Friday, September 14, 2012

Will a Vegan Diet Work with a Fitness Workout Plan?

I use animal products in my diet when I'm working out (which is all the time). I use everything – beef, fish, chicken, milk, cheese, so when someone asks me about gaining muscle mass on a vegan diet, I have to stop and think.

In the bodybuilding community, there aren't a whole lot of vegans. Even Bruce Lee famously drank milk when he wanted to add muscle mass, even though he was usually against dairy products. So is it possible?

There's still a lot of protein you can get out of a vegan diet, a lot of it coming from nuts, beans, soy, and lentils. The problem isn't really the protein though, it's the vitamin B-12 loss you get from eating a diet with no animal products. Vitamin B-12, as many of you know, only comes from animal products, so it's going to lead to a deficiency eventually if you cut it out of your diet completely. The answer of course is to supplement with B-12, but even then you have to think about what goes into the pills.

Your best bet is to use a brewers yeast supplement and add that to your regular diet, and make sure you're stacking plenty of protein and carbs as well.

0 comments:

Post a Comment