’s time to discover
your path.”
The collective community
presented here are more than willing to help you on your journey to
healthier bodybuilding. I encourage you to visit
their respective websites and VegetarianBodybuilding.com on a
regular basis.
Most importantly, do something
right now/today to keep the momentum going!
For more ideas on how to build lean muscle on a vegan bodybuilding diet,
watch this video - EATING FOR LEAN VEGAN MUSCLE | FULL DAY
OF TASTY MEALS
Author
Bio:
Chris
Willitts (creator of V3), is the founder and owner of Vegetarian Bodybuilding.
V3 Vegetarian Bodybuilding System is a
mixture of science and author’s advice, providing users with
optimal diet and exercise. This system is designed for vegans and vegetarians
only.
A
lot of research has been put in this program. Furthermore, a lot of
professional bodybuilders and athletes tried and tested the program, praising its
progressiveness and efficiency.
The
program is about taking control of your own body and health according to your
potential and needs. And worry not; you’ll get plenty of proteins with this
system. It will boost you with energy, and you’ll feel just a strong as any
carnivore would (perhaps even stronger, depending on how much you invest in
your exercise). It avoids vitamins deficiency and provides you with a lot of
proteins, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
Instead
of saying things like “I think a plant-based diet is good for athletes and
bodybuilders,” the V3 Vegetarian Bodybuilding System claims “I know a
plant-based diet is good for athletes and bodybuilders, and I have results to
prove it.”
To
find out more, visit the website at V3 Bodybuilding – How to Build Lean Muscle on a Vegan
Bodybuilding Diet
