How to eat optimlly as a vegetarian?

[Epimetheus]

Hello everyone. I know it's fairly accepted here that paleo is the most efficient and logical way to eat to maximize health and performance, but what would you suggest for someone who wants to practice vegetarianism while still eating for good performance. thanks for any advice

[George Launchbury]

Epimetheus,

If it's OK to ask:

> Are you a vegetarian through choice or necessity?

> To what degree are you vegetarian?

Regards,

George.

[Epimetheus]

I myself am not a vegetarian, I consider it unnatural and as such not optimal for maximizing your physical potential. However my best friend and favorite training buddy is, and I recently got him into nutrition a bit more. I think he's pretty strict with it, but I've seen him eat eggs before. It's a choice too, presumably.

[George Launchbury]

Sorry - I've tried, tried and tried again. I'm finding it hard to write anything other than an anti-vegetarian rant ...and that's not going to help anyone.

Anyone who feels they can be a little more helpful, please be my guest.

Regards,

George.

[Edward Smith]

Well, this is going to be hard, I would suggest high levels of veggies, fruit and nuts. The thing about eating those (and only those) is it's hard to fell satisfied, even if you did eat high fat foods such as avocado or nuts with every meal, plus he'll get bored with them, so even though I don't like the idea I would suggest he add some grain to his diet, I would suggest slow cooked oats, and perhaps some cheese, riccota and cottage are good choices, and of course eggs if he eats them.

Note: I'll try and finish this at school.

Ed

[Blairbob]

Cheese and eggs. If he's not up for that, tell him he can eat all the soy he wants and become an eunuch. You can still find plenty of fats that are ok within veganism but he is gonna have to supplement certain minerals and vitamins if he takes it that far.

If he is a lacto and egg vegetarian, he'll be ok.

[Bice]

Hard to be vegetarian and eat foods what are supporting your strenght. The most important thing to the human body is the "animal-protein", like fish, chicken, turkey... meats. In the nature is hard to find a good protein source. Maybe bean, peas, corn, soy can help to keep your muscles anf have good performance, but i think its stupidity. I tried vegetarinism for 4 moths (just curiosity), and it was terrible. Boring foods, strange tastes, and no meat. Training without meat is such as suicide. You cant bring enough energy into your body without meat. (or hard to do that). By the way. I know, there are 8 essential amino-acids what your body cant produce, and you have to get them from food. Plants arent have so much protein (mostly essentials)... If you want to be strong, and have good healt, you should eat meat! Meat is important!

Another questions?

[Coach Sommer]

Mike Mahler is a very successful strong coach and athlete who also happens to be a vegetarian. He has written a number of very good articles over the years. You may find the following article helpful.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[John Sapinoso]

i was vegetarian for about a month by accident (weird huh). Most of my protein intake came from tofu, edamame, protein shakes with peanut butter and soymilk.

[Blairbob]

By accident? Interesting. I subjected myself to it to see how the other side lives because I was getting into a relationship with a vegetarian ( who also loved LSD running ). I only took it to going off meat ( which made my dad want to beat me when he was doing the cooking ) and still ate lots of cheese and beans ( though I wasn't regularly drinking milk at the time typically in my diet ). It was a rough month no matter how much lasagna and bean and cheese veggie burritos I ate. Protein intake levels were still good, I thought but it was a hard month. I did not supplement with yogurt either.

[Epimetheus]

Thanks everyone for all the advice. He said he isnt a vegan, so i guess eggs or dairy things are probably a go for him. I sent him the link as well.

[Guest jumpupandfly]

Yeah, the main issue with vegetarians is gettin the protein. But if hes willing to eat eggs thats a good start.

Also, whey protein is a good option.

Read up on foods that complement each other in terms of their amino acid profiles. This means if you eat them together your getting all your essentials between the two.

Ex: Rice and beans.

Search around and you can probably find more info regarding this

[rambo5501]

Personally I think being a vegetarian is not the best way to go. But there are some people that are truly impressive as a vegetarian.

http://www.mikemahler.com/

This guy has awesome kettlebell articles and the guy is a vegetarian, it shows that you don't need meat for a good build. Although It is way easier.

[Blairbob]

I'm not vegetarian nor vegan nor do I enjoy training athletes who are. I've had nothing but a royal pain in the butt with them and their families concerning their training, but...

I may rethink this and think better of it come this article. I'll be sending it out to my colleagues as I'm sure they have to deal with it.

http://www.mikemahler.com/articles/vegan_diet.html

Seemed like a pretty good article with good alternatives for protein that weren't just soy. Soy can kiss my butt. Besides it has one of the worst tastes besides it's hyped up value that tends to not mention how processed it is.

[Fred]

I've been a vegetarian for 9 years now. started gymnastics a year ago. since i started gymnastics i packed 3kg bodyweight while reducing my BF% from 13.9 to 11.5%. i thinks it's a fairly decent amount of muscle and the strength gains pretty much overwhelmed me. i watch my eating and supplementing habits pretty close though.

[Mark Weaver]

Peanut butter and whole wheat provide a complete protein. Eat those PBJs.

[Blairbob]

My only annoyance of it is when dealing with families that are vegetarian that impose it on their children. As well, these families tend to be light on the intake of protein and calories and fat period. This is a catastrophe for young gymnasts but sometimes they don't see it as a problem because another child is into dance or soccer or some very light sport.

Light sport vs gymnastics for a competitive athlete is a world of difference. Even at the lowest competitive levels. As far as when it's rec or pre-team...probably not a factor unless they're workouts are over 1.5 hrs of 5-6 hours per week.

[Ortprod]

Just a random note: Mike Mahler runs a ton of hormone blood tests on himself and recommends it as well. I think it is a good idea (especially for a vegetarian) if one can afford it. The main problem one would have, being a strict vegetarian and not eating fish, is the omega 3/omega 6 ratio being way out of balance. As long as your friend isn't a vegan, he can consume whey protein.

[AndreasN]

This topic is close to my heart, so I felt this would be a good place to put my first post. I started excercising one year ago, at about the same time as I stopped eating meat. During spring and summer 2008 I focused mainly on long-distance running and dabbled with strength and conditioning training on the side, trying to find something that sparked my interest. Anyway, during the olympics I watched a lot of the gymnastics and was amazed with the competitors brutal strength and body control and started reading up on it on the Internet. I found this Forum in august and have been a frequent visitor ever since, reading a lot of the material and threads posted here. I began experimenting with the static positions and tried to piece together some kind of a training schedule and kept on doing that for the remainder of the year. Then I bought the book and things became so much clearer, and since then I’ve been working with a steady-state regimen. So, to get to the point (finally!):

During this period I’ve seen some slow but steady improvement, in august I couldn’t do a simple Frog Stand, even get close to horizontal with my tuck. Front Lever, do more than 3-5 pull-ups or lift myself up in a tuck. L-seat for more than a couple of seconds etc. Now I can hold an adv. Tuck Planche for about 10 seconds, and the same with the adv. Front Lever, do 10 pull-ups, I’m beginning to straddle my legs on the Back Lever and I’ve achieved a piked L-Seat for approximately 15 seconds. And this on a meatless diet. I say meatless in the sense that I still eat fish on occasion (I’m taking things slowly, trying to learn about diet and nutrition with the aim of getting rid of all animal products, or as much as possible from my consumtion). Eitherway, I don’t believe it’s often enough to be considered a big source of protein for me. Of course, then there’s the whole Omega 3-thingie, but that’s another story. I guess what I want to say is that it’s not impossible to gain muscle on a vegetarian diet. I don’t have any scientifical credentials to back it up, I just tried it, and it seems to work. It will be really interesting to see what will happen to my body when I begin to go all out vegan the coming autumn. Oh, anyway, if anybody made it all the way down here; thank you for bearing with me! This is a great Forum.

/Andreas

[ASForum]

Most of India is vegetarian. There are tons of traditional Indian Martial Artists, Wrestlers etc who are strong vegetarians.

Veganbodybuilding.com

WeLikeItRaw.com (Bonus: Check out & google for a guy called Nature Love)

Also Mike Mahler, Bill Pearl etc are great people to follow as an Example.

I've been a vegetarian for 9 years now. started gymnastics a year ago. since i started gymnastics i packed 3kg bodyweight while reducing my BF% from 13.9 to 11.5%. i thinks it's a fairly decent amount of muscle and the strength gains pretty much overwhelmed me. i watch my eating and supplementing habits pretty close though.

Nice. Do share with us your nutrition and workouts etc.

[iyaites]

I am a vegan also, and RAW foodist. And i think it's great.

My diet is 99 % bananas and almonds, honey, walnuts, hazelnuts, avocados and green leafy vegetables. Where I live, i do not have much variety with my food choices, but im perfectly content with the things I eat - it tastes good and my stomach is always light, so i can workout whenever i feel like it. Sometimes I do handstands right after a meal and i feel perfectly well.

I packed on about 8 kg of muscle since i started training hard (Almost a year). I do gymnastics for upper body and lower body weights. When I started I could hardly do 30 pushups, now I can planche push up with bad form (arched back).

So it's not detrimental to strength gains - In fact digestion is one of, if not THE most energy consuming activity in our body. So the better digestible your meals are, the more energy you will really get out of your food. I strongly recommend everybody to at least research into food combining.

[ASForum]

I am a vegan also, and RAW foodist. And i think it's great.

My diet is 99 % bananas and almonds, honey, walnuts, hazelnuts, avocados and green leafy vegetables. Where I live, i do not have much variety with my food choices, but im perfectly content with the things I eat - it tastes good and my stomach is always light, so i can workout whenever i feel like it. Sometimes I do handstands right after a meal and i feel perfectly well.

I packed on about 8 kg of muscle since i started training hard (Almost a year). I do gymnastics for upper body and lower body weights. When I started I could hardly do 30 pushups, now I can planche push up with bad form (arched back).

So it's not detrimental to strength gains - In fact digestion is one of, if not THE most energy consuming activity in our body. So the better digestible your meals are, the more energy you will really get out of your food. I strongly recommend everybody to at least research into food combining.

Wow iyates.. I'd love to see more details on your progress since you started: Exercise Routine, Diet.. etc Initial stage, Current stage.

Are you also on Give It to Me Raw?

[iyaites]

Hey crashnburn, I wrote you a private message.

No, I'm not on Give it to me Raw, but i checked it out, seems like a interesting site, i will check it more often i think=)

[dgibbons]

Do you guys put much stock in the 'Eat Right for your Type' system? Ive read that Poliquin basically agrees with D'adamo for the most part. Do you still think it is optimal for someone with blood type A to eat a paleo style diet?

I'm type A, and I ate meat most of my life. For the last year or so, I have been mostly vegetarian and I haven't felt a decrease in energy, strength, etc. Ive actually made more progress in my sport than I had over the last 5 years or so. I think being a vegan would be tougher, as I rely on eggs as a source of protein.

I don't think my change in diet deserves any credit for the gains, but I don't think it hindered me at all. Thoughts?

[Ortprod]

Do you guys put much stock in the 'Eat Right for your Type' system? Ive read that Poliquin basically agrees with D'adamo for the most part. Do you still think it is optimal for someone with blood type A to eat a paleo style diet?

I'm type A, and I ate meat most of my life. For the last year or so, I have been mostly vegetarian and I haven't felt a decrease in energy, strength, etc. Ive actually made more progress in my sport than I had over the last 5 years or so. I think being a vegan would be tougher, as I rely on eggs as a source of protein.

I don't think my change in diet deserves any credit for the gains, but I don't think it hindered me at all. Thoughts?

I have seen material that debunks the idea. I don't believe it as per DeAdamo's book but I think the concept is something to be expanded on.

I am just a neanderthal though.