How to Build Muscle on a Vegan Diet

Abiding by a strict vegan diet offers a lot of benefits, such as low cholesterol and a healthy digestive system. But it also presents some challenges, especially for those who want to build muscle, due to the difficulty in getting enough protein and iron from vegetables. However, with the right plan and the willpower to go through with it, you can create a diet and workout routine that will give your muscles the adequate fuel and stimulation to grow.

Instructions

1

Eat between 0.7 and 1 g of protein per pound of lean muscle. If you weight 180 lb. and have 10 percent body fat, for example, that means you have 162 lb. of lean muscle and should get between 150 and 160 g of protein per day to build muscle. Eat high-protein foods such as black beans, lentils and brown rice, almond butter sandwiches, soy milkshakes, green peas and nuts.

2

Get 20 to 30 percent of your calories from healthy fats such as flaxseed oil, olive oil, nuts and avocados. Consume coconut oil or milk to get the required amount of saturated fat in your diet. According to the American Health Association, you should get only 7 percent of your total calories from saturated fat. A gram of saturated fat contains about 9 calories.

3

Snack on nuts all the time. Keep walnuts, almonds and peanuts handy so that whenever you have the craving, they are nearby, making impulsive snacking actually helpful for your body. Nuts provide essential calories and fat that you won't find as much in vegetables, which will help you avoid undernourishment. Nuts also have lots of protein that are the building blocks of muscles. Eat enough of them so that they contribute a few hundred calories to your diet.

4

Follow a short, high-intensity exercise program by lifting heavy weights at low reps, as a vegan's diet does not support the recovery needed to train at a high volume and frequency. Use dumbbells and pull-ups to focus on the upper body - biceps, triceps, chest, back and shoulders - two days per week, doing five sets of just five reps on each exercise and increasing the weight by five to 10 lb. as you become more adept at doing the exercises. Do the same for the lower body twice a week, using squats, dead-lifts and get-ups to work out your legs. Keep your workouts under 45 minutes. Drink a soy-, rice- or hemp-based protein shake afterward to boost muscle growth.