What is the one thing vegetarians, vegans, and raw vegans are all known for, besides the obvious absence of meat eating?
A lack of muscle tone, which leads many to believe that anyone toying with the idea of giving up animal flesh is destined to a life of comments like, "You're too skinny. Here, have some meat."
Don't believe the naysayers. You can totally build lean and healthy muscle on a raw vegan diet. Wanna know how?
Eat More Fruit?!
No, but good guess! Eating more fruit is my answer to just about everything else. ;)
The correct answer is STRENGTH TRAINING.
Overload and Recover
If you want to build muscles, you just have to do two things: overload and recover. This is called training and if you don't do both of these, you will not build any muscle at all.
You can eat all the fruit smoothies you can stand, but it won't make a lick of difference if you are not:
- Overloading the muscle using some form of resistance (e.g. hand weights, machines, resistance bands, or even your own body) and
- Allowing for adequate recovery time.
Super simple!
Eat More Fruit
Okay, I know I said fruit isn't the answer to building muscle, but it is part of the equation.
You see, when you start strength training, you will start burning more calories; the mere act of working your body burns calories by itself. In addition, muscle has a higher metabolic rate than fat so once you've gained some muscle, you will be burning more fat just sitting around doing nothing.
Sweet! :D
And since you'll be using up more fuel, you will need to eat more food. Sure, you can try to limit your caloric intake in order to lose weight quickly, but I definitely do not recommend it.
Not only will calorie restriction leave you very hungry and craving less optimal foods, all your muscle gaining efforts will be thwarted as well. Eating enough food is part of the recover process and is necessary if you want to build healthy lean muscle.
So there you have it! Exactly what you need to build some mighty muscle on a radically raw diet. No disgusting hemp shakes or gagrific protein bars required. :)
Go raw and be fit,
Swayze
P.S. There are many, many great resources out there for getting fit and building muscle. Here are just a few of my favorites:
- www.bodyrock.tv - A super sexy lady with super kick butt workouts!
- www.rosstraining.com - A former fighter with some ingenious exercises (sledgehammer swings, anyone?)
- www.veganbodybuilding.com - Check out the strength building section of the forum for some good tips and routines to try.
Feel free to add some of yours below in the comments! :)
