Want to Get Buff While Eating Vegan? Use This Vegan Power Guide
If you want to thrive as a vegan fitness buff, you may need to tweak what you eat here and there—but you won’t need to tweak what you do in the gym. It’s completely possible to become bigger, stronger, faster, and leaner while eating vegan. 🏋️🌱 Time to read our vegan power guide, hit the fridge, and smash some weights! 💪
Set Your Goals
Before you get into any eating or workout routine, ask yourself what you’re tryna achieve. 🤔 Do you want to gain muscle? Are you hoping to build endurance and keep your heart healthy? How many days per week do you want to work out? Once you answer some of these basic questions, you’ll have concrete goals to work toward and keep you motivated. 😊
The Right Nutrition Plan
With any type of body transformation, what you eat is fr half the battle. Here are some things to keep in mind:
1. If you want to get big and strong, eat a lot. 😋
2. If you want to shed some lbs, eliminate junk food. 🙅♀️
3. If you’re lifting, keep protein-dense foods handy—and don’t be afraid of carbs. 💁
Most workout programs have a suggested nutrition plan. You can use online calculators to help you get a good understanding of what your body may need.
Modify Your Meal Plan
Does the workout meal plan you’re looking at include meat, eggs, dairy, or other animal-derived foods? 😒 Don’t worry—you can make some easy tweaks to get the show on the road:
- Instead of whey-based (whey = milk) protein powder, go with a vegan protein powder like Orgain Organic Protein, Vega Sport Premium, or fitppl Plant Protein.
- Instead of meat-based recipes, go with vegan “meat” options. Most vegan meats are loaded with protein and absolutely slap. 😍 Get creative in the kitchen and try to hit your macros.
- Instead of egg- or dairy-based protein, go with tasty vegan protein sources like beans, nuts, seeds, peas, and whole wheat products. Three of the most popular muscle-building foods—sweet potatoes, oats, and brown rice—are already vegan.
Follow the Right Exercise Program
This is important af: If you’re not sure what you’re doing, don’t just go to the gym (or basement) and try to figure it out. 😵 Your time is valuable, and not seeing results can be a big letdown. ☹️ For tested and effective workouts, check out these sites.
- B.U.F.F. Dudes: The B.U.F.F. (Better Understanding of Food & Fitness) Dudes are smart and hilarious—and they look great. Along with great protein-packed recipes, they share tons of workouts that you can do at the gym or at home. If you follow their recipes, just make sure to swap out any animal-derived ingredients with some of the vegan options from the third site on this list.
- Bodybuilding.com: No matter if you want to get toned, bulk up, or lose fat, there’s a workout plan for you at Bodybuilding.com. Stick with the eight-to-12-week programs and you’ll be making great progress toward your goals.
- Vegan Strong: This team of athletes, coaches, nutritionists, and authors helps people get healthy and strong while eating vegan. Check out the site’s meal plans, tips, info, and workouts with video demonstrations.
Quality, Not Quantity
This philosophy applies to every part of your health journey. The websites mentioned above have video tutorials on how to do many of the exercises in their programs with proper form. Trust us—you don’t wanna sacrifice form for more repetitions. This practice can lead to a less effective workout or, worse yet, serious injury. 😶 Until you get the moves down, be sure to practice, watch yourself in the mirror, and use less weight.
Here are two things to remember when it comes to food:
1. Don’t go overboard when you’re trying to bulk up—eating 85 vegan cookies in one sitting will def leave you feeling less healthy. 🤢
2. On the other hand, just because a banana or an apple is nutritious doesn’t mean you should eat nothing but fruit. The healthiest diet is a varied one filled with fruits, veggies, grains, legumes, nuts, and other delicious vegan staples. 🍎🥕🌾🥜
Inspiration
Want to be inspired by a few people who’ve reached great heights while eating vegan? Then google these names:
- Vegan strongman Patrik Baboumian
- Founder of Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness Robert Cheeke
- UFC and mixed martial artist Mac Danzig
- National Women’s Soccer League team striker Alex Morgan
- Activist and former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick
These people remind us that you can thrive as a vegan fitness buff. 😤
Stick to Your Guns and Be Realistic
Here’s a hard pill to swallow: Your first week back (or first week ever) working out is going to suck. 😫 Your joints, ligaments, muscles, and mind have to get used to this new, awesome thing you’re doing. Just remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day. With consistency, intensity, and focus, you’ll make progress and things will get way less sucky. 😉
Take Your Vitamins
With all the energy you’re using, you should be rewarding your body with multivitamins. Some pills are coated in gelatin (animal bones and ligaments), 😨 but don’t sweat it—there are plenty of vegan vitamins out there, like Carlson Super 1 Daily and Together Health Women’s Multi.
Get Your Supplements
You can get vegan supplements to fit nearly every need. 😁 Do some research to find out what you think will benefit you. Here are a few of the most effective products.
- Pre-workout: Try a pre-workout powder 20 to 30 minutes before lifting. Go with Vega Sport Premium Pre-Workout Energizer for an awesome natural approach. You can also use a creatine supplement minutes before your routine.
- During workout: Try adding Puretive Botanics’ Pure Spirulina throughout your workout. The protein and amino acid mixture helps you build immunity and boost energy levels.
- Post-workout: Grab a tasty protein shake five to 20 minutes after lifting.
Don’t Let the Meatheads Drag You Down
There are always going to be critics and “experts” who say eating vegan won’t give you enough protein or help you build muscle. 🙄 You can clap back with this one-two punch:
1. It’s 100% possible to reach your fitness goals while eating vegan (as the inspirational folks listed earlier prove).
2. You choose to be vegan for animals. 🐖🐄🐔 No one needs to be killed or exploited in the meat, egg, or dairy industries for you to gain muscle. Being vegan is all about compassion—the health benefits are just a huge bonus! ❤️
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Ditching meat, eggs, and dairy is compassionate and great for your health—so why is the U.S. gov supporting these cruel industries with billions of dollars every year? Read our blog about this situation to learn about how you can help make a change.
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