The Painful Truth About Being a Vegan Bodybuilder

I have been cutting for a while now - about 4 months to be exact - and one thing that I didn’t expect on a whole-foods plant-based diet is how much food I would need to be eating EVEN as my calories got lower. When I first began my cut, my calories were around 2600-2700 and I was feeling extremely full at the end of the day, even as I was losing weight at a steady pace, so I knew I was doing something right even though it did not feel like ‘dieting’ to me. Fast forward 4 months, my calories are at around 2300-2400 calories and I feel the exact same way - even after losing 10-15kg!

Now, your first assumption might be ‘isn’t this a good thing?’ - well technically it is a great thing, especially when losing weight you would want to eat more satiating, filling foods that are low in calories to curb your hunger BUT it can be annoying at times, especially when you think that you have hit all your calories for the day and feel really satiated and full, and find out you are still 200-ish calories short of your goal.

I guess this is the main problem with ‘vegan bodybuilding’ and eating a diet rich in plant-based whole-foods, it’s too healthy. It’s so low in calories that unless you are tracking your food, you are at risk of under-eating which is why it is SO important to be tracking your food or at-least have a rough idea on how many calories you are getting in. One way I have solved this problem is to incorporate more fats (since fat is more calorically dense) through foods like peanut butter, FCH (Flax, Chia and Hemp seeds), and occasionally nuts to hit my calorie goals. It is amazing how full I am feeling even on low calories, but that also shows how easy it is to eat at a larger deficit than you want which can possibly affect your progress if done consistently enough.