[#2] I am a personal trainer with 6 years of experience and have been a vegan for the past 5. I'm here to help, ask me anything

[extraneous]

@magnus359 What you'll struggle most will probably be sufficient caloric intake. Keep in mind that plant-based diets are higher in fiber and water content, making meals less caloric. That's really good for overall health of an average person, but not someone training seriously.

That said, I don't know which diet plan do you have, or even which bracket of protein intake are you using, but unless you're on a hypertrophy mesocycle you should focus more on maintaining a normocaloric diet with sufficient carbs between workouts.

To answer your questions:

·The fastest and most bioavailable source is either pea or soy protein isolate, as happens with omnivorous diets.

·Both cereals (such as wheat in bread, rice or quinoa) and legumes can be eaten in high quantities and have better aminoacid ratios than most meats. The problem here is the fiber and water contents, as said. These are really low caloric for the volume. Hummus and other bean spreads with toast are one of your best bets for an easy protein-rich snack with less fiber.

·Not anymore, if your protein powder tastes bad it's just the brand's problem. They change from country to country so I can't recommend you brands as I'm spanish, but I can definitelly tell you that you just have to try a few options.

 

[rnion]

@extraneous I’ve been vegan since 2017 but I don’t work out at all. I’m 35, 6’2” approx 180 lbs. What would be a good routine to start getting into shape for beginners?

 

[extraneous]

@rnion I was halfway through the explanation and reddit decided to delete the whole reply. Here we go again.

First off, a couple of disclaimers: ·If you had more experience, I'd be ok giving you a routine, but at the start is when you need most help and supervision from a professional. Despite that, I'll point you in the right direction, but please contact a professional and follow their guidance for a couple of months, otherwise your training won't be neither efficient nor safe.

·Diet and sleep are more important than training itself to maintain health and the foundation for a good physique. Focus on improving them as the start to strength and aerobic training is slow.

Alright, I'll just repeat myself: contact a professional who can be with you physically to help you kickstart your workouts and teach you the basics.

Now, for what I can help you on this reply:

·I'll set some objectives and milestones you have to accomplish to be training on an efficient manner. When you reach those, you'll have a really efficient routine to improve your aesthethics.

·Your main one is to transition from machines (your earliest strength/hypertrophy workout) to free weights. It should take around 4-6 weeks to start putting weight on a bar and learning proper technique. Don't touch anything other than machines (including pulleys) before that.

·Typically, you'll start high-rep, low-intensity, something between 12-15 reps @6 RPE (ask your trainer if you don't know what RPE means). One of your first objectives should really be to lower the reps and progress to a strength mesocycle, going down to 4-5 reps @8-8,5 RPE. You can skip this step if your technique or supervision is good enough, I just can't recommend it from here.

·Volume will be ever-increasing for weeks, you'll start around 6-8 sets per body part each week and go up to whatever you can manage, especially while bulking up.

·After starting to feel stronger, it will be time to kick-off your aerobic training, and the objective is to get to HIIT as soon as possible. Starting with MIIT (sets of 3-5 minutes @7-8 RPE) down to 20"-1' @9-10 RPE. Preferably concurrent sessions (mixing weightlifting and aerobic training).

·2-3 days a week of a full-body workout is recommended for strength gains, 3-5 days (normally adjusted to volume, meaning it can be less if your workouts are longer) of either a mix of concurrent full-body with a day or two of targeted exercises is more than enough to efficiently change your body composition.

As a final note: training is all about consistency and safety. As long as you keep training without injury, you're going to achieve your goals. Mediocre routines can get you there (even though slower), and definitely maintain your gains, but if you train smarter you'll get there way easier.

 

[rnion]

@extraneous Thank you for such an in depth reply ( and retyping it lol.) Looking forward to putting this information into practice. Beginning my physical fitness journey is long overdue.

 

[sunflowerseedaddict]

@extraneous Hey I really appreciate this work you're doing pro bono. I know some trainers won't even have a conversation with you unless there's money on the table.

I have a question that is two fold. I've been doing strength training seriously for 4+ years. I saw some good gains in strength and physique. Then hit a plateau for a while. Started actively adding a protein shake on my lifting days and saw moderate improvement. But I've recently hit a plateau again. Can I be doing anything differently? I usually try to find different workouts targeting the same groups during those times.

Second off, I've always struggled with belly fat. I'm thinking it's just genetics concentrating my mass there. But obviously if I'm in a caloric surplus trying to gain strength and muscle, I'm not doing anything about reducing the belly. Should I try to switch to a caloric deficit for a little while?

Thanks for any answers. Also feel free to ask me anything if it helps answer questions.

 

[extraneous]

@sunflowerseedaddict Don't mention it. I became a PT to help people not to get rich, I'm just glad I can do it.

I have a question that is two fold. I've been doing strength training seriously for 4+ years. I saw some good gains in strength and physique. Then hit a plateau for a while. Started actively adding a protein shake on my lifting days and saw moderate improvement. But I've recently hit a plateau again. Can I be doing anything differently? I usually try to find different workouts targeting the same groups during those times.

From your answer, I suppose that your objective is mainly aesthethic, and primarily gaining muscle mass. Moreover, as you're a relatively experienced lifter, I need a bit more of information to address your case specifically. If you answer in-depth about your workout routine and your diet I can help you mix things up (I've writen about what I exactly need just below), but I'll also try to give you some general guidelines right now:

·Diet-wise (assuming a good hypertrophy plan), I'm certain you aren't eating enough calories. That is the main dietary reason why vegans do not progress while trying to gain lean body mass. Once again, however, I need more information about your weight and height, how many calories do you eat a day and what your macronutrient ratios are.

·Now, to improve your workout (assuming a good diet): you're most likely missing volume (that is time under tension, or time performing repetitions). It can be increased in many ways: can be as simple as more sets and reps per muscle; an intermediate way would be to slow the tempo of your repetitions (the time it takes you to finish the whole lift); or a bit more complex: introducing eccentric overload (which has two benefits: increased eccentric volume (the most important part of the lift to gain muscle mass) and increasing total weight lifted (which is also colloquially labeled as volume). Eccentric overload's most basic protocols involve increasing tempo on the eccentric contraction of a repetition for any exercise (specially useful on monoarticular (isolated) lifts such as biceps curls.

Second off, I've always struggled with belly fat. I'm thinking it's just genetics concentrating my mass there. But obviously if I'm in a caloric surplus trying to gain strength and muscle, I'm not doing anything about reducing the belly. Should I try to switch to a caloric deficit for a little while?

Genetics is always a factor, but often not the most important. A good plan to improve aesthethics will always include a set of periods (called mesocycles) of hypertrophy followed by a set of mesocycles focused on losing body fat (called cutting phase). You'll rarely get both leaner and more muscular with the same routine/diet plan, and when you do, it will be tremendously inefficient (will take you much longer to achieve your goals). As an example, if you wanted to get to a somewhat lean 90kg of body weight, starting from 80kg with a 17,5% body fat, you'll have to gain at least 15kg on a set of hypertrophy mesocycles followed by losing 5kg in a cutting phase. And most likely you'll still need to advance into a second cutting phase to maintain 90kg and lose the rest of the body fat.

 

[sunflowerseedaddict]

@extraneous Thank you very much for this very quick and very detailed response. I'm going to go open a dictionary to understand most of your advice. But information from me first: to start, I'm 5'6 or 167 cm. I weigh 148 lbs or about 68 kg. I'm shorter and have an ectomorphic body style. Assuming Fitbit measurements are accurate, metabolic rate on off days are about 2500 cal. I don't know my macros, because I never seriously measured them. I'll get an estimate for you soon when I'm able to sit down with numbers.

My workout plan goes like this: Sunday, full body strength. This is chest press, shoulder press, pull ups, skull crushers, bicep curls, sit ups, dead lifts, squats, and calf raises. This is 2 sets each interchanging two at a time. Lifting as heavy as safe. Monday: 3-4 mile run. 8:30 pace. Tuesday is upper body, at chest press, curls, shoulder press, pull ups, skull crushers, sit ups. All at 3 sets, higher weight favorable, using dumbbells. Wednesday off, Thursday upper body, similar workout but favoring barbell workouts. Friday 3-4 mile run. Saturday usually an active day, like a hike or an urban hike.

 

[extraneous]

@sunflowerseedaddict

I'm shorter and have an ectomorphic body style. Assuming Fitbit measurements are accurate, metabolic rate on off days are about 2500 cal.

Harris-Benedict Equation is the formula most commonly used to calculate BMR, which is to be taken with a grain of salt, but can be useful to start. What these bands tend to mesaure correctly is daily activity. Just keep in mind the most important fact: that you're not losing weight with the diet you have right now. That's the best estimate of your mean metabolic rate.

My workout plan goes like this: Sunday, full body strength. This is chest press, shoulder press, pull ups, skull crushers, bicep curls, sit ups, dead lifts, squats, and calf raises. This is 2 sets each interchanging two at a time. Lifting as heavy as safe. Monday: 3-4 mile run. 8:30 pace. Tuesday is upper body, at chest press, curls, shoulder press, pull ups, skull crushers, sit ups. All at 3 sets, higher weight favorable, using dumbbells. Wednesday off, Thursday upper body, similar workout but favoring barbell workouts. Friday 3-4 mile run. Saturday usually an active day, like a hike or an urban hike.

I definitely thought your workout plan would be harder than this. Your choice of exercises is good, I'll have to assume you're lifting relatively high reps (8-12), which is the best option to build mass. But you definitely lack volume. The easiest way to fix it is to add sets, especially of the compound exercises (your deadlifts, pull-ups, shoulder presses and so on), and to add a slight caloric surplus of about 300 calories.

 

[sunflowerseedaddict]

@extraneous You've got my reps right. A few questions with your recommendation. Would you recommend just a blanket increase of sets? Like all up to four? Is three days a week dedicated to lifting enough, or would you recommend swapping a run day? Also, after seeing your comments for others, I might change my running habits to increase intensity. My goal with running used to be endurance, with going up to 6 miles a day for a while there. But it looks like that would be detrimental to muscle growth.

 

[betelo995]

@sunflowerseedaddict 6 miles is 9.66 km

 

[extraneous]

@sunflowerseedaddict HIIT is as useful if not more to endurance for the general population. Even marathonians train HIIT several times a week nowadays. You will most likely reap more benefits training one day less if you switch to HIIT.

General recommendations for muscle growth go between 20 to 50 sets per week per muscle (that's a huge bracket, but it depends on a lot of different factors). And that's more important than training days, it's just easier to increase weekly sets if you go training more often. Following that thought, I'll increase all the sets, yes. Specially the compound exercises.

 

[betelo995]

@sunflowerseedaddict 148 lbs is 67.19 kg

 

[gabrielleb]

@extraneous Hi! I'm currently recovering from a knee injury, no sports allowed for god knows how long. How can i maintain my muscles and joints while resting? Is it possible for me to lose fat during this recovery (i have like 10kg of fat to lose). Any recommendations on foods that could help my ligaments and tendons recover would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[extraneous]

@gabrielleb Which injury? is it a tendon or a meniscus tear? When did it happen? For how long have you been immobilized (if you have)? Also, get a better explanation than "for god knows how long" from your doctor, that's plain irresponsible by their part.

Sadly, short-term dieting and supplementation does next to nothing on joint health, there's nothing you can do that will speed your recovery diet-wise, training can help massively, though. These injuries are easier to prevent than to fix, but a good PT or physiotherapist can help you keep you active and progress through rehab faster than simply waiting for your injury to solve.

Sadly, for such specific problems I can't advice you to start training without supervision, because a good plan can help you massively, but an accident can even injury you permanently. For these, you need a professional that can monitor and help you, but you can definitely exercise.

Losing fat has little to do with exercise, even in your case. I'll track my caloric intake and focus on whole-foods. Plant-based diets' main strengths are its high content in fiber and water, most vegans have low body weights just by maintaining a normal diet, if you aren't losing fat, you're abusing processed foods.

 

[gabrielleb]

@extraneous It happened two days ago, my knee dislocated after a hike, i didnt fall or anything, i was taking my shoe off, and the leg i was standing on collapsed. Note that the past 6 months have been exhausting and stressful for me and this happened during my first days off after this period. I went to the ER and only had x rays done to check if my bones were back in place so i still have to do more in depth exams with a specialist in a few days (hence why i said god knows how long, i havent seen a specialist yet) but i'm pretty sure my whole joints and surrounding tissues will need some help to recover and become stronger. I have a splint for 3 weeks, dont know if i will need a surgery yet but the ER doctor told me that i most likely wont. I am not immobilized 100% but i am resting/laying a lot.

Thanks for your advice. Could you clarify "abusing processed foods"? How much is too much?

 

[extraneous]

@gabrielleb By the looks of it, you'd hardly need surgery, but a good rehab will surely help. If it's because you haven't had time to get proper diagnostics, that's fine. Knowing what you exactly have is essential to recover properly.

Thanks for your advice. Could you clarify "abusing processed foods"? How much is too much?

These answers people want for thes types of questions are whatever can confirm they can keep doing what they are, so I'll make it easy: if you want to lose those 10kg of fat, any amount of reduction works. Limiting yourself in excess at the start won't help, but the best possible amount of junk food on a diet for health is zero.

 

[gabrielleb]

@extraneous No my question was genuine, i dont eat much processed foods, try to limit it as much as possible (sometimes hard during exams etc but doing my best). I will try to use my recovery time to get rid of the last unhealthy eating habits i have. Last question, what is your macros proportion recommendation if you have any?

Thanks for you answers, appreciate it a lot

 

[extraneous]

@gabrielleb Macros depend on the objective of the diet. But overall, they're irrelevant compared to the source where you get the macros. Quality food comes first.

As a general guideline, anything between 40-60% carbs, 15-30% fats and 10-25% protein is ok.

 

[emilypryzgoda]

@extraneous I've been Vegan 4 years, play Basketball once a Week and Gym 3 days a week. Overall I feel like my strength is down and I recover slower. Stamina and Energy is still good if not better.

I can't tell if this change is natural due to aging(36 Male) or if I'm missing something in my Vegan Diet.

I've tracked my protein and nutrient intake before, take all the recommended multivitamins and eat very healthy.

 

[extraneous]

@emilypryzgoda Lower strength and slower recovery with a healthy diet is almost always due to a caloric deficit. Plant-based diets are high in fiber and water content, making them less caloric (which promotes health in the general population, but can make it problematic to eat sufficient calories for training).

I'm almost certain your problem will be solved with a slight caloric surplus. You can try to simply eat more of what you're already eating or adding a high-caloric and easy pre or post-workout DIY shake, such as oat shakes.