Can You Build Muscle on a Plant-Based Diet? The Truth About Vegan Gains vs. Meat-Eating
Can You Build Muscle on a Plant-Based Diet? The Truth About Vegan Gains vs Meat Eating.
This seems to be a pretty popular question in the vegan/plant based world. Especially for active gym goers who eat meat and are thinking about incorporating more of a plant based diet or becoming vegan altogether.
I'm sure the uncertainty of this question would be a major hesitation in ultimately making that shift, especially if it's been on your mind.
When I first went plant based back in 2012, I asked myself the same question. I was very into the gym and didn't want to lose all of the hard work I had put into gaining the muscle that I had. It had also been ingrained into my head that in order to build muscle you had to eat more meat, i.e.. protein. And back then there weren't a lot of resources I could turn to either.
But my health issues were becoming a major concern and I had to make a shift. I simply didn't know what I didn't know. So I did a lot of digging and a lot or research mixed in with a bunch of trial and error.
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There are two major factors that we need to consider here when building muscle on a plant based diet, and that is the amount of calories you're taking in, and how much protein you're consuming.
MINDING YOUR CALORIES!
A lot of plant based foods tend to be less calorically dense. That’s why you may notice that when someone switches over to a vegan diet (assuming they’re not eating junk vegan food) they tend to drop a lot of weight quickly.
Which is great when it comes to shedding body fat if that’s your goal…but not so great when it comes to putting on and maintaining muscle mass.
So one KEY ELEMENT here is to increase the amount of food you’re taking in, or rather incorporating more calorically dense food. And we want to make sure it’s clean, healthy, nutritious plant based foods. I’m not talking french fries or processed vegan meats (while I do love these from time to time).
While a cup or two of cooked broccoli will help fill you up and provide you with a bunch of vitamins and nutrients and even some protein, it won’t necessarily give you the amount of calories you truly need.
What IS essential are nutrient and calorically dense whole foods such as sweet potatoes, grains, quinoa, brown rice, nuts, seeds, avocados and legumes, etc. Adding these to your meals will easily increase the allotted calories you need to be in a caloric surplus.
Smoothies are also a great way of getting in those extra calories as well. When we’re eating a lot of extra food, it can actually become really difficult as we can get really full and it can become a bit uncomfortable. Drinking your food just makes this process a whole lot easier. And adding some nuts or seeds to your smoothie is a great way to add in some extra calories as well.
DON’T FORGET ABOUT YOUR PROTEIN!!!
This is actually a HUGE buzz word in the plant based/vegan world. I can’t even tell you how many times people have asked me, “But where do you get your protein?”
There are SO MANY plant foods out there that are loaded with protein. It’s just a matter of learning what they are and how much you should be consuming. My Go-Tos are Tofu, Quinoa, Oats, Chickpeas, Rice, Lentils and Potatoes.
DON’T FORGET ABOUT PLANT BASED PROTEIN AND REPLACEMENT MEALS
When trying to build more muscle, I would recommend a minimum of at least 1g of protein per 1lb of bodyweight per day. And if you’re not quite seeing the results you were anticipating or hoping for, start increasing your protein intake slightly. You don’t want to go overboard as having too much protein can actually be bad for you.
The average person just looking to be healthy only needs around half the amount recommended for those looking to build more muscle.
Another bonus with consuming plant based foods is that it’s a much cleaner source of getting in your calories and protein (go organic as much as possible). Plant foods are easier for your body to digest, so it ends up using less energy to process it all.
Most animal products (including dairy) come from factory farming. And what comes along with that is all of the toxic chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, etc. used in raising them. Let alone the horrible living conditions they endure and the major carbon emissions they contribute to the environment.
Your body will definitely thank you for the switch, even if it’s for just a few meals throughout the day and/or week. 😉
So in conclusion, you can ABSOLUTELY build just as much muscle eating a plant based diet as you can eating meat.
There will most likely be an adjustment period when you start trying to increase your calories and adding more protein dense foods into your diet. Don’t let that deter you or stress you out.
A helpful tip would be to track your calorie and protein intake for a few weeks while you get used to this change. A great free app for this is called Cronometer. I’ll leave a link for that in the description below.
Once you get a better sense of what that looks like on a daily basis, it gets a lot easier and you can kind of go off on your own from there. I personally found that constantly tracking calories in the long term can really take the joy out of enjoying food. But hey, everyone is different, you might enjoy it.
Logging your weight and taking before and after pics is a huge help to keep track of your progress as well. It’s hard to notice any changes when you see yourself on the daily. I would recommend waiting for at least 30 days before you take a progress picture and start to compare it to your before pic.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post and that it was helpful for you. I do my best to give as much value as possible.
I release a new blog post and youtube video each week, so don’t forget to join the community so you don’t miss out on any new material.
I also go live on my facebook page every Tuesday, going over the topic I released for the week. Just another way to get some information out there.
I would love to hear what kind of plant based/nutrition info you would be interested in hearing about. Feel free to send me a message or a quick hello on Social Media.
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