10 Vegan Fitness Myths

You’ve probably heard all kinds of fitness myths throughout your life like “you’ll gain fat if you eat late,” “you can spot reduce body fat,” or “you need to do a lot of ab exercises to get a 6-pack.”

Are these types of claims actually true and proven by science?

By the end of this article, you’ll know for sure. We’re taking a closer look at these 10 biggest fitness myths of all time:

10 Vegan Fitness Myths

1. 1: CARBS MAKE YOU FAT
2. 2: EATING LATE MAKES YOU FAT
3. 3: IF THE SCALE GOES UP FROM ONE DAY TO THE NEXT, THEN IT’S BECAUSE I GAINED FAT
4. 4: WOMEN SHOULD TRAIN DIFFERENTLY THAN MEN
5. 5: YOU CAN SPOT REDUCE BODY FAT
6. 6: WHEN DOING CARDIO, YOU WANT TO GET YOUR HEART RATE INTO THE “FAT-BURNING ZONE”
7. 7: YOU HAVE TO DO CARDIO TO GET LEAN
8. 8: YOU DON’T NEED TO COUNT CALORIES IF YOU EAT HEALTHY FOOD (COMMONLY KNOWN AS “CLEAN” EATING)
9. 9: GLUTEN-FREE IS HEALTHIER
10. 10: YOU HAVE TO DO LOTS OF AB EXERCISES TO GET 6-PACK ABS

MYTH 1: CARBS MAKE YOU FAT

False. Eating too many calories makes you fat.

A study from the Department of Nutrition at Arizona State University found no major differences in fat loss, muscle loss, or overall weight loss between low-carb dieting (~5% calories from carbs) and high-carb dieting (~40% of calories from carbs) when protein intake was equal.

Based on the current metabolic research, low-carb diets do not appear to yield any fat loss benefit over high-carb diets.

In a study analyzing the effectiveness of low-fat versus low-carb diets, researchers from the University of Glasgow concluded, “Differences between low-fat and low-carb diets are marginal. Optimizing adherence is the most important factor for weight loss success”.

Low-carb diets are a sham. Don’t follow them.

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MYTH 2: EATING LATE MAKES YOU FAT

There is some truth to this actually, but many people overemphasize the detrimental effects of eating late by proposing that all calories consumed past a certain time of day turn intro body fat.

In general, it is better to finish eating a few hours before going to bed, but you’re not going to get fat from eating late. It mostly comes down to energy balance: calories in versus calories out.

But if you follow a schedule that allows you to eat a majority of your calories earlier in the day, you’ll likely experience slightly accelerated fat loss compared to eating more of your daily calories in the evening.

MYTH 3: IF THE SCALE GOES UP FROM ONE DAY TO THE NEXT, THEN IT’S BECAUSE I GAINED FAT

This is NOT true.

Daily fluctuations in your body’s water balance, eating schedule, training schedule, sleeping schedule, and stress levels can mask fat loss for a short period of time.

Let’s say that from one day to the next, you “gain” one pound according to the scale. This is totally possible even if you are focusing on fat loss and doing everything right (maintaining a caloric deficit, exercising regularly, etc.)

Well, it takes approximately 3,500 calories of excess consumed energy to gain a pound of body fat. So if you burn 2,000 calories per day, you would need to eat approximately 5,500 calories to gain a pound of body fat in 24 hours. That is the ONLY way you can possibly gain a pound of body fat.

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Daily fluctuations are mostly due to changes in your body’s water balance. A gallon of water weighs around 8.3 pounds.

Measurement errors can also play a role in masking progress. To limit day-to-day body weight fluctuations as much as possible, I highly recommend that you weigh yourself at the same time every day, preferably in the morning before you eat or drink anything.

But even if you weigh yourself every morning at the same time, your body weight can change due to numerous factors. So if you nailed your diet and training the day before, but the scale shows an increase in body weight, don’t stress. It doesn’t mean you gained body fat.

This is why I recommend that you don’t worry too much about day-to-day fluctuations, but rather track your weekly average body weight. Weekly averages offer you a clearer picture of your progress. To do this, you could weigh yourself every day and then calculate your weekly average body weight every Sunday morning. If you find your weekly average body weight dropping every Sunday, then you’re progressing.

All of this being said, please don’t let the scale define your progress. It is simply a measuring tool to make sure you are heading in the right direction. Always remember that your main goal is to improve your body composition, not lose weight.

MYTH 4: WOMEN SHOULD TRAIN DIFFERENTLY THAN MEN

At the end of the day, both men and women want to improve their body composition by reducing body fat and building muscle. And when it comes to the optimal training approach to improving body composition, there is no evidence that says women should train differently than men. Regardless of your gender, heavy compound weightlifting should be your primary training focus.

Many dieters do understand the importance of resistance training but tend to believe that lifting light weights for tons of reps is the key to getting lean and toned. This is completely false.

Performing countless repetitions with light weights does not improve leanness, muscle separation, muscle density, or vascularity. High-repetition, light-weight training also doesn’t burn more calories in comparison to a training program with fewer repetitions centered around heavy weights.

In a study conducted at Ball State University, researchers analyzed the body composition and performance differences between a high-repetition, light-weight training program, and a low-repetition, heavy-weight training program in healthy women. The 34 women in this study were randomly assigned to one of three groups:

Group 1: Performed high-repetition, light-weight training with minimal rest between sets.

Group 2: Performed a heavy-weight strength training program with most of their repetitions between 70% and 90% of their one-rep max (1RM). Note: Your 1RM is the maximum amount of weight that you can lift with proper form for an exercise. If your 1RM on deadlift is 200 pounds, then lifting weights between 70% and 90% of your 1RM would mean that you are lifting between 140 pounds and 180 pounds.

Group 3: Performed no resistance training. This was the control group.

In 24 weeks, Group 1 shredded 3.3 pounds (1.5 kilograms) of body fat and gained 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) of lean muscle. That’s not too bad. However, Group 2 blew their results out of the water by shredding 8.8 pounds (4 kilograms) of body fat and gaining 7.3 pounds (3.3 kilograms) of lean muscle.

Group 2 also demonstrated greater increases in upper and lower body maximal strength, increases in muscular power and speed, and increases in high-intensity local muscular endurance. This study proves that heavy-weight strength training is far more beneficial than light-weight training for women who want to shred fat and get toned.

As illustrated by this study, there are enormous benefits of resistance training for women, but the idea of lifting heavy weights is often met with concern. In my experience, many women tend to refuse lifting weights altogether, or they lift weights that are so light that they will never be challenged and will never make progress.

The major fear that holds most women back is that they don’t want to get “big” and “bulky” by lifting weights. But in reality, naturally low testosterone levels prevent women from looking manly.

Women, you must understand that you simply do not have the right mix of hormones that enables men to get big and bulky. Men typically have about seven to eight times as much testosterone as women, yet it takes years of heavy weight training and proper eating for us to get big and bulky.

The super muscular women that you see on the cover of bodybuilding magazines use tons of supplements to achieve their physiques. In many cases, they also use drugs. So you’re not going to lift weights one day and look like the Hulk tomorrow. Your body will slowly change over time and you can always alter your exercise program or meal plan if you get to a point of muscularity that you do not want to cross.

MYTH 5: YOU CAN SPOT REDUCE BODY FAT

The only way to make a particular area of your body leaner is to reduce your overall body fat percentage, which will reduce fat everywhere on your body. This is a function of diet more than anything else.

Another thing you need to know is that people’s bodies are different in terms of where they lose fat first and more easily, determining which areas are more stubborn and last to lean out. Unfortunately, the areas that take the longest to get lean are usually the ones people are most concerned about: the abdominal area in men and the pelvic region, thighs, and butt in women.

There is no supplement, device, or any other trick to spot reduce body fat in a particular area. None. Zero. It is NOT possible, so just focus on healthy overall fat loss.

MYTH 6: WHEN DOING CARDIO, YOU WANT TO GET YOUR HEART RATE INTO THE “FAT-BURNING ZONE”

Cardio machines often show pretty graphs indicating where your heart rate should be for “fat burning” versus “cardiovascular training.” You calculate this heart rate by subtracting your age from 200 and multiplying this number by 0.6. If you keep your heart rate at this number, then you’ll supposedly be in the “fat-burning zone.”

There’s a kernel of truth here. You do burn both fat and carbohydrates when you exercise, and the proportion varies with the intensity of exercise. A very low-intensity activity like walking taps mainly into fat stores, whereas high-intensity sprints pull much more heavily from carbohydrate stores (specifically your glycogen stores).

At about 60% of maximum exertion, your body gets about half of its energy from carbohydrate stores and half from fat stores (which is why many “experts” claim that you should work in the range of 60–70% of maximum exertion). In the short-term, this means that you will burn slightly more body fat. But if you maintain a moderate caloric deficit in the range of 15-30% for more than a few days, then you burn through your glycogen stores.

The average human can store about 500 grams of glycogen in skeletal muscles and about 100 grams of glycogen in the liver, which overall yields approximately 2,400 calories of stored energy. Once you burn through those 2,400 calories of glycogen, and continue maintaining a caloric deficit which means that your body will quickly burn ingested carbohydrates, then your body will be forced to rely on burning stored body fat for energy. 

Furthermore, studies conducted by Laval University, East Tennessee State University, and the University of New South Wales have shown that shorter, high-intensity cardio sessions tend to result in greater fat loss over time than low-intensity sessions. Research has also shown that high-intensity training is more muscle-sparing than low-intensity cardio.

MYTH 7: YOU HAVE TO DO CARDIO TO GET LEAN

Numerous studies have proven that cardio alone does not have any fat shredding benefits. This is because dieters who engage in regular cardio tend to eat back the calories they burn.

Doing cardio can certainly help you burn fat when combined with a proper diet, but if you eat too much, your body will simply replace the burned fat with the excess calories you’re feeding it. This is exactly what happened in a study conducted by researchers at the University of Kansas.

Women who engaged in regular cardio (four sessions per week that burned an average of 440 calories per session) saw no changes in body weight or body fat percentage after 16 months! The men in this study fared slightly better, shredding 10.8 pounds (4.9 kilograms) of body weight in 16 months by doing regular cardio (four sessions per week that burned an average of 670 calories per session). But even at that rate, it would take you 30 months to shred 20 pounds!

This research indicates that it is simply too easy to eat back all the calories that you burn from cardio. And this is something that most cardio-focused weight loss programs seem to struggle with.

The typical cardio routine that I see dieters follow goes like this: they burn a few hundred calories in an hour of grueling torture to “earn” the right to eat a bit more food or have a slice of cake after dinner, desperately hoping that their efforts will eventually yield results. This is equivalent to saving up a few hundred dollars from a job that you hate just to buy something that you don’t need, desperately hoping that one day you will be rich.

The only possible outcomes from this approach are lost time, frustration, and no results. The better approach is to burn a few hundred calories with an hour of intense weightlifting. Weightlifting will help you to shred fat while also building, or at least maintaining, lean body mass.

MYTH 8: YOU DON’T NEED TO COUNT CALORIES IF YOU EAT HEALTHY FOOD (COMMONLY KNOWN AS “CLEAN” EATING)

Many vegan dieters tend to think that you can just “eat clean” to lose weight by consuming all of your calories from healthy, nutritious foods. There is a degree of truth to this, since many healthy, nutritious foods are incredibly filling and have low caloric densities. In fact, I practice clean eating myself, and highly recommend it. But don’t fall prey to the illusion that clean eating will be the savior to your fat shredding struggles.

If you burn 2,000 calories per day, but somehow manage to eat 3,000 calories of raw fruits and vegetables, you might have perfect blood work (which is awesome!) but you’re not going to shred any fat. However, if you burn 2,000 calories per day and only eat 1,600 calories of junk food, you will lose weight.

Remember the fundamental principle of fat loss: you must eat fewer calories than you burn to shred fat. This holds true regardless of the foods you consume. To prove that energy balance is the only thing that matters for fat loss, Professor Mark Haub from Kansas State University conducted a weight-loss experiment on himself in 2010. He started the experiment at 211 pounds and 33.4% body fat. Over the course of two months, he lost 27 pounds on a junk food diet of Twinkies, Doritos, and Oreos.

Of course, I don’t recommend that you adopt a junk food diet to shred fat. Fat loss shouldn’t come at the expense of your health. But his experiment reinforced the fundamental law of fat loss. It doesn’t matter if you just stick with “clean” whole foods, if you don’t maintain a caloric deficit, then you will not shred fat.

One gram of carbohydrate found in kale contains the same amount of energy as one gram of carbohydrate found in maple syrup. That’s because one gram of carbohydrate is always going to be worth four calories, regardless of food source. This is why so many vegans fail to shred fat by simply “eating clean.”

By eating nutritious plant foods, they give their bodies an abundance of micronutrients, which is fantastic. But they also feed their bodies an abundance of calories, which stops fat loss. You simply cannot rely on “eating clean” to achieve your fat shredding goals. Nutrient-dense foods are optimal for your health, but that doesn’t mean you can eat as much fruit as you want.

MYTH 9: GLUTEN-FREE IS HEALTHIER

A gluten-free diet is only healthier if you have a diagnosed gluten sensitivity or celiac disease. Gluten is not harmful to other people. Companies know people think gluten-free is healthier, so they put gluten-free on their label and triple their price to make more money. And often there are fewer nutrients in these gluten-free products. So unless you have a diagnosed gluten sensitivity or celiac disease, you do not have to consume gluten-free foods.

MYTH 10: YOU HAVE TO DO LOTS OF AB EXERCISES TO GET 6-PACK ABS

False, you need to have a low body fat percentage. And the only way to get a low body fat percentage is to burn fat, which requires that you consume fewer calories than you burn for some length of time until you reach your desired level of lean-ness. That’s why people say that abs are made in the kitchen.

With that being said, if you want strong abs that “pop,” then you definitely want to do ab training. But the trick is actually adding extra resistance, not just doing bodyweight ab exercises.

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How Much Protein Can You Absorb?

In this article:

1. The myth and the truth about protein absorption
2. What is a protein absorption ceiling?
3. The 3 factors that affect your body’s protein absorption ceiling
4. How do I maximize my protein intake?

THE MYTH AND THE TRUTH ABOUT PROTEIN ABSORPTION

As we all know, there are plenty of bro-science myths in the fitness industry that have little to no scientific merit.

In fact, one of the most popular myths in the body recomposition space is the idea that your body can only absorb a certain amount of protein from a single meal. 

If this is true, the rumored implications of eating more protein than your body can absorb in a single sitting are, at best, that you’re wasting precious air-fried tofu, or, at worst, that you’re actually storing said excess protein as unwanted body fat. 

But again, these are just whispers in the wind.

What does the current body of scientific literature really have to say about these alleged protein absorption limits within a single meal? 

Our current understanding is this: Your body can absorb nearly an unlimited amount of protein into the bloodstream. 

But even this statement warrants further explanation in the context of a body recomposition goal. 

My guess is that no one reading this article is reading this article because they’re interested in general protein absorption. 

If you’re here, you’re likely here because you want to build a noticeable and respectable amount of lean muscle, right?

And in that pursuit, you want to know the optimal amount of protein to consume per meal to maximize your training efforts. 

To that end, the more accurate question that actually does have scientific support is this: 

How much absorbed protein can your body use from a single meal for the purposes of building muscle?

Or, in more technical terms, what amount of protein maximally stimulates the postabsorptive rates of myofibrillar muscle protein synthesis?

Interestingly enough, research has long suggested that there is, in fact, a ceiling on muscle protein synthesis that has been termed the “muscle full effect.”

In other words, there is only so much protein that your body can use at a time to rebuild muscle.

WHAT IS THE PROTEIN ABSORPTION CEILING?

Obviously, there must be some upper limit regarding the amount of protein your body can process and use for rebuilding and growing muscle tissue, right? 

Your body almost certainly can’t utilize hundreds of grams of protein at a time for muscle growth. If it could, we’d all be slamming protein shakes into oblivion while gaining muscle at unregulated rates. 

The question is, how much protein will cause you to hit this acute ceiling? And how can we use that information to optimize our own protein consumption?

Well, according to numerous studies conducted over the past twenty years, the amount of protein that represents that ceiling isn’t very high. For more information, see these case studies from 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2015.

A 2014 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition determined that just a 20-gram dose of high-quality protein was sufficient for the maximal stimulation of postabsorptive rates of myofibrillar muscle protein synthesis in men with resistance-training experience who weigh around 80 kilograms.

The researchers concluded that any amount of protein consumed beyond 20 grams would get oxidized (meaning the amino acids would be burned for energy) or filtered out by the kidneys and excreted from the body in urine.

However, there are several important factors that this study did not analyze.

For example, while the average male fitness enthusiast probably does weigh around 80 kilograms, there are plenty of guys with substantially more muscle mass.

This begs a few questions:

• Would heavier athletes with more muscle mass benefit from more muscle mass?

• Does the thoroughness, complexity, and intensity of an individual’s workout warrant additional consideration of optimal protein consumption?

• Do protein recommendations change as we get older? 

These are questions we will explore in a moment. 

WHAT AFFECTS YOUR BODY’S PROTEIN ABSORPTION CEILING?

Beyond total muscle mass, there are at least three other major factors that have a direct effect on an individual’s protein absorption ceiling:

1. Their total amount of muscle mass

2. The amount of muscle mass they train (full-body versus body part isolation)

3. Their age

Let’s take a look at these factors in more detail. 

FACTOR 1: TOTAL MUSCLE MASS

In 2015, researchers from McMaster University used a linear regression analysis on previous protein research, which ultimately led them to recommend a target intake of 0.4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per meal to maximally stimulate muscle protein synthesis.

That target is equal to 0.18 grams of protein per pound of body weight per meal.

Their research determined that consuming protein beyond this dose would result in no further stimulation of muscle protein synthesis.

According to their recommendation, a person who weighs 185 pounds should aim to consume 33 grams of high-quality protein per meal to maximally stimulate muscle protein synthesis.

Their findings have proven to be very helpful in determining the optimal protein feedings for a wide range of individuals with different body types. Rather than offering unhelpfully generic protein recommendations to a diverse audience, we can use these findings to more finely calibrate protein consumption on an athlete to athlete basis. 

That being said, protein recommendations based on lean muscle mass would hypothetically be the optimal measurement over protein recommendations based on total body weight, but this research does not yet exist.

Keep in mind too that these protein recommendations are most relevant for leaner individuals, which means these recommendations can be lowered for individuals who carry a considerable amount of body fat.

For women, we might consider “lean” in this context to mean a body fat percentage of 24% or less. And in men, we might consider “lean” to be below 16%. 

FACTOR 2: THE AMOUNT OF MUSCLE MASS YOU TRAIN

Over the years, one of the most notable design flaws in a host of “muscle full effect” studies has been the lack of practicality among the training programs the study participants were instructed to execute. 

Until recently, nearly all of the studies incorporated isolation-based training programs. And, in many cases, these exercise programs were limited to lower body training exclusively. 

For example, in the 2014 study that determined a 20-gram dose of protein is sufficient to maximally stimulate muscle protein synthesis, the subjects only performed one lower body workout that included just two exercises: leg presses and leg extensions.

The problem? 

This isn’t how most people train in practice, and it’s certainly not how dedicated bodybuilders and/or physique enthusiasts design their training programs. In fact, completing a workout consisting only of leg presses and leg extensions would only really make sense in context of a very high-frequency training split or when extremely time-restricted. 

Fortunately, in 2016, a team of researchers from the University of Stirling, McMaster University, and the University of Birmingham sought to correct this flaw by designing a “muscle full effect” study that required subjects to complete a full-body resistance training program.

Their full-body training program included the chest press, lat pull-down, leg curl, leg press, and leg extension.

And although that protocol still wasn't the most ideal training program for improving strength or body composition, it did succeed in pushing all of the major muscle groups to exhaustion, which was a step in the right direction in terms of mimicking traditional bodybuilding and powerlifting training programs. 

In other words, the total volume (workload multiplied by repetitions) and intensity of this study’s training program was, in fact, comparable to a heavy, compound-exercise-focused training program that most elite natural bodybuilders and all elite powerlifters follow.

So, what did this study find?

The researchers concluded that the ingestion of 40 grams of high-quality protein following a full-body resistance training workout stimulated a greater muscle protein response than 20 grams in young men with resistance training experience.

The clear takeaway from this study is that the amount of muscle mass you train as well as your training volume and intensity have a substantial effect on how much protein your body needs to rebuild and grow muscle.

In other words, bigger people with more muscle mass will need more protein than smaller people with less muscle mass. Similarly, people who spend more time resistance training will need more protein than people who spend less time resistance training. And lastly, people who train more muscle groups will need more protein than people who train fewer muscle groups. 

And this makes good sense. 

Consider this same idea through the lens of a car accident analogy. Smaller cars in smaller accidents likely require fewer resources for repair than larger cars in more severe accidents. It would be less expensive to repair an economy car that got into a minor fender-bender than it would be a massive truck that got completely totaled. 

On the same basic level, you can apply that same line of thinking to individualized protein needs. 

Although the specificity of these implications is nearly impossible to define on an individual basis, it seems as though most people would benefit most from consuming between 20-40 grams of protein per meal in order to maximize the immediate muscle protein synthetic response. 

FACTOR 3: AGE

As unfortunate as this may be for anyone moving gracefully into their golden years, anabolic resistance does occur as you age, which simply means it’s asymptotically more difficult to build muscle as you get older. 

To illustrate this point, let’s reference a 2015 study that analyzed the relative protein ingested dose response of muscle protein synthesis in younger and older men.

The younger men had an average age of 22 years while the older men had an average age of 71 years.

What did they find?

The researchers determined that the older men needed to consume more protein per pound of lean muscle mass to get the same muscle protein synthesis response as younger men.

If, however, you are reading this as a physique enthusiast in your later years of life, likely the best practical application of this information is simply to err on the higher side of evidence-based protein recommendations. 

You could also make the simple adjustment of adding one serving of a high-quality plant-based protein powder to your daily diet to account for any age-induced diminishing returns in muscle protein synthesis. 

HOW DO I MAXIMIZE MY PROTEIN INTAKE?

Now that we’ve addressed the nuances surrounding how much protein you should consume per meal to maximize muscle protein synthesis, let’s draw a few practical conclusions. 

In summary, most people would be best to follow the succinct advice of Dr. Brad Schoenfeld and Alan Aragon that they published in their 2018 scientific review.

As they put it, “You should aim to consume protein at a target intake of 0.4 grams per kilogram of body weight (0.18 grams per pound of body weight) per meal across a minimum of four meals.”

• For a 180-pound athlete, this would be about 32 grams of protein per meal.

• For a 150-pound athlete, this would be about 27 grams of protein per meal.

• For a 120-pound athlete, this would be about 22 grams of protein per meal.

However, at the end of the day, the most important factors for maximizing muscle protein synthesis are:

1. Total daily protein intake

2. Protein quality 

If you’re unable to follow the aforementioned advice exactly, simply aim to hit your total daily protein each day while executing a well-designed resistance training program. 

Doing this will likely result in most of the benefits recreational lifters are looking to achieve in terms of building muscle.

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Summary

• One of the most common myths in the fitness industry is that your body can only absorb a certain amount of protein in a single meal for the purpose of building muscle. We refer to this as the protein ceiling.

• The current body of scientific literature does show this to be true, but these protein ceilings vary depending on at least three distinct factors:

  • Total muscle mass

    • Individuals with more muscle mass will likely benefit from more protein than individuals with less muscle mass.

  • How much muscle mass is trained and the intensity of that training

    • Well-designed full-body training systems will likely require more protein than suboptimal training systems focused on fewer muscle groups.

  • Age

    • Older individuals tend to need more protein per sitting than younger individuals in order to match the magnitude of the muscle protein synthetic response.

• Although the most important considerations for protein consumption are total daily protein intake and protein quality, it seems as though consuming around 0.18 grams of protein per pound of body weight per meal is most optimal when done a minimum of four times per day.

Are High-Protein Diets Bad For You?

Although research recommends a high-protein diet for building muscle mass and preserving muscle mass during fat loss, we must consider the potentially detrimental effects of a high-protein diet to our health.

Many vegans associate a high-protein diet with poor health, and for good reason. According to Harvard Medical School, health conditions linked to a high-protein diet include the development of high cholesterol, a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, weight gain, increased cancer risk, and kidney disease.

These concerns are valid, but they are specific to a high animal protein diet, not a high plant protein diet.

high cholesterol and heart disease

By definition, a vegan diet is cholesterol-free. There is zero dietary cholesterol in plant foods. As such, plant-based diets have been proven to lead to a significant drop in blood cholesterol, thereby reducing the risk of our number one killer, heart disease (1).

And even though your body needs cholesterol to form hormones and digest fat-soluble vitamins, your body can produce all the cholesterol it needs from raw materials such as fat, sugars, and proteins. You do not need to consume dietary cholesterol.

Furthermore, a 2010 meta-analysis conducted by the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine confirmed that a low-fat, plant-based diet substantially reduces cardiovascular disease risk (2).

Weight gain

Concerning weight gain, over a hundred years of metabolic research has proven that energy balance is the basic mechanism that regulates weight gain and loss (3). A high-protein diet in and of itself has no impact on weight regulation. The only way you will gain weight following a high-protein diet is if the extra protein calories you consume put you into a caloric surplus.

Cancer

In the NIH-AARP (The National Institutes of Health - American Association of Retired Persons) Diet and Health Study, the most rigorous study of diet and mortality ever conducted, researchers observed the diets of 500,000 men and women over a period of 10 years (4). After compiling their data, the researchers came to a simple conclusion: Meat consumption is associated with an increased risk of dying from cancer, dying from heart disease, and dying prematurely in general.

This conclusion was made after controlling for other diet and lifestyle factors, thereby excluding the possibility that people who ate meat also smoked more, exercised less, or failed to eat their fruits and vegetables.

The researchers hypothesized that heme iron, which is the iron found in blood and muscle, is largely to blame. Heme iron generates cancer-causing free radicals and has been linked to heart disease (5). Plant foods contain all the iron you need in the form of non-heme iron, which doesn’t generate the same cancer-causing free radicals that heme iron does. Furthermore, phytonutrients and phytates in plant foods have been proven to slow down and even stop cancer cell growth (6, 7).

Kidney disease

Regarding kidney disease, high animal-protein intake can have a profound negative influence on normal kidney function by inducing a state called hyperfiltration, which causes a dramatic increase in the workload of the kidneys.

Now, this isn’t such a bad thing if it happens occasionally. If you have healthy kidneys, you already have quite a bit of built-in reserve kidney function, which is why you can live with only one kidney. But if you consume animal products, you are constantly forcing your kidneys to call upon their reserves, which taxes your kidneys over time.

In 1987, researchers first discovered a correlation between those who eat a plant-based diet and better kidney function (8). They first theorized that this was due to plant-based eaters consuming less protein overall. However, more recent research has proven that your kidneys appear to handle plant protein very differently from animal protein.

Within just hours of consuming meat, your kidneys are forced into hyperfiltration mode, whereas consuming an equivalent amount of plant protein causes no observable stress on the kidneys (9, 10). In fact, consuming tuna fish can cause your kidney filtration rate to jump up 36.3% within three hours, but consuming an equivalent amount of protein from tofu places zero strain on the kidneys (11).

A 2014 study from the Chinese University of Hong Kong analyzed the effects of soy protein versus dairy protein consumption on the kidney function of 270 female subjects with diseased kidneys (12). The researchers found that the soy protein helped preserve kidney function.

Then why is plant protein beneficial to kidney function while animal protein is detrimental? Because animal protein causes inflammation.

In fact, in a study conducted at the University of Internal Medicine in Italy, researchers found that their subject’s hyperfiltration response to animal protein disappeared when they administered a powerful anti-inflammatory drug along with a meat-based meal (13). So if you want to have healthy kidneys, you can either follow a vegan diet or take anti-inflammatory drugs every time you eat animal products.

In conclusion, decades of research have clearly established that a high-protein vegan diet does not contribute to high cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, weight gain, cancer risk, or kidney disease.

THAT'S A WRAP! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING THIS ARTICLE!

Do you have any questions about high protein diets? Please post them in the comment section below and I'll answer them! 👇

Your vegan fitness trainer,

Leif