Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

hi folks,

been lurking for a bit, learning lots from around the industry. hope to learn more and share more here.

as of April 2012,
age 40
height 6'0"
weight 164lbs
BF 11%

looking to gain 10lb while keeping BF <=10%

vegetarian for 20yrs, vegan for 1, but only REALLY learning about whole foods (clean eating) and its impact on the body within the past few months. therefore have lots of questions for the group.

train fasted in early a.m., and have adopted a nutritional program which calls for majority of carbs to be consumed in latter half of the day, followed by a 12-14 hr fast.

am interested in talking to others who have followed a similar structure.

will mostly be posting nutritional logs, since most of my questions revolve around that aspect of training.

thanks in advance for all your help
frank

Sounds great, people love to see what everyone else is eating. Helps us all think of new things to including, its good to change it up and keep it fresh. Its easy to fall into a rut of eating the same things over and over until you get sick of them.

-Dylan

Update on stats

May 2012
Weight 159lbs
BF 9%
Lost 4 pounds of fat (and no muscle) since last test 6 wks ago!

Excited to have reached my BF goal, and haven't been this lean and strong EVER. Not even at university during daily training for soccer and track&field competitions. Now on to the next phase of gaining 10lb muscle while maintaining this <10% BF levels.

I have to attribute this to a number of factors:

0. Eating plant-based whole foods.
For too many years to remember, I was eating (even as a vegetarian) lots of highly processed foods, all of which were mostly nutrient-absent grains. Breakfast cereals, bagels, breads, pastas made up the majority of my days. I just never realized or had enough knowledge to understand why this was wrong for me and why my stomach was in so much pain every day. For years I figured this was 'normal'. The switch to greens at (nearly) every meal, and cutting out wheat/gluten, sugar, dairy, eggs has been profound.

1. Really paying close attention to macros. Much more so than ever in my life. And LOGGING IT.
One may *think* he/she is sticking to the plan, but the physical act of writing it down each day if often the difference between success and failure in this aspect.

2. Meal frequency and adjusting macros to time of day
A combination of Intermittent Fasting and Renegade Diet; utilizing a fast period of 14hrs (concluding with fasted early morning training), an under-eating window (P/F) and an over-eating window (P/C), plus carb cycling.

The last point I do have some questions about.

Has anyone been carb-cycling with early morning fasted training? If so, I'd love to chat.

Biggest question for me is whether to heavy-up on the carbs *the night before*, or later in the evening the day of training.

Will begin posting food journals soon for feedback on the daily choices I'm making, identifying where there's room for improvement.

Wow, you have a super thorough plan. Tell your goals to get read to be smashed!

-Dylan

hi folks

wondering if anyone can help with protein food choices
I'm having difficulty keeping protein high enough while keeping carbs low enough.

The best bang for the buck I've found are lentils, but the 1:2 protein:carb ratio doesn't help when trying to keep carbs low.
I stay away from tofu and gluten, btw.

Even if I subscribe to the 1gm/1lb protein rule, on a non-training day for an older lifter that's looking to get lean, the macros go something like this: 170p, 80c, 90f and that has been a tough combination for me to hit.

thoughts?

tried tempeh.

as I understand it, it's a fermented soy product (unlike tofu), gluten-free, and has a decent protein:carb ratio of nearly 2:1, which should help me keep protein levels above carbs on non-training days.

was pleased with the taste (seemed like it had less sodium than I remember 10yrs ago), but still not crazy about it being a soy product, given the tons of conflicting evidence to soy's health effects.

Nonetheless, will run with it, and monitor how I feel over time.