Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Hello everyone as you may notice I am new here. I found this forum from a webpage which advertised vegan bodybuilders. I really was astonished. This forum is sort of like a miracle for me, and I would appreaciate it SO MUCH, if you can read the following and help me with my big "problem" which I will explain thoroughly:

I am vegetarian, my mother is vegetarian, and my grandmother is vegetarian. My grandmother raised me and she was the one in the family to turn everyone else vegetarian. Though, my grandmother's problem is that, although she is vegetarian she doesn't mantain a healthy diet(lack of a lot of nutrients, for example I didn't see a fruit juice in my whole childhood she never made a juice of anything) so I grew up excesivelly skinny. I know this isn't me being vegetarian's fault, because in my teen years (I am 21) I rebelled against my grandmother and quit being vegetarian for a while(which I regret a lot now), and I kept being skinny. For me its as if food made me skinnier and skinnier. My weight isn't healthy neither.

I measure 1,66 meters and weight only 40 kg(88 pounds) and I am 21 years old, will turn 22 in september. I am not vegan, I am vegetarian I do not eat ny kinds of meat or fish but I do drink milk, eat cheese, butter, yogurut... but I don't eat eggs either. I am so so so so desperate I was thinking of eating 5 or 10 eggs daily to see if that would help me but that goes totally against me and I do not want to do it at all.

I feel very depressed because of my body condition, I don't even have a social life, I get depressed when I buy clothing because anything I wear it just looks ugly on me, because I am just a bunch of bones. I don't like wearing anything (im not saying i don't wear anything lol) because I feel totally bad. I don't like any pictures taken because I look so skinny I look as if I were from a starving place and eat like once every two months or something like that.

So the help I'm asking is composed of two things:

First: First of all I want if possible, if you guys could help me with a diet that can help me gain weight quickly. I'm desperate. I have a very good appetite(thanksfully) so I am happy eating all the time if it is needed. I just don't want to stop being vegetarian, and I don't think now that is needed anymore now that I saw what I saw in this forum. Please I don't have a clue of what I should eat on a daily basis, or how much, or anything in order to gain weight. I do generally mantain it though. so all i need is to get the weight i'm missing.

Second: I want a pretty body, I want to go to the gym I don't want to have a female bodybuilder's body, I just want to have nice legs, nice but, nice belly, nice arms, nice breasts etc... I am not lazy for exercize, I actually like going to the gym, I only stop myself from going because I'm afraid of loosing weight instead, since I don't know ANYTHING about going to the gym. And here is where my second favor comes: can you please help me with routines, thoroughly explained of what I should do, if it should be everyday, or thrice a week, or how. I don't know if I should gain weight first and then go to the gym, or should start from now, I don't know. Please, please, please, please help me with this.

Oh and two more things: I like to swim, but I don't know if I actually should. I haven't gone to the pool since a long time ago, oh by the way, I have a 2 year old daughter. I didn't even gain weight while pregnant, only her weight, she weighted 7,71 pounds when born and she has the right weight not like me. I don't go swiming since I was pregnant but I was thinking of starting again, but I don't know if I should because of my weight problem. You guys let me know if I can or not, if I can mix it with the gym or not, and if I should do it before or after gym.

The other thing is that I have symptoms of lacking vitamin B12, and I was wondering if this product: http://www.amazon.com/Spring-Valley-Vit ... 133&sr=1-6 is good or not, and most important of all, I would like to know if it is vegan, because I would like to be taking any pill that is taken out of animals or somehting.

Thanks a lot if you read all this and once again, please help me, im so desperate about it.

Hi, glad you found this site, it is very helpful with a lot of knowledgeable people. Your definitly in a dilemma, but we can get you in better direction. You need to figure out how many calories your taking in a day. This is a good site here www.fitday.com You can put in all the food you eat and it will give you a break down of your calories/fat/protein/carbs. The next step is to find out your daily caloric needs and eat more then it to gain weight. This is one of the best articles I've read on gaining weight and figuring out your caloric needs http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nut ... ting_1.htm
Hopefully someone else can jump in and help with your training questions, I would just confuse you more if I tried to help.

Welcome aboard!

I am sure you will get many responses from more qualified individuals than I, but I will start the ball rolling.
I don't know about that particular B12 supplement, never used it; I like to use a sublingual tablet that dissolves in the mouth, but you have to rinse/drink afterward as some have a tendency to stain the teeth...

Has the Dr. ever done blood-work on you or possibly endocrine system tests, to see if there is a medical cause to your extremely fast metabolism? Are you on any meds at all?

Also, what is your typical daily diet like? Prot./Carb/Fat ratios & calories consumed daily? Increasing your caloric intake along with a solid weight lifting program should cause you to gain weight/ i.e., lean muscle mass.

Females normally do not have near the testosterone levels to produce the female bodybuilding physique that you mentioned, all (mostly) use chemicals, shall we say...so not to worry about that issue...

Weightlifting will definitely be a positive move for your situation, I feel; Weightlifting/exercise in general causes all sorts of body processes to come into play, regulating hormones, stuff like that. Technical stuff, too early in the morning for me right now, lol...

Obviously, limit any type of rigorous cardio, as that will tend to burn fat & possible muscle tissue which you don't have much of to be burning at this point.

It would be nice if you could find a good personal trainer at the gym, especially one that leans towards vegan-ism & understands your situation.

At any rate, hang in there, take it one day at a time, changes will come if you are consistent & stick to your goals.

Hi mtguy, thank you so much for your reply, I will try to figure out how that page works and post here the results. And I will read the other one,thank you for your advice.

Hey katz, yes, doctor have run a lot of tests on me to see why I am so thing but all of themcome out all right with no anomallies. I don't know what prot, carb or anything else I take daily I don't know much about that, I will try to figure it out though with the help of the webpage mtguy provided me and post here the results. About the training, can you help me with the routines? I have not a clue and trainers here are really bad. I used to have a good trainer once when I lived in another city, he new I was vegetarian, and he was a non-vegetarian bodybuilder a really good one, and he helped me with food and gym routine and I started to gain weight in less than a month but then I moved and haven't found any good trainer any more for a reasonable price, so I will have to do this on my own without the gym's trainer. For example, the trainer I talked about who was a bodybuilder he said I couldn't go on the bike, because I would made me thinner, and here in any gym, they make me go on the bike for 20 minutes... and I end up dead.!!!!!!!!! And even though I say I shouldn't they say that won't make me go thin. That's why I came here for more professional advice.

BTW, do you think I can start with a diet and at the same time at the gym or will I have to wait a month or so for gym? Will you guys help me with a diet?

Hey, I created my account at fiday.com... i am also in the process of reading the other webpage you gave me.

I submitted the food I eat in one day in fitday and it gave me the following results:



I didn't create nutrition goals though because I don't know what they should be, I don't know what foods UI should consume, cna you guys please helpme with this? I don't understand any of the results given by fitday.

I amreading and I am wondering how am I suppossed to know my percentage of body fat??? I don't know how much body fat I have, Id say like....zero ... but still even after I figure out how many calories im burning a day, how am I supposed to know which foods will increase my calories intake¿¿¿ please help!!!

Im both desperate and having fun for I like learning all this.

And pleasehelp me with a gym routine!!

Edit: this page http://www.indoorclimbing.com/Protein_Requirement.html tells me i shoudl have an intake of 45grams of proteins a day. how do I know how much imtakign? in which foods can I find proteins?

Please help?????? where did everyone go????

Welcome!

Weight training will definitely help you build the strength you're looking to achieve. I have Bill Phillips' book, Body for LIFE. In it he sets out a simple program to follow. It's a 1-2-3 punch of upper body, lower body and cardio. You can also download the workout sheets for free. If you can't, let me know & I'll email them to you. The program framework is there and all you have to do is plug in the specific exercises for each muscle group.

Thank you so much, I will follow that for my training. But, about my nutrition... can someone please help me and give me a diet I can follow so I can consume a whole lot of calories a day? I couldn't figure out exactly how many calories my body is burning and or needs right now but according to my mom it is around 2000. I couldn't figure out with the webpage mtguy provided me with because i don't know how to know what my body fat is... and even though it provides amazingly simple diets, I can't do them because they aren't vegetarian, and I don't know how to subtitute the meat in those diets. I would like something simple, I don't have a problem with eating all day, but I don't want to cook all day. And besides I don't have a single clue of what to eat, how to combine my foods, or anything.

If you are trying to increase your calorie intake look at what foods are calorically dense.

Things like nuts, avocado, dates, etc. have a lot of calories in them. Smoothies are a good way to consume a lot of calories very easily.

Vegetarian sources of protein include tofu, tempeh, beans, chickpeas, lentils, seitan, etc.

Oatmeal is delicious and you can add things like nuts to it to increase the calories.



Why don't you look at this thread here.

Thank you, you just mentioned some but how am I supposed to know what is calorie dense? how should i combine them? ...

I took a look at that thread but it contains vairous things I don't know what they are, or, can't be found were I live such as tempeh and tofu.

All great choices, I second that info.! If you have a blender, make a couple green smoothies daily as you can really pack high quality nutrition into a smoothie/shake that is easy to consume.

Google "green smoothies" & you will find a lot of good recipes. If the "green" is a bit much for you, you can always temper them with fruit to sweeten it up a bit.


I did the Bill Phillips' "Body for LIFE" program years ago & I was pleased with the results. As you probably already know, since you are just beginning a workout program, you need to start out with light weights & also stretching so you do not injure yourself.

Yes but still the same question, how am i supposed to know what the soothie has for me?

I like Vega Food Optimizer as the base for my smoothie. It's got good stuff in it. I usually drink it in the morning. If it's late and I'm drinking it post workout because I don't want to eat heavy before bed time, I'll add some protein powder to it.

Okay so above you posted you were eating about 1850 calories a day and you are not gaining weight on that, right?

So you need to eat more calories. If you are looking to gain weight maybe start at 2200. Track what you eat in fitday.com. Not at 2200 calories for the day? Start eating more. Don't worry about not knowing your bodyfat percentage, that's not really that important right now.

If it makes it easier to get in more calories, eat 5-6 times a day. Something like oatmeal and fruit or something in the morning, some nuts for a snack, lunch, an afternoon snack (hummus with veggies? more nuts? Find food you like to eat), supper, and then a bedtime snack.

Some people don't like to eat that often and eat 2-3 bigger meals, but if you are finding it difficult to get in enough calories then add in more meals throughout the day.

Everyone has their own tastes, so what someone writes you out in a meal plan might not necessarily work for you. But just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

Breakfast: Oatmeal with fruit and soymilk
Snack: almonds, a piece of fruit
Lunch: a huge salad loaded with beans or chickpeas
Snack: hummus and veggies
Supper: tofu or tempeh with veggies, maybe a sweet potato or something like that (mix it up, you could have a veggie stir fry with tofu, whole wheat pasta with veggies and beans, whatever you like)
Snack: maybe some more almonds and fruit, maybe some peanut butter? If you still have a lot of calories left over for the day try making a fruit smoothie.

That's just me and my preferences. Of course you would have to measure out your portions and track in fitday.com and see if it is enough food for you.

Eat around 2200 calories for a couple of weeks. If that's not enough food go up to 2400. And so on and so on.

Ok thank you I will try with that, though I don't know what hummus is and tofu isn't available in stores over here.