Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

I've recently started working out and really want to bulk up and gaining weight. I've been an athlete my whole life and have been pretty lean my whole life. I'm 6'4" and weigh only 155 pounds. It's not just since I've become vegan, but I've been this way my whole life (tall and skinny). I hate it, and really want to bulk up. What are the best ways to do this? And I was also wondering what a good workout schedule would be, and how often I should rest. I also am wondering if all the cardio workout from sports has been keeping me from gaining weight.

From what you are saying, it sounds like you are an ectomorph (skinny, hard to gain weight). What you need to first do is count your calories and make sure that you do not burn more than you consume. Start on a diet that is 40% carbs, 40 % protein, and 20% fat. As for workouts, workout 5 to 6 days a week if possible. If you havent worked out before, do three days with exercises for the entire body and keep the sets at about 1 to 2 and reps from anywhere from 10 to 16. Do this for about 3 weeks as this will be a foundational period. If you have anymore questions or need me to clarify on a couple of things, feel free to ask.

How do you figure the 40%carbs 40% protein and 20% fats into you're diet? Also how do you find out how many calories you're burning in a day?

Ozwald, to find out how many calories you burn in a day, you would need a chart listing different activities at different intensity levels. You can easily find how many calories you burn via the monitor on the cardio machines. They may not be exactly accurate however.

There is a way to find out how many calories you burn in a day while at rest (which is lying down but not sleeping, just relaxed). It is called the Basal Metabolic Rate (better known as BMR). If you can provide me with your bodyweight and bodyfat percentage, I can do it for you and explain it.


To figure out 40-40-20 into your diet, basically you find a certain caloric amount that you need. I would need your body fat to make a specific diet as well as your height for a Body Mass Index (which tells you if you are overweight or not). I will need to calculate your BMR in order to find out how many calories in total you need per day.

If something didnt make sense or you have more questions, feel free to ask.

http://www.fitday.com is a food diary program. It's really handy--you enter in the foods you eat and it keeps track of total calories, % carbs/protein/fat. I bought the computer program which has more features, but the free online version is pretty good as well.[/url]

This is a good program I use to track my calories.

http://www.calorieking.com/software/

For a hardgainer I'd suggest reading a book by Stuart McRobert. He has a book called Hard Gainer that I think is absolutely brillaint, and another called Beyond Brawn (although I haven't read that book). Also check out

www.hardgainer.com

The site enable you to ask specific questiosn, and I believe this guy to be one of the best in his field regarding the hard gainer. Not sure on his views on vegans though (he may mimic the thoughts and actions of others in the bodybuilding industry-but he IS STILL brilliant regardless)

Cheers

Charmaine

It's hard for me to gain weight too. I've been working out for about 6 months and gained 25lbs, but it's been a long journey. Simply, eat a lot. I eat all day long, from early morning to late night.

I find that eating a loaf of ezekiel bread, a package of soy dogs, three protein shakes/smoothies and a box of cereal usually does me right. Don't forget to eat fruits and veggies though! I work at a grocery store so whenever I'm hungry I just grab an apple or a banana and eat eat eat.

ozwald, i was in a very similar position to you when i first started training.
i am 6 foot 7.5 and then i weighed 168lbs.
i innitially took up a bodybuilding type routine where i was training every day, which had some success. i gained 15lb in the first 4months and some considerable strength.
i have now been training for 22months and weigh 230lb. i have been having remarkable success with heavy power building exercises since the beginning of the year.
i would recommend as regards your diet that you just make sure that you eat enough. provided that you supplement a little with protein (though this may not even be necessary if you eat alot of nuts/tofu/tvp etc) and make sure you eat over 4000calories (5000 would be ideal though you will have to work up to that!) the weight will pile on.

as regards exercises, dont do the isolation stuff until you have gained a good power base (isolating small muscles at the start will result in injuries). good exercises to do include incline and flat bench, pullups, bent over rows, deadlifts, stiff legged deadlifts, squats, calf raises, shoulder press, power cleans and front squats. your stomach will become much stronger with all the deadlifts and squats.
you will make good progress with the above exercises, which i would stick with until you reach a size where you are happy with. then stick the isolation exercises in to define yourself if you wish.

good luck

jonathan

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Squat
Press
Eat
Repeat

Hey, I used to be really skinny too (and was skinny for most of my life), but I've gained over 40 pounds in the past year and half, from eating big and lifting weights almost every day.

As far as eating goes - I eat lots of nuts, oatmeal, and cereals. These things are loaded with calories, and you can get several thousand carolies a day from this stuff easily. I also drink lots of fruit juice (especially citrus like grapefruit and orange) - a carton of fruit juice often has a lot of calories too, usually about 1000 in the cartons I get.

Just start eating big and push yourself with weights at the gym and you'll be big in no time

All of that will help a lot. Thanks guys.