Who said "only"? Eating this way is for health AND losing weight. The problem with most weight loss diets is that they focus on how to restrict calories, reducing the amount of quality nutrients that are consumed, which usually were inadequate before the calorie restriction. A dieter's belly may be full, but their body is "starving", malnourished of nutrients. The body starts getting cravings that overcome the willpower of most and thus is why most dieting fails in the long run. You eat an eat and eat as your body demands nutrients it isn't getting from the low nutrient, high calorie foods. Even the more sensible diet plans that have you eat veggies run into nutrient problems long-term if they allow refined carbs and daily meat consumption. You cannot get enough quality vitamins, minerals, micronutrients, anti-oxidants, when low nutrient, dense calorie food crowds out consumption of the good stuff. Think of it as fuel for your body. Unless you are already sick, you can put in some poor quality fuel if most of the fuel is high quality. If the fuel is mostly poor quality, in the long-run the results won't be pretty. Click on this link to see: http://www.drfuhrman.com/ You can eat almost anything. You just vary the amounts based on the quality of nutrition per calorie. The food pryamid of nutrition/calorie is almost the exact opposite of the standard American diet. And that is the problem. People think about the meat first, and the veggie is a "side" dish. That's backwards, even for meat eaters. And our diets are loaded with processed grains, oils, sugars, excess salt, hidden fats, fried food, etc. There is near consensus that those items should be consumed only in very limited amounts. Forget Dr. Furhman for a second, right now, the stardand recommendation by the mainstream (check out WebMD, NYTimes, CNN, Mayo Clinic, etc.) is: Eat a variety of foods in a variety of colors, avoid junk food and overly processed foods, limit added fats, and your plate should look like this: 50% vegetables; 25% whole grain; legumes and/or potato; 25% high quality protein. High quality protein being defined in this case as the "better" class of animal products; fish, lean poultry, eggs, non-fat dairy. If you want to improve your diet without going crazy, start there. After all, it is nothing more than the standard, mainstream, recommended diet.
And you know this how? Jack LaLane. I know I mentioned his name before. There was a cover story in Willamatte Week on vegan bodybuilding. Look it up.
They must be in their own seperate league of bodybuilding. I doubt a vegan bodybuilder can compete with a bodybuilder doing it the traditional way.
From 20 years of competitive endurance training and racing. Good luck completing in an elite level triathlon without having processed foods at some point. I'd love to see it, especially in races where support vehicles are prohibited. It doesn't work. 1 example doesn't prove anything. In the real world we have to deal with generalities, not corner cases.
I don't understand your point here. How did vegan = processed? We are talking vegan. Vegan and processed mean two different things. Jack LaLane isn't the only one, he is just a guy who has been promoting eating veggies and working out for so many decades before the science caught up to his wisdom. To see examples of vegan athletes click on this: http://www.veganfitness.net/viewtopic.php?t=723 Why aren't there more? Because just like non athletes there are few vegans to begin with in the population. And, in order to train hard and be a vegan you have be a "healthy" vegan, not a junky foods vegan. So many vegans don't eat an excellent, they become serious competitiors and then are told or feel they must eat animal products to make up for their poor nutrient choices. Most coaches don't know any better and give bad advice. Thus the cycle of misinformation is perpetuated. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/26480.php This from 2002. http://www.sportsci.org/jour/0201/cf-e.htm http://www.veganfitness.net/viewtopic.php?t=723 List of vegan athletes, including endurance sports: Scott Jurek winner of 24 Ultramarathons NYTimes Article about Jurek http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/sports/13runner.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all Brendan Brazier, winning Ultramarathonner Has published books on Vegan-based training nutrition http://www.brendanbrazier.com/book/index.html Here is an explanation from a TriAthlete of the specific nutrition requirements for athletes: http://www.trifuel.com/training/health-nutrition/triathlon-nutrition-vegetarianism Perception does not equal realty. Check your assumptions.
A vegan diet is supposed to be the best for a person's health. I don't want to give up meat, so it's not for me. I do like a lot of vegetables in my diet anyhow.
Let me get this straight: You walk 2.5 to 3 miles to a bar, take 80-100 swings at a drunk and then walk home? That sounds like a workout BenDavis503 constructed.
spend some time on a heavy bag. It's embarrassing to have to take 100 swings to put a couple of bums down.
Which point is that? That you are behind the times with new science? Look, its ok to admit that you don't really know and you don't care to research and find out. But to claim something that has no current support just because "we do it this way" is pretty close minded. If you are not going to read the stuff (sounds to me like you didn't even read in depth on any of the provided links) and do the research, don't make pronouncements.
A good rule of thumb, since we're on healthy consumption. Drink half you body weight in ounces of WATER everyday. example: if you weigh 180lbs., drink 90 ounces of water everyday.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=eight-glasses-water-per-day Personally, I find that if the piss is clear, have no fear. Piss is yellow, drinks some water fellow.
