Does anyone have experience being a vegan or vegetarian athlete in college? I plan to run D1 (and hopefully a pretty good D1 team) starting fall of 2017 and I've been vegan for a couple of years now. I'm nervous that coaches will not want to recruit me after knowing I'm vegan since a lot of people associate veganism with eating disorders. (Though I will be nutrition major)! Im not underweight at all though so not really sure what future recruiters will think. Advice is appreciated!
I was vegetarian in college (since gone vegan) and although it was D3 and not D1, my coach was totally uninterested in my diet. All he cared about was my race results. I would say that it's only an issue if you bring it up... THEN they might think something is up. At the end of the day, as you know, it's all about getting enough balanced calories to handle your training load. The benefits of being vegan far outweigh the potential drawbacks, though I would suggest that you hit up an iron supplement if you aren't already. Personally, I think every runner, regardless of their diet should be on one, but especially female vegan runners in their teens. In any case, good luck, and good job making such a good dietary choice so young in life!
Nobody will care. If you don't talk about it and just go about your eating like everyone else, nobody will bat an eye. However, expect people to say you "eat so healthy all the time," and the like. No need to bring it up with a coach. If you're good enough to run D1, the diet is obviously working for you and any coach would acknowledge that it's not worth bringing up if they somehow (and I really have no idea how that would happen) find out about your diet decisions.
With that said, 2017 is a long way off; good luck with the running and college process.
tl;dr: nobody cares what you eat. Good luck with running fast.
Contact sports doctors and they will tell you, vegans is fine, but not on a high competition level as you must compete weekly, and beans will not replace iron as fast as red meat. You will be broke down for three weeks with beans alone.
Also, on the off chance that you aren't already, be sure to take b-12 supplements.
Yeah...Scott Jurek def breaks after three weeks. You're an idiot.
critic 100 wrote:
Contact sports doctors and they will tell you, vegans is fine, but not on a high competition level as you must compete weekly, and beans will not replace iron as fast as red meat. You will be broke down for three weeks with beans alone.
Doctors don't receive educational training in nutrition. So don't consult your doctors about nutrition.
If your coach gives you a hard time about your diet, show him/her the evidence that a plant-based diet is optimal for our cardiovascular system.
^ this
Are you a distance athlete? Can you give times or places as a junior so far. I would recruit you as most of my team is plant based diet.
bootsie wrote:
I was vegetarian in college (since gone vegan) and although it was D3 and not D1, my coach was totally uninterested in my diet. All he cared about was my race results. I would say that it's only an issue if you bring it up... THEN they might think something is up.
Good advice. Concentrate on "going with the flow." if social food situations arise and being a vegan isn't a great fit, then don't make a big deal. You are going to have to be self-sufficient in this way. That is different than "don't be a vegan." By all means stick to your principles. Fit it into what's going on.
Otherwise concentrate on your training/times. D1 is make or break, so make those times.
Your best bet is to club everyone over the head with your lifestyle choice.
Veganism screams eating disorder.
Check out the pro-ana sites, veganism is one of the tricks of the trade.
myproanna.com
slimvegan.tumblr.com
anorexic-cookbook.tumblr.com
skinnybonesforme
veganbinger.tumblr.com
vegan4vanity
thispiration
... all great sites that celebrate eating disorders with veganism.
Don't tell anyone you're vegan if you're worried about it. Eat healthy and you'll be fine.
A D-1 program worth a damn will have a strong team of support including: Nutritionist, Trainer, and Doctor. In my daughter's case (D1 All-American in last Saturday's race), she has a similar healthy eating plan as you've described, and she is well-supported by Coaches and their training team. I would suggest that it would be fair to inquire once your list is narrow, perhaps during the official visits. In our case, one of the final schools had a Coach who did have an issue with it, claiming that she would never be an elite runner until she changed her diet. It helped my daughter narrow her list. Also helpful during interviews/visits to get a strong handle on how nutrition is monitored for each athlete. I think you will find that many pay close attention monitoring much more than just weight and iron levels, and suggest appropriate food concentrations accordingly. Sometimes on these message boards it seems that no schools care about anything other than results, sometimes to the detriment of an athletes health,...but we have experienced otherwise. Good luck in your pursuit of the right school...it will be an exciting time for you and your family!
the haddite wrote:
Don't tell anyone you're vegan if you're worried about it. Eat healthy and you'll be fine.
Did 8 people seriously just post something to this effect? Have you mental midgets ever met a vegan who didn't tell you they were vegan within the first .53 seconds of meeting them? Unpossible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The correct answer is shave your legbeards off and quit being such a freaking hipster. Arcade Fires sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111
lookwhoislaughing wrote:
Yeah...Scott Jurek def breaks after three weeks. You're an idiot.
Great argument! I remember watching Scott Jurek vegan diet his way to a DI national championship and being wicked impressed!
Wait... Scott Jurek didn't run in college, you say? But clearly he had DI talent while a vegan, right? I mean honestly, how many top NCAA DI runners do you think could go on to run a 2:38 marathon? Clearly none! Wait, 2:38 is slow you say? Pretty much any DI runner could go on to run a 2:38 with about a month of long runs, you say? Hmm... Maybe Scott Jurek isn't such a good poster boy for vegan runners afterall...
Eating vegan and running are essential to maintain the "thigh gap" that frat boys are going to be looking for if you expect to get any.
As I suspect you know, there are lots of eating disorders that do not lead you to being underweight.
I think it is a great time to be a nutrition major. Right now the world seems open to testing and rewriting all the nutrition rules. Some coaches are going to be ok with you knowing more than them in this area and some coaches will worry that you spend too much time thinking about what you eat or that your experimental eating habits are under cutting their training.
Having said that, worrying about what your future coach will think about you being vegan a year ahead of time is a behavior that could be on the list of things that would support the idea that you have a tendency toward an eating disorder. Most coaches are not going to pick up on this. However, as you go through the recruiting process, there are going to be lots of reasons you don't like schools and lots of reasons schools are not interested in you.
I think the best thing to keep in mind is that in the beginning, schools and athletes use single clear problems to rule athletes and schools out. But after you narrow things down to the best 3 or 4 schools, your final choice is likely due to an overall impression, and any of those schools will be good choices. For example, a choice between a little more scholarship money with a nagging suspicion of anti-veganism vs a little less money but being vegan never really came up vs next to no money but the coach is also vegan. All of those could work out fine, you are just going to have to go with your best guess.