Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Hi all,

My current diet consists of black beans & nuts for meal 1, green smoothie for meal 2, lentils & vegetables for meal 3, and another green smoothie for meal 4




I believed my diet was healthy but according to the RDA I am fat deficient. Do you guys trust the RDA for the amount of fat we need?

IMO, yes you are. I once read a thread at intensemuscle.com which is a highly respected site, that said for gaining muscle shoot for about .5 x bodyweight. I usually eat around that much fat anyways and found it to be a very accurate calculation.

10% of fat is just enough, you are consuming more than you need.

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You're going to find a variety of responses but for me personally, I know I do better with more fat than that.

This is pretty much the answer. Most people will do fine in a whole range of fat intakes, so all that matters is that you are getting a good omega-3 to omega-6 balance and that you are getting as much fat as YOU want to get....

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To me, that's far too low of fat

As people have mentioned... everyone is different! The World Health Organization recommends a diet that provides at least 15% of it's calories from fat, so you are just shy of that. However if you are female 20% recommended at the minimum.

Add 2Tbs of ground flaxseeds to your yoghurt to make sure you are getting enough Omega 3 fats and make sure you vary your nut intake (i.e. different types of nuts as each contain different fat profiles, walnuts are the best source of Omega 3). Also overall variety in your diet could be looked at. Different protein sources have different amino acids, so again mix up the types of beans/legumes you use (chick-peas, lentils, butter beans, black-beans, kidney beans, soy beans etc).

Make sure your yoghurt has added calcium also and you're taking a B12 supp since you don't seem to be eating fortified foods

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