How to Gain Muscle Mass on a Vegan Diet and Break the Myth

Whether you’re a professional athlete or you’re invested in bodybuilding for aesthetic purposes, you’ve certainly come across a lot of misconceptions about bodybuilding nutrition. One of the most common myths is related to meat, that is, not being able to build muscle unless you eat meat.

It’s time to debunk this myth once and for all. Read on to find out how you can gain muscle mass on a healthy vegan diet.

The Myth About Muscle Mass and Meat

Meat isn’t the only source of protein, so why would you need it to build muscle? You don’t.

What your body craves are essential amino acids. Proteins contain 20 different amino acids, but you need to get the nine essential amino acids through your diet. Plants synthesize them.

This means that animals get their protein from plants. So, meat and dairy products contain these essential amino acids only because animals eat plants that synthesize them.

Therefore, you don’t need meat to get your needed protein. You can get it from plenty of other delicious sources.

Protein-Rich Food

Now that you know you don’t need meat to gain muscle mass let’s see what the best vegan sources of protein are.

● Seitan

Seitan, also known as wheat gluten or wheat protein, looks a lot like meat when it is cooked. People commonly refer to it as wheat meat and use it as a meat substitute. It’s made by washing wheat flour dough with water to remove all the starch so that all that’s left is insoluble gluten.

Seitan has a lot of protein, and it’s an excellent choice if you don’t want to substitute meat with soy.

● Lentils

Lentils are also high in protein, as well as fiber, minerals, and vitamins. They’re also a very common high- protein meat substitute that you should enrich your diet with.

● Nutritional Yeast

Nutritional yeast isn’t like baking yeast, as it’s deactivated. This means it doesn’t grow or froth, not to mention that it cannot cause any potential yeast infections. You can get it as a food additive, either in a powder form or in flakes.

Nutritional yeast is a complete protein, which means it contains all nine essential amino acids.

● Tofu

Tofu is a soybean product that also contains all nine essential amino acids that your body craves. If you can eat soy, tofu should also find its way to your protein-rich vegan diet.

● Beans

Beans are another type of legumes you should add to your diet. They’re rich in protein, fiber, and vitamins, and contain the same amount of protein as meat in many cases.

● Bread Made from Sprouted Grains

Sprouted grain bread is made from whole grains that have started to sprout. Sprouted grains have a lot of protein, vitamins, and minerals – more than mature grains. So, when you mill sprouted grains into flour, you get one of the healthiest types of bread that’s very easy to digest.

● Oats

Oats are also incredibly high in protein, although they’re not a complete protein. They’re also very rich in minerals, fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants. They can be an excellent post-workout snack, or you can add them to your protein shake for a delicious breakfast.

● Chia Seeds

Chia seeds are a complete protein and contain plenty of necessary nutrients, including fiber, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, and omega-3 acids. When mixed with water, they become an excellent egg substitute.

The Right Exercises

Strength workouts are crucial for building muscle mass. If you’re a beginner, stick to 2-3 strength exercises (with 2-3 sets) per week, and work your way up slowly. You can do a few more workouts and sets if you’re a more advanced bodybuilder.

Whatever muscle building exercises you’re doing, do as many reps as you can. As you build up, start doing more reps and choosing harder exercises.

Make sure you have one day per week of low-impact, very light cardio so that your muscles can get more oxygen from the increased blood flow, and thus grow in mass. If you plan on doing your strength exercises and cardio on the same day, make sure cardio is your last training session for the day, so that you avoid muscle fatigue and reduce the risk of injury.

Supplements Might Be an Option

There are many protein bars and shakes that you can add to your vegan diet. There are also plant-based protein powders and vegan protein cookies with different amounts of calories and dietary fiber.

If you pack up on all the aforementioned protein-rich foods, you may not need supplements at all, but it’s good to know there are healthy supplement options out there for vegan athletes.

Make Sure You Rest and Stretch

Pushing too hard when exercising, without giving your muscles the time to rest and heal, can quickly lead to burnout. Resting is what your muscles need to become stronger. If you’re a beginner, make sure you rest for one or two days between your training sessions.

Stretching can explode your muscle growth because you make more room for your muscles to grow. You expand your fascia, thus reducing muscle stiffness, improving your performance, and stimulating long- term muscle growth.

As you can see, you can enjoy a vegan diet and still stimulate rapid muscle growth. Eat up on these delicious protein-rich foods, commit to proper exercises, and break the vegan bodybuilding myth.