Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

I'm starting 3rd week vegan. Going vegetarian was super-easy for me but my adjustment to vegan is not going as smoothly. I don't miss any foods, but so far I am feeling tired all the time. Anyone else experience this at the start? If so, wondering what did you do to resolve?

True, I am eating less calories and losing a bit of weight, but I've been on weight-loss diets before and never felt tired from them and indeed felt pretty good while dieting. I have done some research and wondering if iodine supplementation might help..

After seeing an article (http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/protein#lys) that suggests how much lysine need and how much each food contains I'm now concerned about my protein intake.

Other than b12 I was NOT expecting to need supplements. But looking more into it, I'm worried I may need b12, calcium, iron, iodine, lysine, zinc, omega 3. And it appears it is not enough to just take these, but I'll need the right kinds and to make sure I'm not getting too much and not too little.

Is it really that complicated? Is there no quick multi that I can take? It is hard to imagine eating to be such a huge chore.

I think other than not eating much fruit, my diet is fairly healthy. (stirfrys, wraps, veggies, rice, beans, pasta, potatoes, nuts, soups, granola, x-milk, grapefruit juice). ie. pretty much same stuff I ate before just minus the cheese.

Tofu, mushrooms, kale or seaweed are a big bleh for me. But if you have any other suggestions or tweaks you think I can try, please reply. 'Specially if you had similar symptom of tiredness and were able to fix.

Thanks!\Tracie

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

Its not that complicated

Print this out Daily Recommendations for Vegan Adults.. It can be fit on one page. Print out enough to use one copy a day for two weeks as a checklist. Mark off each "to do" every day for the two weeks.

Checking it off will make sure you actually do each of those things instead of just thinking you are doing those things.......like actually writing entries in a checkbook versus thinking you aren't spending that much money.

Doing this for two weeks will teach you new habits to make sure your nutrition is properly rounded.

If you still feel tired after that, you have an issues that you will need an RD or an MD to help you with.

Make sure you get enough calories, sleep ( 8 hours at set, regular times ) and water ( minimum 2 quarts a day )

Good luck

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• Finding Reliable Vegan Nutrition Information

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I am feeling less exhausted this week so all is good. I've been having fun trying new foods and have a couple new favourite recipes.

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

Hi there.

I'm sure there are a lot of people here that can point out what to do with a vegan diet plan better than I can.

Though I found one thing.. It depends on how new a vegan you are.

I started a very good vegan diet (well it's an okay one) and I felt tired, aching and distracted though I found this cleared up after three weeks. I asked others (including my nutritionist) about it and was told that some if not a lot of people have a period of tiredness and even flatulance when turning to a vegan diet and can last for a few days to a few weeks. It's apparently totally normal and just your body rejigging itself to a new way of eating. If it persists, take a long, hard look at your diet and see what you're missing.

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"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard." - Tim Notke
"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." - Sir Winston Churchill

I was thinking something similar to what mythil wrote about.

For people who are eating very unhealthy before their change such feelings can be attributed to "toxic withdrawal". Which is basically your body coming off of the unhealthy sometimes addictive foods and going through withdrawal symptons, similar to a drug addict or alcoholic coming off their addictions.(but not to this extreme).

But it doesn't sound like you gave up that many foods from how you was previously eating to cause too much toxic withdrawal but you still may have been experiencing a mild amount of it. You mentioned giving up cheese, any other foods you quit?

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Just another little point, I totally forgot to address your B12 and so on.

I've always taken a multivit just in case, they don't replace a good diet but it doesn't hurt (no one has ever died from taking them).

As far as b12 goes, get soy milk or almond milk, most are fortified with B12 and other vitamins and so on. Have it with a fortified cerial in the mornings (according to my Doctor) this can account from anywhere between one third to half of your B12 and other vitamins ect.

Secondly, don't rely on plants to get your B12. Yes in "ye olden days" it was possible to get our B12 from plants. However the majority of soil used for growing veg for humans is a bit nutriant sparse (yes even organic soil, it wasn't always organic) these days and since a lot of places still treat vegetables it looses even more. Even animals bread for human consumption are given artificial vitamins to pass on to the people eating them.

The biggest problem you will face is that a lot of places selling generic food item X will have it adulterated and in a very base form lacking a lot of what you need. This sounds a bit worrying, but don't. Read the labels and make sure that things you're buying really have what you want in them (for example, don't just buy olive oil because of it's "good for you", a lot of olive oil is refined to the point that it isn't really good for you, however real olive oil is).

After a while you'll find out what items you will typically buy will be good for you. Look for items that are fortified with iron, B12 and so on and you'll find your shop and diet go a lot better

Also, if you don't like tofu, try Tempeh, it comes dry and easier and quicker to cook and prepair and if you add soy sauce it ends up tasting like.. something.. I think it tastes like cheese and my other half says chicken.

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"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard." - Tim Notke
"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." - Sir Winston Churchill

Thanks for the replies!

I only felt tired for a couple weeks and now I'm feeling better. Could not tell you if either of these is the reason (it may have just went away on its own) but the 2 thing I changed were:
1) I was taking a 'b complex' - I switched that for a specific sublingual b12.
2) Had a few 'green monsters' with flax and chia seeds
Again, I don't know if those had an effect, but I'm just throwing it out there in case anyone has same and wants to give it a try.

I really only gave up cheese.. I was already a soy milk convert and eggs have always kinda grossed me out (slimy or rubbery). Still I had cheese every day and I've seen several online articles or forum conversations mentioning dairy withdrawal symptoms which were very similar to what I went through (headache first week, and hard time sleeping and feeling tired for couple weeks after). I won't quote sources, since the url's were not necessarily 'professional' type sites so not sure of their validity - Still, it was interesting information to consider.

I would like to try tempeh and I think I read about seitan? which sounds intriguing too ... I'm not usually very adventurous when it comes to food, but this vegan thing is sure forcing me. lol. I don't mind tho .. I've promised to try everything 3 times before I consider omitting it. Even that kale I said I don't like.. I've been mixing a little into my smoothies or pasta.

Again, thanks for replying.

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

vitamin d fatigue(google search)

Vitamin D deficiency: a worldwide problem with health consequences

Vegan Vitamin D3 - Vitashine: http://www.vitashine-d3.com/ - These cost less.

USA Vegan Vitamin D3 - Based on Vitashine: http://www.ghthealth.com/vitamind3.aspx

To put it out there; the majority of the Vitamin D is produced on the trunk of the body and very little is produced on the face.

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On vacation.

Hmm, could be. Generally, the only month it is warm enough for me to wear shorts here is July. I was born in the wrong country for sure.

I do have vitamin D in the house and now that you mention it, I did take one last week .. not since then, but if I start feeling 'off' again, I think I will test that theory.

Thanks!

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