There's a lot fewer than you think.
There's a lot fewer than you think.
I just eat vegan dark chocolate to get some extra iron since my diet is usually meatless and eggless. I researched protein requirements and the science wasn't clear to me -- nobody really understands human dietary needs anyway, IMO. Everybody likes to believe humans are smart and have answers so they will follow garbage government recommendations regardless.
I'm vegan and a competitive runner. I initially thought it would make me faster, but three years in and I don't really think there is a noticeable difference- it's just a lifestyle now. In HS but I'm one of the two fastest kids in my team on any given day. I'm also doing like high 60-70 mpw right now. People make too big a deal about protein in my opinion. I do eat tempeh now (used to not) but I like the taste and can notice I feel the better the next day. The biggest difference for me is that I feel lighter if I'm eating a lot of fruit and lighter things compared to if I ate heavier things and felt sluggish. I also have the highest mileage on my team (w/ same intensity as others) by like 10-15 miles a week. Seems to work for me.
Also look at Scott Jurek. He's pretty fast in the ultra scene.
Also, I did it for health reasons mostly. I do eat honey occasionally, but don't crave it or look to eat it.
so - do you supplement with iron, b12, and vitamin D, etc?
Bottom line: Everything that is consumed must be killed first, no exceptions. Animals, plants, fish, foul, bugs, doesn't matter.
What is killed, how it's killed, all meaningless.
We must eat to survive, everything else is just mind games to make us happy/sad/mad/etc.
I'm a vegan because I've found myself a better runner than when I ate animal products. If you find the opposite to be true, power to you.
Protein and other nutrients like B-12 are such a non-issue in a vegan diet, as long as you're not completely careless. I'm currently vegan and a D1 athlete (not running) and feel great and get tons of protein in my diet without any struggle (upwards of 150g on days when I lift and do another cardio workout). In fact, back when I ran cross country and track, I ran into the most trouble while eating meat. I was only doing 60 mpw at the time but ended up with severe iron deficiency (low iron and low ferritin) while still eating meat and tons of other animal products. I had to supplement for about a year to even get my levels up to a normal range, whereas now with minimal dietary management all my levels (iron and others) are fine. Even though I was initially compelled to go vegan for the ethical and environmental reasons, I have found that it hasn't impacted my training at all.
deds wrote:
so - do you supplement with iron, b12, and vitamin D, etc?
supplement with 'Blood Builder', which has iron and beet root and some B12.
the sad truth wrote:
For some people, it's legit, but for a lot of people, it's a convenient way to hide an eating disorder both from themselves and from others. Same goes for runners who are paleo. The diets are inherently restrictive which makes it easy for them to justify excluding entire totally healthy groups of food for the sake of "health" and think they aren't sick
^^^ This. It's a way to stay underweight. Undoubtedly, there are various health benefits to maintaining a vegan or vegetarian diet. I know of several vegans that adhere to the strict diet in order to "look the part" of an anorexic (or close to it,) but want to have a "cop-out" in case somebody tries to send them to a counselor.
Accra wrote:
Carl Lewis was vegetarian leading into the 1991 Championships,
[/quote]
Also keep in mind that after switching to a vegan diet, he lost his interest in the ladies. Probably a mix of low testosterone and high estrogen from all that soy...
Xfit_guy_the_real_1 wrote:
Accra wrote:Carl Lewis was vegetarian leading into the 1991 Championships,
Also keep in mind that after switching to a vegan diet, he lost his interest in the ladies. Probably a mix of low testosterone and high estrogen from all that soy...[/quote]
Pretty sure he was getting a fair amount of "animal protein" after switching to veganism...
Wassup guys?!? I'm actually a vagitarian, if you know what I mean!
You don't think there's a problem with 'not enough energy to go around'? You probably also don't believe in climate change...Think about what's going into feeding and raising thousands of farting cows just so you can enjoy some burgers and sirloin. Huge waste of resources.
Xfit_guy_the_real_1 wrote:
S. Canaday wrote:People just don't eat enough veggies and fruit to fill up on first...that's really the main problem with the American diet.
Don't repeat everything you read in RUNNERS WORLD. Americans don't eat enough veggies, that's true. As for fruit, these artificially engineered super sweet Apples and oranges you can buy in the store these days lead to all kind of problems, from obesity to cavity, to just name a few.
If the whole world ate meat there wouldn't be enough energy to go around
Yes and the problem is...? Clearly there is a problem with population. If you don't see that there shouldn't be 7 billion people on earth then I can't help you.
All vegans do is eat grass and take 100000 supplements to make up for what a normal person needs to eat and calls it healthy
Moose wrote:
How much protein do you guys try to eat per day (regardless of whether you are vegan or not)?
Recommendations I could find online:
USDA: 0.8 g/kg (~51 g for me)
Vegan diet: 0.9 g/kg (~58 g for me)
Light running: 0.5 g/lb (~70 g for me)
Hard training: 0.8 g/lb (~113 g for me)
Crossfit site: 1.6 g/kg (~102 g for me)
Paleo site: 0.9 g/lb lean mass (~108 g for me)
The USDA recommendations are for the general populace. Of course athletes need more. And unless you have certain medical conditions, there's no harm in getting too much but there is in getting too little. I eat about a gram a pound or a little less.
The main problem with high protein consumption is that gram for gram, protein costs about ten times as much as carbohydrates or fats. And I don't doubt that dietary authorities take this economic reality into account when they make their recommendations.
Keep in mind also that percent by calorie is also important, and how many calories you eat is mostly independent of your body weight. Some 150 pound people might need 5000 calories in a heavy training schedule. 120 grams of protein would be only 480 calories or less than 10 percent, which is not healthy. IIRC USDA recommends 11 percent, and again, that's for everybody, not specifically athletes.
S. Canaday wrote:
You don't think there's a problem with 'not enough energy to go around'? You probably also don't believe in climate change...
Think about what's going into feeding and raising thousands of farting cows just so you can enjoy some burgers and sirloin. Huge waste of resources.
Xfit_guy_the_real_1 wrote:Don't repeat everything you read in RUNNERS WORLD. Americans don't eat enough veggies, that's true. As for fruit, these artificially engineered super sweet Apples and oranges you can buy in the store these days lead to all kind of problems, from obesity to cavity, to just name a few.
Yes and the problem is...? Clearly there is a problem with population. If you don't see that there shouldn't be 7 billion people on earth then I can't help you.
I wonder what the world would be like with no farm animals at all and just fields of vegetables, grains and fruit.
We would just have more farting humans.
Zeb wrote:
Bottom line: Everything that is consumed must be killed first, no exceptions. Animals, plants, fish, foul, bugs, doesn't matter.
What is killed, how it's killed, all meaningless.
We must eat to survive, everything else is just mind games to make us happy/sad/mad/etc.
I'm a vegan because I've found myself a better runner than when I ate animal products. If you find the opposite to be true, power to you.
I'm surprised to discover that a vegan has expressed the ethical position with which I have the greatest disagreement.
There is a very meaningful difference between plucking an almond from a tree and force-feeding a duck to create pathological enlargement of the liver for foie gras. And I believe that difference should overwhelm any consideration about whether eating almonds or fatty duck livers makes you a better runner.
Sage, thanks for your insightful post, good luck with your training - and nutrition - and ignore the haters on this board!
It's folks like you, Scott Jurek, Brendan Brazier, and I'm sure many others that disprove the skeptics that a vegan diet can very easily replace a meat or animal product based diet.
Heavyd84 wrote:
All vegans do is eat grass and take 100000 supplements to make up for what a normal person needs to eat and calls it healthy
no.