Building a Plant Strong Body

You stocked your fridge with tofu and oat milk, added in a workout regimen, but you still are frustrated with your physique. Let’s start with the good news: embracing an (unprocessed) diet rich in whole grains, vegetables, fruit, beans, legumes, nuts, and seeds gives you a huge advantage. This lifestyle will fuel your athletic performance, help your muscles recover quickly, and remove unhealthy saturated fats and cholesterol from entering your body. If you just care about healthy weight loss without any consideration to muscle, athletic performance, or aesthetics, you can stop here. Weight loss will happen seamlessly. However, if you want to tack on some lean muscle or sculpt your body, some extra planning and knowledge is warranted.

Step 1: Understand your Energy Needs

Weight loss occurs with a calorie deficit, and weight gain occurs with a calorie surplus. If you don’t use an Apple Watch or Fitbit, you can use a “TDEE Calculator” to estimate how many calories you need to eat to sustain your energy needs. These are your maintenance calories or the calories you need to eat to maintain your current weight.

Step 2: Choose A Goal: Build Muscle, Lose Fat, or Both

If you are lean (8-12% current body fat for males, 18-22% current body fat for females), and want to build muscle, increase your maintenance calories by 5-25%. If you are looking to lose fat (15-20+% current body fat for males, and 25-30+% current body fat for females), you can reduce your maintenance calories by 10%-20%. If you are looking to build muscle while losing fat, it is recommended to work up to eating in a slight surplus. You need to eat more to build muscle- period.

Step 3: Set Up Your Macronutrient Content

Going off Step 1, understand how much protein, carbohydrate, and fat is needed for your activity level. In general, a minimally active person should consume 15% of their calories from protein, 20% from fat, and 65% from carbohydrates. A moderately active person should consume 20% protein, 20% fat, and 60% from carbohydrates. A performance athlete should consume 25% protein, 20% fat, and 55% carbohydrates. Depending on your sport and your metabolism, these numbers can be adjusted. It is not recommended to surpass 25% protein- or necessary. Remember, the average person only needs to eat 0.8g of protein per every kg of body weight. If you are a 100lb (45kg) individual, you only need 38g of protein per day. That could easily be achieved by consuming: 1 cup of soymilk, 1 cup of cooked chickpeas, ½ cup of quinoa, 1 cup of mushrooms, and two slices of Ezekiel bread. Follow our Instagram, @theplantlifechoseus for protein packed recipes!

Step 4: Prioritize Nutrient Density and Don’t Cut Carbohydrates

A calorie is not a calorie. You should choose health promoting foods. The vitamins, nutrients, and prebiotics that exist in plant foods far surpass the nutrition that exists in animal products. Moreover- don’t cut out carbs. The bodybuilding world tends to demonize them, but, in reality, they keep our bodies running. Muscles burn glycogen which is stored carbohydrates, and not having proper energy for your body to use can result in fatigue and poor performance. Focus on potatoes, oatmeal, legumes, beans, quinoa, barley, rice, and fruit to keep your body nourished and consume a carbohydrate rich meal or snack prior to exercising.

Step 5: Ditch the Raw Treats

Familiarize yourself with the calorie density of various plant-based foods. Although health promoting, excess nuts and avocados (especially in raw treats) will tack on the calories and fat and can deter your goals. If you struggle with consuming these kinds of foods in moderation, the best solution is to put it out of sight or out of your house completely.

Step 6: Eat with Your Circadian Rhythm

We eat too much and too often, so truly nailing down Step 1 is key here. Once you understand your target caloric needs, you don’t have to constantly count calories. Being able to differentiate between emotional hunger, toxic hunger, and true hunger takes time and patience. General best practices are to eat within a 8-12 hour window depending on your lifestyle preferences. If you are in a deficit, shorter eating windows can help since you will naturally eat less. If you are in a surplus, you can divide your total daily caloric intake across smaller meals throughout the day, so you don’t feel overstuffed.

Step 7: Resistance Train to Build Muscle

Now that you’ve got the nutrition down pat, you need to engage in a resistance training program. Gaining lean muscle will not happen unless you are regularly lifting weights and challenging yourself. Muscles grow because they are exposed to a stressor (loading), and experience metabolic stress and tension. A workout regime focused on solely cardio will not stress your muscles enough for them to grow. The best advice for beginners is to hire a certified trainer to learn the basics.

Step 8: Up Your Workout Intensity

Shock your body during your workouts. Avoid checking your phone. Establish a mind-muscle connection by visualizing the muscle contracting and lengthening during each exercise. Keep a training log and try to increase your weights each session, decrease rest time while hypertrophy training, or throw in pause or pulsing reputations.

Step 8: One Bad Day Will Not Ruin Your Progress

Indulging in a night out with friends once in a while will not cause instant fat gain. Individuals who stay lean all year round have cheat days too. However, respond to these events accordingly and don’t make them part of your routine. If you have a fun weekend planned, make sure your nutrition and training is on point leading up to it and after it. Drink a lot of water the next day, eat high fiber foods, and move your body.

At the end of the day, engaging in any diet (yes keto too) can make us look fit, but doesn’t guarantee our internal health. Plant based diets promote longevity, decrease your risk of developing chronic disease, and will make our bodies healthy. Even though animal protein contains essential nutrients, it comes packaged with harmful substances such as cholesterol, saturated fats, and even cancer promoting compounds (especially evident in processed meats). Fueling your body with plants guarantees nutrient density and can help you achieve the body you’ve always dreamt of- inside and out.