Download TOPIC: What Is The Best Diet For A Vegetarian Bodybuilder

TOPIC: What Is The Best Diet For A Vegetarian Bodybuilder?
For the week of: March 6th - March 13th
-------------------------------------------------------------
We are constantly reminded to eat chicken, beef, steak, and basically any
animal that was once alive for its nutrition content. Sure meat fuels our
muscles with all their protein, but what do vegetarians do?
A great bodybuilder and vegetarian. I know, many of you folks are
skeptical. Then let me tell you, why I decided to discuss this subject
matter. I am a 27 years old fitness figure competitor and I’ve been
vegetarian for most of my life! Even though, my family did not raise me to
be vegetarian. I just simply hated meat and never ate it. I did gymnastics
until 15 and did fine on vegetarian meals. I started lifting two years ago
and competing in Fitness Model/Fitness Figure last year. Everyone told me
that I need to eat meat, but I didn’t. I opted for eating fish, soy products
and egg whites. However, since I am a hard gainer, I was not able to
improve. So, I made a choice; I started to eat chicken and I managed to
gain a few ponds of quality muscle, during this off season.
What is the best diet for a vegetarian bodybuilder?
The question is what to eat if you are a vegetarian? I first response would
be to reconsider and I as I said I was a vegetarian for 20 something
years, so I am certainly not a “crazed meat eater” myself. However, if you
want to stick with you vegetarian diet, let’s see what I can do for you.
There are four main vegetarian diets, Lacto Ovo vegetarian, Lacto
vegetarian, Pesco vegetarian and Vegan. A lacto ovo vegetarian eats
mostly plant foods, but also eats eggs and dairy products including
yogurt, milk, cheese and ice cream. Lacto vegetarians eat no meat or
eggs, but do consume dairy products. Conversely, there are ovo
vegetarians, who eat eggs but don’t consume dairy products. Vegans
eschew all animal proteins and animal by-products. Pesco vegetarians
don’t eat poultry, beef or pork but they do eat fish. This is the most
extreme form of vegetarian diet, as vegans get all of their nutrition from
grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and seeds.
Bulking for Vegetarians: When you are bulking, you need to fuel your
body with enough nutrients and calories. 2-3g/lbs bodyweight of
Carbohydrates and 1g/lbs bodyweight Protein is a must. Divide this
number that you get for 5-7 small meals per day.
Source of Nutrients:
Protein: Best choice: whey protein, fish, egg whites, soy protein isolate
Secondary choice: Various soy protein products such as links patties and
burgers (choose those that have the highest protein content),low fat or fat
free cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, milk, wheat protein (seitan)
Carbohydrates: Best choice: rice, sodium free rice cakes, natural oats,
Secondary choice: baked or cooked sweet potatoes, whole grain pasta, all
other grains, whole grain bread.
Fiber: fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes
Fat: Flax seed oil, nuts, fish oil, some egg yolk is ok
Example:
Breakfast
6 egg whites or 3-4 Veggie links
1.5 bowl of oatmeal
Snack (Post Workout)
Soy protein isolate shake or whey protein shake
50 gr of Dextrose
Lunch
Soy Burger or Fish
Green Salad
1 bowl of Brown Rice
Snack
Soy patties or Tuna salad (with ff mayo) on whole wheat tortilla
Veggies
Dinner
Stir Fry w/ soy or fish
Olive Oil
Snack
4% Cottage Cheese or Seitan cubes
Flax Oil or handful of almonds
Cutting for Vegetarians:
I believe that diet is the most important factor, while cutting program.
75% of your preparation will depend on what and when you eat. Eating
less does not help, because, you will loose muscle. You have to eat every
2.5 to 3 hours. Basically, you need to clean out your diet, instead of
eliminating muscle-building nutrients. One thing that you should keep in
mind is that you want to loose fat and not weight. Believe me, you don’t
want to end up loosing the hardly earned muscle mass and keep some
flab under your belly. Your protein intake should be high,1.5 g or more/
lbs bodyweight. If you were drinking gainer’s shakes, now switch to whey
protein concentrate or to whey protein isolate. Isolate is better, but more
expensive. Also start dropping milk and fruits from the beginning of your
cutting since they contain fruit sugar and milk sugar.
Another thing to consider for vegetarians during the cutting phase is the
Cyclical Ketogenic diet. The reason why I am suggesting it is that most of
the plant protein is a quick release protein, and if you cut back on carbs
and fat and up fish or plant protein in you diet, you still might end up
losing muscle. The Cyclical Ketogenic Diet, CKD, is a general term to
describe diets such as The Anabolic Diet. While there are many variants,
the most common structure for a CKD is 5-6 days of strict low
carbohydrate eating (less than 30 grams per day) with a 1-2 day carbloading period (where carbohydrate intakes is roughly 60-70% of the total
calories consumed). The idea behind the CKD is to force the body to burn
fat during the lowcarb days, while sustaining exercise intensity by refilling
muscle glycogen stores during the weekend carb-load.
Best source of nutrients:
Protein: whey protein isolate (best post workout protein), soy protein
isolate, meat substitutes ( there are many excellent products out there
made of tofu, seitan and soy, but don’t forget to check the labes because
some of these are loaded with carbs!!—choose those that contain little to
none carbohydrates), carb free jello (you may add some whipped cream
to it), cheese.
Fat: flex seed oil, extra virgin olive oil, nuts (watch the carb content!!),
natural peanut butter
For Carbohydrate Reload: rice, pasta, no sugar added cornflakes, sodium
free rice cakes, natural oats, sweet potatoes
Example for CKD plan:
Breakfast
Breakfast Links or 6 Egg whites and 2 Egg yolks
Veggie Butter
Pre Workout
3 Egg Whites 1 Egg yolk and Flax Seed oil or a low
carb Soy Bar
Snack (Post Workout)
Whey Isolate or Soy Isolate
Lunch
Soy Burger, Gouda cheese or olive oil and green salad
Snack
Walnuts or Almonds and 1 slice of Veggie Cheese
Dinner
Stir Fry w/ 200 g Tofu
The 6-day carb depletion phase is followed by a carb relodad. Carbs
ingested in such a short time (1day) are absorbed by the body very
efficiently and deposited as glycogen in the liver and muscle cells. I feel
this a very effective way of loosing body fat, as it allows one day to curb
cravings.
Example for a reload: 1 or 2 days
Breakfast:
5 Egg whites, 1 bowl of oatmeal
Post Workout:
Whey protein isolate or soy protein isolate
4 tbs of dextrose
½ bowl of corn flakes
Couple of rice cakes
Lunch
Seitan
1 bowl of pasta with organic no sodium tomatoe
sauce
Snack:
3 egg whites or Fat Free Tofu
2 whole-wheat English muffin
with no sugar added jam
Dinner
1 bowl of rice
fish or Veggie links
125 gm of broccoli
Pre-Bed Snack
4 egg whites or Seitan
100 gm of carrots and some legumes
Is a vegetarian at an advantage or disadvantage for maintaining a proper
bodybuilders diet?
I heard of bodybuilders, who were eating non-meat products as part of
their contest preparation and they were huge! However, they were not
naturals. So if you are a natural trainee and a hard gainer, you might
make things harder. I know, I know, you will say that there are many
products out there that have just the same protein content per lbs as
meat. Yes, that is true but not all protein is made same. Although one
gram of protein will contain four calories in all cases, the amount of
protein that our body can digest and use for muscle building purposes is
not always 100%. In fact, the most easily digestible natural protein source
are whole eggs, where the percentage net utilization by our bodies is
94%. Because eggs contain the best protein digestion rate of any natural
source, eggs are given a protein rating of '100' and all other protein
containing food sources are rated according to how digestible they are
compared to egg protein. Today, there are protein powders that digest
even easier than egg protein and can be utilized by our bodies even more
than the 94% that natural egg protein can be. These protein powders
would have a protein rating higher than 100 on the scale below.
Protein Ratings
FOOD
PROTEIN RATING
Eggs (whole)
100
Eggs (whites)
88
Chicken / Turkey
79
Fish
70
Lean Beef
69
Cow's Milk
60
Peanuts
55
Peas
55
Whole Wheat
49
Soy beans
47
Whole-grain Wheat
44
Peanuts
43
Dry Beans
34
As far as sources of protein created in the lab are concerned, here is a
short list of some protein sources you can find in supplements common
today. See how they compare to the natural sources listed above:
Protein Ratings
PROTEIN SUPPLEMENT PROTEIN RATING
Whey Protein Isolate
159
Whey Protein Concentrate
104
Casein
77
Soy
74
As we can see plant protein is way down on the list. Additionally to the low
amino profile that plant proteins contain, there are many problems with it
that make it unfit for human consumption. Problems range from blocking
mineral absorption to being hard to digest. Whole soybeans for example
contain many natural toxins that inhibit growth and make it difficult for
our bodies to absorb the nutrients in soy and other foods we eat. High
levels of phytic acid in soy can also block the uptake of essential minerals
like calcium, magnesium and zinc, which can lead to problematic mineral
deficiencies.
Being a vegetarian is definitely hard for most body builders, because it's
hard to get adequate protein with this sort of diet. However, eating Vegan
has become simpler in recent years with the increase in awareness and a
more mainstreaming of Vegan lifestyles.
What are some good supplement choices for vegetarians?
Vegetarians, especially vegans need additional supplements to their diet,
even when bulking. There are many available on the market especially
designed for vegetarians and vegans and to save you some time, I will
mention the most important ones.
Multivitamins: Everyone needs a good complex multivitamin. Daily
consumption of a high-potency multivitamin/multimineral formulas may
help ensure the presence of essential cofactors necessary for thousands of
metabolic reactions. I recommend Vitamin packs that have individually
packed pouches, each containing a full-day supply of vitamins and
minerals for sustained good health. In addition As a vegan it would be
wise to supplement with vitamin B-12, Calcium and Vitamin D, since for
example Vitamin B-12, is only found in animal products so if you are
lacto-ovo or pesco vegetarian you need not worry.
Creatine. A substance that naturally occurs in red meat, creatine increases
the concentration of phosphocreatine (PCr), which then makes ATP more
available for the body to use (PCr is part of the ATP energy cycle). Since
ATP is the fuel used during brief bouts of activity (such as kicking a ball),
creatine appears to lend the most benefit to intense, shorter-duration
forms of exercise such as weight training. It doesn’t appear to help
endurance performance much. Creatine is not in itself anabolic. Not
everyone responds equally to creatine. However, vegetarians who don’t
eat red meat tend to see the most improvement. Use Creatine while
buling and drop after you start cutting or 10 weeks before a contest.
Amino Acids: plant foods contain less of the essential amino acids than
animal products do. You will need to supplement with additional Aminos,
even while bulking. Amino acids play central roles both as building blocks
of proteins and as intermediates in metabolism. Take Aminos 3 times
daily.
Glutamine: Glutamine is highly in demand throughout the body, when you
try to preserve. 60% of free-form amino acids floating in skeletal muscles
is L-glutamine. Take at least 15g per day.
BCAAs: Among the most beneficial and effective supplements in any
sports nutrition program are branched chain amino acids (BCAAs). These
are the essential aminos leucine, isoleucine, and valine. BCAA's are of
special importance for athletes because they are metabolized in the
muscle, rather than in the liver.
Enzyme Digest: Enzyme Digest contains enzymes, which digest major
dietary components into fuel for the body. They contain microcrystalline
cellulose, betaine HCl, amylase, magnesium stearate, silicon dioxide,
peppermint oil to help digesting plant protein better.
In conclusion, pumping iron on vegetarian diet is not easy. If you want to
turn to a vegan diet for ethical, environmental concerns, you might want
to think again. If you are already vegetarian and you still refrain from
eating animal products than I hope you will benefit from this article.