Fitness expert, nutritionist and Vegan Gigi Carter breaks down what to eat, how to eat and how to exercise to build muscle and strength on a vegan diet. She also shares what she eats while training and foods you need to add to your shopping list.
Can’t Miss Moment
What do people need to do in the gym
29:50- 31:00 “There’s a lot you can do with body weight. You could also build muscle with endurance activities as well so it’s not just pumping up iron. So there’s a lot of body weight exercises that you can do to build strength and muscle. There are certain things that you can purchase or you can just do it without purchasing anything. Things like push-ups. Even the modified push-ups… right where you are using your knees instead of doing the full on where you’re on your toes and then your hands. There’s burpees, there’s jumping jacks. It’s just a matter of moving your body to start. And then you can build on it over time. And there’s things like a glute bridge exercise that I would do a lot with my clients.”
How to gain muscle and strength on a vegan diet
2:44 – 3:39 “Yes I would say you know it’s really….first of all you can put your mind at ease when you build strength when you build muscle on a vegan diet. And it really comes down to variety and then getting enough calories. So depending on the type of activity that you’re doing to build strength and muscles. So there’s two main types. There’s the endurance type where it’s primarily cardiovascular exercise where it’s like running or cycling or you know those sorts of things. And then there’s kind of more like strength building where you’re hitting the weights pretty hard and you’re trying to bulk up and get a lot of muscle tone and definition. And so regardless of what type of exercise you’re focusing on you can absolutely build muscle and strength on a vegan diet.”
How to know if you’re getting enough of what you need
5:16- 6:00 “So I would say that it might even be helpful to do a little nutritional analysis of a typical day. And you could do that on your own, or you could have someone do it for you. But what I recommend is kind of just looking at a normal day and then writing down all the different foods you’re eating and incorporating your activity level and what you’re doing. And then figuring out one, ‘Do I feel satisfied? Am I feeling like I’ve eaten? And then two, am I getting enough calories?’”
A day of what you would eat during training
15:12- 16:00 “Breakfast is… I typically do my workouts in the morning so I eat a lot of whole grains and fruit earlier in the mornings. So I’ll have three slices of toast with almond butter and a bowl of oatmeal but it’s loaded with fruit. Usually berries, bananas, and whatever seasonal fruit with chia seeds and almond milk.”
How can someone with a nut allergy still do the diet
28:02- 28:40 “You can use pumpkins seeds and sunflower seeds. You can put sunflower butter on your toast instead of peanut butter if you have a nut allergy or anything like that. There are alternatives that you can introduce.”
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