2 Months Of Vegetarian Eating

Due to a lot of people telling me that vegetarianism was unhealthy and that eating meat was so much better (for training) I decided to do a vegetarian experiment. In my opinion diet is a lot more about getting quality calories in instead of following some set up plan of eating weather it be paleo, vegetarianism or w/e other diet you choose to follow. People have been successful with a very large variety of diets and to say that one way of eating rules them all never made sense to me.

Month 1 - Learned some new cool recipes, saw absolutely no change in workout performance, mood or anything that I though might be effected by diet. I kept milk, cheese and eggs in but the majority of my calories came from brown rice, A TON of beans, sprouted ezekial bread, lots of avocados and different types of nuts. Body comp stayed relatively the same (means I didn't see any visible changes).

Month 2 - So after the first month and because I've struggled for a while getting back up to my weight of 160 lbs. after I got sick, I decided to go on a muscle gain to prove my point further. Staring weight was 148 lbs. ending weight 162.5 lbs. (over the course of 6 weeks). I did gain some fat and unfortunetly I did not do body fat measurements for exact figures but I started out with very visible abs. At 162.5 my abs are still clearly visible but I did gain a bit of fat over the lower abdominal section.

Supplements that I used were vitamin D, fishoil and vitamin b-12 (vegetarians are often deficient). I also took creatine for the second month for the weight gain and also once again since vegetarians are often deficient in it.

Edit:

Things I liked about vegetarian eating:

Meal prep time was literally halved, groceries were cheaper, getting in more calories was a lot easier (for me), trying out new dishes and recipes I never would have found or tried otherwise.

Things I didn't like:

Having to order tofu at a sushi restaurant when everyone else is pigging out on sushi

Very interesting! Did you stay away from soy products?

I myself am a vegan and consume a LOT of soy products on a daily basis... Tofu, Soy milk, Soy protein, ...

If not, were beans your primary source for protein? How and when did you eat them? What about workout nutrition?

Also, any chance you might do the same experiment going fully vegan?

I am trying to eat upto 2 pounds of spinach in a meal with fats (flax seeds) ..its got 30 gram of pure quality protein.

If you live where Sun is plenty, I wouldn't worry about taking Vit D pills unless you not getting enough exposure.

Fish oil is good , but there are more than plenty of healthy fats of nutritional value in plant department...try nuts and seeds.

B-12 deficiency is not limited to vegetarians/vegans..its related to absorption in intestine and not lack...also those deficient in b12 are deficient in tons of other vitamins and minerals...b12 deficiency is rare in veggieheads and most are healthy (in this regard). that being said , its not a much big of deal if you supplement with it..just make sure its the methylcobalamin or hydroxycobalamin version and NOT cyanocobalamin ..relatively expensive but worth it! ...b12 shots work best but no need if your body can absorb sublingually.

Enough creatine is manufactured in your body when your liver and kidneys are top notch. Best supplement is sleep (like before 10 pm) only to wake up when your body says so.. If your waking up tired and need coffee, then you are doing it all wrong :-)

That seems like an awfully hard way to get 30 grams of protein in but more power to you for stomaching that down.

archerengelo said:

I am trying to eat upto 2 pounds of spinach in a meal with fats (flax seeds) ..its got 30 gram of pure quality protein.

That seems like an awfully hard way to get 30 grams of protein in but more power to you for stomaching that down.

AlexX said:

That seems like an awfully hard way to get 30 grams of protein in but more power to you for stomaching that down.

That might be overdoing it on the Spinach as it is very high in Oxalates.

I was a vegetarian for 15 years, and felt great about 12 of those years. I was doing very advanced Ashtanga yoga at that time, so gaining weight was not a concern, I can't comment on that.

At some point I began to feel weak and had failure to thrive syndrome. It took me a while to realise it was time for meat again. Now that I've been on meat for a couple of years, I'm ready to go back to some vegetarian meals. I really love the Indian style of cooking.

For sure I found the exact opposite, my meals take half as long to cook now as opposed to vegetarian cooking. But that's not a big deal in any case, it's just time management.

I personally have concluded, that the body will want different things at different stages, and it is a complete waste of time to try to persuade anyone to be a meat eater or vegetarian. There is no definitive best.

However, if one adopts a vegan diet, please do be on the lookout for failure to thrive syndrome, and if it occurs be a bit more open to other nutritional philosophies.

Indian food lacks pork, especially carnitas. Epic fail, get these people some pigs.

Let's eat some once you come back stateside, Cole. My treat.

Carnitas definitely gives me desire to live, heheh.

I was just plain irritable as a vegetarian. I attribute this to a lack of calories and protein, especially as I wasn't doing a lot of milk or eggs just cheese.

A lot of vegetarian meals are doable, especially when just being a fitness generalist.

The human body stores enough b12 for 15-20 years on average.

Deficiencies will not be noticed over short periods of time, just as cigarette smoking does not appear to raise cancer risk for the first 10 years of smoking. However, by 30 years of smoking the risk factor has been multiplied by 5x or something like that

In a similar analogy, at 30 years of insufficient b12 in the diet (or of poor absorption, either due to age or disease) will show symptoms of megaloblastic anemia and possible "senility."

You can't judge sufficiency until you take into account natural b12 storage in the young, healthy body. This is also why you rarely see b12 symptoms before the age of 60, even though by the age of 45-50 your body will no longer be making enough intrinsic factor to absorb any form of b12.

Don't believe the hype about the different forms of B12: yes, it is true that the methylcobalamin is the active form, and I don't see any reason to not use it if it is in your price range, but there is no significant health benefit to using this over cyanocobalamin.

The cyanocobalamin has a CN group on it instead of a CH3 group, hence the name cyano instead of methyl, but our bodies have no trouble converting the cyanocobalamin into what we need. The amount of energy needed to make the conversion is not significant, and the traces of cyanide are also not significant. Your body will get rid of it and you'll never know the difference.

Keep in mind that your body does not have to run off of the B12 in your diet, it is easily able to do everything with the 15 years worth of B12 in your liver.

If money is an issue, don't feel bad about taking the cyano version. it is not a waste of money. If money is no problem then get whichever you like.

Obviously personal experiences in this matter should supercede scientific rote: Since there really isn't much of a difference besides price, especially for young folks, do whatever makes you feel better. You feel better with Methyl, Cool, get that.

The cyanocobalamin has a CN group on it instead of a CH3 group, hence the name cyano instead of methyl, but our bodies have no trouble converting the cyanocobalamin into what we need. The amount of energy needed to make the conversion is not significant, and the traces of cyanide are also not significant. Your body will get rid of it and you'll never know the difference.

true , the body excretes CN without trouble since the amount present is negligible to temper any functioning. But my reasoning is same as to why I like to breath less-polluted or possibly clean air(besides i am fan of methyl group, it shapes up the organic chemistry) . But yeah, body deals with worse everyday. We have antibiotics in food for same reason today.I worry about our mentality... we just wont stop until we hit the wall lol