Answer: Muscle building requires protein, nutrients and energy. Meat is just one source of protein, there are many vegetarian sources. It doesn’t take much protein to meet requirements even for a vegan if you use a variety of sources. A vegetarian will get more than enough protein by consuming a gram per pound of bodyweight from all sources. Being female will actually present a greater challenge when it comes to gaining significant amounts of muscle mass than being a vegan will, just because you lack male hormones.
Gaining muscle requires adequate nutrients to support growth, proper resistance training to stimulate the muscle to grow and a bit of rest. When you eat protein, it is digested into amino acids that are then released into the blood stream for use by the muscle. It does not matter what the source of the amino acids are, be it egg whites or lentil soup as long, as they are present in the proper amounts at the correct time. The easiest way to accomplish this is to follow one of the dotFIT menu plans for vegans. Most athletes require between 0.55 and 0.8g per pound of body weight (1.2 and 1.8 g of protein per kg of body weight). Most of our menus provide protein in this range. Each menu plan contains adequate carbohydrate for fueling intense workouts and a little bit of fat for energy. Dietary supplements can be used to enhance muscle gain if needed, such as
AminoBoost XXL and
Recover and Build, which are not animal-based products. It is wise to use a daily multivitamin as well to ensure you are receiving all the micronutrients needed to build muscle. After your nutrient needs are met, one of the NASM designed workout plans provided with the dotFIT Me Program will help you build muscle.