Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Howdy all,

Just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Eric, 44 year old health crucader in So-Cal. Went Vegan after seeing the movies Forks over Knifes, Food inc, idiot cycle and all the rest of them. Had a bad health scare in 2009 from colitas and digestive issues that I link to GMOs and built up toxins from a lifelong SAD diet. It was crippling not to be able to eat anything without stomach pain and nausia. My diet was full of meats, dairy, sugars and processed food... YuCk! Started to eat clean after the hospitol but still had health problems. I turned Vegitarian in 2011 and health got better. Then finally Vegan now for 8 months... Health and stomache issues are almost all gone and I feel great! Will never go back to flesh, dairy, toxins and GMOs ever again.

Dropped 40lbs of blubber fast after going Vegan and went from 170lbs- 36 inch waist to 128lbs- 29 inch waste. But now I'm skinny with saggy abdominal skin and zero muscle. I was big into weights in my 20s and followed all the Weider mag routines and diets. I could bench 225 and squat 335 back then... Now at 44 I'm trying to gain back some muscle and strength like I had in my youth but its all gone. I can't hardly bench 105 now and squat 135. arms are 11 inches. ouch! How can I be so incredibly weak? 3 push ups and thats it!? Being a small boned ectomorph body type, putting muscle on is almost imposible now. I work out like I'm training for the Mr. Olympia but have seen almost Zero gains after months of killing it at the gym. So I'm fustrated to no end. I workout 5 times a week and split my bodyparts like this...

Day 1- chest / abs /30 min cardio
Day 2 - back / abs / 30 min cardio
Day 3 - shoulders / abs/ 30 min cardio
Day 4 - Arms (Bi & Tri) /abs / 30 min cardio
Day 5 - Legs /abs/ 30 min cardio
Day 6 - rest
Day 7 rest

Meals - Workout
-----------------------
workout (9AM) fasted state, no food.
Breakfast - Sun Warrior shake with blue berries, banana (after workout)
Lunch - noon - black beans in a bowl, huge salad (1,000 calories)
dinner - burrito with brown rice, beans, veggies - 1,0000 cals - 5pm

I tend to hold fat in my low back, stomach and thighs and when I increase cals, thats where it starts to store again. makes me look skinny-fat... tiny ripped arms and a big fat pear ass and gut. gross!

So I'm here to try to put on muscile and keep my healthy Vegan lifesytle alive and well.

Hello Eric, welcome to the community! Sounds like you are in the right place. I would suggest starting a training journal in that section of the forum. Record what you eat and what you do each time you workout. I would also suggest picking the brains of others. You will get the best feedback by posting questions on others threads directly.

-Dylan

hey Eric, any relation to chuck? was just wondering if you would have more strength when your training if you did it later in the day after a few meals? or at least had one good carb rich meal an hour or so before training in the morning? i would maybe try and get some more calories in too, clean ones of course fruits etc....

glad the health issues are clearing up for!


mike

_________________
"iam the strongest one! iam the viking!" - jon pall sigmarsson
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Gandhi

Thanks for the welcome everyone, good to be here.

You mean brother Chuck in Nor-Cal?! I wish... Then I could get into UFCs for free. I'm a HUGE UFC fan and use to throw UFC PPV parties all the time.
Good point about eating before my workout. Maybe oatmeal an hour before I hit the gym might help. I'll give it a shot and I'll get on starting a workout/food journal too. Great advice.


Eric

haha yeh thats the guy i was talking about, hes a legend i saw him in a martial arts show here in the uk about 6 years ago i think it was........it was around the time he was destroying every one in hte ufc!

yeh oatmeal would be good maybe a bit of fruit if you can fit it in too!

good luck, ill follow your training log if you make one!


mike

_________________
"iam the strongest one! iam the viking!" - jon pall sigmarsson
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Gandhi