How I Fuel Myself with Whole Plant Foods

The standard American diet is filled with calorie-dense processed foods, but when you eat whole plant foods, you will find that they are lower in calories per bite of food, and you will need to eat more volume to feel full and satisfied. I eat five bananas (about 100 calories each) as soon as I wake up, and that is before my main breakfast, which is a bowl of oats with fruit and nuts. On my way to the gym, I eat another three bananas for a quick burst of energy to optimize my fuel before a workout. After my workout, I look to starchy vegetables, legumes, and grains for the basis of my hearty, muscle-recovery meals. Some of my favorite choices are yams, beans, lentils, and brown rice. Then I add plenty of other nutrition foods such as leafy greens. (Note that leafy greens alone do not have enough calories to satisfy, so don’t build your diet on greens alone.) On days that I exercise, I burn more fuel and thus eat more calories to feed my muscles. My appetite guides my daily nutrition plan.

How We Build Muscle

When you understand how muscle is built, you will realize that animal products are not necessary, and they could actually have an adverse effect on your health. Muscle size only increases when two conditions are present:

• First, you stimulate growth by consistently engaging in resistance training that exerts stress on muscle fibers, creating micro-tears in them.
• Second, you need to eat enough calories to support muscle repair and growth, a small but vital proportion of which must consist of amino acids, the building blocks of protein. Amino acids help us recover from training, and they help damaged muscle tissues repair and grow.

Having Trouble Building Muscle?

Nutrition plays a huge role in whether or not you will build muscle. If you have been spinning your wheels when it comes to muscle gain, it is almost certainly related to your ratio of calories consumed to energy expended, factoring in the type of calories (whole plant foods or processed foods).

A great way to know if you are consuming enough calories is to evaluate your basal metabolic rate (BMR) and your total caloric expenditure. Use a Harris-Benedict calculator to estimate the number of calories you are expending each day, based on your gender, age, height, weight, and (very importantly) activity level. This data will give you a baseline from which to work. I am not suggesting you count calories every day, but it is very helpful to get a sense of whether you burn 2,500 or 3,500 calories per day, based on your individual metrics, and to understand how many calories to consume. If you burn 3,500 calories per day but consume only 2,500, you are unlikely to build muscle and will likely lose weight.

There were times in my life when I tried to build muscle and didn’t put on a single pound, because I didn’t do what was required to succeed. Other times, I put on 20 pounds in a year and completely transformed my levels of strength and muscle mass, because I understood the actions to take and I performed them consistently, putting myself in a position to achieve my goal.

All Calories Are Not Created Equal

The following scenario describes two hypothetical individuals who experience markedly different health and fitness results, due to the type of calories they consume:

• Person A consumes 2,500 calories of whole plant foods with 70% of calories coming from carbohydrates and 15% each from proteins and fats, which is close to an ideal ratio for energy production, muscle growth, and overall health.
• Person B consumes 2,500 calories from numerous sources, including refined carbohydrates and heavily processed proteins and fats, and has a ratio of 40% of calories from carbohydrates, and 30% each from proteins and fats.

Even though they consume the same number of calories each day, Person A is poised for health and fitness success, while Person B is likely to experience low energy, as well as inferior muscle-building results and health outcomes. His insufficient carbohydrate consumption, combined with his excessive intake of protein and fat (both of which require more energy to process and digest), could negatively impact his exercise program and whether or not he has the energy to train. Further, at 30% of calories, Person B’s protein consumption is three to six times what science suggests we need, and much of that protein will just be excreted and unused. Also, his low carb, high protein, and high fat diet mirrors the typical American diet, which has left most Americans unhealthy and overweight.

The foods we choose are so important when it comes to building muscle. It’s not just about calories.

When you eat whole plant foods, you consume not only fuel (carbohydrates), but also amino acids (protein), fatty acids (fat), fiber, water, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytonutrients, and other components in the right proportions for promoting good health. When you consume processed and refined foods, you sacrifice a huge proportion of these nutrients, and you acquire the toxic baggage that comes with these foods, including excess fat and cholesterol, refined sugars, refined flours, artificial colors, additives, preservatives, and more. The amino acids in fruits and vegetables are sufficient to build muscle, and their vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants also keep us healthy, so we can exercise regularly and turn consistency into results. It is easy to see how a whole-food, plant-based diet will result in optimal health and athletic performance, including building muscle.

The post How to Build Muscle on a Plant-Based Diet appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

Contrary to popular belief, veganism is not a set of rules that one must follow exactly. Theoretically, one might argue that every decision made must be decided with empathy and compassion toward animals in order to be morally and ethically consistent with the core values and tenets of veganism’s opposition to animal cruelty. But in no other area of discourse do we hold ourselves to this impossible standard. Are we polite and considerate of others, including our parents, our siblings, our friends, and in other relationships 100% of the time, without fail? Of course we’re not. Are we in a perfectly happy mood every day of our lives, making the absolute most of this one life we have, seizing every minute of the day? Not a chance. Are our diets consistently free of alcohol, refined sugars, processed oils, junk foods, and artificial colors and flavors, amounting to a perfect daily calorie intake based on our optimal caloric needs? Keep dreaming. The reality is, we’re all imperfect beings.

We all make mistakes in our communication, in relationships, in friendships, in our work, in our advocacy, in our education, and in our everyday actions, and holding ourselves to an impossible set of rules is not an effective way to practice veganism. The goal of veganism is to prevent and reduce animal suffering, whenever possible. Are you a hypocrite every time you drive your car because of the insects you might smash, or every time you drive past a farm and don’t cut the fences down to free all the animals? I don’t think so. As vegans, we’re also individuals with our own sets of personality traits, characteristics, preferences, behaviors, habits, and tendencies, and we’ll likely react to animal exploitation differently from one another. We’re motivated by compassion, not by an inflexible set of rules.

The pursuit of perfection can be paralyzing, and often leads to stress and anxiety, and is ultimately unsustainable. It can also lead to unhappiness because you’ll always feel like you’re not doing enough. And, importantly, trying to be perfect will not help animals any more than being an imperfect vegan, because aiming for perfection leads to higher rates of backsliding from veganism, which ultimately hurts animals. So, don’t strive for perfection, but strive to live in alignment with your moral values, and if those values extend compassion to nonhuman animals, that is an excellent form of vegan advocacy, without having to follow a specific set of rules. Being a little more flexible, focusing on impact rather than purity, will reduce the most suffering in the long run. We have seen this in many circumstances, from the Forks Over Knives Effect of eating a plant-based diet even if one is not philosophically vegan, to the vegan kaizen system of taking small, incremental steps toward veganism rather than an all-or-nothing approach, to recognizing progress for what it is, not for what it should be in a perfect world.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

One of the ways to avoid becoming overwhelmed is by not worrying about the little things. I embrace veganism in all its forms to the extent that is possible and practical, but I’ve also learned not to sweat the small stuff. Rather than focusing on the little things that could bother you or slow you down, how about embracing some of these little things instead?

These are some small things that you can do every day to help animals:

• Follow a plant-based diet and make food choices that are consistent with ethical veganism.
• Tell others about the health, wellness, or fitness success you have experienced by following a plant-based diet.
• Share plant-based foods with others, introducing them to meals that would have otherwise been animal-based foods in their diet.
• Talk about ethical veganism with friends and family, answering questions and having meaningful discussions about compassion.
• Vote with your dollars by making compassionate purchases for food, clothing, self-care, and other products, impacting the supply and demand for such items.
• Wear vegan-themed clothing to act as an advertisement for the lifestyle. Donate to effective animal charities.
• Volunteer to help animals in shelters, on farm animal sanctuaries, or in other capacities.
• Give of your time, resources, or talents to help animals in need.
• Support vegan activists, companies, organizations, and individuals.

Excerpted from The Impactful Vegan by Robert Cheeke (BenBella Books, 2024). Learn more about The Impactful Vegan and download a chapter for free here.

The post Get a Peek Inside Plant-Based Bodybuilder Robert Cheeke’s New Book, ‘The Impactful Vegan’ appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

How do plant-based athletes eat for peak energy, performance, and recovery? And what can the rest of us learn from their experience?

Competitive athletes Robert Cheeke and Matt Frazier, co-authors of The Plant-Based Athlete, are living proof that the human body doesn’t need meat, eggs, or dairy to be strong. In this free Forks Over Knives webinar, Cheeke and Frazier will answer audience questions and discuss how a consciously calibrated plant-based diet offers the best possible recovery times, injury prevention, and restorative sleep, allowing athletes—and anyone who is active—to train more effectively with better results.

WATCH THE REPLAY

Originally aired July 19, 2022

The post Webinar Replay: The Truth About Protein, and Other Secrets of Plant-Based Athletes, with Robert Cheeke & Matt Frazier appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

I’ve been following a plant-based diet for more than 25 years, and though my nutrition plan has changed and evolved a lot over the years, one consistent theme throughout my decades of plant-based eating has been a foundation of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains.

By the time I became plant-based in December 1995, as a sophomore in high school, I was already a five-sport athlete. Today, I work out at the gym about four days a week (primarily weight-training), along with daily dog walks and the occasional hike. For the past 26 consecutive years, I have been a plant-based athlete.

When I became plant-based, as a teenager, I didn’t have a whole lot of variety in my diet, for some obvious reasons, including not having a lot of my own money, not doing my own grocery shopping, and not having discovered many of the foods that I would come to enjoy. When I got into my 20s, I experienced international cuisine for the first time, from Indian to Thai to Ethiopian food, and developed my own preferences for many foods I had never tried until that point. I also got into competitive bodybuilding during my 20s, which had an influence on my nutrition program, too, as I started dabbling in sports supplements, such as protein powders, protein bars, branched chain amino acids, creatine, omega-3 essential fatty acids, and meal replacement shakes.

When I was in my 30s, I had the opportunity to work for the groundbreaking health-focused documentary Forks Over Knives, which dramatically influenced my diet. The experience led me to shift my focus toward whole plant foods, and ultimately it encouraged me to discontinue sports supplements.

After I retired from competitive bodybuilding and embraced long-distance running, my body weight fluctuated quite a bit as I adjusted my calorie intake based on my evolving fitness goals. I haven’t used sports supports or had any particular emphasis on high-protein foods in more than 10 years.

What I Eat Today

Some of my meal plans are idealistic and aspirational, and I don’t always follow them precisely, but the foundation of what I eat on a regular basis is always fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains, with some nuts and seeds. I like to prepare batches of various staple foods (like rice, potatoes, tofu, etc.) once per week, as I’m able to use these foods for numerous meals. I find that it’s easy to mix up the meals to keep a variety of flavors, even with the same base ingredients.

My Typical Menu

I eat three meals a day, with healthy snacks in between. These days, a sample day of eating might look like this.

Breakfast

• Oatmeal with mixed berries and walnuts
• 1 cup fruit (raspberries, blackberries, watermelon, cherries, or other seasonal fruit)
• 12 ounces water
• Vitamin B12 supplement, vitamin D supplement

I try to eat as many servings of fruit as possible each day, so I like to start strong right when I wake up, eating a cup of fresh fruit on its own and stirring some berries into my oatmeal. Oatmeal is also fiber-rich, which helps keep me full through the morning.

Morning Snack

• 2 bananas with 1 tablespoon peanut butter
• 12 ounces water

Mid-morning, I like to have some more fruit with a little nut butter, to hold me over until lunch.

Lunch

• Burrito bowl (brown rice, black beans, pinto beans, lettuce, tomato, avocado, salsa)
• Small leafy green salad
• 12 ounces water

Burrito bowls are as close to a perfect meal as I can think of. They combine legumes, grains, vegetables, and fruit (avocado) into a nutrient-dense, calorie-sufficient meal that is tasty and satiating. And it’s easy to switch up the ingredients, using up whatever veggies and grains I have on hand. Often I’ll use quinoa in place of brown rice. Sometimes I sprinkle on a little nutritional yeast.

Afternoon Snack

• 1 cup fruit (grapes, pineapple, blueberries, cantaloupe, or strawberries)

Snacking on more fruit after lunch helps me stay hydrated and energized through the afternoon. Berries are my favorite.

Dinner

• Veggie stir-fry (e.g., tofu with brown rice, broccoli, carrots, green beans, mushrooms, snow peas, and zucchini)
• Salad with mixed greens, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), cucumbers, nutritional yeast, and oil-free or low-oil dressing
• 12 ounces water

Like the burrito bowl, the stir-fry offers a highly customizable meal that can take on many flavors, and is a good way to pack in nutrients while using up leftover ingredients. Learn how to stir-fry without oil.

Dessert

• ½ cup frozen mango
• 1 cup cherries

Frozen mango makes for an ultra-sweet, ice cream–like treat and is especially delicious in the summer. And I never grow tired of cherries. If I could eat fresh cherries year round, I probably would.

This is just one sample day of eating, and it didn’t even include one of my favorite foods, which is potatoes, nor did it include lentils, or some other staples, which goes to show how versatile and tasty a plant-based diet can be, providing a wide variety of different types of vitamin- and mineral-rich, high-antioxidant, and high-fiber foods that are good for human health, for animals, and for our planet.

To learn more about a whole-food, plant-based diet, visit our Plant-Based Primer. For meal-planning support, check out Forks Meal Planner, FOK’s easy weekly meal-planning tool to keep you on a healthy plant-based path.

The post Robert Cheeke Shares His Successful Vegan Bodybuilding Diet appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

1. Go for a walk or run to explore the city you are in.

If you’re a runner, look online to find recommended running routes and see some sights along way. Many major cities have designated walking paths through the main area of town, which means you can easily scope out tasty vegan dinner spots as you get your blood pumping!

2. Rent a bike and go for a cruise around town.

Skip the electric scooter rentals and pedal the old-fashioned way to combine your sightseeing with some enjoyable exercise. Visitor centers, hotel concierges, and a good old-fashioned Yelp search can tell you where to rent a bike and the best routes that will let you hit all the major landmarks.

3. If your hotel has a pool, go for a quick swim.

The best time to swim at a hotel pool is early in the morning when most people are still eating breakfast and getting ready for the day. Communal pools will likely fill up in the afternoon with families who have come back to relax after a long day of vacation activities.

4. Find a local gym or yoga studio that has drop-in or daily rates.

The vast majority of fitness studios offer daily rates to entice new members. Using fitness apps such as mindbody can be a great way to quickly compare prices and search for local studios that offer your favorite physical activity. Plus, if it’s hard for you to feel motivated to work out on your own, joining a group class is a great solution.

5. Do a bodyweight workout in your hotel room.

The easiest way to sneak in a workout while traveling is by doing a bodyweight workout in your hotel room. There are plenty of exercises you can do using your own body mechanics. With just a few square feet of floor space and a little motivation, you can become your own living, breathing fitness center.

My favorite bodyweight exercises include push-ups, crunches, squats, lunges, calf raises, and jumps. I can do these anywhere, regardless of where I am. Perform multiple sets of these exercises and stretch afterwards, just as you would in the gym. (See the video below for a 5-minute workout you can do anywhere.)

6. For longer trips, hit the local supermarket.

When you arrive at your destination, stop by a supermarket to load up on some produce and snacks. You can find fruit, vegetables and hummus, nut butters and crackers, and a variety of ready-made plant-based dishes such as vegetable sushi and salads at nearly any mainstream grocery store.

7. Prepare snacks in advance.

One of the best ways to ensure you have the energy to exercise regularly, even with a busy schedule, is to consume the foods that provide you with the best overall nutrition (i.e. whole-food, plant-based meals). It is easy to get sidetracked when you’re tired and off-schedule and to crave foods filled with fats, sugar, and salt. One way to overcome the desire to eat unhealthy processed junk foods is to bring quality foods that you enjoy with you while you’re traveling. Pack your favorite fruits, vegetables, nuts, and other snack foods. If you can, bring along some of your favorite prepared dishes for your plane, train, bus, or car ride.

8. Find creative ways to move during the day.

If you can’t fit in a “workout,” try to get creative while you are going about your day. Here are some ideas you can use anywhere:

• Do calf raises while you’re waiting in line, whether you’re at a tourist attraction, waiting for the elevator, or in line at a bank.
• Opt to take the stairs or always go the long way around if you have the time.
• While shopping, do arm curls while carrying your grocery basket or the things you are planning to purchase.

The best way to achieve your desired results is to create a consistent routine that produces the outcomes you seek. From my experience, the easiest way to create a consistent routine is to begin by caring deeply about the goals you’re pursuing. Rather than seeing exercise and healthy eating as a chore or a burden, as you may have at some point in your life, see them as meaningful destinations you’re working toward. When you do, you will likely feel compelled to want to eat well and exercise regularly, and the tools outlined above should make your pursuit easier as you travel through life.

To learn more about a whole-food, plant-based diet, visit our Plant-Based Primer. For meal-planning support, check out Forks Meal Planner, FOK’s easy weekly meal-planning tool to keep you on a healthy plant-based path.

The post 8 Expert Tips for Staying Fit While Traveling appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

I had already been following a plant-based diet for a quarter century. But as a retired competitive bodybuilder, I found myself comparing my 40-year-old self with my 25-year-old self, wondering if my best years as an athlete were behind me.

Then I thought of my plant-based athlete friends Rich Roll and Rip Esselstyn, both in their 50s and achieving some of their best physical performances in various sports disciplines, and Caldwell Esselstyn, MD, still active in his 80s. I looked inward and asked myself, “Do I, too, have it within me to become my personal best in my 40s and beyond?” 

Developing Routines for Success

Here’s what I know: Every day we have 1,440 minutes to make the most of the beautiful opportunities we have to embrace life. During that time, we make choices: what we will or will not put on the end of our forks; what movement and exercise we will or will not engage in; and whether the self-talk that is constantly in our heads will positively or negatively guide our decisions to be carried out each day. 

One of the ways to remove the guesswork—and reduce the role that willpower plays—is to create positive habits that become routines. The following are some practices to ensure you’re as healthy and fit as possible in your 40s and beyond:

• Start every day with some sort of exercise, even if it’s just a short walk, to ensure you have some level of physical fitness incorporated into your day upon waking. 
• Before eating or drinking anything else, begin your day by drinking water. Since our bodies (and our muscles, and our brains) are 70 percent water, hydrating can help you get off to a great start and set the tone for the day.
• Make a list of your favorite plant-based whole foods from each category: fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, nuts, and seeds. That way, you will buy foods based on what you will actually eat, which will reduce the temptation to bring unhealthy foods into your house. These favorite foods, then, become your habits and routine, and you’ll be fueling yourself with whole foods you enjoy eating on a regular basis.
• Set health and fitness goals so you have something to work toward each day. Don’t make them too small or too big, but opt for goals that inspire you to want to live a healthy and active lifestyle. What’s your impetus for being healthy in the first place? Your sincere answer will help guide your goals, which will be supported by your actions.
• Beyond a daily morning walk, engage in some sort of physical exercise at least three or four days a week. That could be cycling, swimming, running, weight training, dancing, hiking, or simply going for an additional walk in the afternoon or evening to keep yourself active throughout the day. 

By starting your day with a brief walk, some water, whole plant foods, and a review of your personal health and fitness goals, and consciously incorporating other exercise throughout the week, you will position yourself for success no matter what stage of life you are in. 

I now have my sights set forward, rather than looking back over my shoulder at who I used to be. Outwardly, I am bigger and stronger than I was at any time in my twenties, and have matched my peak physical muscle mass and strength I achieved in my mid-thirties. I’m confident that some of my best days in health and fitness are ahead of me, and they can be for you too.

Wishing you all the very best in plant-based health and fitness.

The post Fit After 40: Tips on Becoming Your Personal Best appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

The marketing of such health-inhibiting products is as good as it gets, and I’m sure we’ve all fallen victim to their messaging from time to time. Drink this shake to lose weight? Sure. Buy chocolates during the holidays? Sign me up. Indulge in that calorie-laden restaurant-made pie? Yep. It’s free on Wednesdays, so why not?

You have to admit, the kale council would have to do a pretty bang-up job with their marketing to compete with two sandwiches for $2, or unlimited fountain drink refills. Who can resist a 64-ounce soda, super-sized to twice the volume with a free refill? That’s a full gallon of pop. Good luck with that.

The key to true health and good nutrition begins with a solid foundation. Let the cliches and comparisons to building a house commence.

Lay the foundation for your healthy body with plant-based whole foods. This must be the true foundation. Not what you think you’re eating, or what you tell people you’re eating, or what you post in status updates on social media on the rare occasion you comply with this foundation, but really make the platform of your diet whole plant foods.

Once you have a solid foundation with a real majority of your calories coming from whole plant foods, it’s time to raise some beams and hold them in place with solid pillars.

Pillars of a Whole-Food, Plant-Based Diet

Fruits
Vegetables
Legumes
Grains

You will be eating the bulk of your calories from these four pillars. Legumes, grains, and root vegetables will be the most calorie-dense, and fruits and vegetables will provide the greatest amounts of micronutrients. The combination of these four pillars will provide adequate calories if consumed in sufficient quantities. They will also provide complex carbohydrate fuel, amino acids and complete protein for maintaining and building muscle, and good ‘healthy’ fats. Additionally, they will supply your body with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber, water, and more. This combination of whole-food nutrition from key plant-based pillars is the holistic recipe for foundational nutritional success.

Pillar foods may include: bananas, broccoli, lentils, oats, brown rice, beans, potatoes, berries, avocados, yams, quinoa, and leafy greens.

Your pillars will need a few accessories. Your accessories will be nuts and seeds. Packed full of nutrition, and very calorie-rich, nuts and seeds will be like the icing on your plant-based, whole-food cake. Mouthwatering, isn’t it?

Accessory foods may include: flaxseeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, almonds, cashews, pepitas, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, and Brazil nuts.

When you have your foundation in place and your pillars standing tall, you will also want to have a solid core. Your core must always remain strong. Your core will be your staple foods, the dishes and meals you eat the most. These can be classified as individual foods, such as potatoes, or a meal, such as oatmeal with walnuts, berries, and flax meal.

The Staples

Some staple dishes may include:

Burrito bowl (brown rice, black beans, pinto beans, avocado, lettuce, tomato)
Big salad (leafy greens such as spinach, kale, romaine, with tomato, zucchini, bell peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, garbanzo beans)
Rice and veggies (brown rice, corn, carrots, peas, tomato, cucumber)
Pad Thai (noodles, tofu, peanuts, carrots, broccoli, corn)
Oatmeal (oats, fruit, nuts, seeds)
Chili (beans, vegetables, spices)
Soup (vegetable broth, potatoes, carrots, kale, beans)
Avocado and vegetable sushi (sushi rice, seaweed, avocado, cucumber, carrots)
Fruit salad or smoothie (mixture of your favorite fruits)
Baked potatoes or sweet potatoes with vegetables (potatoes, corn, avocado, broccoli, lettuce, sauces)

Basically every type of international cuisine has plentiful plant-based staple offerings, from Ethiopian veggie platters on injera, to Vietnamese pho, to classic Thai, Mexican, Japanese, Indian, and African entrees. The plant kingdom is seemingly limitless no matter where you are in the world.

Healthy Pipes

To go along with your healthy foundation, strong pillars, accessories, and a solid core, you will want good piping in your system. This means getting proper hydration, consuming between half a gallon and a gallon of water per day, and lots of leafy green vegetables filled with nitric oxide to keep blood vessels open and blood flowing smoothly. A good amount of fiber intake will keep other pipes moving, too.

Simply following a whole-food, plant-based diet, avoiding oils and processed and refined foods, should put you on a path to nutritional and health success. Paying attention to some of the additional nuances ensuring nutritional diversity and nutrient density can take you to an elevated level of health.

There is no better time than right now to build a new foundation. No need to wait until Jan. 1 or any other arbitrary day like a Monday or the first day of the month. Every day that you delay taking control of your health destiny, you delay the outcomes you desire. So take action, and make your health and wellness dreams happen!

Wishing you all the very best in plant-based health and fitness.

Ready to get started? Check out Forks Meal Planner, FOK’s easy weekly meal-planning tool to keep you on a healthy plant-based path.

The post Build a New Foundation appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

1. Unlearn the Most Common Nutrition Myth

A common question that comes up among many people new to a plant-based diet is, “what do I eat?” What to avoid on a plant-based it quite clear: all animal products. If we want that plant-based diet to be a healthy one, we take things a step farther, also eliminating processed foods, including oils and refined carbohydrates. But knowing only what not to eat leaves many wondering how to get adequate nutrition, especially protein.

The human requirement for protein is so low (5 to 10 percent of our total caloric intake) that as long as you consume adequate calories to maintain your weight, it is virtually impossible to have a protein deficiency. Further, if you are eating nothing but a variety of whole, natural plants, you will get enough of every single essential amino acid, regardless of which foods you choose (the complete protein myth has long been debunked). You would experience a calorie deficiency before a protein deficiency, and both are virtually nonexistent in first-world societies.

(RELATED: The No-B.S. Guide to Vegan Protein)

2. Know Which Foods Best Fuel Your Fitness

Nobody is fueled by kale, so don’t fool yourself into thinking you will get sufficient energy to perform athletic activities from leafy greens and other nonstarchy vegetables (which average about 100 and 150 calories per pound, respectively). For long-lasting fuel, vegan athletes and nonathletes alike need to center their diets around the more calorically dense whole plant foods that are rich in complex carbohydrates such as potatoes, beans, lentils, squash, brown rice, oats, quinoa, and other starchy vegetables, legumes, and grains (which range from about 350 to 600 calories per pound). Fruits (which average about 250 calories per pound) are also an excellent source of fuel. This is especially true right before exercise, because they digest quickly and will not weigh heavily in your stomach during cardiovascular exercise. When you consume an abundance of whole, unprocessed plant foods, you get not only get the fuel, but also the full range of macronutrients (protein, fat, carbohydrates, water, and fiber) and micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, enzymes, antioxidants, and other important phytochemicals).

Since most whole plant foods contain 600 or fewer calories per pound (with the exception of nuts and seeds, which range from 2,500 to 3,000 calories per pound, on average), you can eat a lot of food, experiencing many flavors and textures, and the volume will fill you up before you overdose on calories. Overeating is easy to do when consuming refined and processed foods. By consuming foods high in nutrients and low in calorie density, you can support energy production and muscle recovery without excess fat gain, while avoiding the energy-sucking process of digesting refined foods.

(RELATED: How to Build Muscle on a Plant-Based Diet)

3. Eat Many Small Meals Per Day

When it comes to what to eat, know that your options are boundless, with ample varieties of fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, nuts, and seeds. Because whole plant foods are lower in calorie density (see #2), you may find that you need to eat more volume than you did before. Simply choose the foods you like the most and eat 5 or 6 small meals throughout the day until you are comfortably full. This way, you’ll find it easier not to under- or overeat. You will have sufficient fuel to work out any time, rather than finding yourself too hungry, too full, or too tired to exercise, as is common when we eat three more substantial meals each day. The two biggest obstacles that keep people from exercising regularly are shortages of time and energy. You can now put the energy issue to rest and work on time management to ensure that regular exercise is part of your routine.

If you aren’t losing or gaining weight as you’d like, then it’s a good idea to get a general sense of how many calories you need to eat in a day. To determine your own personal caloric needs, simply use an online Harris-Benedict calculator, and enter five simple bits of data. This will reveal two numbers: (1) your estimated BMR (basal metabolic rate), the average number of calories you would burn if you slept all day and (2) your daily calorie needs, taking into account your activity level.

4. Get Moving … and Have Fun!

Over the years, one thing I have discovered to be profoundly true is that if it isn’t fun, I am unlikely to do it regularly. This clearly applies to fitness. If your current exercise routine is not enjoyable, you will find yourself consciously or unconsciously avoiding exercise by finding other ways to occupy your time, such as putting in extra hours at work or distracting yourself with entertainment or hobbies. This approach will not lead to fitness success. To succeed, you will need to find genuine enjoyment in whatever activity you choose. Exercise is not just putting on spandex and grunting while lifting weights. Exercise is hiking, swimming, jogging, playing team sports, and anything else that increases your heart rate, gets your body moving vigorously, and puts stress on your muscles. Find a physical activity you enjoy, and do it regularly. I suggest exercising for 30 to 90 minutes a day, three to five days per week, which allows at least a couple of days off for recovery.

Ready to get started? Check out Forks Meal Planner, FOK’s easy weekly meal-planning tool to keep you on a healthy plant-based path. To learn more about a whole-food, plant-based diet, visit our Plant-Based Primer.

The post Top Tips for Plant-Based Athletes appeared first on Forks Over Knives.