Vegetarian Diet Plan
Many people believe that a vegetarian diet is not good enough to build muscles. Moreover, they feel that only meat & chicken can help in building muscles, but they’re wrong. To build strong muscles, protein and other essential nutrients play a major role. All these nutrients are richly loaded in various vegetarian foods & beverages. You just need to eat the right food items in the right quantity to build amazingly strong & shaped muscles. Our diet plays an 80% role in building our muscles, while exercise plays 20% of it.
To help you better, here are the top tips to build muscles on a vegetarian diet plan.
Tips For Vegetarians To Build Muscles
Protein, Protein, Protein – Protein is the most important nutrient to build amazing muscles & body strength. For better muscle development, you need to consume 70-90 grams of protein every day. There are endless vegan options with high protein content available for you to choose from. Some of the examples of protein-rich vegetarian foods include beans, dairy products, nuts, soy, whole grains, and seeds, etc. You can include 2-3 of these foods in every meal of your day to get better & faster results.
Diversity is the key – If you want to increase the protein intake in every meal, then you need to diversify & mix foods. For example, you can always add seeds & nuts as a topping on your oats or cereals. Furthermore, you can always combine different fruits or vegetables to prepare a mixed salad for higher protein content. This way you can always improve your nutrition intake and boost your muscle development process.
Carbohydrates – Carbohydrates are great for boosting the process of muscle growth. The conversion of carbohydrates into glycogen is what provides strengthen the muscles to exercise more vigorously. But you need to make sure that you consume healthy carbs rather than unhealthy ones. The healthy options include whole-grain products like brown rice, multi-grain bread, etc. Other foods with carbohydrates include yogurt, vegetables, and fruits, etc. You need to consume carbs before going for your workout session.
Physical Workouts – No one can build muscles without physical workouts like weight lifting or strength exercises. You need to redirect the nutrition of food towards body muscles through various targeted exercises. Thus, you can always go to a gymnasium and get assistance from a gym trainer. If you don’t want to go out, you can always do home workouts by watching online videos. Eventually, it will help in building your muscles faster and better.
Eat Less, Eat Frequently – To speed up the muscle growth and build amazingly shaped muscles, you need to eat 5-6 meals per day. Make sure not to eat heavy, just eat small meals with high nutrition, especially protein. Thus, you can eat salads, seeds, nuts, water, and whole grains during the whole day. Don’t eat fried or processed foods as they can lead to weight gain. When you eat 5-6 meals per day, you get higher nutrition that helps in boosting your muscle growth.
Eat Healthy Fats – Healthy fats are really important to boost your muscles for lifting weights & strength workout. Healthy fats don’t mean eating junk foods or processed foods. Healthy fats include chia seeds, dark chocolate, cheese, avocado, nuts, and olive oil, etc. All these foods are loaded with healthy fats, along with other amazing nutrients. Consuming these daily can help in speeding up your muscle-building process.
Know Your Protein Requirements – As it’s said that ‘excess of everything is bad’, the same applies to your daily protein intake. You need to consume a specific amount of proteins daily. For normal people, the protein intake is around 1 gram per kg weight. It means that if you weigh 80kgs, then you need to consume 80 grams of protein daily. For sportsmen & athletes, the amount of protein is 50-100% more than normal people.
Meet Your Daily Protein Requirements – To develop strong & toned muscles fast, you need to meet your daily protein requirements. You can always use a fitness tracker or get assistance from a dietician to know your daily protein requirements. After that, you can easily plan your meals accordingly to boost your muscle development process. If you lift weights and don’t consume enough protein, it can result in weakness and other body problems.
Snack Healthily – Most of us are used to eating snacks in-between meals. While doing so, we focus only on the taste and not on the nutritional values of the snack. This is not right as it can easily lead to weight gain & obesity. Replace unhealthy snacks with healthy & protein-rich snacks like nuts, seeds, oats, fruits, and salad, etc. This will not only help you gain muscles quickly but also maintain your weight.
Drink Protein-Filled Smoothies – When you want to build muscles, you need to replace flavored beverages with protein-filled smoothies. You can easily prepare these at home using healthy ingredients and topping of your choice. For example, you can prepare a smoothie by mixing fruits with milk & whey protein powder. Also, you can add healthy toppings on it like nuts, seeds, etc. This will help in providing you with more energy for muscle building workouts.
That’s all folks!
Well, these were the top 10 tips to build muscles on a vegetarian diet plan. By following these tips, you can easily build & tone your muscles into the perfect shape. Make sure to combine these with muscle-targeted workouts like weight lifting, strength training, and cardio, etc. If you want to ask questions or provide suggestions, feel free to comment below.
