Is it possible to Build Muscles on a Plant-Based Diet?

Gagan Dhawan is a successful entrepreneur, a fitness enthusiast and an award-winning Vegan warrior who enjoys reading and motivating people to find their best.

Is it possible to Build Muscles on a Plant-Based Diet?

Gagan Dhawan, Author, Entrepreneur, Health Enthusiast, Vegan Warrior

A well-built physique and putting on the right muscle are no longer exclusive to just models or actors. Maintaining a healthy regime is an essential life-skill that everyone needs to master. But is it possible to build muscles on a plant-based diet? Let’s find out!

A plant-based diet means making plant-based foods the central part of your meals. It emphasizes on consuming fruits, vegetables and beans, and limits foods like meats, dairy, honey and eggs. Plant-based diet is beneficial for boosting metabolism, managing weight, and reducing inflammation, especially among people with obesity and those with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. In the larger scheme of things, a plant-based diet is believed to have a positive effect on a person’s emotional and physical well-being,

Here’s what you can eat guiltlessly on a plant-based diet:

Vegetables (including kale, spinach, Swiss chard, collard greens, sweet potatoes, asparagus, bell peppers, broccoli, etc)
Fruits (such as avocado, strawberries, blueberries, watermelon, apples, grapes, bananas, grapefruit, oranges, etc)
Whole grains (such as quinoa, farro, brown rice, whole-wheat bread, and whole-wheat pasta)
Nuts (walnuts, almonds, macadamia nuts, and cashews)
Seeds (such as flaxseed, chia seeds, and hemp seeds)
Beans
Lentils
Coffee
Tea (including green, lavender, chamomile, or ginger)

Along with the right kind of workout and exercise regimen, your diet plays a pivotal role in building and maintaining muscle mass. But there’s a misconception - that you need to eat meat to gain muscles. There is a majority that still believes that meat equals muscle mass, while there are several world-renowned athletes who have built muscles on a plant-based diet.

Unlike popular belief, plant-based foods are nutritional powerhouses, rich in proteins, fibres, vitamins and minerals. Plant-based diet offers all the essential nutrients your body needs to build muscles.

Let’s dive in and find out how muscle is really built! The foundation of muscle gain is not just the protein! Here’s what you need -

First, you stimulate growth by consistently engaging in resistance training that exerts stress on muscle fibres, creating micro-tears in them.

Second, you need to eat enough calories to support muscle repair and growth, a small but vital proportion of which must consist of amino acids, the building blocks of protein. Amino acids help damaged muscle tissues repair and grow. However, the amount of protein in plant-based food sources is lower per serving compared to animal foods. This simply means that you need to eat more plant-based protein foods, particularly if you are a vegan, to reach your daily protein goals.

How much protein you need depends on your age and activity level. A daily recommendation of 0.8g to 1.2g of protein per kg body weight will fulfil the needs of most people training 3-5 times per week with a performance or muscle-building goal.

When you eat plant-based foods, you consume fuel (carbohydrates), but also amino acids (protein), fatty acids (fat), fibre, water, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytonutrients, and other components in the right proportions for promoting good health. The amino acids in fruits and vegetables are sufficient to build muscle, and their vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants also keep us healthy, so we can exercise regularly and turn consistency into results.

So, the answer is - Yes! It is possible to build muscles on a plant-based diet, while keeping these small things in mind:

Protein Intake - Eating a variety of plant-based foods will provide high-quality protein. A careful combination of different plant-based sources (legumes, nuts, seeds and grains) can fulfil all those essential amino acid needs.
Diversity - Include different variety of foods in your diet. Some examples can be tofu, tempeh, lentils, quinoa, chickpeas, etc.
calorie surplus - You need to consume more than your maintenance calories. Including nutrient-rich food may help in adding healthy calories.
Resistance Training - Regular weight training leads to tear and growth of muscles. Combining muscle training with proper nutrition will help to grow muscles. Exercising 3-5 days a week will give best results.
Supplements - Adding plant-based supplements are like icing on the cake. One may consider plant-based protein powders like pea protein, rice protein, hemp protein and soy protein.

While following a plant-based diet, one may suffer a deficiency of nutrients like Vitamin B12, iron, zinc, omega 3 fatty acids, calcium and Vitamin D, so supplementing all these will lead to a balanced plant-based diet. You may add B12 supplements (recommended by your physician), iron absorption can be increased by adding vitamin C rich foods and including ALA -rich foods like chia seeds, hemp and flax seeds for omega 3 fatty acids requirements. Remember, muscle growth is not necessary for athletes only, everyone needs to maintain their muscle mass for healthy living.

Gagan Dhawan is a successful entrepreneur, a fitness enthusiast and an award-winning Vegan warrior who enjoys reading and motivating people to find their best versions.

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