Cutting While VegAN
By Coach Susan Wierzbicki, PBF Fitness, Weight Management and Disordered Eating Specialist
Cutting While Vegan
Today, I’m starting a 3-part series about how to prepare for and implement a cutting phase while following a Vegan lifestyle. We’ll begin by outlining the basic principles of a cut, then dive into the nuances Veganism brings when introduced into the equation. We’ll explore what micronutrients are missing from a Vegan diet, why these are essential, and how to obtain them in other ways. And we’ll discuss protein requirements and how a Vegan CAN eat high-protein.
Both Omnis AND Vegans can suffer vitamin and mineral deficiencies, but Vegans have particular needs, as there are several vitamins and minerals that are only present in animal products. There are other vitamins and minerals that the body *can*synthesize but not in sufficient amounts for training. When one adopts a Vegan diet, it can be for any number of reasons – ethical, nutritional, both, or other. Regardless of the motivation, it’s important to understand what you are getting into and how to supplement appropriately. The first time I went full Vegan, I was unprepared for the nutritional holes. I was young, uninformed, and poor. Rice and vegetables seemed fine, and bean burritos were cheap, but as my hair fell out and my fatigue increased, I was doing more damage than was even obvious. Even the nutrients you CAN get from whole foods requires research and attention to diet detail. To further complicate matters, sometimes absorption depends on another nutrient being present ((for example Vitamin D being fat soluble, or the fact that beans are fine, but to make a *complete* protein, you COMBINE RICE with the beans, which is why this dish is a staple in many cultures). Most deficiencies are silent and painless, and often go under the radar until more serious symptoms present.
Those that know me know I’m a huge advocate of getting regular bloodwork, as it is the single easiest and least invasive way to check baseline health levels and is something you can do yourself at a Labcorp or with an at-home mail-in kit. It is also the cheapest way to monitor health, as you can circumvent a serious problem before medical intervention is necessary. I have a blood and hormonal panel taken at least every 3 months, and have taught myself how to read all the lab values. The aim here is to correct for any deficiencies through food choices. A rookie mistake is to just omit the meat and dairy without accounting for anything else - but without full acknowledgement of what you will miss and why you shouldn’t miss it, you are AT BEST not building on a solid foundation, and AT WORST starting a cycle of malnutrition under the guise of health.
Veganism, by definition, is eschewing the consumption and/or use of food and products made from animals. Beef, chicken, eggs, dairy, (or even things derived from dairy like whey or casein), gelatin, and honey are also included on the “NO” list. Most Vegans learn to read labels diligently and check for hidden things, like tallow (in twinkies), castoreum (derived from the glands of the beaver anus) or carmine/red 40 (made from beetles). I will say as somebody who has been full vegan at a few points in my life, that there is a hierarchy of Veganism and varying schools of thought. There is even a sect of Vegans that believe Oysters are ok to eat because they lack a central nervous system. It’s a very personal choice, just as food is very personal. And although Vegans have somewhat of a reputation for tribalism and elitism, there are many who are very tolerant (this Gal) and who understand that it isn’t a moral failing for a person to eat animals. I myself am now just Vegetarian, but you CAN be a bodybuilding or strength athlete and have great success as a Vegan.
A cut is aiming to achieve 2 things: we want to reduce bodyfat while simultaneously holding onto as much muscle as possible. All the scientific principles of HOW and WHY are the same in a Vegan diet as they are for Omnis:
1: Determine your estimated calorie maintenance.
2: Subtract 200-500 calories from maintenance, depending on your starting calorie number (slower is always best).
3: Think about scheduling in diet breaks in order to not go insane and aid in metabolic repair.
4: Maintain a strength training protocol (do not trade in cardio for weights!).
5: Keep your protein adequately high.
What’s your calorie maintenance? There are plenty of calculators that can offer an estimate, but you may need to do a little trial and error for a couple of weeks. From here, depending on how many calories you are currently eating for maintenance, you can subtract anywhere from 200-500 calories. You want to keep your calories as high as possible while still making progress. This way, you spare your endocrine system a big shock, and you have some room to shave off more calories for when you inevitably hit plateaus. Dipping below 1200 calories is a really bad idea regardless of gender or size – it's unsustainable and you’ll never get enough of the nutrients your body requires to complete all the inner workings like cell repair, immunity, and brain function, among others.
How is cutting for a Vegan different? Short answer – it's not. Long answer: the differences come not in the macros, but in the MICROS. Micronutrients are essential for everybody - but as we reduce calories, we are reducing the number of opportunities in each meal to get proper nutrients in. As we reduce the quantity, we have to increase the quality. Every portion counts, every choice counts. This is where “IIFYM” isn’t going to fly for a Vegan. When we are eating meat, we KNOW we are getting protein, we KNOW we are getting B-12, and Iron, and Magnesium, and Zinc, and amino acids. Take animal products away, and now we have to pay particular attention. Anyone who has a training regimen, is into bodybuilding, endurance or power sports, is putting their body under a lot of metabolic stress, inducing muscle damage, and therefore increasing the needs for repair, recovery, and nutrients (Note: sleep is a nutrient - probably my favorite one!).
Muscle is very expensive for your body to hold on to. So you have to give it a reason to do so, otherwise it will become the preferred fuel when you are in a calorie deficit. A common default for someone trying to cut fat is to increase cardio. Resist this urge until later on. Once you start hitting plateaus, it will be the next weapon in your cache. In the beginning, reducing calorie intake should be enough to jumpstart weight loss. Remember, muscle is your worker bee – it is burning a good clip of calories ALL THE TIME. It just needs to be maintained through regular weight training. If you don’t use it, you lose it – your body prefers to eat muscle over fat. Fat is efficient, muscle is costly. Your strength won’t dip for a good while, and may not decrease until much later in your cut. But to achieve the lean and muscular look that will showcase all your hard work, you’re going to want to be conservative in your cardio and keep your training intense. The style of training doesn’t really matter; Just keep lifting. Remember - you didn’t get your muscles with cardio – you got them with strength training. So to keep them, keep your training in the same general wheelhouse. Once you stop making progress with your cut, then you can start implementing modest cardio, and eventually more cardio.
Let’s discuss protein (my favorite macro!) You’ll hear a lot of opinions, read a lot of studies: g per lb., g per kilo, g per lb. lean body mass, .8 g per lb., 60 g/day for an adult male, blah blah blah blah. You can find a study for any amount you believe. Personally, I see no downside to too much protein (although if you’re over 300 grams we may have to stage an intervention). Fun Fact: if you eat significant protein and low carbs, your body can convert it to glucose for energy through a process called Gluconeogenesis. It’s a pretty cool trick that I won’t go into here, but that’s what the Google is for.
The idea that a high protein diet will damage the kidneys has been disproven in a slew of studies, although it does have some logical merit because of WHERE gluconeogenesis happens, which is in the liver and kidneys. That’s a high demand on your lil’ beans, so if your kidneys aren’t the greatest, it’s a safer bet to be more conservative with the protein. But if you have healthy kidneys, high protein isn’t going to destroy them. Among my clients, I subscribe most of them to the 1:1 grams per lb rule. It’s higher than the minimum requirement, easy to remember, and really satiating. I personally eat more like a 1.5:1 protein to weight ratio, but that is what works for me and I got to that number gradually. That’s not for everybody, but I’ll tell you, once I started eating that much protein, my hair and nails never looked so good.
Another reason I like to keep protein high is because it is metabolically expensive to process. Your body burns up to 30% of the calories in the protein you eat just processing it. So if you eat 100 calories of protein, 30 calories of that are burned in digestion. Think about that. It’s a no-brainer, especially if you’re on a cut.
“But Susan! How does someone GET so much protein eating VEGAN?!?”
Common question. Likely THE most asked question ever. I may or may not have clocked someone after hearing this the 17th time. So let me clear up some stuff.
1 block of tofu – 300 calories/35 grams protein
1 scoop vegan protein powder – 140 calories/30 grams protein
Beyond Beef Burger – 260 calories/21 grams protein
“Just Egg” Egg Substitute – 140 calories per 2 servings/12 grams protein
Tempeh – 1 cup – 320 calories/31 grams protein
1 Head of cauliflower – 146 calories/11 grams protein
Peanut Powder – 60 calories/5 grams protein
Oatmeal – 160 calories/6 grams protein
Almond Flour – 80 Calories/7 grams protein
Lupini Beans - 100 calories per ½ cup/13 grams protein
Chickpea Pasta - 200 calories/11 grams protein
These are just a few examples, but as you can see, you can hit your Vegan protein goals pretty easily. And I haven’t even mentioned Vegan protein bars, which are some of the most delicious out there. A lot of vegetables have a surprising amount of protein per volume, too, with a fiber count that will keep all systems a-go. Later on in this series I’ll delve more into the wonders of tofu so I can lift some of the fear and stigma around it and maybe inspire you to try some new ways to use it. (Tofu: it’s not just for hippies anymore!)
Vegetables are going to be your best friend when cutting, and that goes for everybody. They are voluminous, contain a good amount of water, fiber, nutrients, and can add a great deal of variety to stave off food boredom. Playing with the different textures, varying cooked and raw vegetables and fruits, and keeping your diet diverse in colors, flavor profiles, and seasonality are all wonderful elements to one’s diet. When you are in a reduced calorie regimen, nutritional diversity is important. It’s easy to eat the same thing every day – it requires minimal planning, minimal thought, and you know exactly what you are consuming daily. Although this is a good tactic, the flaw is that you are probably going to be missing out on SOMEthing if you are limiting yourself to the same few items. Remember, it IS “calories in, calories out” - but if you are missing nutrients, you are #1: putting yourself in a less optimal position for progress, and #2: opening the door to dangerous deficiencies. You CAN cut while eating a fixed amount of Nutter Butters and Oreos (both are vegan, BTW) - but holy jeez, be reasonable! You’ll feel much better (and be able to eat more) eating Beyond Sausages, Tofu, Broccoli, Bean pasta, almond butter, chia pudding, vanilla pea protein, and beautiful vegetables with hummus. A colorful diet is going to be closer to the nutritional mark.
When we are eating in a deficit, it is EXTRA important to ensure that we are getting all of these things. Some of them just can’t be obtained through vegan food, and if we want to perform optimally, we have to protect our white blood cells, our red blood cells, thyroid, bones, connective tissues, and our ability to build and regenerate.
Here is a short list of common deficiencies in a Vegan Diet that are important to note:
B-12 D3 Iodine
Creatine DHA Iron
Calcium Carnosine Certain Amino Acids
In Part 2 of this series, we’re going to flesh out each nutrient I mentioned above in detail to explain what they do in the body, why they are important, what can happen if we don’t have them, and how we can get them while eating Vegan. Remember, Omnis can have deficiencies, too, so it pays for all of us to understand how these things act in the body so we have a better general understanding of the intricate mechanisms at work. Before the next installment of this blog series, feel free to message me directly either on Facebook Messenger or just tag me in the PBF Facebook group and post your question so we can start a dialogue. If you have a question, I guarantee someone else is wondering the same thing. Until next time, Happy Lifts, Motivators!
