Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

I used to be one to consume protein supplements, creatine, you name it and was always careful to eat lots of protein. You know what, I have made better gains in the last year or so eating more by instinct and natural craving, which means a ton of carbs, such as shredded wheat, oats, beans, fruit and veggies. I still eat soy products, and some eggs once in a while, but my point is all the gains I have made in size and strength with just eating healthy, and not worrying about protein.

This is the first time in my life I have been over 230 lbs.

Rich

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What do I do when not bodybuilding or working? Spend time with family, play guitar, write music, snowboard, roast coffee, travel, read, fight for those who are less fortunate than myself.

Food will always be ahead of protein supplements, because that's what they are.

Didn't know you could be vegan and eat eggs though...

I eat around 4000 cals/day and 80% or more of them come from carbs. mmmmmmmmm, carbs.

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Justin Morgan

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

You can't who said you could be?

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What do I do when not bodybuilding or working? Spend time with family, play guitar, write music, snowboard, roast coffee, travel, read, fight for those who are less fortunate than myself.

Hahaha you don't have to be vegan to share on this site. Hopefully we are all in support of each other, and all hope to strive to be as healthy as possible and share helpful information on health and fitness with each other.
You bring up a good point though. I think a lot of us worry about not getting enough protein in so supplements can definitely be helpful. I do agree that many of us over do it, and that eating more whole foods is the best way to go.

-Dylan

All depends on how your body responds.

I got big as hell when I didn't focus on protein and ate high carbs daily, but I also got fat as hell along with it, and I wasn't even eating that much over maintenance calories on most days.

Now I base all my meals around my protein sourcing, and have managed to shed quite a bit of fat while getting stronger or staying the same on most lifts (cutting while doing lower protein and higher carbs caused me to lose strength rapidly), something that I just can't seem to do when eating lots of carbs.

It all depends on how your body responds - if you're feeling great eating more carbs and not worrying about protein, then you're on the right course. It's just that some of us won't respond the same way and won't get the same results - I'd rather consumer more carbs (makes it easier for me to eat enough and not have to force myself to reach my goal for daily food intake), but eating more carbs and less protein only sabotages my goals, so I just can't do it unless I want to be gaining fat and have minimal energy.

Sure would be nice if things were simple and the same for everyone when it came to how we eat for the purposes of gaining mass and losing fat!

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"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous

Great thoughts....

I have been doing tons of carbs and I will say, I was just as strong last summer when I was doing less carbs and more protein with protein drinks, etc.....I was as strong or stronger and leaner. I looked leaner, muscles stood out more and I was just as strong or stronger. Hmmm, might try that again. I have too much fat on my mid section now but I know it comes with bulking up and gaining muscle. Maybe I can eat just as big, add some cardio, stay with heavy weights, but cut wah down on fat and carbs.

The time I was my leanest however was when I was strick vegan in 2007-2009. I ate lots of carbs then! But, all whole foods!

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What do I do when not bodybuilding or working? Spend time with family, play guitar, write music, snowboard, roast coffee, travel, read, fight for those who are less fortunate than myself.

I get much quicker recovery between workouts as well as more consistent gains the more protein I eat. Furthermore I've found that carbohydrates have a more important role in my physiological makeup than fat, probably because of the protein sparing effect they have, and since I can only eat so much food for the protein without blowing my diet out of the water, carbs are an important factor to combine with protein for me.

My diet is like 40% protein, 50% carbs, 10% fat. I don't count calories, or track macros, I loosely track protein and limit fat containing foods and everything falls into place.

IMO it's just your genetics.

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Live cautiously to make it safely to death

Ah VE, so glad you still take the time to post, you have been a voice of reason and logic on here for years, when many of us, have given up and left it to the crackers!

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Have you ever loved someone so much you didn't care what happened to yourself?
You Just had to be with them.
If they look at you, your heart stops.
If you feel their breath on your skin, you just ache.
Have you ever craved someone so much you didn't exist anymore?

Good to see you back around these parts, Sydney!

Sometimes it's tough to keep trying to hammer home information that should be common knowledge or common sense (though, some people seem to want to create their own "science", and they don't give up easily!), but I keep on doing what I can. I've been here too long to give up even when I have to battle some strange notions that just won't seem to relent - though I'll say I've had a few close calls, but I consider it my civic duty to stick it out and try to make sure that things applying to training and diet such as the priciple of individual differences doesn't get buried in my absence

Hope to see you around more, and sorry to hear your back has been giving you trouble, that's a problem I know all too well (5 years of getting worse, only in the past 9 months have I finally gotten much better!), hopefully it's something that won't give you trouble for too long!

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"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous