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Thank you everyone for your insights. asparagus: Good point regarding compound exercises. But I'd still need to do heavy cardio on the off days to burn an equal amount if I'm eating the same every day. Thank you for sharing your diet. Evader: Thank you for your thoughts about shakes and tofu. It's not that I'm against supplements, I'd just prefer not to use them because of my ideology. I like to believe that eating a vegan diet is as natural and simple as eating an omnivorous diet. Because of this I try to avoid processed foods (or at least not be reliant on them) and for me this includes things like tofu and protein shakes and powders. If it's highly challenging to build a lot of muscle without them, I'm willing to concede and use them. But I'd prefer to never have to get into a discussion with someone who isn't vegan about why I depend on these items when I could just change my diet. It's not a deal breaker, just my ideal ideology. stcalico: Thank you for the references. I've heard that around .8g is all that is really needed, but I figured it would be better for me to aim for 1g for those days when I will inevitably fall short. I found it interesting that they dismissed nitrogen balance as an obsolete method of measuring anabolism. Is that true? I've made strength gains in the past month, but have had no increase in muscle size (which is what I actually want). I did some reading and found that this is likely due to improvements in the central nervous system. While I think it's lovely that we can adapt this way, I still want my muscle! jungleinthefrunk: Thank you for sharing your diet and supplementation. Thanks again to everyone. I'd still love to hear more comments!

I've seen this discussed in bits and pieces here but I haven't found a topic that gets to the heart of what I want to know. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. As a quick background I weigh 133 lbs and my goal is to build muscle. Going by the rule of "1g per lb of body weight of protein" I should be consuming 133g of protein per day. I'm not. I'm finding it difficult to reach that number. In fact most days I only reach about half of that. My BMR is just below 1,600. I figured if I attempt to add around 2 lbs (7,000 calories) of muscle in a month then I should be eating around 200 more calories per day (7,000/30 days per month minus a bunch to be conservative). This means I should be eating around 1,800 calories per day, along with 133g of protein. So far, all sounds good and well. But I do not use a protein supplement and would greatly prefer not to. This leaves me with the option of consuming high protein, low calorie foods. (I'd like to steer away from the heavy bulk/cut cycle.) From what I can gather, tofu and spinach are my best bets with beans as a lesser used option. But I'm weary of eating a diet composed greatly of tofu. So to get to the point: Is a vegan diet for bodybuilding possible and appropriate without the use of a protein supplement? If it is, how do you personally manage it? What foods have I overlooked that will allow me to get the needed protein intake without adding extra calories? Are crazy amounts of cardio in my foreseeable future if I choose to continue on this path?

Thanks for your help Mini Forklift! I guess I don't completely understand how my body reacts to calories and food even with all of the measurements I take. I've been very slowly going down in weight (1 pound every 1 1/2 to 2 weeks) while only eating 3 meals a day totaling about 1,400-1,600 calories. My BMR has been about 1,600 calories. But typically working out would burn an extra 1,200 calories per week. So I thought I should be losing weight a bit faster. Then last night I skipped a meal and I lost about 5 pounds overnight! I don't load myself up with sodium so I'm very surprised. All of this is fine and wonderful because it's bringing me close to the body fat percentage I want, but how do I know I didn't lose some muscle in the process? How can I be sure that when I eat a small excess of calories that they will go to muscle? I eat protein and carbs after my weight training... Perhaps I'm thinking too much about things. I'm just the type of person who likes to understand exactly what is happening and why.

Hi all! So last year I made a resolution to begin exercising regularly and I stuck to it. Along the way I learned how to both gain and lose weight (fat). I tried to build muscle but I didn't make the gains that I would have liked to. This year I want to see my body transform by building larger muscles. I lift dumbbells Mon, Wed, Fri for 30 minutes with 3 sets of 8-12 reps. On Tues, Thurs and Sat I do cardio for 30-60 minutes. I'm monitoring everything and I usually hover in zone 2 with about 5 minutes each day in zone 3 (80% Heart Rate). Now, as for what this has to do with nutrition... I'm currently at about 12.5% body fat. My goal is to get to around 9% and stay there. My understanding is that this contradicts the "rules" of bodybuilding which say that you must consume excess calories in order to build muscle. But I don't want fat to come riding in with those calories (okay, I admit - it's not a fear - just a strong aversion). I understand that I may be limited by biology though. Is it possible to build muscle without having to go through bulking and cutting phases? Will the changes be noticeable enough? (For some background, I'm male, 5'11" and currently weigh 136lbs.)