Vegan help

[italiandivastar]

what are some meal plan options for a vegan? i want to make sure i get enough protein to still build muscle and also lose fat. i bought soy protein mix today too aswell!

[halcyonnwar]

what are some meal plan options for a vegan? i want to make sure i get enough protein to still build muscle and also lose fat. i bought soy protein mix today too aswell!

I feel sad saying this sort of, but I was a vegan for four years, (vegetarian for 8 before that) and recently went back to vegetarianism. I had been training hard and eating within a set amount of calories and macros and found I was eating a lot of soy (which I don't think is very conducive to fat loss) and a lot of processed faux meat products. This isn't to say you can't do it vegan, but I didn't become a vegan to eat a lot of processed food, especially a lot of low-quality soy.

So, because I wanted to build muscle/lose fat (not at the same time, yeah, except for my newbie gains) I added back in dairy and eggs. I lean heavily on these now, and it's been great. I have definitely been getting stronger faster (the weights are going up in the gym at a better rate--might be because of other factors) and my fat loss has sped up substantially.

If you're going to stay vegan, and get serious, I would try getting a protein powder that's not soy-- if you eat a lot of soy anyway. You're going to have to lean on protein powder a little bit more because it is hard to find other protein sources in the vegan diet, at least for me, that weren't really carb heavy or really processed.

[lobsteriffic]

what are some meal plan options for a vegan? i want to make sure i get enough protein to still build muscle and also lose fat. i bought soy protein mix today too aswell!

I don't like to use too much soy so I use brown rice protein powder. There are a lot of options out there though, including pea protein, hemp, etc.

You should check out http://www.veganbodybuilding.com - there are some articles there that might help you. Robert Cheeke (that's his site) is a vegan bodybuilder, and he recently just competed on stage with a raw vegan.

[Bigbrowns313]

Hey there! I started this bb journey 4/17/09 and wanted to do it 100% vegan and really had a difficult time deciding what to do. Sometimes vegans have this misconception (not to say you do) that they are soo healthy and this and that and when you look at their diet it is full of processed "faux" meat, products with names you cant pronounce, and loads of complex carbs.

I went from following a dominantly raw vegan diet to eating eggbeaters twice a day and 6oz of tuna. I really had a hard time adapting to it at first, but now it is like second nature. I was under the impression that bb would be easy being vegan, but in reality it was extremely stressful to me to figure out my macros and not eat complex carbs other than after a workout. I would highly suggest adding eggs and fish back into your diet if you want to see quicker results. My strength has sky rocketed ( I also take Syntha 6 which contains egg and milk proteins). I cannot get over the dairy barrier in my mind and refuse to eat 'meat.'

These are only MY suggestions.

Check out this forum http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=112959701 and pay close attention to RDFINDERS (her display name) she really knows her sh** on veganism. I hope this helps you out. Always feel free to contact me when you need anything :)

[italiandivastar]

thanks guys! yeah its gunna be so hard idk if i can do vegan....but i def am gunna stop eating fish n chicken n beef

[lobsteriffic]

thanks guys! yeah its gunna be so hard idk if i can do vegan....but i def am gunna stop eating fish n chicken n beef

If you want some info on vegetarian bb instead of vegan, Steve Holt has a website. He's a pretty helpful guy:

http://thevegetarianbodybuilder.com/