Being a caveman/cavewoman in the pursuit of achieving your bodybuilding goals is what most people would think of after looking at your diet. Typically , bodybuilding diets consist of lean cuts of meat, poultry, and fish along with complex carbohydrates such as sweet potatoes, brown rice, and veggies. The reason for this is the amount of protein per serving found in food sources such as beef and chicken. Bodybuilders require lots of protein to build muscle and rely on readily available sources for this.
If you are not looking around in the grocery store for alternative protein sources, you are missing out on some valuable foods that will give you the amino acid profiles you need for muscle-building. That’s when it might be a good idea to go shopping with a fellow bodybuilder who is a vegetarian or vegan. These athletes, because of their conscious decision to abstain from animal products and animal based products, have become great at finding sources of protein not normally found on the menu of most bodybuilders.
Let’s take a look at what it means to be a vegetarian bodybuilder and show that it is possible and can take physiques to championship levels.
Bodybuilding Foods for Vegetarians
If you are anything like me, you love steak and love eating meat in general. It is the basis of my diet for sure, but vegetarians avoid eating animal products except for dairy products and eggs for some. Vegans avoid animal products all together and base their diets on amino acid rich plant-based food sources.
These sources include but are not limited to:
- fruits
- vegetables
- grains
- beans
- legumes
- nuts
- seeds
- soy products such as tofu and soy based protein powders
- hemp based protein powders
- seaweed
- kale
- broccoli
- spinach
- tempeh
These food sources are extremely rich in amino acids which as you know are the building blocks of protein and the catalyst for muscle growth. Combining any of these food sources with complex carb sources and consuming a meal like this every 2-3 hours is providing your body with everything it needs to maintain a nitrogen rich, anabolic environment primed for muscle hypertrophy.
Supplementing Your Efforts
Due to the restrictions, vegetarians and vegans have in their diets, making use of supplementation is key to their overall goals. If you are a bodybuilder following the practices of vegetarianism or veganism, your main priority should be consuming amino acids to ensure you are getting what you need for growth. For that reason using products such as AST Sports Science’s BCAA 4500, MultiPro 32X, Micronized Creatine and GL3 is a great way to ensure you are getting what you need. If you are a vegetarian, then using VP2 Why Isolate or MyoGenin is a must!
It is possible to achieve greatness as a bodybuilder on a vegetarian or vegan diet. It will be a difficult road getting big without eating some animal products, but it’s not impossible. If you are extremely diligent in choosing the correct plant-based foods, use the appropriate supplements and be patient, it will happen.
Even if you do not follow these nutrition practices and love eating meat, it might be worth your while to switch things up and add a meal or two of just plant-based foods to your daily diet. It will help with your digestion and will also help with protein synthesis as veggies have been shown to increase the absorption rate of amino acids into the blood stream.
So the next time you encounter a fellow bodybuilder and learn they don’t eat meat, rather than dismissing the idea completely, take a minute and ask them about their diet so that you can maybe incorporate some of their meals into your diet.
Eating plain chicken breasts day in and day out gets old pretty quick, so having a bowl of lentil soup may be a nice protein enriched change for you.
