Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

I'm 180 cm long and weight 92 kg (203 pounds) which basically means I'm a fat *ss. During couple of last weeks I've been trying to come up with a strategy to get my weight at least around 80 kg (176 punds), preferably a few kilos under it.
There are some limitations to training and diet. My right shoulder isn't completely healed yet, so I can't do Hindu push ups and pull ups can couse slight pain, for example. Still I can do military presses with no problems. I can also do windmills and TGU if I'm careful enough. I eat almost no soy, as my stomach can't handle it. Only soy product I use is soy sauce, others give me nasty stomach ache and gas.
I'm currently using kettlebells and here's my current program:

Mondays and thursdays
A1 - Double Clean and Military Press 4x5
A2 - Alternating Renegade Row 4x5
B1 - TGU 1x5 (both left and right)

tuesdays and friedays
A1 - Double Front Squat 4x5
A2 - Double Swing 4x5
B1 - Windmill 1x5 (both left and right)

I take 90 seconds to rest betveen sets.

on wednesdays and saturdays I do cardio. I also try to walk as much as I can. I'll be using this program for another week and then take a week off. After that I'll be using Mahlers 5x5 version of the program.

I've been trying to come up with a eating plan today and got together this. I aimed around 2300 kcal a day with at least six meals. I also aimed to get at least 1 gram of protein per kilogram.

Breakfast
- Bean salsa (from Thrive Diet book) with some extra beans. Also some green vegetables if I have time.

Lunch
- Beans and vegetables fried on the stove. I use coconut oil for all my frying.
or
- Lentil soup with vegetables. Either green or red lentils

Snack
- Almonds and fruit (banana/orange/apple/pear)

Dinner
- Beans and vegetables fried on the stove.
or
- Salad with lot of beans and fresh vegetables

Before training
- A fruit

After training
- Pea protein and maltodexterin powder

late night snack
- Peanuts

I calculated the amounts of food I'll be using and nutrients today and got:
126g protein
241g carbs
80g fat

2228 kcal

I either cook and freeze, or sprout the beans myself. This way they taste lot better than the canned varitation. I'll also add some salad dressing or sauces from Thrive Diet book to my dishes.

It's going to be a long project. All comments and advices are very welcome

Hi, I am also dieting and have similar stats and goals. I think your diet looks solid but I hope you will vary the food some since 12-24 weeks on beans can be hard.

Very true I'm trying to get some varitation on the foods using differend spices and some sauces from the Thrive Diet book. Sprouting also helps, as the beans taste more fresh and sprouting supposedly removes some of the gas producing stuff from beans.

Yesterday I did some circuit training, since the streets are currently way too icy and slippery to go jogging.

A - Hindu squats 25 reps
B - Fat man pull-ups 6 reps (I really suck at pull-ups so these gave me hard time )
C - Push up plus 10 reps
D - Jump rope 100 reps

I took 30 seconds of rest between sets and 2 minutes after each circuit. I repeated the circuit 5 times. I don't really know anything about making up these kind of work-outs but at least this seemed effective. Jump rope gets my heart rate through the roof and I felt like goughing up a lung after the last circuit

Today I did the kettlebell clean & press and renegade row with my 20 kg bells and tgu with 16 kg bell. It was my first time using 16kg bell on tgu, but it was easier than I had anticipated.

Here's my breakfast today, some green tea and salsa

A1 - double kettlebell front squat 4x5: 20kg (44 pounds)
A2 - double kettlebell swing 4x5: 20 kg
B1 - Windmill 4x5: 20 kg, both left and right side

I do the squats to parallel, since if I go lower my back begins to round. Pretty good workout, it was also my first time using 20 kg bell for the windmill, but it wasn't very hard after all My lower back has been a bit stiff lately, probably from sitting so much

Being eating according to plan for two days now. I noticed I had trouble remembering which meals I had already eaten so I printed a excel sheet so I could mark the meals down

Hi, your diet seems pretty good for the goal you aim and the ratios of pro/cho/fat are pretty good !
Fruit before your training, like you're doing, is the best choice, it provides efficiently what you need: sugar for energy. But don't hesitate to have more than 1 fruit if you feel like it, or fruit juice while training. Won't add much calories but might increase energy in case you need it.

Also, post-workout... I guess there's no carbs in the pea protein drink, and that's fine (better absorption), but you need some carbs after your training. So I would suggest you to a some fruits or fruit juice right after your training, then wait a bit (take shower, etc) so 15-30 minutes later you can have the protein drink.

Sorry, noticed you put maltodextrin in your post-workout protein drink, so there's sugar. I would still suggest you to eat fruit or fruit juice post-workout, and put stevia in your shake instead of maltodextrin. But it's a choice, you can put sugar in your protein shake, this combination causes a peak in increased insulin level, which is good for gaining weight (muscle and fat)...

thanks
I wasn't familiar with stevia, so I googled around a bit. Seems like it isn't sold in Finland due to EU regulations. Apparently it hasn't been confirmed that it can't cause cancer, or something to that effect. Some websites might sell it, but at least "normal" stores don't seem to.
I've used dexterose earlier as a part of a pea protein shake, but it tastes a bit funky Today is my rest day, so I'll be trinking the shake with only protein and eat two fruits with it.


Yesterday I did circuit training again:
A - Hindu squat 25 reps
B - Fat man chin up 6 reps
C - push up plus 10 reps
D - Jumprope 100 reps

I was rather busy yesterday, so I did this workout about 45 minutes after waking up. Next time I need to drink a lot more before working out, since I felt really dehydrated after the workout.

I'm making saturday morning my official measurement day. I'm going to take my weight on an empty stomach and some measurents. This time I only weighted myself since I didn't have much time. Weight: 89.8kg (198lbs)! I know that most of it is probably water, but I'm on the right track

Saturdays are also my cheat days, so I cooked some spinach lasagna and thrive diet banana pie with my girlfriend. It's a bit brown due to the hemp flour, but it was delicious!


Today is my rest day, so I'm just going to focus on active recovery. Take a long walk or two, stretch and do some foem rolling. I don't have a official foam roller, so I'm using a meter long bit of a sewer pipe for the same thing

it's a good sweetener, but some people don't like the after taste of it. Is there products containing stevia sold in Finland (like Vega) or this is banned too? At least there's hemp in Finland

I know nothing about stevia...

Yeah, you get hemp from Finland in some forms but it's expensive and rare.

Hemp seeds and flour aren't all that expensive, but more "exotic" stuff like hemp protein can cost up to 100€ per kg.. that price is just crazy I haven't yet seen vega sold anywhere, but then again there are only very few vegan supplements or protein powders available. You can get soy protein everywhere, but I can't eat it due to food sensitivity. One company sells rice protein and there's a new shop that opened this month that sells pea protein.

My internet was down for couple of days. I did my normal workout's on monday and thuesday, and did some circuit training on wednesday. I've seen some improvement on the circuits, as it takes me almost 5 minutes less to complete it than it did when I started I've also done some foam rolling lately and it seems to have helped with my nagging back-pain a bit.

Diet-wise I'm feeling pretty good. I normally have lot of cravings for salty snacks, but I haven't felt those so much lately. I'm also feeling suprisingly full of energy despite the low calories. On the down side there are at least couple of times a day when I feel rather hungry

Things are looking up. After a month of unemployment I got a new job and I'm starting on monday I'll have to tweak my eating plan a bit, but that shouldn't be much of a problem. This also means less worry about money, so i can focus more on training and the like
Anyway, yesterday was measuring day, and I also took some tape measures this time.
Weight: 89,3kg (196,9lbs). Not much of a drop, but still improvement. Slow and steady wins the race i hope
Tape measures:
- belly 96 cm
- right thigh 63 cm
- right calf 63 cm
- chest 100 cm
- upper abdomen 88 cm
- shoulders 120 cm
- bicept 32 cm
- neck 28 cm

All measures vere done unflexed. I'll be taking all these measures once a week from now on to monitor my progress.
I'll be taking next week lightly, to allow my lower back and shoulders to recover. Then I'm moving on to the next phase of the program. It's a 5x5 program with slightly differend exercises than before. I'll be posting it as I go on. After it's over, it's back to the gym for me For next week I'll be focusing mainly on low intensity cardio, with three to four light KB training sessions. My new job contains lot of standing and some walkin, so that'll hopefully burn some calories as well

After a week it was time for measurin again. I did lighter training this week to give my lower back and shoulders a rest. This is the plan I used:
Monday, wednesday and friday.
A1 - Hand to hand military press 3x10 (left and right): 12 kg bell (26,5 lbs)
A2 - One arm row 3x10: 16 kg bell (35 lbs)

B1 - Suitcase squat 3x12: 16 kg bells
B2 - Two arm swing 3x15: 20 kg bells (44 lbs)

I took a minute of rest between sets and concentrated on fluid motion and getting my heart rate up to pump blood all over my body. I have been walking a lot while working this week, so I didn't do much extra low intensity cardio. The new daily schedule messed up my eating two times as I accidentally ate one wrong meal and one extra meal. I also had some protein powder problems. I ordered some rice protein last week, but they didn't bother to inform me that they had run out. Then I ordered it from another shop, but their delivery is taking longer than I thought. I'll hopefully get the shipment on monday. This is why I had to improvise and eat a fruit with sprouted beans on non-training days. Still I've made improvements in my body comp

- Weight: 88,9 kg (196 lbs) another small, but steady drop
- belly: 95 cm (-1cm)
- right thigh: 62 cm (-1 cm)
- right calve: 40 cm
- chest: 103 cm (propably measured it differently last time as this change makes no sense)
- upper abdomen: 88 cm
- shoulders: 119 cm (-1 cm)
- right bicept: 32 cm
- neck: 28 cm

I'm starting the 5x5 ketlebell program on monday and I'll post more about it later. I also really need to start logging in more than once a week, as I end up rambling way too much now

another weekly update
Anyway, I have made suprising progress this week, despite not eating completely to the plan on three days and working a nasty schedule. I worked 6 days this week for 8-12 hours a day. Because of this i had to move my Thursday and friday sessions one day forward and was too exhausted yesterday to train for the full session. I'm thinking adding 2-3 more fruits to my daily plan since I've started feeling constantly hungry last few days.
I can't believe how hard it seems to be to buy rice protein. I ordered it from two stores, which after a week notified me that they had run out of it and have no idea when more is available. I've been trinking soy protein for last 5 days as "emergency backup". To much of my suprise I haven't had any problems with it. No extra stomach ache or gas at all. I's been a year since I started to get symptons from soy, I wonder if my body is starting to recover or something.

This is my current program:

Monday
A1 - Double clean and military press 5x5
A2 - Alternating renegade row 5x5
B1 - Turkish get-up 1x5 (both sides)

Tuesday
A1 - Double front squat 5x5
A2 - Double swing 5x5
B1 - Windmill/Double windmill 1x5 (both sides)

Thursday
A1 - Alternating military press 5x5
A2 - Double bent-over row 5x5
B1 - Turkish get-up 1x5 (both sides)

Friday
A1 - Double clean and front squat 5x5
A2 - Snatch/Double snatch 5x5
B1 - Windmill/Double windmill 1x5 (both sides)

I've made suprisingly much progress this week. I took the measurements today morning, as I had to leave for work early yesterday.
Weigh: 87,1 kg (192lbs), a 1,8 kg drop from last week

Tape measurements
Belly: 94cm (-1cm)
Right Thigh: 60cm (-2cm)
Right Calve: 39cm (-1cm)
Chest: 101cm (-2cm)
Upper Abdomen: 88cm
Shoulders: 115cm (-4cm)
Right bicept: 31cm (+1cm)
Neck: 37cm (-1cm)

It's been a long time since I last logged in here. For some reason I find it hard to be active on any web sites But at least I've been working out all this time, instead of just sitting on a couch
I recently hired a coach to help me complete my fat-loss goals and train me for the fire academy entrance exams which are on spring 2010. He's an omnivore, but has a positive attitude towards my veganism. I'm currently training six days a week; three days in the gym with weights and interval training, one day of kettlebells and two days with low intensity cardio. The workouts are long and hard ( ) but I'm doing them as intensily as I can. I also have a new diet plan, which brings nice varitation to the old one. I'm also taking some more supplements, like two types of creatine, zinc-citrate and magnesium-citrate.

I last measured my weight and did tape measurements on 18.04.09. This is after 10 weeks of dieting.

Weight:85.4 kg (188.3 lbs). Thus far I have lost 6.6 kg (14.6 lbs) and my weight has been stuck roughly the same last three weeks.

Belly: 89cm
Right thigh: 61cm
Right calve: 39cm
Chest: 102cm
Upper abdomen: 86cm
Shouders: 116cm
Right bicept :30cm
Neck: 36cm

I'll be doing new measurements next saturday, and there should be some change finally