Gain Weight as a Vegan. You hear a lot about how to lose weight. Not so many of us are trying to gain it. All beans are sources of protein. Soaking them as part of their preparation is permissible on a raw diet. Black beans. You’ve heard of it, but what does it entail? A raw food diet consists of foods that haven’t been heated above a certain temperature, normally around. This article would be so much cooler if it had a headline like, “How I Gained 2. Pounds of Muscle in 3. Days (On a Vegan Diet).” And if it included dazzling before and after photos, it would probably do a lot to show people it’s possible. That’s what I had in mind when, earlier this summer, I took a look at myself in the mirror, realized I had gotten too thin, and decided it was time to hit the gym. Actually, even for a small guy like me (I was all the way down to 1. I decided it was time to start putting weight back on) a goal like 2.
Twice in my life, once in college and once shortly after, I’ve gone from 1. The only difference now, with a vegan diet, would be the absence of chicken breasts and milk — two foods I absolutely relied on during any rapid muscle gain diets I did the past. I knew that adding weight wouldn’t be any help to me as a runner, but that was okay. I needed a break and a change of pace, and I didn’t like being so skinny. And if in the process I could show a bunch of people that it is possible to put on a ton of muscle really quickly on a vegan diet, then all the better. How it really turned out. I didn’t gain 2. 0 pounds in 3. I did, however, gain 1. Not exactly a strike- fear- in- the- hearts- of- enemies number, I know, but it’s a lot more than 1. And although the point wasn’t to gain strength but to gain mass, I got a lot stronger too, increasing my chest press from 1. But my results could have been a lot better if not for two interruptions to my regimen: I traveled a lot and was not able to maintain the volume of eating I could do at home. This killed my momentum on three separate weekends. I suppose I could have been more disciplined with my eating, but a large portion of my calories came from a “fat shake” that I just couldn’t make on the road (more on the fat shake later). I got injured when I made a careless mistake in the gym. Six weeks after I had started, I tore a disc in my back when I inadvertently loaded more weight on one side of the barbell than the other for a deadlift and tried to lift the unbalanced load. When I learned this would keep me out for three weeks, I decided I was done with muscle gain. Still, 1. 7 pounds is nothing to shake a carrot at, especially for a skinny guy who has always found it harder to gain weight than to lose it. So here’s what I did, the vegan- adapted version of what I found success with the other two times I’ve succeeded at quickly putting on a bunch of muscle. If you can’t gain weight, you’re probably making this mistake. Shortly after I got interested in fitness in college, I wanted desperately to get bigger. I drank all these Myoplex shakes, ate six meals a day, and lifted like crazy. And yet I just couldn’t get past 1. After every trip to the gym, I’d eagerly weigh in, feeling all puffed up from my lift and sure I’d tip the scales. And every time, I’d see 1. F’ing 1. 40. So I did some research, and came across Anthony Ellis, a guy who went from 1. Trying to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time is completely counterproductive. Prior to learning this, I thought the road to muscle gain was more lean protein along with more lifting, and of course some cardio to keep the fat off. Wrong. I made three big changes as a result, and experienced drastic, immediate muscle gain. I stopped running and all other forms of cardio. I started lifting fewer times each week, training each muscle group only once per week. I started eating more fat. Way more fat. Like, getting up in the middle of the night to make a peanut butter sandwich. And I gained weight. I went from 1. 40 to 1. I don’t remember exactly how long it took, but I figure it was about six weeks. Really, putting on weight is about only two things. Lifting, which is important. And eating, which is more important. I’ll explain what I did for each. The lifting. For the lifting, I decided to try out Tim Ferriss’ methods from The 4- Hour Body, specifically the chapter “Occam’s Protocol I: A Minimalist Approach to Mass.”Here, Tim proposes a lifting regimen that requires less than half an hour a week of gym time per week: just two sets of exercise each session (one each of two different lifts), performed at extremely slow cadence (5 seconds up, 5 seconds down), until utter and painful failure is reached. And not just “I can’t get this next rep, so I’ll quit” failure, but really putting every bit of effort you have into pushing that last rep up, and then lowering it as slowly as possible. And since I don’t want to get sued for plagiarism, you’ll have to check out The 4- Hour Body to learn about that stuff. I must admit, this was fun. An unexpected benefit was what knowing that my gym time was precious helped me get amped up for it –knowing, for example, that this one set of 7 or 8 reps is my only chance all week to do chest press certainly made it easy, almost fun, to keep going until I reached that point of true failure. And it worked. I followed Tim’s plan to the letter for about three weeks, gaining 3- 4 pounds per week, until I decided I wanted to alter the plan to include some lifts I really liked, like squats and deadlifts (in hindsight, not my best idea). But I followed the same cadence, rep scheme, and frequency of workouts, and kept getting results. As it turns out, Tim’s approach isn’t all that different from what I had done to put on weight before. Infrequent workouts, heavy weight, and sets to all- out failure. So I knew going in it would work. The diet, however, I wasn’t so sure about. The eating. As I wrote before: The major difference between this time and previous ones was my diet. I wasn’t vegan then, or even vegetarian. When I wanted to bulk up in the past, I just ate tons of cheese, milk, steak, and chicken breasts, and it was pretty easy. Not that I doubted it was possible for people to get big on a vegan diet. Look at Robert Cheeke or Derek Tresize. But for me, a guy whose equilibrium size is more sapling than mature oak, I wasn’t so sure. In looking at my diet, it was pretty clear that it was lower in both protein and fat than what had worked for me in the past. So I focused on adding those two nutrients to my current diet, without reducing carbohydrates, hence increasing total calories. I also tried to eat larger portion sizes in general, and found that after just a few days this became comfortable. I did eat fewer salads and raw vegetables, since they take up a lot of room without providing many calories. But way more than I usually eat, and definitely higher in fat, thanks to the “fat shake.”The vegan fat shake. The fat shake is something else I got from 4- Hour Body. Tim’s version is about as far from vegan as a shake could be, with raw milk and raw eggs as key ingredients. My vegan version was obviously lacking in the raw animal protein category, but I found it did a nice job of providing a lot of protein and fat among its roughly 1. I drank it about two hours after each workout, and also the first day after each workout. Here’s the recipe: 1. Blend all ingredients together in a blender. Supplements. I also added a few supplements, in addition to the multivitamin I usually take. Each day, I added to one of my smoothies: 5 grams creatine. IU tablet of Vitamin D3. And right before I got hurt, I realized that I was missing one thing from my earlier mass- gaining days, which was a proper post- workout carbohydrate drink. I had been using apple juice, but in hindsight I wish I would have used something that was designed to deliver quick, post- workout carbs. Conclusion. It worked. Maybe with not staggering results, although if I didn’t have any experience with gaining muscle from the past, then perhaps I would have found a 1. I did start to gain some fat towards the end: my overall body fat increased by 1- 2% throughout the process (that’s as accurate as I can get with my cheap body fat scale), so I probably would have stopped within a few more weeks anyway had I not gotten injured. Just to restate, I wouldn’t recommend a diet like this long- term. I’m sure consuming that many calories (and that much fat) isn’t healthy. If you’re looking to gain weight on a vegan diet, then sure, you can look at my experience as one example, but I highly recommend checking out Robert Cheeke’s book, Vegan Bodybuilding and Fitness, for diet advice from someone more experienced than I am, and Tim Ferris’ book 4- Hour Body for the details of the lifting regimen (which I have nothing but good things to say about, with the results I got in so little gym time). And now, three weeks after my injury, I’m happy to say that the torn disc in my back is healed. I probably won’t do deadlifts for a little while, and I’m done with weight gain for the foreseeable future. But I’ve got lots more planned, and I’m excited about what’s next. Plant- Based Weekly Meal Plan By Diet: RAW VEGAN MENUThe raw food diet has been around for many years, with a recent trend picking up over the last decade more so than ever. As a means to get healthier, eat more fruits and vegetables, have more energy, lose weight, or possibly even reverse some forms of disease, many people turn to a raw food diet for the answer. While raw food may or may not do these things for all of us, it is safe to say it’s one of the easiest, healthiest ways to fit more fresh produce into our day. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the raw food diet, it revolves around the principle that no food is eaten that is heated above 1. Think no microwaves, ovens, or cooking on the stove top. The idea behind the diet is to preserve the “life force” of a food. Raw foods are packed with enzymes and possibly more nutrients as a result. Many are also easier to digest because enzymes help aid in digestion. Though this isn’t the case for all raw foods, one thing is for certain: raw foods are packed with dense, unprocessed nutrition that each of us can benefit from, even if we don’t go 1. A raw food diet can be as simple or complex as you want, and there are no rules, counting calories, or anything else rigid unless you choose to make it so. The dishes are usually salads, smoothies, room temperature soups, raw energy bites and bars, raw soaked grain cereals, raw nut milk, and some fancier things such as raw tacos, raw lasagna, and even raw cakes and pies. There is no sugar, alcohol, animal products, caffeine, or anything else that acidifies the body eaten on the diet. It’s a way to alkalize the body with real, whole food nutrients, raw superfoods and as fresh of food as possible. You can use fancy raw food kitchen equipment such as dehydrators, a fancy mandoline or a spiralizer, but you really don’t need anything to eat raw food if you stick to the basics. Keep in mind that while many people find improved digestion and energy with a raw food diet, others will need a balance of cooked and raw foods. Whatever version of raw works for you, we have several ideas for raw foods and raw recipes for you to explore. Most require nothing fancy except a blender, food processor, perhaps a good chef’s knife, and a few others use raw food kitchen equipment like dehydrators and spiralizers. You can also see all of our raw vegan recipes here. We hope you enjoy our raw food meal plan! Give it a try and let us know what you think!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
November 2017
Categories |