Can you Build Muscle on a Vegan Diet?
The number of people adopting a vegan diet has skyrocketed in recent years, and shows no signs of slowing down.
Everyone’s got their own motives for switching to a plant-based diet, including ethical reasons like helping to prevent animal cruelty and dramatically reducing their environmental impact, as well as the proven health benefits I cover in this article.
But, as a registered sports nutritionist specialising in plant-based nutrition, I’ve found one of the main concerns from strength and fitness enthusiasts is this: they want to tread a little lighter in this world, but assume it’ll come at a cost to their strength and fitness.
Yet you only have to look at the growing number of world-class vegan athletes who are demonstrating that the complete opposite is in fact true: many are discovering it could give them a competitive edge.
Still, the misconceptions surrounding veganism from a fitness perspective continue. My mission, therefore, is to knock these myths on the head once and for all, as ever using a scientific, evidence-based approach to do so. In this article I’ll answer some of the most common questions I’m asked about building muscle of a vegan diet.
Can vegans get enough protein to build muscle?
You certainly don’t need meat, fish, or animal products to get your protein fix. What’s more, protein requirements are very often over-estimated in the bodybuilding / fitness worlds. It’s true that increasing protein intake can help to promote muscle synthesis when combined with strength training.
Historically, this notion has led trainers to recommended up to 3g of protein per kg of bodyweight each day for building muscle (i.e. 240g of protein a day for an 80kg man). But a recent review combining results from 49 controlled studies showed that protein intakes above 1.6g per kg of bodyweight per day made no further difference to gains in muscle mass or strength (1).
For an 80kg man this equates to a maximum beneficial intake of 128g protein per day, which is very easily achievable on a vegan diet. And remember this is for strength training athletes: for endurance athletes and recreational exercisers, the optimal intake is likely to be much closer to the average recommended intake for adults in the UK of 50g a day (the level used on food nutrition labels).
Is it difficult to get the full range of amino acids on a vegan diet?
This vegan Bolognese recipe is very high in protein and the combination of grains and pulses means it contains all the amino acids in abundance!
Proteins are made up of 20 amino acids, nine of which are ‘essential’ because our bodies cannot produce them on their own, so they need to be provided by the foods we eat. Animal foods contain all the essential amino acids, whereas plant foods are usually low in at least one amino acid.
However, a varied and balanced vegan diet consisting of a variety of whole plant foods will contain all the amino acids necessary for muscle growth. For example, beans are high in the amino acid lysine but are low in another called methionine, whereas many grains are high in methionine and low in lysine. Similar complementary combinations are found in various pulses, vegetables, nuts, seeds and grains. So in the context of an overall diet consisting of a variety of whole plant foods, you can rest assured knowing you’ll be getting plenty of each individual amino acid to optimise your results.
As well as this, your body can draw from it’s ‘free amino acid pool’ which is available because there is a constant turnover of protein in the body. So, if for any reason a certain meal you eat is low in a particular amino acid, your body can draw from this pool to balance things out. That’s why there’s no need to combine protein sources at each meal, as long as a variety of plant protein sources are eaten throughout the day.
Will a vegan diet affect my recovery?
This is in fact true, but perhaps not in the way you might expect – a whole foods vegan diet actually improves recovery time, because of the high level of phytonutrients and antioxidants in plants which, on average, have 64x the antioxidant properties of animal foods (2). This helps to reduce exercise-induced inflammation and resulting muscle soreness – so for competitive athletes, the quicker recovery from consuming a plant-based diet can get them back training harder, sooner. Taken over the course of a whole season or a year, the cumulative results can be significant.
This effect has been shown in numerous studies assessing real-life performance of athletes in both endurance and strength settings. But you can’t cut corners by just taking antioxidant supplements – research has shown that taken in pill form, antioxidants can in fact impair performance and recovery. The nutrition of whole plant foods is far more complex than just taking single nutrients in isolation.
Do vegan athletes perform as well?
There are a large (and fast-growing) number of vegan athletes, from a wide variety of sports / disciplines, who are surpassing their competitors. From ultra-distance endurance athletes to competitive bodybuilders, and everything in-between, world-class athletes are adopting a plant-based diet to give them the edge.
The Tennessee Titans NFL team are a prime example – half the team have gone plant based to help aid recovery and increase energy levels. Some of these athletes are 18+ stone and they’re at the top of their game. The same goes for a growing number of NBA players. Then there’s world-record holding strongmen, powerlifters and bodybuilders all proving that a vegan diet doesn’t hold you back and can in fact give you a competitive advantage. Of course citing these examples is anecdotal in nature, but it at least shows that a well-planned vegan diet can support world-class performance.
Are vegans unhealthy or malnourished?
It’s all very well looking at world-class athletes, but what about the rest of us? Well, on average, vegans and vegetarians live longer, and grow old with fewer health conditions (3,4). For example, those eating a plant-based diet tend to have lower risk of heart disease and cancer (our two biggest killers in the west) as well as lower risk of diabetes, healthier gut profiles, and lower blood pressure.
This is due to a plethora of reasons. Partly because plant foods are incredible nutritional packages, filled with phytonutrients, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and fibre. But also because cutting out meat and animal products means a lower intake of saturated fat and other potentially detrimental compounds found in them.
Conclusion
As you can see, the latest science and research might just make you think twice about traditional teachings in the world of sports nutrition. Just because things may have worked well for some people historically, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the optimal way today for those willing to challenge the status quo and base their actions on the best information and facts we have available now.
Want to know how to boost your performance in your sport or training? My book, The Plant-Based Power Plan, shows you how to increase your strength, power and fitness so you can preform at your best - using the exact same strategies I use with elite-level plant-based athletes.
References
1. Morton, R., Murphy, K., Mckellar, S., Schoenfeld, B., Henselmans, M., Helms, E., Phillips, S. (2018). A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 52(6), 376-384.
2. Carlsen, M., Halvorsen, B., Holte, K., Bøhn, S., Dragland, S., Senoo, H., Jacobs, D. (2010). The total antioxidant content of more than 3100 foods, beverages, spices, herbs and supplements used worldwide. Nutrition Journal, 9(1), 3.
3. Song, M., Fung, T., Hu, F., Willett, W., Longo, V., Chan, A., & Giovannucci, E. (2016). Association of Animal and Plant Protein Intake With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality. JAMA Internal Medicine, 176(10), 1453-1463.
4. Dinu, M., Abbate, R., Gensini, G., Casini, A., & Sofi, F. (2017). Vegetarian, vegan diets and multiple health outcomes: A systematic review with meta-analysis of observational studies. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 57(17), 3640-3649.