Vegetarians X Hypertrophy Part 2

Basic Principles

As any good bodybuilder knows – or should know – effective cutting diets involve a drastic reduction in carbohydrate consumption, usually limiting their consumption to breakfast and post-workout. This business of reducing carbohydrates is a bit technical, but in practice, what you need to know is that carbohydrates are the body's primary source of fuel. What does this mean? That as long as there are carbohydrates available to burn, my friend, your body will not burn fat. With that understood, reduce your carbohydrates during cutting and be happy.

It is also important to increase your protein intake. If during the bulking phase you usually eat at least 2g of protein per kilogram of body weight and load up on carbohydrates, during the cutting phase things get a bit complicated. I recommend eating 3g or 4g of protein per kilogram of body weight during this phase. This means that an individual weighing 90kg will eat between 270g and 360g of protein during the day. Divided into 6 or 7 meals per day, this gives approximately 45-60g of protein per meal. Everyone knows their own body and its needs. This is just a general guide; your genetics dictate the rules.

In addition, eating healthy fats is very important to keep things in order. So, my friend, a tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil will solve your problems for a day. 5 almonds, 1 Brazil nut... Anyway, choose whatever you want, but don't forget: good fats won't cause you problems if consumed properly.

It goes without saying that during the cutting phase it is extremely important to keep your metabolism working and that your meals should be spaced 2 to 3 hours apart. This means that you will always be eating. But eating 'right', because in this phase there is no messing around. Unless, of course, you are a genetic freak. Then there is no way around it and you will always be huge and skinny. I envy you.

THE FOOD

Vegetarians are people who do not eat MEAT. What kind of meat? NO MEAT. This includes beef, chicken, fish, seafood, ham (pork), bacon (pork), mortadella (beef and pork and who knows what else). In short, vegetarians do not eat any kind of meat. NONE. It is worth mentioning that this diet is aimed at ovo-lacto-vegetarians, and not at vegans (who do not eat ANYTHING of animal origin, not even honey).

So what do vegetarians eat? Well, everything else. And of “everything else” what has protein? Well, almost everything. Our main weapon in nutrition will be soy, as expected. While carnivores eat meat (duh! Obvious!), vegetarians eat soy.

For those who doubt the benefits of soy, just type it into Google or pluck up the courage to do some research. Lower cholesterol, improved bowel function and a better quality of life (and even better: you won't torture or kill any animals for it!) are just some of the benefits of soy. Think about this before eating your dead and mutilated cow.

“But does soy have protein?”, they ask. Of course it does. 50g of soy has 150kcal, 10g of carbohydrates, 26g of protein, 0.5g of total fat (0g of saturated fat and 0g of trans fat) and 7g of dietary fiber. It also has calcium and iron. “Ah, but 50g is a lot!” Well, it only seems that way. In fact, 50g of soy is about 1/3 of a teacup, which is very little, especially for people who eat like monsters. This is our case.

“But how can I live on soy alone?” You can’t live on soy alone. Eggs, skim milk, white cheeses… Everything that you, a meat-eating bodybuilder, are used to eating, we, vegetarian bodybuilders, also eat. Remember brown rice? That’s right. 50g of brown rice has 180kcal, 39g of carbohydrates, 4g of protein, 1.5g of total fat and 2g of dietary fiber. Skim milk has 200ml of carbohydrates, 9g of carbohydrates, 6 grams of protein and 0g of everything else. And, of course, it also has calcium. It’s worth mentioning that calcium helps a lot with fat loss. And mustard, too. Just do some research.

We conclude here, then, that the food is there. The difference is simple: instead of eating meat, we will eat soy.

THE DIET

And what is a cutting diet like? Following the low-carb/high-protein principles, let's get down to basics. You NEED a minimum of carbohydrates to get lean. As the great Master Arnold once said: “Fat is burned in the furnace of carbohydrates” (SCHWARZENEGGER, 1998). But how much carbohydrate? Very little. The VERY minimum. I would say that your cutting diet should be composed of 70% protein, 15% carbohydrates and 15% fat. Do your math, adjust the values ​​to your genetics and your needs and have fun.

The basic breakfast is a cup of unsweetened cereal (you can also use oatmeal, which is a great carbohydrate at any stage), skim milk and, in my case, I like to add two scoops of strawberry-flavored whey protein. This guarantees, more or less, about 40g of protein at breakfast. Your next meal will be in 3 hours, more or less. And then soy can appear in full force.

After preparing the soybeans the way you like (you can prepare soybeans the same way you would prepare meat, no problem), it's time to eat. Soybeans already have a certain percentage of carbohydrates (10g for every 50g), so unless you want or need to, you can eat only soybeans. 100g of soybeans (half a cup, more or less) should give you 20g of carbohydrates and 52g of protein. Quite a meal.

Depending on the time you plan to train, the third meal can be your pre-workout meal. Everyone eats whatever meal they think is best, but keep in mind the low-carb principle. “Oh, but I’ll have no energy for training!” In fact, my friend, you’ll have no energy for anything. Who has never had to go through a cutting phase in their life? Always the same food, horrible mood and a hard time even going to the bathroom. But this is the life we ​​choose. Let’s stay focused on our goal: showing off those muscles we gained through blood, sweat and tears.

Post-workout: I stick to the powerful Whey Protein and maltodextrin/dextrose. After a shower and changing clothes, it's time to eat again. Here we can include more soy, white cheeses, egg whites, some supplement that you like or whatever. Remember to keep the carbs low as always.

The pre-sleep meal is standard for everyone, I believe. Albumin or casein or some magical protein that is super slow to digest. An egg white omelet with a tablespoon of olive oil and grated light cheese tastes wonderful and will guarantee amino acids throughout the night, without the risk of unwanted carbohydrates at this stage.

So, we have a very basic diet for vegetarian bodybuilders. We noticed that it is practically no different from the diet of meat-eating bodybuilders. The only difference is that you swap meat for soy. The rest is pretty much the same, as anyone can see. I don't even need to mention the importance of drinking at least 3 liters of water a day and maintaining the supplementation that you consider appropriate for this phase: BCAAs, amino acids, glutamine and anti-catabolic things in general. In my limited experience, NO2-based supplements are excellent for this phase, especially before training. By keeping NO2 in your bloodstream, you ensure a positive nitrogen balance, which means keeping your body in an anabolic state and still having extra energy to train (since most of them come with caffeine). In addition, NO will help with vascularization and you will probably even gain some lean mass in the end.

Just to wrap things up, remember: you have to eat LESS than you burn in order to lose fat. It's a bit sinful for us bodybuilders to talk about eating LESS than we burn, but that's how our lives work, right?

I hope this short article has served to dispel some of the prejudice that exists regarding vegetarian bodybuilders. We don't eat meat, but we often consume much more protein than actual carnivores.

A hug and good training!

Note: “The phrase “Fat is burned in the furnace of carbohydrates”, which you can also find written in another way, such as: “Lipids burn in the flame of carbohydrates”, and things like that, was actually coined by the biochemist Lehninger, one of the great researchers of metabolism, and who first thought of the need for carbohydrates for the beta-oxidation of lipids.”