WHAT’S A PLANT-BASED DAY OF EATING LOOK LIKE? (A VEGAN MEAL PLAN)
So we’ve laid out a few key foundational pieces of a healthy Plant-Based Diet: :
- Plants contain plenty of protein if you know where to look.
- Plant-based strength trainers need to plan their protein intake.
Let’s break this all down and look at what a day of eating vegan – with adequate protein intake – looks like.
We’ll keep it at .75 gram of protein for every pound of lean body mass because it makes the math easy, and can help manage hunger/satiety.[29]
Let’s calculate for a 200-pound male, who is 5 foot 9, and just started strength training.
Let’s also pretend this person just turned 35.
If you’re keeping track at home, our newly created imaginary friend needs to eat 150 grams of protein per day.
BOOM! 150 grams of protein, with no animal products whatsoever.
Total calories?
2,024.
If we calculate the needs of our imaginary 35-year-old male (who weighs 200 pounds and is “lightly active”), using our Total Daily Energy Expenditure Calculator, we know this comes in under the 2,522 calories recommended for weight maintenance:
Which means if this person eats like the above, he’ll build muscle and lose weight like a champ.
Now, if this person was 145 pounds and wanted to bulk up, they would simply increase their calorie intake by following similar strategies as above. Not eating enough is an uber common mistake I see people make who are trying to bulk up.
This example daily menu was chosen to show you, that with a little bit of thought and preparation, eating adequate protein is possible when following a Plant-Based Diet.
You just have to plan carefully (that theme again).
Did you notice something about all the foods we recommended? Not a whole lot of junk food to be seen.
This was not an accident.