Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Hey everyone. The name's Magnus and I live in Sweden. I'm 30 years old and I've been a vegan for exactly one week now.

I wish this introduction of mine could've been a lot more upbeat and inspiring but the truth is I'm not doing very well with this change to a more healthier way of eating and living.

At first I was doing okay. The second day I was spending a lot of time in the bathroom though. I thought the cause of me having to run there every 30 minutes was the whole detoxing thing. However as of three days I'm constantly burping and farting and these last two days I've had diarrhea. My stomach is constantly rumbling and I have no appetite whatsoever. This is EXTREMELY frustrating for two main reasons. Firstly I'm a food loving guy like who has never had any problem with food or stomach aches before in his life. Secondly, my goal was to gain weight which I won't be doing at this point since I don't feel like eating anything. My stomach feels constantly swollen and I'm more sensitive to scents and tastes than before.

The funny thing is that I don't feel like I've been eating anything out of the ordinary at all.
I've been starting my days with a glass of lemon water. I read it's good because it helps your liver get rid of toxins.
Apart from that I've been eating; quinoa, brown rice, chick-peas, spinach, cabbage, tomatoes, black olives, almonds, walnuts, peanut butter, blueberries, raspberries, carrots, apples, pineapples, soy yogurt, and some soy protein powder and some hemp powder. I try to never overdo it with anything.

I would love to get to that point where I feel energized, healthy and stronger than ever which I've been reading that people experience when going vegan.
Right now I just feel non-stop queasy, bloated and depressed.

I know it's hard to give advice on what to do because every body is unique but any advice or stories about similar experiences when starting out as a vegan would be greatly appreciated.
Right now I just don't feel in control of my own body which is not a pleasant feeling at all and my training has been put on hold because of this.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

/Magnus

Welcome to the forum RR =)

When I started eating more fibers I had diarrhea for two weeks. I read that the reason was the `repopulation` of my bacterial flora, which wasn`t prepared to digest that kind of food(fiber rich foods).
About all the gas, thats something some friends of mine experience with soy.

One thing you could do is buy Brendan Brazier`s book and take a look, lots of useful nutrition advice there, and it`s quite cheap! http://www.amazon.com/Thrive-Nutrition- ... 0738212547

Good luck and congratulations on your choice!

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my noob log =)

Hi Magnus. Welcome.

When I switched, it took about 2-3 weeks for my body to adjust. Nothing like your symptoms tho.. I just felt more tired than usual. I went from vegetarian to vegan. I did get worried about it tho. I lost a couple pounds (3 only) and then leveled off. I've regained that since.

I think any major dietary shift throws your body out of whack for a bit... that is probably normal. Maybenot could be onto something about the increase fiber in your diet... if you did in fact increase that substantially. Your description almost sounds like food poisoning to me, tho to my knowledge, that usually comes from meat so I don't know. The foods you listed look like you are eating very healthy.

Hope those symptoms subside for you pretty quick.. doesn't sound like fun.

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If it's important to you, you'll find a way. If it isn't, you'll find an excuse.

Hey maybenot.

So how exactly did you survive having diarrhea for two weeks?
Was it non-stop for two weeks?
Were you doing any type of training during those two weeks, and how did you find the energy to do so?
And do you remember what you were eating at that point, and did you try to lower the fiber intake at all?

Hello Canada

Also interested in how you were able to go for that long without giving up, and were you training at the time?
Any daily caloric goals you needed to reach during the transition to veganism?
And I agree, at one point I thought about food poisoning but I really wasn't feverish or aching elsewhere. Only my stomach.
The only positive thing I have to mention is that I feel like I'm sleeping a bit better than before. I've never had any trouble with sleep before but it just feels slightly better now plus it doesn't take me as long to get out of bed in the morning as before.

Hi Magnus, welcome to the community here. Looks like you are already getting some good feedback. You sound ready to almost give up after only 1 week into it. The diarrhea must be really bad for you, sorry to hear that. You are right when you said everyone's bodies are different. Do some self experimentation try cutting soy from your diet like suggested maybe they will relieve the gas. Beans can make many people pretty gassy (soy and chickpeas included). Were you vegetarian before or did you go straight from eating red meat regularly to trying out vegan? Its good to ease into things, with any sort of dietary change if you make drastic changes abruptly your body is likely to have some sort of reaction.
Hang in there, once you get past the adjustment period and figuring out which foods your body doesn't react to well, things will get much better for you.

-Dylan