2024 Muscle Building Tips for Vegans

sonicfusion

New member
Hey y’all, Happy 2024!

I know a lot of you are looking to deliver on your New Year’s resolutions with health and fitness. Here are a few tips that I have learned over the almost 7 years of being vegan.

No supplements will do the work for you.

Everyone and their grandma will try to tell you that the specific supplement that you buy from them is the missing piece to getting strong, fit, and healthy. That’s because supplements are lucrative and selling a simple fix is easily marketable. Avoid expensive workout supplements until you get your nutrition, sleep, and workout regimen on point.

Deliberate protein intake for vegans is important for building muscle mass.

This is where new vegans mess up. Critics of a plant based diet say it’s too hard to hit high protein targets. The thing is, you are what you eat. Everyone should be super vigilant about what you are consuming. Let’s not pretend that nutrition isn’t the main piece of a healthy lifestyle. You can hit your protein and calorie targets with careful planning at first and eventually it will be effortless.

Avoid IF if you are looking to build muscle/bulk.

Intermittent fasting can be a useful tool for weight loss, but if you shorten your eating window too much it is difficult to hit your daily protein targets without crazy supplementation. I’ve experimented with this heavily and have made the realization that for me, this isn’t the optimal way to build muscle mass in a sustainable way.

Don’t compare yourself to social media.

Having an insanely jacked physique with low body fat year round isn’t realistic for most people. With visual forms of media, unrealistic body standards help sell supplements, fitness gear, and OnlyFans. You can look at these people for motivation, but take it with a grain of salt that they probably have great genetics and could possibly be cutting corners with PEDs. Just try to get 1% better daily and over time you will get results. Your only competition is the person in the mirror.

Alcohol and marijuana are killing your gains.

If you want to get serious results, sometimes you have to take serious measures. I cut out alcohol in October last year and I’ve made some great progress. One of the big problems with weed and alcohol is that people tend to consume them in the afternoon regularly, which will in turn sabotage your sleep quality. If you work out hard to try to build muscle and then don’t give your opportunity to recover in your sleep, you are running on a hamster wheel.

You can get jacked and be healthy on a vegan diet.

Doubting your ability to gain muscle can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. If your nutrition and sleep quality are on point and you are working out consistently with progressive overload, you will gain muscle. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If it was easy, everyone would have a great physique. You just have to work for it and do it day after day. Consistency is king.

Hiring a personal trainer can be expensive, but it is 100% worth it for most people.

You can waste a lot of time doing the wrong things. A personal trainer fixes this, and as they say, time is money. Here are some of the benefits of a personal trainer:
  1. Human accountability / Consistency.
  2. Financial accountability.
  3. Personalized Feedback.
  4. Goal Setting.
  5. Education / Increased confidence that you are on the right path.
2024 can be a year of growth if you have the right mindset. Remember, goals without plans are just wishes.

Much love!
 
@mcabest Nice! So it probably helped muscle recovery by improving cell repair and protein synthesis but do you think it also enhanced your endurance so you could lift harder?
 
@sonicfusion I've slowly increased my sets from 3 to 4 to 5. I do 10 reps of moderate weight, and on my last set, I try to do 6-8 reps heavy. I've only recently started lifting. Since May '23. I wasn't taking any supplements at first and was concerned about muscle growth and bone density. So I started to add supplements. After about 1 to 2 months I felt I could increase my sets.
 
@sonicfusion "Avoid IF if you are looking to build muscle/bulk.Intermittent fasting can be a useful tool for weight loss, but if you shorten your eating window too much it is difficult to hit your daily protein targets without crazy supplementation. I’ve experimented with this heavily and have made the realization that for me, this isn’t the optimal way to build muscle mass in a sustainable way."

I would not recommend this as a one-fits-all approach, it depends on your window, and what your recommended cal-intake is. I bulk on 2500-3000 at the moment and can maintain a 18-20hr fast easily. Maybe if you're eating like 4000 calories or more a day.
 
@sammchaffie The questions would be for me, what is the goal with intermittent fasting, is it an effective way of achieving the goal, and are there other ways of achieving that goal that are simpler or have less downsides.

I do think this is the advice that should be given to beginners but your comment strongly implies you’re more advanced.

Of course, everyone is different but I think we’ve all struggled getting enough protein intake at one point or another. If a vegan or even a vegetarian friend of mine with no previous fitness level asked me advice about how to lose weight, I’d be concerned that they wouldn’t be able to consume enough protein to make sure that they aren’t simply losing muscle mass as they lose weight.

I am actually helping a friend like this right now and I think the priority is to get them working out, having lots of energy, and enjoying themselves. Once they‘re confident and and have seen some results, maybe then they could start thinking about cutting.

I‘m also sure that there‘re a lot of people out there that doesn’t apply to but I think it’s a safe enough bet that the sort of people that this doesn’t fit to are probably more further along their fitness journey.
 
@sonicfusion You are so spot on with the Fasting bit… I just switched over to fully plant-based diet and was used to doing IF for at least 16 hours. it’s been a struggle the past couple days to hit my goals, protein wise, and calorically. I’m gonna have to stop fasting and eat more. Thanks for this info.
 
@forgivenman Glad to help!

I liked the mental clarity of IF and it seemed natural for me since I don't have a huge appetite in the morning. But yeah, hard to hit all of that food into a short window especially if you are prioritizing mostly whole foods.

It's good to experiment though and see what works best for your body! It's part of the journey!
 
@sonicfusion How do you calculate how much protein you need? I’ve seen the 1 g/lb of lean mass calculation and that puts me at 120 g/day but I feel like I might be light relative to my carnie friends.
 
@poptart1919 The .8 - 1g/lbs of ideal/reference BW (instead of lean mass) for your height is more commonly used now since most ppl dont know their accurate BF %. Sounds like yours is ~14%

i put your stats into the TDEE fitness calculator that my friends & I are successfully useg & it shows ideal reference weight for your height is 171-195 lbs.

so anything between 170-195g for min daily protein should work well for you.

[NOTE: This calcuator shows diff methods for maintenance, cutting,and bulking but i think its just too high. I personally like the 1g/lbs of ideal bodyweight formula and get best results witht hat approach.]
 
@sonicfusion There’s good evidence that sauna use boosts HGH quite a bit. Good practice to spend 15-20 mins in one after some workouts if you have access to one. Also great for cardiovascular health.
 
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