Vegan Diets Can Actually Support Your Muscle And Strength Goals

A science-backed analysis of how they stack up against omnivore and other diets

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At a Glance

• A new study showed similar effects for bench press and leg press gains when folks ate a vegan or omnivorous diet.
• Other recent data has shown similar effects for strength and muscle growth with both diets as long as protein intake is high (around 1.6 grams per kg of body weight per day.)
• While vegan diets may pose additional challenges in getting enough protein compared to omnivorous diets, you don’t need to trade in your gains to adopt a plant-based diet.

It’s a common belief that a vegan diet will sabotage your gains in the gym. Especially gains of strength and muscle variety.

Even as more plant-based bodybuilders/athletes have become visible, this fear persists. This made me want to do a little deep dive into the topic and hopefully clear up any misconceptions.

A new study by Isenmann et al. (1) recently assessed the difference in strength outcomes in a 16-week trial while folks ate an omnivorous or plant-based diet.

All subjects had at least six months of training experience as well. So they surely weren’t…