If you've experienced any difficulty building muscle on a vegan diet, there are three possible causes:
You aren't eating enough
You're doing too much cardio
You're lifting too little or too much (yes, overtraining kills gains!)
I should note that none of these issues are inherent to vegan bodybuilding specifically, but rather plague lifters from all dietary backgrounds. Still, this article is specific to vegan bodybuilders, so let's dive into each one of these muscle-building pitfalls to make sure you keep making those vegan gains! 🌱 💪
Muscle-building pitfall #1: You aren't eating enough
Generally speaking, whole plant foods are less calorie dense than their animal product counterparts. And if you aren't in a caloric surplus, meaning you are consuming more calories than you burn each day, then your body will not be able to gain muscle.
Some research and anecdotes claim that beginner bodybuilders can both gain muscle and lose fat on a caloric deficit, but I don't have experience with this. However, I know for sure that anyone with a year of serious lifting experience can't make calorie-restricted "newbie gains."
So, when working to gain muscle, you must maintain a caloric surplus, but limit yourself to no more than 10 percent beyond your basal metabolic rate (BMR, or the amount of energy your body burns by simple being alive) plus activity burn (the amount of additional energy you burn from movement and exercise). In other words, you don't want to eat more than 110 percent of the calories you burn each day.
Hitting your numbers without going overboard will require you to (approximately) track your calories, both the calories you burn and the calories you consume. Once you track your calories for a few weeks, you'll get a pretty good idea what foods and portions you should be aiming for.
As for protein, my standard advice for protein intake when bulking is 0.9 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day to optimize the muscle building potential of your diet. Click here to learn Everything You Need to Know About Vegan Protein, and read the studies upon which I base my protein intake advice.
As a vegan, I'm sure you are concerned about eating healthy foods packed with nutrition, not just foods that build muscle. Unfortunately, most of the healthiest foods in the world are nutrient dense, but not calorie or protein dense. For this reason, you must use careful meal planning to maintain a caloric surplus and hit your higher-than-normal protein intake needs with a whole food, plant-based diet. My secret is that I drink my micronutrients instead of consuming monstrous salads that fill me up and take forever to eat.
Here's my micronutrient-packed Berry Ginger Kale Smoothie Recipe that allows me to check off more than HALF the boxes from Dr. Greger's Daily Dozen list. I sip a half gallon portion (64 oz.) throughout most mornings.
Note: Non-extractable polyphenols, potent micronutrients in plant foods that defend our bodies against degenerative diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, form the majority of dietary polyphenols. In plant foods, these health-promoting polyphenols are stuck to dietary fiber. In other words, no fiber, no polyphenols. As such, juicing fruits and vegetables removes fiber and the plentiful polyphenols that bind to it. These findings suggest smoothies are preferable to juicing in maximizing micronutrient intake.
Muscle-building pitfall #2: You're doing too much cardio
I understand you want to stay lean while building muscle mass. So do I. Unfortunately, doing too much cardio fatigues your muscles, further breaking down muscles in need of repair after tough resistance training.
In a recent study, researchers divided 30 resistance trained men into 4 groups and they completed a 6 week training program in which they trained 3 days per week.
Group 1: Only strength training 3 times per week
Group 2: Strength training 3 times per week and endurance training (treadmill running) once per week
Group 3: Strength training 3 times per week and endurance training (treadmill running) 3 times per week
Group 4: Didn't train at all (control)
At the end of the program, Group 1 and Group 2 had the highest lower body strength increases, but Group 1, the strength only training group, had a significantly higher lower body power increase than all the other groups. Upper body strength increased similarly in Groups 1-3.
What do these findings tell us?
If muscle growth and strength are the primary goal, then you should keep cardio to a minimum
Interference between endurance training and resistance training is a local process. In other words, lower body-focused cardio like running has a negative effect on lower body muscle and strength gains, but doesn't affect upper body muscle and strength gains.
Thankfully, you can stay lean while building vegan muscle with a whole food vegan diet, heavy compound lifting, and some high-intensity interval training (HITT). Honestly, I only do HITT during the spring and summer months to shave off a few extra body fat percentage points. I've found that I can lean bulk quite well with a healthy diet full of whole plant foods like rice, potatoes, lentils, beans, and broccoli.
If your cardiovascular health is the main reason you do cardio, then 5-10 minutes of HITT per day, plus a diet free of cholesterol and little-to-no saturated fat will do the trick.
Just to clarify, I really enjoy hiking, mountain biking, and drumming, all activities that require serious movement and could be considered as "cardio." I'm not suggesting you stop doing physical activities you love. I'm just saying that you shouldn't slave away on a treadmill every morning because it hinders muscle growth.
Muscle-building pitfall #3: You're lifting too little or too much
You build muscle by damaging your muscles. This seems counterintuitive, I know, but allow me to explain.
Skeletal muscle is made up of long fibrous chains containing proteins. Bundles of thousands of fibers make up the muscle itself. When you engage in a heavy workout, you damage your muscles, causing microtears in the muscle fiber.
The body naturally repairs microtear damage by mending the torn fibers using amino acids, the components of protein your body synthesizes on its own and from food.
It takes about 48 hours for your muscles to repair themselves after a hard workout. This recovery process is known as cellular repair. The result is a muscle that is larger and stronger than before.
To cause microtear damage to your larger, stronger muscles, you must gradually increase the exercise-induced stress your muscles experience (i.e. lifting heavier and heavier weights over time). This gradual weight increase over time is called progressive overload.
The Progressive Overload Principle
The progressive overload principle is the most important rule of natural bodybuilding. In order for muscles to grow in size and strength, they must be forced to adapt to a tension that is heavier than anything previously experienced. In other words, you must lift heavier and heavier weights over time as your body becomes stronger and your muscles become bigger.
Therefore, you MUST emphasize heavy compound weightlifting in your workouts to gain serious muscle and strength.
What exactly is a compound exercise? A compound exercise is an exercise that involves multiple joints and muscle groups.
Because compound exercises employ multiple muscle groups, they allow you to lift heavier weights through a wide range of motion and therefore better progressively overload your muscles.
If you want more information on what kind of exercises I do, check out my typical weekly workout routine and list of favorite exercises.
Volume is the total number of repetitions (reps) lifted over a specific period of time (usually a week).
If your volume per week is too low, you will struggle to gain muscle and strength. Remember, the goal is to progressively overload your muscles to gain size and strength. You can't progressively overload your muscles with a few squats, pullups, bench presses, and deadlifts per week.
If your volume per week is too high, you'll run into serious problems with overtraining and push your muscles beyond repair.
Get the volume right, and you'll make gains faster than ever!
If you want to learn all everything you need to know about hypertrophy (the technical term for muscle growth), download your free copy of my 35-page Complete Guide to Building Vegan Muscle. I promise it will blow you away!
That's a wrap! Thank you so much for reading this article!
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Your vegan fitness trainer,
Leif