Hi all, Just to add I’m a 95% plant based cyclist, where the remaining 5% is reserved for the odd lapse of an egg in some products. Have felt fantastic generally being vegan where possible. Never been as lean and fit (resting HR down to 32 somehow, wtf), helps with climbing in the Alps.
I really attempt to do as much home made, except for gels. Fav on the bike fuels are rice cakes and date bars, supplemented by oats and more oats.
Recently got into pea protein too with tomato juice. Always experimenting but not felt any detriment yet.
Thanks all to the advice and tips, great community here
Hi there, looks like I will be the one spoiling the party.
My wife and I started eating whole food plant based the first week of 2019. Healthwise, we both feel great, both have lost weight (although I didn’t need to). This is not to say we didn’t feel good before, we have always had a very healthy diet. However, my performance, and FTP have been going down since around the time we embarked on this journey. I just did my A race (Olympic distance triathlon) 3 weeks ago and performance was worse than 1, even 2 years ago. The same is true for other races I did in the weeks leading to my A race.
Diet may not be the only contributor to my decline in performance, but I feel it has a role in it. After my A race, I took a couple of weeks off structured training and started eating some meat and fish again. I did Truuli-2 on the Friday of that second week to prime my legs for a Ramp test on Saturday (will be doing build+spec for my next A race in Sept). Saturday’s Ramp test was dissappointing (dropped another 1.5% since March). I did the Ramp test again on Sunday and happy to report my FTP was much better (3.8% increase from March and back to what it was around Nov. 2018). Either the rest or the change in diet (or both) has made an impact. I am very disappointed that my plant based experiment hasn’t worked.
Do you have any cravings? Usually our bodies tells us what we need, and a plant-based diet is a very restrictive diet. Also, I would worry if you unintentionally lose weight and power, that’s not a good sign. If you have specific cravings, you could take those signals seriously and reintroduce some animal products in your diet.
Hi @OreoCookie. I don’t have any particular cravings. Cheese is probably the only thing I really miss. I thought I would miss meat and fish but I find the alternatives to be good enough. In fact, I find it quite strange and I am quite concious when I now eat animal products (only meat and fish so far and not a lot).
Been Vegetarian, now Vegan, since Jan this year.
Completely agree with your last paragraph. I have 2 kids and I genuinely worry for their future. There is so much mis-information about the meat industry but once you find the truth (so many resources on You Tube) there is no going back.
Is there anything out there in the form of a study that shows the effects of turning approximately 7.7 billion people to plant based? Or a very high majority at least?
Not sure but as the majority of currently grown food is used to feed animals, I guess there will be plenty to go around once this hugely inefficient process is stopped
Our bodies tell us what they need? Well my “body” can’t be trusted. If I let it rule my diet, I’d be eating ice cream and chocloate all day. In my case, I need to hand the reins of my diet to my conscious mind.
That’s interesting. I can’t say how going vegan effected my cycling, as I wasn’t cycling when I went vegan, but my weight lifting ever so slightly increased after going vegan.
Perhaps it is just early days and you need longer to adjust along with finding the right combination of plant based foods that help your performance?
Maybe a do, but I don’t think I am brave enough to risk a further decline in my performance whilst experimenting. It has been 6 months already.
Calcium is easier to answer. I had a stress fracture 3 years ago and due to a bone density scan showing a slightly low density, I was given VitamidD+Calcium suplements. That’s the bulk of my calcium intake. The rest comes from fortified soya, oat milk, soya yogourt and vegetables.
Protein is more challenging to answer. I would say 3 main daily sources (only mentioning the protein sources):
Breakfast: oats in soya milk or brown bread with peanut butter (I rotate)
Lunch: big salad with loads for beans/chick peas/lentils, some grain. Grain is not always available and often is the white variety (orzo, cous cous, rice).
Dinner: Either something with beans and wholemeal grain or tempeh/tofu.
During the day I try to drink 750ml of fortified soya milk, mainly to get all the necessary B12, but also because it provides approx. 24g of protein.
Got a pretty similar meal plan. Eat a ton of oats especially when training. Main difference is that I take b12 supplements instead of downing tons of soya.
Here’s a quote:
“Replacing all animal-based items with plant-based replacement diets can add enough food to feed 350 million additional people, more than the expected benefits of eliminating all supply chain food loss,” reads the study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
This was referenced in that article and was more along the lines of what I was looking for. Doesn’t answer every question I have but does have a bit of detail.
