Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Hello,

This is my first post but I have been hanging around for awhile reading the journals and trying to get ideas from other members diets. My issue is I cannot keep the weight on and I know why - I am simply not eating enough. I have numerous food sensitivities and on top of that I have gastroparesis (in short the food stick around in my stomach for a very long time) which leaves me feeling full all the time. I cannot have gluten (celiac), I can have soy, legumes and nuts in limited amount. I am not big on protein powders because even the vegan ones seems to contain stevia which also does not agree with me. I am a female, 39 around the corner, 5'8 and my weight goes from 110-115 depending on how my body is treating me, last I was able to measure my body fat it showed 10.1% but I keep getting an error now. I work out 5-6 days a week, 4 days mostly focused on alternating body parts weight training and about 2 days of some form of cardio (rowing, kettlebell intervals or some mixed intense interval training). So on to my question: I do feel that I need to change something in my diet but I am at a loss how and what. My boyfriend and family feels that I should add eggs and or fish to my diet. I know they are concerned about my health but I just cannot bring myself to do it and there must be another way of getting stronger, having more energy and just feel healthy.

Here is what I ate today:

oatmeal made of 1/2 cup dry GF oats with Coconut butter
2 plums
3/4 cup cooked brown rice with carrots, spinach, tahini, coconut syrup and asparagus
2 plums
workout - 30 min Kettlebell snatches
1 banana
2 spaghetti squash patties made with shredded carrots, zuchinni and nutritional yeast served on 4 slices of Udi's GF bread with spinach, 1/2 large avocado mashed with salsa, red pepper and tomato (I ate this over about 2 hours small bites at a time)
maybe some puffin cereal with almond milk if I can eat it later

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

plenty of huge people on this forum without animal products. i would count out your calories and macros and increase until your weight stabilizes to where you want it. add more bananas, nuts, nut butters, oils, avocados, so many wonderful vegan foods that supply protein and can add to your mass. and if you have food sensitivies eggs and fish are the last things i would want to add..

I think if you are really going to have a hard time adding more calories, your next route in simply exercising less. If you are burning less calories during the day, you won't need to to add more calories from food to start gaining some weight.

and it looks like from your diet you really arent getting that much protein at all..for a normal person maybe but if you lift, no...if i was you i'd keep the exercise. it's good for you and i certainly couldnt live without it..

I could not imagine not working out - I have had some rough years and that is my stress relief. I have cut way back on the cardio since that made it even harder to keep weight on.

Protein is my biggest issue which is why my boyfriend and family wanted me to start eating eggs and or fish. To me though that would be the same as asking me to not working out - I just do not see that happening - I love animals too much.

Tofu, tempeh, nuts, seeds, beans, peas, sprouted grains, and quinoa are the best sources of vegan protein I can think of. Find any of those foods that fit your diet and learn to love them.

Fruit juice can help you get carbs in without as much chance of "sticking around" in your stomach. The more carbs you can get the better your body can utilize what protein it needs to do its thing.

Also if you do have an issue with your stomach slowly emptying, whole fruits esp bananas are the last thing I'd be eating as the longer they stick around in the system the more they ferment. But as I said fruit juice I would think would be a consideration as IDK about anyone else but unlike whole fruit, juice goes literally right through me.

that is a really good point about the fruit. I actually had noticed that bananas did not seem to agree with me but it might not be the bananas it could just be that they hang around for awhile and then ferment. I do better when I do not eat fruit at all but I like it so much... I might try fruit juices - I got a vitamix and I can make all sorts of awesome stuff in there - time to experiment. Thanks for all of the suggestions. I will try and incorporate tofu/tempeh a little more to get the protein intake up.

Hemp seeds, delicious on salads. Great source of nutrients including protein.

-Dylan