As I was sitting here eating a bowl of vegan kale, cashew, and basil pesto pasta after my workout, I was wondering, “Can a vegan diet be low carb?”. And not just any vegan diet, but a vegan bodybuilding diet. You know, one where you’re trying to get as huge as possible. So, I thought about what I would eat if I was low carb. Then I did a bunch of research to figure out exactly what a vegan bodybuilding low carb diet would look like.
A vegan bodybuilding low carb diet is definitely doable. It is more challenging because vegan foods tend to be higher in carbs, but with proper structure and planning you can achieve various degrees of a vegan bodybuilding low carb diet.
So, I’m going to break down, step-by-step, exactly what I found in my research. Honestly, I imagine there are a lot of vegan bodybuilders that would want to go low carb for a variety of reasons. Not me of course. I love my pasta. But, anyways, let’s dig into what a vegan bodybuilding low carb diet might look like…
…but first. Check out this video from Vegan Fitness YouTuber “Vegan Physique” on what he calls “tag-along carbs” and strategies for reducing carb intake:
What Kind of Foods Should I Avoid?
There are tons of vegan bodybuilding foods that are high in protein. Unfortunately, many of these foods are also high in carbs, which is of course what we are trying to avoid here. Some of the types of food we want to avoid or limit are:
Grains and starches: Bread, Pasta, Cereal, Rice, Oats
Legumes: Lentils, Chickpeas, Beans
Starchy Vegetables: Potatoes, Peas, Corn
Fruit: All fruits are pretty high in sugar and carbs
Added Sugar: Be on the lookout for added sugar in anything you’re consuming
I know, it seems like we just eliminated the vegan diet! But, trust me, there’s still some good, nutritious foods available to eat. We just need to dig a little deeper…
What Kind of Foods Should I Eat?
Okay, so we know what we shouldn’t eat. Now, what foods are okay? Obviously, if we are trying to go low carb, then our vegan bodybuilding macros will be higher in protein and fat. Some of the foods we should eat are:
Nuts: Walnuts, Almonds, Pecans, Brazil Nuts, Macadamia, Hazel Nuts
Nut Butters: Peanut Butter, Almond Butter, Sunflower Butter
Seeds: Flaxseed, Sunflower Seed, Hemp Seed, Pumpkin Seed, Chia Seed
Avocados: Whole Avocados, Guacamole
Soy: Tofu, Edamame, Tempeh, Soy-based meat replacements (check the ingredients for added carbs)
Coconuts: Coconuts, Coconut Cream, Coconut Chips
Vegetables: Broccoli, Bell Peppers, Zucchini, Mushrooms, Spinach (raw have lower carbs than cooked, interestingly)
Plant-based Milk: Coconut Milk, Soy Milk, Almond Milk
Plant-based Yogurt: Unsweetened Coconut Milk Yogurt, Unsweetened Almond Milk Yogurt
Plant-based Dairy Alternatives: Vegan Cheese, Vegan Butter, Vegan Cream Cheese
Oils: Olive Oil, Avocado Oil, Sunflower Oil
See? There’s still tons of tasty, nutritious foods to eat, even as a low carb vegan bodybuilder (I know, I was a bit surprised too).
Vegan Bodybuilding Low Carb Tips
Count Your Carbs
Counting your carbs is absolutely essential to being successful on a vegan bodybuilding low carb diet. It is really easy for carbs to sneak in on all sorts of foods. Especially vegan meat and dairy replacements. Watch out for added sugar in vegan yogurt and milk. Even vegan meat can have carbs snuck in.
Counting your carbs ensures that you can catch any sneaky carbs. It will also make you more aware of just how much of each type of food you can be consuming in a day without going over your carb limits.
When You Eat Carbs, Eat Carbs With Fiber
Fiber is not like other carbs, in that it has a minimal impact on blood sugar levels. There is some debate about whether people on low carb diets should only count “net carbs”, i.e. the total amount of carbs minus the amount of fiber, or whether total carbs should be counted.
I won’t take a strong position here on that one (I’m not a nutritionist, after all). I can say that fiber-rich foods are definitely more filling. That can help stop carb cravings in their tracks. And because you are low carb, you will likely need to make sure you are getting enough fiber in, since you are eating less carbs overall.
Add Nuts, Seeds, and Oils to Your Meals
Nuts, seeds, and oils are full of healthy fats. Seeds and nuts have protein as well. They are great additives to meals. Frying up some broccoli? Throw some shaved almonds in with an olive oil drizzle on top. Making a smoothie? Throw some flaxseed or chia seeds in.
Remember, we are trying to preserve or gain muscle here. Which means we need calories to fuel our bodies and training. Adding nutrient-rich foods like nuts, seeds, and oils ensures that you will be able to hit your caloric goal for the day, especially if you are bulking.
Eat Most of Your Carbs Around Your Workout
Studies have shown that carbs, especially complex carbs, can increase performance for endurance athletes. Muscle glycogen can be boosted with pre workout carbohydrate consumption as well. Finally, depletion of carbohydrates has been shown to decrease performance during exercise.
All this is to say that, you want to time most of your carbs to be eaten before and after your workout to promote performance.
Allow for Cheat Days
I don’t know of anyone who’s been able to keep going for long periods of time on a low carb diet without having cheat days. Cheat days give your mind a break from the monotony of eating the same foods day after day. On a vegan diet, we are somewhat limited on the foods we can eat (although there’s a whole world of vegan eating that opens up). Add on top of that going low carb and you have a pretty restrictive diet.
Have your cheat meal. Eat some pasta. Have a vegan pizza! Being able to look forward to these days goes a long way in keeping your sanity on a low carb diet.
What Do We Mean By “Low Carb”?
Everyone will have a different definition of low carb. Since there is no clear consensus on how many carbs qualify as low carb, I will use two separate barometers:
Low carb = 25% or less of daily macronutrient intake
Extremely Low Carb = 10% or less of daily macronutrient intake
That way, there are multiple options for those with differing needs.
Vegan Bodybuilding Low Carb Meal Plan
Let’s see what a 3000 calorie vegan bodybuilding meal plan might look like. I like to do four meals a day, regardless of bulking or cutting, and simply adjust the calories up or down.
The amount and timing of these meals are subjective. Personally, I like to have 1-2 meals in me before I lift weights. In the meal plan below, I have the second meal of the day as the pre workout meal and the third meal as the post workout meal. Feel free to switch this up according to your own preferences.
I will note here that not all of these food combinations make sense for everyone. This is just a sample meal plan of what is possible on a vegan bodybuilding low carb diet. Please adjust the meals to your liking, while staying within the parameters of low carb vegan bodybuilding.
We are shooting for 3000 calories coming from four meals. That is 750 calories per meal. We want 25% or less of those calories coming from carbs. For the vegan bodybuilding low carb meal plan, that means our maximum number of carbs should be 188 grams. It seems a bit high, but again that is the maximum and afterwards we will do the extremely low carb meal plan to show what that would look like.
Low Carb:
Meal 1 = 775 calories, 29g carbs
½ package Tofu = 175 calories, 5g carbs
3 oz. Tempeh = 160 calories, 12g carbs
2 slices of Vegan cheese = 120 calories, 8g carbs
1 tbsp of Avocado oil = 120 calories, 0g carbs
¼ cup of Macadamia nuts = 200 calories, 4g carbs
Meal 2 (Pre Workout) = 725 calories, 51g carbs
2 tbsp of butter = 200 calories, 0g carbs
1 cup of blueberries = 85 calories, 21g carbs
2 slices of sprouted grain bread = 120 calories, 22g carbs
½ cup of pumpkin seeds = 320 calories, 8g carbs
Meal 3 (Post Workout) = 770 calories, 78.5g carbs
2 tbsp of Flaxseed = 70 calories, 4g carbs
2 cups of Coconut milk = 90 calories, 4g carbs
Whole Avocado = 250 calories, 15g carbs
2 tbsp peanut butter = 190 calories, 6g carbs
1 banana = 105 calories, 27g carbs
¼ cup of oats = 75 calories, 13.5g carbs
1 cup of Spinach – 80 calories, 7g carbs
Meal 4 = 715 calories, 27g carbs
¼ cup walnuts halves and pieces = 200 calories, 4g carbs
1 cup broccoli = 35 calories, 7g carbs
1 tbsp of Olive oil = 120 calories, 0g carbs
4 oz. Soy-based burger (Impossible Burger) = 240 calories, 9g carbs
One container Unsweetened Almond milk yogurt – 120 calories, 7g carbs
This meal plan puts us at 2,985 calories and 186 grams of carbs for the day. Yay, we hit our goal almost perfectly!
For the extremely low carb vegan bodybuilding meal plan, we will be shooting for 10% or less of our calories coming from carbs. Or 75 grams of carbs.
Extremely Low Carb:
Meal 1 = 755 calories, 17g carbs
½ package Tofu = 175 calories, 5g carbs
1 slice of Vegan cheese = 60 calories, 4g carbs
1 tbsp of Avocado oil = 120 calories, 0g carbs
½ cup of Macadamia nuts = 400 calories, 8g carbs
Meal 2 (Pre Workout) = 737.5 calories, 19.5g carbs
2 tbsp of butter = 200 calories, 0g carbs
½ cup of broccoli = 17.5 calories, 3.5g carbs
½ cup of pumpkin seeds = 320 calories, 8g carbs
¼ cup pecans = 200 calories, 4g carbs
Meal 3 (Post Workout) = 735 calories, 21.5g carbs
3 tbsp of Hemp seed = 180 calories, 2g carbs
2 cups of Coconut milk = 90 calories, 4g carbs
½ Avocado = 125 calories, 7.5g carbs
2 tbsp peanut butter = 190 calories, 6g carbs
2 scoops of Pea protein powder = 120 calories, 2g carbs
1 tbsp of Unsweetened Coconut cream = 30 calories, 0g carbs
Meal 4 = 760 calories, 17g carbs
½ cup walnuts halves and pieces = 400 calories, 8g carbs
1 tbsp of Olive oil = 120 calories, 0g carbs
4 oz. Soy-based burger (Impossible Burger) = 240 calories, 9g carbs
This meal plan gives us 2,988 calories and 75 grams of carbs.
I will say that, looking at this meal plan, it can work, but it is certainly going to be challenging. At 25% or less carb intake, the meal plan looked quite satisfying and doable (I think I’ll try it out myself at some point! Screw my pasta!). But, at 10% or less, it is a bit of a struggle to find foods to fill the calorie list without those sneaky carbs adding up.
I needed to add lots of oils and cut fruits and vegetables to meet the caloric and carb requirements. This way of eating is certainly doable, but I would only want to eat this way as long as I absolutely needed to.
All nutrition data came from either freshdirect.com or fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/
FAQ
Q: Do you have any vegan bodybuilding low carb recipes?
A: I looked around the web and found this gem of an article from TheRecipe, offering 10 mouth drooling, high protein, low carb vegan recipes. I can’t wait to try all of these myself!
Q: Can you do Keto while being Vegan?
A: Of course! This article sort of answered that already, as Keto is really just an extremely low carb diet.
Q: Is Vegan bodybuilding expensive?
A: Actually, many of the core vegan bodybuilding foods are cheaper than traditional nonvegan bodybuilding foods. It does depend, though, on what type of foods you are eating. Check out my in-depth post on the subject here for more information.
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