Veganism is the best way to gain muscle?
Sorry, but i had to make a thread about this.
What has sparked this rant from me is from watching videos on youtube from a poster on there called Vegan Gains. He is an ex competitive bodybuilder who turned vegan. He does pretty much claim that becoming a vegan is the best way to gain the best muscular body (amongst other things). Im sorry, but I find this claim so very flawed, and ill tell you why.
If being a vegan over a meat eater was the best way to gain the best muscular body, then here is my counter question to this claim.....then why arnt all Mr and Ms Olympia level bodybuilders eating like vegans then???.
And please dont respond to this by saying "Its because they just love their steak or their hamburgers or their chicken burgers too much to give it up and go vegan". No no no and no. We are talking about bodybuilders here, not normal average everyday people. When it comes to food and diet, bodybuilders are easily among the most disciplined, dedicated and sacrificing people there are towards it. They put "whats best for them" over "what they actually want to eat" so so so much. We are talking about people who off season, will eat something like 6,000 calories a day, but on season....will drop it down to 2,000 or even 1,500, just to cut up for competition. Bodybuilders spend about 2-4 weeks dropping their calories so much, just to cut up for competition, this is how they get as lean as they do.
Can you imagine eating only a 3rd of the calories that you normally do everyday for 2-4 weeks?, you'd be hungry nearly all the time. And not only that, their diets then become so clean, as clean as a bar of soap. They will cut out all foods that are not low in carbs and very low in fat during that period aswell. Forget that burger you love, forget that pizza you love, forget mars bars, forget loafs of bread, all thats gotta go during that cutting up period. If you watch pumping iron, during the competition, you hear ken waller and tom platz saying that they are just dying for a cheese roll or an ice cream soda....because they have been depraived of it for so long.
I can only name 1 non meat eater bodybuilder past or present, and thats Albert Beckles. So no....if being Vegan really was the best way to gain the best muscle.....they would all go vegan, no doubt about it. Not only that.....how long was Albert Beckles or Vegan Gains bodybuilders when they wernt vegetarian or vegan?. Doesnt it occur to them that protein and amino acids from meat built up much of the muscle they have that they still carry today?. Maybe what Vegan Gains is proving more than anything else is that Veganism works for keeping and maintaining the muscle you already have...not building it all up from scratch.
And no....this is not a thread against vegetarianism and veganism...its a thread against flawed claims.