Are Vegan running gains real or BS?

Vegans are BS, period. They don't eat just vegetables. Animal parts always get into the mix while the vegetables are grown and processed.

They don't avoid killing animals either. They have to kill boocoo animals to grow and harvest their vegetables.

Of course, being on a higher moral plane or something, bugs don't count as animals. Neither do field mice, nesting birds, snakes, lizards, hedgehogs, slugs, snails, armadillos, rabbits, rats, skinks, or the many other critters routinely slaughtered by the harvest!

It's no magic potion.

You might lose a bit of weight, which will help your performances, and it may increase the likelihood that you'll eat more fresh produce and less fast food.

However, a lot of those Vegan faux meats are ultra-processed and fast food places now offer vegan alternatives (depending on where you live).

It is a more ethical diet though, in that, you'll be trying to reduce the amount of animals you kill.

Give it a try, but promise not to invest your entire personality in it. By that, I mean, don't change all your social media handles to "Vegan Runner", etc.

Our food supply has animal products that aren't filled with crap. They are just typically more expensive.

I thought you were much younger.
Change your diet now. It probably will not improve your performance at all (unless some weight-loss happens) but it will be excellent for your health.

Check this guy out:

Eating well should be one of the pleasures of a well lived life. Why do people turn it into a morality play. The hard core carnivores and vegans are both 🥜 nuts. I know, peanuts are a legume.

My wife and 3 boys are all vegan. All 3 of my kids got better after they went vegan but it could also obviously be them maturing. I'm to old to get faster.

This is very important. I would never recommend changing 2 things at once in training... So if you aren't already cooking all but 1-3 meals a week at home don't switch away from both meat and cooking yourself at once. Learn to cook for yourself first and learn to love it! From there eating Vegan or just healthy becomes very easy and way cheaper. It is crazy to me that if I want to eat out for a healthy meal (either vegan or vegetarian or meat based etc) while running 110+ miles per week It costs me 20$/per meal but cooking that exact meal at home would be 5$ tops. It honestly makes me a bit upset that vegan food is so expensive when eating out.. If they priced it with the same profit margins as meat based it should be far cheaper. I am not for or against eating vegan but don't confuse vegan food with healthy food... fried okra and fried avocado are not healthy but they are vegan.

Conversely all meat isn't unhealthy.. Bison is a great source of protein and Iron and low in fat. Some fattier cuts of meat aren't bad for you either but the amount American's think is a portion generally is an unhealthy amount. So 1/4th of a ribeye is a good source of protein and fat but an entire ribeye is a great source of future heart disease.

Political view:
Now for the moral reasoning behind veganism I find a bit off TBH... the most used organic fertilizer in the world is dried blood (blood meal) from the slaughterhouse industry which is a pretty awful way for an animal to go the 2nd most is the bones from the same animals. The whole Idea also that you can grow more food per square foot than animals produce is also a bit off... I can't eat grass nor all bugs but cattle and chickens can so they allow us to keep good bio-diversity of plant matter while still providing food. When farmed correctly animals aren't just a good crop but they also can sustain and build good soil to grow in as one more common organic fertilizer is manure.

Now more political if you are an adult and eat meat but aren't willing to kill an animal yourself you should def consider being a vegan or continue to be a hypocrite. Learning to hunt and fish or raise livestock in a sustainable way and comparing that to the meat industry and laws in America to make it hard to harvest animals in a way that doesn't stress them out is extremely important.

Disclaimer: I am not a dietitian I just love to cook and run a ton and am into gardening fruits and vegetables.

I'd be really interested in seeing the results of this. Good luck.

I was surprised recently to learn that the best German under 20 runner, Jolanda Kallabis (* 2005, daughter of Damian Kallabis who was European steeplechase champion in the 1998) who ran an u18 world's best in the 2000m steeple (6:07.7) in last september (as well as 2:04 and 4:14) has been a vegan for years. But she does take iron and other supplements.

I am generally skeptical of veganism because while about half of India are vegetarians (but eat milk products) there has been no culture in human history who ate vegan, except for periods of fasting or similar ascetic practice.

Good luck with your future anemia and stress fractures OP. There is nothing wrong with bison, organic chicken, grass-fed meat, wild salmon, and free range eggs.

Quitting processed foods is the best course of action for anyone, and obviously eating more vegetables.

You people act like quitting wheat and dairy to reduce inflammation is “woo” pseudoscience, but you’re jumping on the vegan bandwagon. LOL

Make sure you take your Big Pharma ADHD meds too!

My hypothesis is if someone is a little overweight, becoming vegan is likely to help them to lose weight because it is a restriction on their diet. Sure, you can still eat a lot of calories that fit in their new vegan diet. But in general they can't eat 'anything and everything' which will in some way reduce how many calories they get. This would make them lose a little bit of excess weight, and that would make them run faster.

I bet you could find people who switched to a low carb diet and also ran faster (until they broke down from insufficient calories).

I started the Plantstrong seven day rescue diet Monday. Totally vegan and plant based. First day observations:

1. It is nice to east as much food as you want.

2. I noticed a bit of craving like I was hungry in the afternoon but wasn't really hungry. Maybe that was mental and not physical.

3. Bowel movements are a work of art. Perfecto.

4. I slept like a baby and woke with plenty of energy. Tomorrow I will wear my gps watch at night to see if my deep sleep has increased.

5l. Humus is damn good. Throwing fruit on everything easily gives you any sweetness you desire. (in place of sugar)

Running

I raced a half marathon this weekend so my legs were spent so my 5 mile easy run Monday was labored. So no noticeable running differences yet.

Excellent.

Can't comment on diet but for God's sake man, you can't listen to ANYTHING an ultra runner tells you. You source info from people that are actually competitive.

I read the book and followed him for a while several years ago. I did the whole foods plant based thing. You are always better when you cut junk and processed food. You are even better when you add animal products to that (steak, eggs, etc.). That's my opinion based on my actual experience.

Thanks. Rich Roll takes it to a level that I am not going to attempt. Nor do I want to.

I have always thought vegan was a joke but I was always focusing on the concept of denying oneself of something you want and missing the point of plant based food being superior for your health and hopefully athletic abilities. So I figure how in the hell will you ever know if it is BS or real if you don't try.

Just did a 10 miler and was a bit surprised at the quick bounce back of my legs and ease of the run after a half marathon Saturday. I have only been eating vegan for one day so I can't draw any cause and effect yet.

6 days into my 100% vegan experiment... Observations

1. I still can't get over how well my digestive system is performing. Bowel movements are perfect.

2. I am rapidly losing visceral fat around the mid section.. This used to only come through fasting or hard dieting. It must be the reduced sugar, carbs and fat. But it really going away.

3. Weird. My complexion is better??? I used to have a redness in my face that is gone. Maybe this is due to reduced inflammation.

4. Lost 4lbs. (5'9" 160lbs)

Running

It took me a couple of days to appreciate that I was in calorie deficit with the low calorie per volume of food i was taking in. I have increased my intake and this has caused my running energy to increase. 11 miler with 5 at threshold was really strong yesterday.

Recovery seems to be better but this isn't 100% yet.

My plan is to keep going with this.

Not sure why downvote, but this is true. Restrictive diets "work" for health and performance in some people because of the unintended consequences. If you start arbitrarily eliminating certain ingredients, you make it more difficult to access convenience food, eat out, and it forces you to be more conscious of what you are eating. For many people this change gets them away from the issues in their standard diet that were problematic. It wasn't the meat, the dairy, the gluten, the seed oils, the soy, the fodmaps, whatever.

You notice that people who are on very different restrictive diets such as vegan, carnivore, paleo, IF, etc. all say the same things. This is why. In an apples to apples comparison (ie. mindful, macro & calorie matched diet), there isn't any benefit to these diets. However irl people don't do a control arm to their experiment where they don't eat out, don't eat packaged junk food etc.

I don't think there's anything wrong with having a special diet if you know having these rules helps you eat better. Some people need rules and structure. Some people may have other reasons for these diets such as ethical concerns as well. That's all fine. But I think it's worth acknowledging that it's almost certainly healthier to have an unrestricted diet. Within the running community, also worth thinking about unintended consequences re: eating disorders. All of the vegan runners I know are men. Almost all of them have a history of eating disorders. I think this is how men who do sports tend to manifest that unfortunately.

Most Americans are not eating enough fiber. Just reducing processed foods and getting enough fiber is a game changer. Plants and vegetables have lots of good anxioxidants that help you recover. Rice and beans are an easy way to get your protein and cheap.

Try to buy organic because the herbicides on GMO crops are really bad for you. Google glyphosate and see what pops us.

If you are going to eat meat, go organic as well as most meat if full of hormones and antibiotics that are not good for you.

Good job on the experiment and keep us updated.