My vegan bulking diet - Need help!

[Kickin11]

I became vegan around 5 or 6 weeks ago and around that same time I started running a lot and lifting again as well. 2 weeks ago I stepped on a scale and found I'd lost over 10 pounds.

 

I'm 5'8" and 155 now, I know the weight loss was because of the increase in cardio and poorly planned diet. I have a super fast metabolism and was probably only getting around 1500-1800 calories each day (if that) and almost all whole foods, fruits, veggies, etc. Went from 80% meat diet to healthy vegan diet.

 

I'll try to get some pics up soon, I consider myself in good shape just upset that I lost so much weight.

 

So for the past week or so I've been trying to hit somewhere near 3,000 calories and it has been really hard. I was basing this off of some sites I read and trying to get about a 4 carb, 3 prot, 3 fat ratio for my calories. Here was today's food.

 

A note about the shakes: I make 2 full blender's full of shakes each day, one in the morning and one after work. Total they equal 6 scoops of protein, 2 cups soy milk, 2 cups almond milk, 2 bananas, 2 peaches, some olive oil, and some water. The shakes make enough to fill about 6 x 16 ounce water bottles. I also drink quite a bit of water throughout the day.

 

6:30am

Soymilk + cereal

Protein shake

 

9:30am

Peanut Butter + Jelly sandwich

Protein shake

 

12:30

Lentils and brown rice curry

Some corn chips

Gatorade

 

3:30

Protein shake

 

6:30

Lentil curry

Potatoes

Protein shake

 

9:30

Protein shake

 

Actually calculating everything today was my best day as far as calories and protein probably since I usually get way under my 35% calories from protein goal. I just get so damn full trying to eat this much I usually make it closer to 2300-2500 calorie wise.

 

Today I added stuff like the corn chips and gatorade where I might exclude the chips and have some more water instead of gatorade.

 

Sorry for the long post but here are my questions...

 

1. Any critiques on the diet?

2. Is it ok to add a little bit of junk food like the 2 items above to help pad my calories?

3. I'm finding it a little tough to keep eating this much so often, any tips? When I was eating meat I could throw down a bagel w/ ham and cream cheese for breakfast, 12" steak and cheese with fries for lunch, and a large portion of meat and some type of side no problem, no idea how many calories or ratio of macronutrients. Now I have trouble eating a decent size portion of something like pasta or lentils perhaps because it isn't as tasty or the volume is so great.

[vegan801power]

What I have eaten/ will eat today:

7AM cup of soy yogurt

8AM builders bar

10AM cup of soy yogurt

1230 10 oz sushi, apple

3PM Pasta, either wheat or rice

5PM protein shake right before or after gym

8PM who knows, pound of tofu, burrito, something.

 

If you replace the gatorade with soy milk you will be getting a ton more calories, fat and most importantly protein. I go for the half fat chocolate silk. Stick with the vegan thing man, don't think that the vegan diet is any sort of inhibitor to being healthy, just the opposite. Junk food it up as well, or "dirty up your diet" as some of my bigger friends would say. I don't see any problem with it at all. something else that I do is just snack all day long on almonds, vegan jerkey, whatever is around.

[xjohanx]

Sorry for the long post but here are my questions...

 

Please don't apologize for that, your questions below are a lot easier to answer with detailed information. Thank you for your long post

 

1.Any critiques on the diet?

 

It's not the healthiest diet I've seen that's for sure. But bulking diets never are I guess. I would add some veggies, I know that this can seem foolish when trying to gain but they have a lot of healthy effects on your body that will help you minimize the damage you're causing by gaining weight. You can maybe blend frozen kale down your smoothies or something like that.

You seem to get a lot of your calories from supplements, are you enjoying this or do you wish you could eat more food? I think it's important to acctually enjoy your food when you're going to eat a lot of it. Maybe check out some TVP (textured vegetable protein), tofu etc. Hummus is great on sandwiches or for dipping carrots, cauliflower, peppers etc. You can make hummus on lentils so you don't have to soak anything. Just boil the lentils for 10-20 minutes, add spices and tahini voila. Dipping them with veggies or having them on a sandwhich with veggies is a great way to get more healthy stuff in your diet.

Your diet shouldn't only be focused on macronutrients (protein, carbs and fats) but also micronutrients (vitamins, minerals etc). Micros are essential for musclegrowth. Luckily you need to get a lot of calories and a lot of micros which makes nuts and seeds ideal . Roast them, eat them raw or whatever. Tahini, PB (choose natural without oils and sugar), pumpkin seeds, almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts etc etc yeah you get the idea hopefully. Cocoa powder is also great for this purpose (calories and minerals at least), maybe you can add some cocoa powder to your shakes? Of course you can put nuts in your shakes too.

Replace the olive oil in your shakes with flax seed oil so you get some omega 3.

 

Coconut milk is great for bulking and you can use it both in shakes and dishes. I prefer dishes. Some tvp stripes or lentils, tons of veggies, garlic etc and just munch out.

 

2. Is it ok to add a little bit of junk food like the 2 items above to help pad my calories?

 

Yeah totally. But please eat some veggies to your junk. Deal?

 

3. I'm finding it a little tough to keep eating this much so often, any tips?

 

I would eat less often. Have you tried the classic three meals a day?

If you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner plus a protein/carb shake on training days you should do fine. Ghrelin (a hunger hormone) isn't controlled properly when eating all the time which can leave some individuals hungry all the time (like me) or not really hungry at all (maybe you?). Eat at the same time every day and I'm sure you'll do fine. A lot of people also find the digesting part going better when not eating so often.

You might think it's hard to eat as much in one sitting but it really isn't if you eat a lot of high calorie foods like nuts and seeds. 100 grams of basically any given nut or seed is around 600 kcal. It's worth a shot.

 

 

Sorry for long reply

[Kickin11]

Ok I'll definitely try to get some flax seed oil next time I'm out shopping.

 

I guess I'd prefer not to have so many supplements (shakes) but I find them much easier to take in. I actually made a blueberrie / spinach / almond milk / protein / olive oil shake last night and it looked horrible, but I was able to drink it. Also, while I enjoy eating stuff like soba noodles, hummus, or lentils more than the shakes, I get kinda sick trying to eat 600 calories worth of them whereas a shake I can just down it.

 

I might try to reduce my meals from 6 to 4 and see if I can increase my capacity per meal. I think that will make things feel a lot less like work. I spend a ridiculous amount of time preparing and eating food it seems

[Pegesus]

I would try to lower the amount of protein shakes your taking in. Try increasing the amount of whole foods. When I first started bulking I was doing close to the same amount of shakes I got results but not good ones. I moved to a more whole food diet only have max 2 shakes a day and I have been gaining steadily and feeling overall much better with energy. And please like johan said eat more veggies and through is some fruits.

[Kickin11]

I'll see what I can do.

 

I made pizza tonight so I made the sauce out of fresh tomatoes and added roasted bell peppers, artichokes, sundried tomatoes, and eggplant as toppings. My shakes also have about 4 fruits in them total along with soy/rice/almond milk.

 

I could eat half of the pizza and was able to drink about 12 ounces of shake. My problem is I would have a hard time drinking the shake and then eating the pizza, or just eating a lot more pizza, and that's how it is most of the day. I was thinking how full I was eating the last bite of pizza but was able to down the shake no problem a minute later. So without the shakes following most of my meals I wouldn't be able to get enough calories. Usually I do have more veggies I guess the menu I listed was a low day, the day before I had broccoli, carrot, and tofu stir fry and tonight a veggie pizza. Lunch today was a bean and rice burrito with avocado, cucumbers, and olives.

 

I really do want to try to switch to more whole foods but it will probably be gradual since it seems difficult for me to eat a lot of real food. I think it might be due to my initial diet change a month ago and I was eating much smaller portions so my stomach must have shrunk.

 

Thanks for the advice and I"ll keep it all in mind!

[coroho]

I think you can speed up the change if you try to eat some real/whole food at every meal. I see you have a couple meals where all you have is some of your shake, and while I usually have a smoothie for a meal at some point in the day I'm hungry about an hour later (and they're pretty filling initially). Aim for having about 500 calories at every meal and that will get you to 3000. From there work on adding in some snacks or something or having an extra meal. That is, if you can't up the amount you can eat at once. I still can't eat that much in a sitting so I eat quite often.

 

By the way, I doubt you're going to get a 40/30/30 ratio without using a lot of isolated protein. As long as you get enough protein (1-2g / lb bodyweight) and get enough calories with good foods you should gain fine.

[xjohanx]

I might try to reduce my meals from 6 to 4 and see if I can increase my capacity per meal. I think that will make things feel a lot less like work. I spend a ridiculous amount of time preparing and eating food it seems

 

Been there done that mate

I used to eat every two to three hours. Now I eat two meals a day, maybe a snack like fruits inbetween. Simplify simplify simplify

[Marcina]

Try sticking to whole foods. Drinking 3-4 protein shakes a day is a waste of money. I usually have one after a workout and a scoop of creatine daily.

[seitan_man]

So one protein shake after a workout is enough you reckon?

[Kickin11]

If you eat enough protein from whole foods during the rest of the day I'm sure 1 after workout is fine. I just have a hard time with my appetite, and I'm trying to bulk, so I use more shakes to get a decent amount of calories from protein.

[Marcina]

Yeah and make sure you eat the most after your workout! I have a protein shake but an hour later I'm back in the kitchen for a big bowl of oatmeal. It's about 2 cups worth I guess. It's huge. I eat it all.