Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Hey guys,
I wonder if anyone could help me out here with an answer since I'm new to this going vegan and bodybuilding. I have been lifting weights and building muscle but I need to lose the fat too and I thought maybe incorporating cardio after lifting would do the trick in getting faster results. I cannot STAND the bike or the treadmill. So how about swimming after lifting? Good idea? Bad Idea? I keep seeing wacky information about it on the internet from unreliable sources.


-Rookie

Since you are new to both being vegan and bodybuilding it's hard to say. Normally it would be ideal to introduce new things 1 at a time and see how your body reacts to them. But doing a little cardio is never really a bad idea. The reason a lot of BBer's may not like swimming is because it burns a lot of calories. Especially on a vegan diet focused on "real" food (fruits, vegetables, potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, beans, corn, etc......) you'll burn through calories pretty easily, so it kind of becomes about getting enough instead of restricting. Getting enough calories is of significance because you're body is essentially using those nutrients to build muscle and run your body. For a grown man that is working out and active I would say at least 3000cals/day is a good idea.

I'm personally not a big fan of doing cardio on lifting days. So I do cardio on my non-lifting days, and I only do about 30 minutes or so.

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Justin Morgan

http://www.youtube.com/user/RawVegaCaliBB

Answered my own questions by doing it.... holy shit! awesomeness! swimming 4 days a week 5 days lifting. Crazy changes

Swimming is an excellent form of cardio and has the lowest chance of injury since you weigh so much less underwater. Like all cardio though it can be catabolic. You should probably limit duration to 20 minutes per session and if you have a heart rate monitor, try to keep it around 85 percent of your maximum heart rate.

Swimming is interesting because it's a sport where you don't want to have an excessively low body fat since your body fat actually adds buoyancy.

20 min is exactly what I have been doing and it looks like the fat is just melting off. totally nuts what a few days of this can do to you. Thanks!!

I've read that swimming in cooler water (20 degrees Celsius) is one of the worst exercises for weight loss - a cooler body temperature makes people really hungry (lowers leptin) so most tend to eat more calories after getting out of the pool than they actually burned in the pool.

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

How is that effecting your lifts?

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Justin Morgan

http://www.youtube.com/user/RawVegaCaliBB

I'm still lifting great. I lift the heaviest weight I can on the 1st set till failure, 2nd set I get a lighter weight also until failure, and then a even lighter weight on the 3rd set until it burns. When I'm done with it all I head straight to the pool. Everything is melting off lol. And the pool is an indoor pool so its not cold at all, usually around room temperature to warm.

My diet factors into this. I have a severe sweet tooth I have always had trouble kicking and I haven't had any vegan sweets in about 2 weeks and without meaning to, I've gone raw. I feel energized and healthy all the time. I pig out on plums, juice every morning (spinach, carrots, kale, apples, arugula, kiwis, pineapples, oranges, etc) and mix it with chlorella and spirulina powder. I have ziploc bags of pecans,peanuts, walnuts, etc. lots of creative salads, ripe bananas, and so on. My only hope now is to keep holding on to this willpower of not eating sweets lol!!

I clicked on this thread thinking I was going to see some guy in a pool doing the breaststroke with a twenty pound dumbbell in each hand.

Baby Herc

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