Again, some people seem to insist on using one example to try to generalize their own opinions.
ANYWAYS, thank you SO much for this post, and the blog, and the whole experiment, Chris Colucci!! This was very informative.
I just really wish that not all threads relating to vegetarianism would turn into a flamewar. You know, “we’re meant to do this, we’re meant to do that” is getting really old and boring. But worse than that, sometimes the bashing gets in the way of information. Really, I clicked on this post because I wanted to Chris’ blog, and his and other people’s thoughts on vegetarianism, not to read, for the thousandth time, about how non-meat eaters are weak, sick, uniformed about biology (apparently a lot of us bought our diplomas), bla bla bla.
I’m pretty darn sure that the author’s intention when he posted this was NOT to convert everyone here into vegetarians, so could you meat eaters, please, just pretty please, try to see it as information, and try not to disregard it as silly nonsense and refrain from trying to convert vegetarians into your own beliefs?
I’m pretty much in the same situation as AlysaV. I’m a beginner and Ive been noticing a lot of changes in my body in the last couple months of more serious lifing. I wasn’t overweight to begin with and I’m not sure if it makes the “beginner’s gains” more or less noticeable, but I’m pretty happy with them. I’ve been a vegetarian for a few years and have never had a problem with it. I also found that after cleaning up my diet, getting 100g of protein/day is pretty easy, and that doesn’t mean eating a ton of carbs with it. On low carb days I can easily stay under 30g of carbs. I do drink protein shakes, but not because I need it in order to ingest enough protein, but because they’re convenient (and tasty). I also take a multi but not because I’m a vegetarian. Considering I still drink milk (organic only), I’m not really worried about B12.
One of the arguements I hear the most against being a vegetarian is how it’s “harder” to eat well and build muscle on it. I honestly don’t agree, but understand. I can see how, if you’ve always been a meat eater, the transition is pretty hard. You have to learn to prepare a whole bunch of new stuff, most of it requires more than sprinkiling some herbs and sticking in the oven. Also, you might need to think a bit more about what you eat, and maybe you’ll need to eat more food to achieve the caloric/protein intake you’re aiming for.
But when it comes down to it, I’m seriously confused at why someone here on T-Nation would chose something based on how easy it is? I really think that most of us here don’t do things because they’re easy, otherwise this would be a forum for chubby people who eat junk food in front on the TV every night (much, much easier than weightlifting, right?)
So can we please just drop the “it’s harder to insert verb here on a vegetarian diet”?
The other thing I hear a lot about is how costly a vegetarian diet is, like Chris mentioned. It’s true. Pound per pound, clean vegetarian protein is more expensive than most meat, and the gap gets bigger if you’re not selective about what kind of meant you buy. That is about the one thing I can’t argue with. If my husband was to become a vegetarian, for example, it’d be kinda hard to afford it, I admit. I think I recall OctoberGirl saying something about not being a vegetarian anymore because of the costs (correct me if I’m wrong). That sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
