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The Vegan Weight Loss Plan – A Few Great Ideas!

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Vegan Weight Loss Meal Plan

A vegan diet is one of the healthiest ways to keep your weight under control. Each nutritious meal should keep you feeling active, and healthy. 

However, if you intend on losing weight, getting a few ideas on preparing a vegan weight loss plan is essential. Without a plan, you may end up in a situation where you opt for quick, convenient meals over healthy options. 

Any weight loss diet will be challenging to maintain at first. You need to have the discipline to stick to your diet and not make any compromises.

It is easy to begin a vegan weight loss diet, only to break the habit a few days later. Fortunately, if you’re a vegan, we presume you already possess the determination and tenacity to keep up with a weight loss diet.

So are you excited to get ready for your weight loss journey? Here are some great tips with best vegan food to implement into your weight loss meal plan:

Veggies & Fruits

When it comes to nutrition, vegetables & fruits are your best options! You get lots of antioxidants, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. They are also low in calories but filling in large enough amounts.

Try to adjust how the ingredients are prepared and mixed. If necessary, add in some variety with fruits or veggies you’ve never tried before. Have fun with your meal plan!

Plant-Based Protein

Protein is going to be an essential element for your plant-based weight loss diet plan. Protein helps to maintain lean body mass, fills the appetite, and a source of longer-lasting energy (may help curb food cravings).

Plant-based protein options include any of the legumes, grains, nuts, seeds, soy milk, and the classic choice of tofu. There is also no shortage of ways to play with these ingredients, mixing spices, herbs, and other tasty vegan options.

Salads

A salad can be as hearty as you want it to be. Blend in carrots, celery, cucumber, green pepper, broccoli, tomato, corn, lettuce, apples, pumpkin seeds, tofu, quinoa, chickpeas, and whatever else fills your bowl.

If you cut your greens into a smaller size, that will enable you to consume your salad easily with a spoon. Aim to get your vegetables to bite-sized portions to get the most out of your healthy salad!

Vegan Shakes

A vegan shake is all about getting healthy, tasty foods into your body. A basic vegan shake could be as simple as mixing almond milk, banana, and broccoli with a dab of peanut butter.

With your shake, you can also have the liberty of taking the fruit route, involving frozen berries, mangoes, cherries, pineapples, or oranges. Add in whatever fresh ingredients that you fancy indulging yourself with!

Homemade Trail Mix

Snacks can be a great way to keep your hunger pangs at bay and prevent overeating which helps in keeping your weight under control. A homemade trail mix is a fantastic vegan option that you can quickly assemble at home.

You can make the trail mix from chocolate, nuts, dehydrated fruit, and whatever else you enjoy. Divide it up into measured portions and have it on wherever you go. Vegans can have something to nibble on and still avoid overeating!

Apples & Nuts

Another healthy, tasty snack to keep you fed in between the big meals which can be incorporated into your vegan weight loss meal plan. Ideally, it should be a snack that’s ready to go and won’t require much preparation.

When hunger hits, chop up an apple and grab a fistful of nuts. There’s something about an apple and nuts that just work! 

Manage Your Calories

In any plant-based weight loss diet plan, you need to keep track of your calorie intake carefully. Foods like coconut yogurt, avocado, nut butter, and nuts can be packed with calories, potentially sabotaging your weight loss goals if taken excessively.

You can still eat these tasty treats, but only in moderation. You certainly do not want to have them with every meal, and you will want to control your portion sizes.

On the opposite extreme, you may not be eating enough calories in your vegan weight loss diet if you don’t plan your meals. A calorie deficit is needed to lose weight.

However, a meager calorie count puts you at risk of illnesses, prone to injuries due to a lack of energy, and long-term health issues. Jump on a calorie weight loss calculator and put in your stats. The calculator will tell you how many daily calories you need to drop weight safely.

Avoid Processed Vegan Food

There are some ultra-processed vegan foods you should avoid. For example, a bucket of french fries is technically vegan, yet it’s terrible for your weight!

Try as much as possible to avoid vegan fast food, vegan sweets, vegan junk food, and any vegan-based meat substitutes that are available commercially. These can be packed with unhealthy calories and do your best to avoid them while following your vegan dieting meal plan.

Take Essential Supplements

If you’re transitioning from animal-based foods to vegan eating, you may need to supplement to cover what you lack from your vegan diet.

Vitamin B12 (highly recommended), omega-3, vitamin D3 (if you don’t get enough exposure to sun), iron, zinc, iodine, and calcium are possible supplements to consider for optimum health (except for vitamin B12, all the other nutrients can still be obtained from a vegan diet). 

Deficiencies in these areas can cause serious health issues. Even though you may not get these deficiencies with certainty, there is an element of risk, if you don’t have a wholesome & balanced vegan diet.

Not Enough Time? Need Calorie Info? Choose a Meal Delivery Service!

You can tap into a vegan meal delivery service on days you don’t want to cook at home or don’t have enough time. A meal delivery service will introduce you to new vegan meals and dishes made with a restaurant-level quality which can be a nice treat! 

If you’ve never eaten on a vegan diet, a meal delivery service can be a great source of tasty dishes to get a start. Best of all, many vegan meal delivery services provide detailed nutritional information on each dish.

With every meal, you will know what ingredients are there and how many calories you consume. 

Transition Over Time

Finally, you should never hastily jump into a drastic diet change. You need to give your mind and body time to adjust. Choose a few days and try the new diet regimen once or twice a week.

It will be much easier to adopt this way to a vegan weight loss plan. This will give you a chance to try some new foods, while not feeling too overwhelmed or denied your old favorites. 

As your meals become all plant-based, think about what you may be missing in your diet. Usually, it is a battle to avoid excessive calories and keep it wholesome & balanced taking into account the nutrients we mentioned under supplements.

So try many different plant-based options as you learned from this post and see what works and what you enjoy the most!

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Disclaimer:

While every attempt has been made to verify the information provided here, the content in this post is for informational purposes only and not to be considered as professional advice. By providing the information contained herein we’re not diagnosing, or treating any type of disease or medical condition. Before beginning any regimen it is sensible to seek the advice of a licensed healthcare professional.

The Vegan Bodybuilding Diet, Meat Ain’t for Rhinos!

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The Vegan Bodybuilding Diet

See what the 2nd largest land animal does? No worries, you don’t have to graze all day long to beef up!

While a vegan diet is well known for offering long-term health benefits apart from reducing the suffering of animals and harm to the environment, many may have one big lingering question—whether we can really build muscles on a vegan diet without animal proteins.

Luckily, the answer is a resounding YES with some real-life examples like Patrik Baboumian (Germany’s Strongest Man – 2011), Robert Cheeke (below image), Torre Washington, Alexander Dargatz, Laurel Fredette, Joel Kirkilis, Robbie Hazeley, Erin Fergus, Dominick Thompson, and Anastasia Zinchenko (powerlifter).

Vegan Bodybuilder - Robert Cheeke
Good nutrition is absolutely crucial for building and maintaining muscles. This means that to a great degree, everything you put into your mouth is going to have an effect on the gains from your workouts, how quickly you recover, and of course, how you build muscles.

Let’s take a look at what you need to know about nutrition and how to get the most out of your vegan bodybuilding diet while overcoming common pitfalls vegans may experience in their bodybuilding journey.

Starting Your Vegan Bodybuilding Diet and Buff Begin With Baby Steps

In the beginning, it’s not rational to expect you’ll be able to recover quickly from heavy or very frequent training.

You will need to begin slowly, adjust your diet as required, understand how you respond to training, before seeing results as bodybuilding is not a race.

It takes time for growth, but even with a low number of reps with some heavy weights, you can still stimulate gains and be well on your way to a great physique!

Your body may not have enough calories to build muscle when it’s running at a calorie deficit, so in order to start putting on extra muscle mass, you need to eat more calories before training and make those gains. In the beginning, though, try to keep your workouts at 45 minutes or less.

Vegan bodybuilding nutrition must begin with the three important macronutrients, protein, carbohydrate, and fat which form part of your base in the bodybuilding journey.

It All Starts with Protein!

When aiming to build muscle, studies show that a diet high in proteins is certainly the way to go. As a bodybuilder, it’s important to understand what constitutes as a good vegan protein for bodybuilding.

Proteins are made out of a range of different building blocks known as amino acids. The ones which we cannot produce ourselves and must consume from the diet are called the ‘essential’ amino acids. There are nine ‘essential’ amino acids.

Three of these nine essential amino acids in particular which are vital to building muscle are known as BCAAs (branched-chain amino acids: leucine, isoleucine, and valine). BCAAs play an important role in building muscle tissue and protein synthesis.

Simply put, foods with BCAAs have greater potential for muscle growth; so it’s only sensible for you to include them in your diet while having a focus on good sources of complete & complimentary vegan proteins.

What We Need to Consider with Protein Sources

  1. Its amino acid profile
  2. Availability of essential amino acids (ideally complete protein sources)
  3. Availability of BCAAs*

*branched-chain amino acids: leucine, isoleucine, and valine

Best Vegan Protein Sources for Bodybuilding

Vegan Complete Protein Sources (nine essential amino acids with BCAAs)

  • Quinoa
  • Buckwheat
  • Soy (tofu, tempeh, edamame, soy milk)
  • Chia
  • Ezekiel bread
  • Spirulina
  • Hemp
  • Vegan protein powder


Vegan Protein Sources Rich in BCAAs (branched-chain amino acids)

  • Peanuts
  • Soybeans
  • Baked beans
  • Lima beans
  • Lentils
  • Brown rice
  • Almonds
  • Cashews
  • Whole wheat
  • Corn

Vegan Complimentary Protein Sources

  • Beans and brown rice
  • Peanut butter on wheat bread
  • Peanut butter with oatmeal
  • Hummus with whole wheat pita bread
  • Whole grain cereal with soy milk
  • Lentil with whole grain bread
  • Salads made with beans and nuts or seeds

Other Vegan Sources Rich in Protein

  • Chickpeas
  • Lentils
  • Almonds
  • Pistachios
  • Cashews
  • Walnuts
  • Flaxseed
  • Pumpkin seeds
  • Navy beans
  • Kidney beans
  • Mung beans
  • Oats
  • Natto
  • Seitan

If at least 70% of your daily protein comes from high-quality protein sources like these, you’re all set for success!

But how much do you need? While there is still some debate, most reliable sources agree with the following guideline, based on your body weight:

  • 1.05 to 1.4 grams per pound, or 2.3 to 3.1 grams per kilogram of body weight (intense training and muscle gains) [1]
  • 0.5 to 1.05 grams per pound, or 1.2 to 2.3 grams per kilogram of body weight (intense training and maintenance)

Bodybuilders are recommended to spread this out over six small meals a day, so take your value from the equation above, and divide by six to see how much protein you should be aiming at each meal.

You can also choose a good vegan protein powder to help you meet any deficiencies, as this is a fast and easy way to keep on target.

A good option is powders made from a blend of rice & pea protein as these vegan proteins have complementary amino acid profiles that add up quite similar to what you would get from a whey protein source. For a vegan protein powder review, click here.

Carbohydrates to Fuel Your Fitness

Because carbohydrates are your muscle’s preferred form of energy, they are just as vital as protein to build muscles. Without those, you simply won’t have the sustained energy needed for your workouts.

As a general rule, the higher your carbohydrate intake, the better in your execution of weightlifting and body make-up.

So why are they so important? For intense training, carbs are crucial. Whenever your body needs energy for your workouts, its first choice to burn would be carbs. This is because they are the fastest to unlock energy (fuel).

When your body is starved of carbohydrates, it may turn to burning protein as an energy source, which is of course exactly what you don’t want as a vegan bodybuilder! You want all the available protein from your meals to be doing what it does best—building and repairing muscles and associated tissues.

You should also note that, fat produces fewer calories (energy) per unit of oxygen compared to carbs, meaning letting your body resort to other mediums of fuel during an intense workout, comes at a cost!

As a rule for the mass building phase, aim to consume at least 3 grams of carbohydrates per pound of bodyweight (for example, if your weight is 180 pounds, you should aim to eat at least 540g of carbs each day).

To keep your blood sugar levels in control, try your best to get these carbohydrates from low GI (Glycemic Index) sources. It is better for sustained performance and additional health benefits from components such as fiber, vitamins, and minerals.

Evidence suggests that these foods also result in higher levels of muscle glycogen (carbohydrate stored in the muscles), as well as a lower risk of excess glucose becoming stored as fat if you don’t use it.

Preferred “Low Glycemic” Carbohydrate Sources

  • Pasta
  • Brown rice
  • All-bran, whole grain bread
  • Sweet potato
  • Quinoa
  • Oats
  • Nuts
  • Legumes
  • Most Vegetables
  • Fruits (especially plums, peaches, apples, oranges, pears, grapes, and grapefruit)
  • Almond milk


Fat–Aim for Roughly 30% of Overall Calories

One of the wonderful positives to a vegan diet is that natural plant fats tend to be of the healthiest kind! During mass and weight building, aim for 0.3 to 0.4 grams of fat per pound of your body weight each day.

When you are in the cutting phase (trying to lose excess fat), this figure should be lower. Conversely, when you’re in the phase of trying to gain & maintain, you might want to aim slightly higher.

Try and stick to whole food options for fat wherever possible.

Healthy Fat Sources

  • Avocados
  • Nuts like walnuts, almonds, macadamia, etc.
  • Seeds like sesame, chia, flax, etc.
  • Vegan dark chocolate
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Coconut oil


While it may take a bit of experiment before you get it just right for your individual needs, eventually balancing your macronutrients (protein, carbs, and fats) will become easy. It’s simply a matter of becoming more aware of the macronutrients your meals contain and finding where you need to make adjustments to your vegan bodybuilding diet.

Staying in a Calorie Surplus

One of the great advantages of a vegan diet for weight loss is that plant foods tend to be high in fiber and nutrients, yet low in calories. However, this would seem to be a challenge for a vegan bodybuilder trying to stay in a calorie surplus and put on weight.

Luckily, the protein and fat rich foods we mentioned above are all denser in calories, so consuming an abundance of those foods will allow you to remain in a much needed surplus for your gains.

Everyone’s body composition is different, so you will need to find the right balance. Start with a rough goal of 15 to 20 calories per pound of bodyweight each day. Start from the low value and increase if you need to.

You need to find the right zone where you’re getting the gains you want without putting on extra body fat. As long as your gains are good without putting on fat, maintain or even consider upping your calorie intake.

If on the other hand, you are experiencing more fat than muscle gain, you will need to reduce your daily caloric intake until you start seeing the results you want.

What about Micronutrients?

Once you have the correct macronutrient balance in your vegan bodybuilding diet, you also need to make sure you’re getting the health-promoting micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals. These will make sure you keep your system fit & healthy for continuous workouts and maintenance.

Below you will find the important micronutrients and vegan sources,

Vitamin B12

Calcium

  • Chia seeds
  • Sesame seeds
  • Tahini
  • Almonds
  • Spring greens
  • Dried Figs
  • Rocket/ arugula
  • Black eyed peas

Vitamin D

The Omega-3 Fatty Acids (ALA, EPA, and DHA)

  • Chia seeds
  • Flaxseeds
  • Flaxseed oil
  • Walnuts
  • Canola oil
  • Hempseed oil
  • Camelina oil
  • Chia seed oil
  • Mustard seeds
  • Vegan Omega-3 Supplements (for EPA & DHA)

Iron

  • Dark green leafy vegetables (oregano, parsley, basil, cooked swiss chard, and spinach)
  • Vegan dark chocolate
  • Cocoa powder
  • Beans
  • Peas
  • Nuts & seeds

Zinc

Focus on small regular meals

Try to fit a small meal into your day, 6 to 8 times, or roughly every 2 to 4 hours, while you’re in the muscle building phase. This will help you keep a positive nitrogen balance, which is essential for producing new muscle, providing a steady stream of both calories and nutrients (protein, healthy fats and complex, low-glycemic carbohydrates).

This keeps your metabolism and fat-burning ability high, as well as fuelling muscle growth and improving recovery from your training.

Keep your hydration

As a rule of thumb, aim for around 2 liters of fluids each day which may include water, plant milk, green tea and any vegan protein shakes you may have. Use your thirst and urine color as an indicator, to keep tabs on your hydration.

Vegan Bodybuilding Diet & Nutrition

Last Thoughts

Optimizing your performance and overall health for bodybuilding on a vegan diet revolves around these two key areas:

  • Closely monitor and manage your vegan bodybuilding diet around generous amounts of foods high in the nutrients discussed above.
  • If you are battling to meet your nutrition goals, don’t hesitate to use, quality vegan supplements.

Since your demands for nutrients have risen due to high physical activity, it may be sensible as a vegan to have a medical checkup done at least on an annual basis to know the state of your overall health.

If you know what you’re doing, it’s easy and rewarding to build muscle and strength on a vegan diet!

Remember that building a great physique takes time and commitment. You’re going to need a good deal of determination and diligence to see the results you want and remain consistent in your commitment each and every day!

In return, you’ll be rewarded with impressive results, and feel strong, healthy, and full of energy to boot.

Get the basics right, and you’re well on your way to getting awesome gains and the physique you always wanted in vegan style. As we said, “meat ain’t for rhinos!”

 

Disclaimer: 

While every attempt has been made to verify the information provided here, the content in this post is for informational purposes only and not to be considered as professional advice. Before beginning any regimen it is advisable to seek the advice of a certified professional.

Vegan Athlete Diet and Nutrition, the Base to Excel!

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Vegan Athlete Diet and NutritionThe number of professional athletes adopting a vegan athlete diet to boost their performance and maintain their nutrition the natural way has truly grown in recent years.

From plant-based tennis stars like Venus, Serena and Martina Navratilova to Olympic runners like Carl Lewis, plant-based diets are proving the evidence over and over that you don’t need to consume animal products to be a force in the sports field!

Vegan athletes build their nutrition around healthy plant sources and exclude all forms of animal products including meat, eggs, and dairy.

A plant-rich diet gives them everything they need to perform at optimal levels, meet their high energy demands, get the nutrients they need, and may even give potential benefits than the standard diets for athletes.

Keen to build your own vegan athlete diet? Let’s take a look at everything you need to incorporate in order to perform at your peak!

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are readily available as energy for your muscles, and important in any vegan athlete’s nutrition.

Due to its immediate availability, out of the three macronutrients (carbs, proteins & fat), carbs are the fastest converting into energy, thus your body’s first choice for energy needs [1].

It also reduces your body from using protein as a source of energy, allowing protein to do what it does best—grow & repair muscles & tissues.

As a rule, it is recommended to consume at least 60% of your total calories from carbohydrate-rich foods. Luckily for vegan athletes, this is quite easy, because after all, plants convert energy from sunlight into sugars and more complex carbohydrates, making them an excellent source of fuel and vegan sports nutrition.

Healthy High Carbohydrate Sources for Vegan Athlete Diet

  • Wholegrains: amaranth, pearled barley, millet, teff, spelt, kamut, brown rice, wholewheat pasta, and quinoa
  • Pinto beans, adzuki beans, navy beans, pink beans, black turtle beans, white beans and kidney beans
  • Lentils, split peas, and chickpeas
  • Sweet potatoes, sweet corn, and parsnips
  • Bananas, pomegranate, pears, mango, grapes, and apples
  • Pumpkin seeds
  • Dates, and raisins


Protein

People leading an active lifestyle require more protein than a sedentary person, and once again, nature has supplied vegan sources for that in abundance.

Apart from building and maintaining muscles, protein is also responsible for your bones, skin, and tissue growth. Insufficient protein intake can in some people cause sugars to enter the bloodstream faster, causing spikes and crashes, interfering with the correct functioning of insulin.

This is why whole plant foods are so important, as they contain natural proteins along with the carbohydrates they offer letting sugars enter the bloodstream at a stable rate. This not only keeps your energy levels up and blood sugar stable, but also keeps hunger at bay.

The general rule of thumb for working out your daily protein requirement is 1g of protein per kilogram or 0.45g per pound of body weight for non-athletes. However, according to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, vegan athlete diets would require slightly more, between 1.2 to 2g per kilogram or 0.54 to 0.91g per pound of body weight [2].

Vegan sources of protein are abundant, and you shouldn’t have any trouble at all incorporating them into your daily vegan athlete diet. Check below some quality vegan sport protein sources!

Protein-Rich Food Sources

  • Legumes, beans (green, kidney, black-eyed, garbanzo, soy*, adzuki)
  • Chickpeas, lentils
  • Soy foods* (tempeh, tofu, soya mince, soy milk)
  • Hemp seeds
  • Peanut butter
  • Hemp flour
  • Bean flour
  • Vegan protein powder
  • Fortified food

*buy non-GMO

Fats

While eliminating fat from the diet entirely is not the goal (not even really possible, as whole plant foods contain natural fats) it is advised to limit intake of saturated and particularly trans fats for peak vegan athletic performance.

Those who expend a lot of energy through endurance exercise may require extra fat in their vegan athlete diet as an additional fuel source. Fats are also important for proper absorption of certain fat-soluble vitamins like vitamin E, which acts as an antioxidant and can help speed up recovery after tough physical exertion.

Like natural plant proteins, fat assists in slowing the rate at which the carbohydrates entering the bloodstream, helping to provide a steady and sustained supply of energy. Adding any form of fat to meals increases their caloric density or the amount of energy which is provided per mouthful.

Still, it is recommended that even athletes, keeping their daily intake of calories from fat at less than 35% of the total calories consumed. You really don’t want those excess calories to be converted into fat the body has no use of.

Certain cold pressed oils can be particularly helpful for athletes who use a substantial amount of calories each day. Oils like hemp and flax oil are preferred, as they are an abundant source of omega-3 fatty acids which contribute to fighting inflammation. As such, these oils are useful in speeding recovery and repairing the tissue damage associated with strenuous daily training.

Quality Fat Sources

  • Flaxseed (grind it for optimum absorption)
  • Chia seeds (soak for optimum absorption)
  • Flax seed oil
  • Hemp oil
  • Avocados
  • Nuts and seeds
  • Extra virgin olive oil (use in moderation)


Calcium & Vitamin D

One of the many benefits of being an athlete is the ability to maintain healthy bones, but a vegan athlete diet should include an adequate dietary intake of calcium to maintain skeletal health.

Calcium is also useful in releasing hormones and other chemicals, contracting and relaxing muscles, regulated heartbeat, and nerve signaling function.

In addition, sufficient levels of vitamin D are required for better absorption of calcium, muscle function, cardiovascular function, and respiratory system function.

Do note that during muscle contractions calcium is used by the body and in the case of any athlete, vegan or not, heavy exercise may force the body to draw on its calcium reserves within bones. Calcium can also be lost through heavy sweating.

Therefore, if there is insufficient calcium coming in from food and develops into a severe case, there could be a possibility of stress fractures which is quite a setback for any vegan athlete.

In contrast, a vegan athlete diet which includes good sources of dietary calcium & vitamin D, will be rewarded with performance, healthy bones, supple and limber muscles for good overall vegan sports nutrition!

Calcium Rich Foods

  • Dark green leafy vegetables: spring greens, rocket/ arugula, kale, watercress, broccoli raab (rabe/ rapini)
  • Sesame seeds: sesame seeds are very high in calcium with 1 cup (144g) yielding 1,404mg of calcium. In contrast, 1 cup (250 ml) of cow’s milk contains 300mg of calcium. To maximize the absorption of calcium from sesame seeds, grind it.
  • Chia seeds (soak for optimum absorption), sunflower seeds
  • Tahini
  • Plant milk
  • Fortified food
  • Almonds, and walnuts
  • White beans, black-eyed peas
  • Dried figs
  • Parsley
  • Almond butter

Note: Some foods, such as spinach, contain calcium which is actually bound to a substance called oxalate, meaning that we experience difficulty in absorbing all of the calcium they contain. They are still a good source, but it is useful to remember not to rely solely on those for your calcium needs.

Vitamin D Sources

  • Sunlight:  It takes 5 to 30 minutes of sun twice per week for our bodies to make enough vitamin D (exposure time depending on your skin color & exposed area. Lighter the skin and more exposed area of the body, the lesser time it takes to produce vitamin D). Be careful not to get sunburned. Finding the right balance of sun exposure is key.
  • Mushrooms which have been pre-exposed to sunlight
  • Vitamin D fortified plant milk
  • Other fortified food
  • Vegan supplements.
  • Garden of Life Raw Organic Meal Replacement (one serving of which provides 50% of your daily Vitamin D, USDA Certified Organic, Non-GMO and  Gluten Free)

Iron

Iron is vital for the production of red blood cells, and fighting fatigue. Vegan or not, athletes have historically battled to maintain the iron levels necessary for optimal performance, thus it is a vital nutrient in your vegan athlete diet.

Like calcium and sodium, iron is also lost through sweat, making training in warm weather more likely to deplete iron reserves.

Your iron levels take a considerable amount of time to become depleted and rebuilding your stores takes equal time. Another factor for athletes to consider is the crushing of red blood cells through muscle contractions, known as hemolysis. The more active you are, the more attention you need to pay to your iron intake.

Iron is best absorbed when taken along with a food rich in vitamin C, as it aids in absorption into the bloodstream. For extreme athletes, for example, those running more than 50 miles (80km), as well as athletes who train in warm climates and sweat all year round, it is recommended to take a good vegan iron supplement.

Iron-Rich Food Sources

  • Spinach
  • Parsley
  • Vegan dark chocolate
  • Cocoa powder
  • White beans
  • Soybeans (buy Non-GMO)
  • Cooked swiss chard
  • Cooked turnip greens
  • Lentils, kidney beans, chickpeas
  • Squash & pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and  flax seeds
  • Cashews, pine nuts, hazelnuts, peanuts, almonds, pistachios, and macadamia
  • Molasses
  • Edible seaweeds

Sodium

While for most people an excess of sodium is more likely than a deficiency due to its use in many food recipes, athletes who sweat excessively may be at risk. Depletion of sodium reserves in an athlete will frequently result in muscle cramping and stiffness, and difficulty in recovering.

Like many nutrients, the rate at which sodium is depleted rises along with the frequency and intensity of physical activity.

If an athlete is experiencing muscle cramping due to sodium deficiency, they will find that adding sea salt to their meals should eliminate the problem and bring the suppleness back to their muscles.

A highly active person who is losing sodium through physical activity should not experience a rise in blood pressure by having reasonable levels of salt in their diet.

Recommended Sodium Dietary Intake

During periods of heavy training, a vegan athlete should try to add sea salt to at least one meal or snack each day. If you are training for a marathon, you should try to add sea salt to each meal one week before such activity.

Vegan Athlete Diet and Nutrition

Conclusion

For highly active persons or professional athletes, it is recommended to have a blood test done twice a year to spot any potential deficiencies before they become problematic.

Being a vegan athlete, make sure you pay close attention to the increased nutrient demands of the body. Perhaps you have experienced difficulty before as a vegan athlete, and the above guidelines are a good starting point for getting it right on your next go!

Making sure you are armed with information, and remaining mindful about vegan sports nutrition, make succeeding as a top vegan athlete, a reality and there is no reason to give up!

As with sports/athletics and any physical activity, the rewards are highly worthy of your commitment!

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References:

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6571232
[2] http://www.eatright.org/resource/fitness/sports-and-performance/fueling-your-workout/protein-and-the-athlete

Disclaimer: 

While every attempt has been made to verify the information provided here, the content in this post is for informational purposes only and not to be considered as professional advice. Before beginning any regimen it is advisable to seek the advice of a certified professional.

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