Starting a Plant-Based Lifestyle

[Masculinity]

I have studied nutrition in detail, GMOs, animal products, soya, etc. I also looked into health decayers such as carcinogens, causes of diabetes, cardio vascular disease, obesity, etc.

After careful thought, I decided to switch to a plant based diet with no meat, except in minuscule quantities in social events. Research data show people who switch into a plant based diet have their blood pressure, diabetes & excess weight come down or off completely. I'm looking to improve my appearance and my health and will be starting the new lifestyle tomorrow.

Does anyone else have this lifestyle or has anyone considered switching?

 

[shesabranchswinger]

I thought about it and it would be to hard for me to get the amount of protein needed for my lifestyle right now. But I do cold press my greens and veggies and light fruits.

Diet is 80% and it also depends on what your goals are. I have even been thinking about keto for a little while. Sounds like your goal is longevity and runners body maybe even skinny fat with that diet. I just don't think you can get enough protein in there with it.

But then again I did have a cane corso dog 15 years ago and my friend had his brother. They were both big puppies of the same size. We fed them both the same food and the only real difference was I had an avacado tree in my back yard that would drop 100 of avacado's and my dog would eat them everyday. In the end my dog looked like Hercules at 2 years old and his had the same height and bone structure but his muscle mass was no where near mine.

Moral of the story maybe you don't need as much protein just load up on the natural fats like coconut oil fish oil and avacados. I don't know how your going to give up fish and foul so taste.

 

[ImTheDoubleGreatest!]

So you're more or less a vegetarian. I can see the benefits, but the problem is that there's no CALORIES in it. Is it healthier? Probably. But there's other factors you need to take into consideration. Sure you can get protein from beans, nuts, and other stuff, but are you getting all 9 of the essential amino acids? That's the hardest part. Not to mention, while it is supposedly 'healthier' and 'easier' for your body to digest, that doesn't mean jack once you realize that the bioavailability of protein in beans, nuts, lentils, etc. is super low, especially when compared to that of say a eggs, bison, fish, poultry, whey, etc. If you have enough money and TIME to properly prepare each and every meal correctly AND BE ABLE TO EAT ENOUGH OF IT, then I honestly do say that it is better than eating meat (save for a fish diet. I think crustaceans, fish, pretty much any animal from the sea added to your diet will be much healthier than if you didn't. There's basically NO downside to eating sea animals when it comes to health purposes, not from what I've researched anyway). The only thing that bothers me about this is that if you are able to do this adequately to where you do see NOTICEABLE improvements in your health, then I'd question why you don't just eat organic, free-range grass fed bison instead of regular beef, and organic free-range turkey instead of regular chicken as well. Both of those will minimize any kind of negative side effects regular meat will cause, while greatly enhancing all the positive effects. As for pig products (pork, salami, bacon, ham, sausage, etc.) don't even eat those regardless. Their genetic coding is too similar to humans which is why your body has an extremely difficult time digesting it (it basically just drags the meat to the sides of your torso and hips). Thats why you feel it just kinda sitting their in your stomach.

Personally, I can't quite do what you're doing. I need to have something heavy in my stomach to fill me up, plus eating only veggies is hard because I have an extremely sensitive stomach; eating them raw or even steamed sometimes causes some very strange feelings in my stomach like it is hard to digest. That would explain why I hate most plant foods raw/uncooked. It's hard on my stomach for some reason.

Basically, if you can, do it. All the information I told you is based on the assumption that you are lifting weights seriously, at least regarding the bison/turkey/no-pork part. If you don't really lift or exercise hard, screw it. Don't eat meat at all because it doesn't really have any positive impact on you to begin with.

 

[Masculinity]

I thought about it and it would be to hard for me to get the amount of protein needed for my lifestyle right now. But I do cold press my greens and veggies and light fruits.

Diet is 80% and it also depends on what your goals are. I have even been thinking about keto for a little while. Sounds like your goal is longevity and runners body maybe even skinny fat with that diet. I just don't think you can get enough protein in there with it.

But then again I did have a cane corso dog 15 years ago and my friend had his brother. They were both big puppies of the same size. We fed them both the same food and the only real difference was I had an avacado tree in my back yard that would drop 100 of avacado's and my dog would eat them everyday. In the end my dog looked like Hercules at 2 years old and his had the same height and bone structure but his muscle mass was no where near mine.

Moral of the story maybe you don't need as much protein just load up on the natural fats like coconut oil fish oil and avacados. I don't know how your going to give up fish and foul so taste.

You're talking about a common myth, but it seems you're in the right train of thought with the avocado situation. Plants and grains are LOADED with protein; it doesn't come just from animal tissue. Silver back, 400-pound muscular gorilas eat nothing but plants, as do rhinos, cows, buffalo, elephants, horses, etc. If plants didn't have protein, these animals wouldn't have muscles. And we digest proteins the same way they do.

The meat industry created the protein myths to sell more of their products. There are athletes and body builders who are JACKED and only eat plants without supplements. In fact, some plants have much more protein than some meats. However, meats don't have the fiber we need.

 

[narcissist]

Right on brother. Good luck. I want to do this as well as I have a heart disease, and I should eat a sh1t load of veggies. But I slack on that.

 

[ImTheDoubleGreatest!]

You're talking about a common myth, but it seems you're in the right train of thought with the avocado situation. Plants and grains are LOADED with protein; it doesn't come just from animal tissue. Silver back, 400-pound muscular gorilas eat nothing but plants, as do rhinos, cows, buffalo, elephants, horses, etc. If plants didn't have protein, these animals wouldn't have muscles. And we digest proteins the same way they do.

The meat industry created the protein myths to sell more of their products. There are athletes and body builders who are JACKED and only eat plants without supplements. In fact, some plants have much more protein than some meats. However, meats don't have the fiber we need.

The problem with using other animals is just that—they're animals. Genes plays a huge role in this. No matter how much steroids, HGH, or stimulants you take, you will never be able to run faster than a horse that does nothing but sleep all day or be able to arm wrestle a gorilla or headbutt a rhino and win. It just doesn't happen. The thing that MANY people forget about those weight lifters that ARE vegan/vegetarian, is that those are the exception, not the norm. Some of those animals may be able to have their body produce more amino acids than us based just on eating grass. Cows are pure meat and they can live off grass. A normal human cannot survive eating only grass though. It's just not possible. There's far more things to take into consideration here. Again, those people who do it are the exception, not the norm.

 

[Masculinity]

The problem with using other animals is just that—they're animals. Genes plays a huge role in this. No matter how much steroids, HGH, or stimulants you take, you will never be able to run faster than a horse that does nothing but sleep all day or be able to arm wrestle a gorilla or headbutt a rhino and win. It just doesn't happen. The thing that MANY people forget about those weight lifters that ARE vegan/vegetarian, is that those are the exception, not the norm. Some of those animals may be able to have their body produce more amino acids than us based just on eating grass. Cows are pure meat and they can live off grass. A normal human cannot survive eating only grass though. It's just not possible. There's far more things to take into consideration here. Again, those people who do it are the exception, not the norm.

Humans are animals. How fast another animal runs is outside of the scope of this thread. I'm not making an argument for anyone to eat only grass either; you're making strawman arguments (see Wikipedia definition).

No animal organism can produce amino acids. We share 98% of our genes with chimpanzees and they eat pretty much plants and have very muscular bodies.

 

[ImTheDoubleGreatest!]

Humans are animals. How fast another animal runs is outside of the scope of this thread. I'm not making an argument for anyone to eat only grass either; you're making strawman arguments (see Wikipedia definition).

No animal organism can produce amino acids. We share 98% of our genes with chimpanzees and they eat pretty much plants and have very muscular bodies.

It's not straw man if it's an analogy to show you the difference. Regardless of how many drugs and hormones you go through, you won't be able to compare to other animals. I brought up animals since you decided to compare the average man to the average 5,000 lb rhino lol. But let's take a step back and figure out why they are this way whereas we aren't.

Herbivores are able to digest cellulose. Humans are not. That means that other animals can gain much more of the nutrition found in plant foods than we can, hence why I mentioned bioavailability beforehand. As for us sharing '98%' of our genes with chimpanzees, they will still always be stronger than us too. Maybe we can compete with them if we were all taking as much stuff as say Rich Piana or Ronnie Coleman, but overall they're still stronger than us because of bone structure and densities, tendon strength, etc. But they're still strong eating mainly plants? That argument is akin to a boy with cerebral palsy that he can compete on a level with Usain Bolt. The boy with cerebral palsy shares closer genes to us than chimps ever will. But he cannot compete with us or them.

This is saying that just because THEY can do it, so can we. There's something wrong with that. Our bodies aren't strong enough and our stomachs aren't big enough to be able to digest cellulose. We don't really have the bacteria that helps digest that stuff either. The point I'm trying to make is that you cannot compare us to other animals, even our 'relatives'.

 

[shesabranchswinger]

This got deep quick. The bottom line science so far as of 2017 for humans that I've seen. If you want to be slim lean etc go keto. If you want to be healthy go green with lite meat and fish once a week and a variety of vegetables and lite fruit mct, fish oils. If your looking for the meat head look bulk up your calories to 3000-7000 add testosterone, HGH and all the other Mexican supplements and gorilla juice and workout 2 times a day to exhaustion.

 

[Masculinity]

It's not straw man if it's an analogy to show you the difference. Regardless of how many drugs and hormones you go through, you won't be able to compare to other animals. I brought up animals since you decided to compare the average man to the average 5,000 lb rhino lol. But let's take a step back and figure out why they are this way whereas we aren't.

Herbivores are able to digest cellulose. Humans are not. That means that other animals can gain much more of the nutrition found in plant foods than we can, hence why I mentioned bioavailability beforehand. As for us sharing '98%' of our genes with chimpanzees, they will still always be stronger than us too. Maybe we can compete with them if we were all taking as much stuff as say Rich Piana or Ronnie Coleman, but overall they're still stronger than us because of bone structure and densities, tendon strength, etc. But they're still strong eating mainly plants? That argument is akin to a boy with cerebral palsy that he can compete on a level with Usain Bolt. The boy with cerebral palsy shares closer genes to us than chimps ever will. But he cannot compete with us or them.

This is saying that just because THEY can do it, so can we. There's something wrong with that. Our bodies aren't strong enough and our stomachs aren't big enough to be able to digest cellulose. We don't really have the bacteria that helps digest that stuff either. The point I'm trying to make is that you cannot compare us to other animals, even our 'relatives'.

I don't think we're going to settle our discussion with an agreement. If it wasn't for chimpanzees and research done of them smoking, we wouldn't know that cigarettes leads to cancer. There's no such thing as perfect science and any argument against science for being flawless is irrational, as millions of people would die from preventable diseases, treatments, medications, practices, or get killed by even the common cold.


Your claims have to be founded on strong evidence. Otherwise, your argument is merely anecdotal. To refute the animal v. human argument you make though, here are several atheletes who have plant-based or diets made exclusively of plants; there is no protein argument here, as these athletes have increíbly fit and even muscular bodies. The evidence supporting my argument is overwhelming. Case closed!

http://www.therichest.com/sports/other-sports/top-10-vegetarian-or-vegan-athletes/

http://www.greatveganathletes.com/

This got deep quick. The bottom line science so far as of 2017 for humans that I've seen. If you want to be slim lean etc go keto. If you want to be healthy go green with lite meat and fish once a week and a variety of vegetables and lite fruit mct, fish oils. If your looking for the meat head look bulk up your calories to 3000-7000 add testosterone, HGH and all the other Mexican supplements and gorilla juice and workout 2 times a day to exhaustion.

Go keto? I don't understand what you mean.

 

[switch7]

A couple of years back I cut out all meat because I am uneasy about factory farming. I do however still eat fish and I still eat dairy. I'm currently hitting the gym and I am making the same gains I did on full meat diet. My diet consists mainly of peanut butter, tuna, salmon, eggs, cottage cheese/quark, oats, quorn (type of fungus), vegetables and pulses. I did try purely plant based but I found it very difficult to stay on top of it all and keep my protein intake high. It is possible but getting your protein in take from nuts is pretty expensive imo.

 

[ImTheDoubleGreatest!]

I don't think we're going to settle our discussion with an agreement. If it wasn't for chimpanzees and research done of them smoking, we wouldn't know that cigarettes leads to cancer. There's no such thing as perfect science and any argument against science for being flawless is irrational, as millions of people would die from preventable diseases, treatments, medications, practices, or get killed by even the common cold.


Your claims have to be founded on strong evidence. Otherwise, your argument is merely anecdotal. To refute the animal v. human argument you make though, here are several atheletes who have plant-based or diets made exclusively of plants; there is no protein argument here, as these athletes have increíbly fit and even muscular bodies. The evidence supporting my argument is overwhelming. Case closed!

http://www.therichest.com/sports/other-sports/top-10-vegetarian-or-vegan-athletes/

http://www.greatveganathletes.com/

Like I said, those people are the exception, not the norm. And there actually were a few steroid users there too lol. But fair enough, people get irritated with this.

 

[Masculinity]

Like I said, those people are the exception, not the norm. And there actually were a few steroid users there too lol. But fair enough, people get irritated with this.

True. There's fundamentally a lot of misinformation out there: nutrition guidelines via "non profit" or "government" organizations that actually receive money from food industries. In essence, we are taught the nutrition knowledge that the industry wants us to have. And unless that situation changes, the world of nutrition will continue the same.

 

[zekko]

Does anyone else have this lifestyle or has anyone considered switching?

I've done this before, I lasted several months. Once I was into the routine, it was fairly easy. I felt lighter and healthier, more energetic. Less aches and pains overall. The only downside was I also felt kind of weak at times, like I would get up and see spots sometimes. I was probably lacking something somewhere. But that aside, I felt great.

Only thing is, it came to a point where I just couldn't do it anymore. The thing with me and diets is, I don't like feeling like I'm denying myself, and that's what it felt like. I would have these insane little cravings for the oddest things. If you can do it, I think it's great.

 

[marmel75]

I have studied nutrition in detail, GMOs, animal products, soya, etc. I also looked into health decayers such as carcinogens, causes of diabetes, cardio vascular disease, obesity, etc.

After careful thought, I decided to switch to a plant based diet with no meat, except in minuscule quantities in social events. Research data show people who switch into a plant based diet have their blood pressure, diabetes & excess weight come down or off completely. I'm looking to improve my appearance and my health and will be starting the new lifestyle tomorrow.

Does anyone else have this lifestyle or has anyone considered switching?

I tried it for a while and found it surprisingly easy and that I didn't have any type of meat cravings at all, even though I would go through about 10 lbs of chicken a week for months before this.
There was a study that just came out that showed not eating meat was the #1 easiest way to lose fat, and they found the fat in between muscle cells was dramatically reduced as well.

Personally I'd make sure to supplement with Leucine or take Green Pea Protein(which is one of the only plant sources high in leucine). Leucine is the amino acid marker the body looks to to determine protein levels in the body and higher levels of leucine lead to more muscle being built.

 

[marmel75]

A couple of years back I cut out all meat because I am uneasy about factory farming. I do however still eat fish and I still eat dairy. I'm currently hitting the gym and I am making the same gains I did on full meat diet. My diet consists mainly of peanut butter, tuna, salmon, eggs, cottage cheese/quark, oats, quorn (type of fungus), vegetables and pulses. I did try purely plant based but I found it very difficult to stay on top of it all and keep my protein intake high. It is possible but getting your protein in take from nuts is pretty expensive imo.

Most people take in far more protein than what they actually need. The MAXIMUM amount of protein a person needs is .8 grams per lb of lean body weight. This is with Double 95% confidence where researchers found that .64g was the maximum amount that a person could use before no more muscle was gained from extra intake, but they added another SDEV to it to make extra sure. In addition, the more you lift weights, the LESS protein the body needs, NOT more. There are 2 main reasons:

1) The body becomes much more efficient at using protein over a period of time
2) You are not breaking down nearly as much muscle tissue as you were when you first started lifting, and as such, there is not as much need for protein to repair muscle.

For a person not on steroids, you likely do not need anymore than 125g of protein a day...in many cases less than that. The only exception is if you are taking steroids which overrides the bodies natural limitations on protein synthesis and then you would benefit from extra protein.

 

[amazingswayze]

Yeah OP, a lot of people are misunderstanding the issue. Meat is not essential. Neither is Dairy/ Animal Products. To all the people who think that they couldn't live without meat, it's probably because they don't know exactly WHAT they would be eating on a plant based diet. Having a strong preference for fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and beans would make it much easier.

I'm still not off meat but I've jacked up my fruit and vegetable consumption. Every night before dinner I microwave a bag of steamfresh vegetables. Broccoli, green beans, or brussell sprouts. Corn and potatoes have more calories than I would like, I'm cutting right now.

But anyways I just finished reading a book called Eat to Live. The author, Dr. Joel Fuhrman presents the information in such an easy way to digest. It's not about going vegan. It's not about being a vegetarian. It's about realizing the benefits of a plant-based diet, longevity-wise.

Even if I go "vegan", I'll never call myself one, and it won't be because PETA persuaded me to do so. Leave that to the SJW's. When I switch to mostly plant-based, it will be because its BACKED BY SCIENCE, and it promotes OPTIMAL HEALTH.

Other resources that have been inspiring me lately is work by Dr. Caldwell Esseltyn, and countless other Netflix documentaries I've watched about switching to a plant-based diet.


Also, don't forget guys. ELITE level athletes are doing this, And they are bigger than you. And they have greater protein needs. And they push themselves way harder.

So for the average bro who lifts to consider switching to a plant-based diet, it really isn't much of a stretch. Just have to open your mind.

 

[Dietrich]

It's up to you and no doubtt it's gonna have a positive effect on your health but becareful go for it step by step. Do not just plunge into it headlong.

There are numerous examples of a reverse outcome from gettting addicted to herbs nutrition

 

[speed dawg]

I see no problem with it, and you can certainly maintain a good physique being plant-based. You cut the fat way down.

I did it for a while but got sick of it. I don't particularly like fruits, so that got old real quick. Now I eat mainly proteins and dense foods, just not nearly as much of them. I've lost a ton of fat doing that, down to 195 from 210. Mostly fat.

 

[Masculinity]

Day four of the new plant-based lifestyle:

The first few days are difficult. I felt withdrawal symptoms and had hard cravings when I saw people eating meats at restaurants. The hardest part is the first few days indeed. The benefits, though, are great.

1. I feel lighter all the time, no heavy sensations in my body.
2. I do not experience "food comas" even after eating a lot of plants.
3. I have more energy and can wake up earlier and go to bed later.

I will report on my progress as time goes by. So far, so good! @speed dawg @Dietrich @amazingswayze @marmel75 @zekko @ImTheDoubleGreatest! @narcissist @switch7 @shesabranchswinger