Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Conversation b/t me and my friend Ty:

Me: If I'm trying to eat 1200 calories a day, is it wrong if four hundred and fifty of them come from chocolate?

Ty: In so many ways....

Vegan Chocolate is my vice.

Anyways, I'm trying to put together some hearty low cal meals and was looking for suggestions.

On another note I am trying to give up eating bread, pasta, processed soy, and sugar...

Not morally wrong but I'd hesitate to endorse it if you're trying to lose fat and maintain muscle.

Why 1200? That's pretty low!

going that low is borderline dangerous. and having that many from chocolate, yes could cause some serious crashing

I'd cut out processed sugar first, then bleached flour. Keep eating carbs like oatmeal since they are complex. And whats wrong with pasta? It never hurt anyone.

Dangerous?

I don't think it's dangerous but if your goal is to lose weight, it's low calorie enough that you may lower metabolism resulting in the long term in a net gain in weight.

What's wrong with pasta is it's a processed food that is highly concentrated in calories. I'd avoid it, if trying to lose weight.

Good point Jay about the calories. For me though I'll have pasta, if i've got some.

From what I have learned 1200 calories is as low as you should go to be safe. Any lower than that is where you enter the danger zone, ie slowing your metabolism etc. but 1200 is supposed to be ok. And I'm not really eating 450 from chocolate hehe. Jay is right about the pasta, it's concentrated calories. I want to stick with the unprocessed whole grains. I also want to keep my vegetable consumption high. I don't count them towards the calories. I aiming to increase the amount of raw foods I eat and ease out the junk. And have enough of a calorie deficit to to lose some pounds. I'm just bad at the planning part.

getting 450 calories from chocolate on such a calorie reduced diet would not be good at all. with just 1200 cal to play with you want to be eating a wide variety of food in order to make sure that you get all your nutrients. im afraid chocolate cannot be part of that diet.

jonathan

What? No chocolate? *Throwing myself on the floor dramatically*

I know I was just joking about the chocolate, I'm focusing on high nutrient foods.

Instead of plain soy milk, have chocolate soy milk.

Way more calories and TONS of sugar! Better off with real chocolate.

I thought it's easy to go low kcal. on vegan diet?

Just eat lots of veggies, salad, fruits. Add whole grains, few nuts, legumes, et voila

When you plan your diet, vary the total amount of calories per day by +/- 20-30%. So one day you'd eat only 1'000, next day 1'200, next 1'400 and so on. Average per week is 1'200.

Also i'd recommend a "refeed day", a day where you're allowed to eat "forbidden" foods and more calories. This helps mentally as well as preventing your metabolism to switch into hibernation mode.

Hope this helps a little,
good luck on your effort,
love and peace,
Daywalker

Thanks for the tips Alex, I will try to incorporate them.