What is a vegan bodybuilding diet?

 What is a vegan bodybuilding diet?

Bodybuilders strive to develop their musculature through intensive resistance training for aesthetic purposes.

Nutrition plays a key role in the process of muscular development. It’s generally accepted that for optimal muscle growth to occur, protein intake should be rather high at around 0.7–1.0 grams per pound (1.6–2.2 grams per kg) of body weight per day (1Trusted Source).

A calorie surplus of 10–20% is also beneficial for gaining muscle mass, especially for those who are not brand new to training (1Trusted Source).

Traditional bodybuilding diets include a lot of animal source foods due to their high protein and calorie content.

The vegan bodybuilding diet is devoid of all animal products and higher in protein than traditional vegan diets (2Trusted Source).

This presents a challenge for bodybuilders following a vegan diet, as plant-based proteins tend to be of lower quality than their animal-based counterparts, which can affect muscle gain (3Trusted Source, 4Trusted Source).

Therefore, it takes careful planning to ensure sufficient intake of protein, calories, and several micronutrients that a vegan diet may lack.

The vegan bodybuilding diet also changes during different stages of a bodybuilder’s life, such as whether they’re in their off-season or undergoing contest preparation, when fat loss is common.

SUMMARY

The vegan bodybuilding diet is high in fruits, vegetables, and plant-based protein. It excludes all animal-based products and is usually higher in protein than a traditional vegan diet.

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How to implement the diet

While implementing a vegan diet may seem quite simple, it takes a good deal of planning to ensure you’re eating complete meals.

The vegan bodybuilding diet includes several staple foods on which many of the meals are based.

To start the vegan bodybuilding diet, it’s beneficial to plan out 5–7 days of meals to ensure you have all of the ingredients, as many vegan recipes require several items.

If you’re transitioning from a traditional diet, it may help to slowly incorporate more vegan foods into your regular diet before fully switching over.

Fill up on high protein plant foods

When following a vegan bodybuilding diet, it’s important to get enough protein to aid your muscle-building goals.

Considering that many vegan protein sources usually do not contain all of the essential amino acids, higher amounts and a wider variety of these foods need to be eaten to regularly meet your needs.

Filling up on high protein vegan foods, such as seitan, tofu, legumes, and quinoa, can help you meet your protein needs to maximize muscle gain.

Vegan protein powders can also help you meet your protein needs by providing concentrated sources of protein surrounding workouts and throughout the day.

Make sure to eat enough fat

By consuming sufficient amounts of fat, you obtain the calories needed to promote muscle gain, as fat provides twice the number of calories as carbs and protein per gram.

The general recommendation for fat intake for off-season bodybuilders is 0.5 grams per pound (1 gram per kg) of body weight daily (1Trusted Source).

This equates to around 80 grams of fat per day for a male bodybuilder weighing 175 pounds (80 kg).

When embarking on a vegan bodybuilding diet, it may help to track your intake of macronutrients — protein, carbs, and fat — for the first few weeks to ensure you’re meeting your needs.

Drink plenty of fluids

Given that a vegan bodybuilding diet tends to be high in fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes, fiber intake can become quite high.

When you significantly increase your fiber intake, certain side effects can arise, such as bloating, excessive flatulence, and abdominal pain (5).

Drinking enough water is one way to help prevent complications from a high fiber vegan diet. A minimum of 1 ml of fluid per calorie is a good place to start (6Trusted Source).

For example, if you’re eating a 2,000-calorie diet, aim for 2,000 ml (68 ounces) of fluids. Still, keep in mind that your water needs may vary, especially when you’re exercising.

Educate yourself

Education plays an important role in following a vegan diet and can set apart a successful diet from an unsuccessful one.

Given that the vegan diet prohibits the intake of several food groups, it puts followers at risk of certain nutrient deficiencies.

To prevent these, it’s crucial to know which foods provide the key nutrients the diet may otherwise lack.

Fortunately, with the rise in popularity of the vegan diet, educational resources have been created that can lead you in the right direction.