Gaining weight as a VEGETARIAN (or vegan)

jgnatca

Not a vegetarian but I love meal planning. Try starchy carb based meals like potatoes, sweet potato, kohlrabi, turnip, winter squash and yams. Be generous with the olive oil in salad dressings, sauces, drizzled on baked vegetables and stir fries.

Add smoothies to your day using bananas and ice as the base and add any fruit and veggies of your choice.

Add nut butters to your wraps. Bread is handy.

Getting in enough protein is often a challenge but if you are trying to get enough calories in a day this shouldn’t be too difficult. There’s eggs and tofu.

vingogly

Protein and carbs have 4 calories per gram; fat has 9 calories per gram. If you make sure you're getting enough protein and increase the good fats in your diet you should be able to achieve a weight gain. Calories are calories. Here's a great site for vegetarian recipes - look for the recipes with higher calorie content:

https://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes

ejikslonik

What weight are you trying to gain, muscle or fat?

ejikslonik

If you trying to gain muscle weight, eat more sprouted buckwheat, homemade almonds milk and sesame milk before workouts. Eat at least 1 avocado a day, 3-6 cups of spinach... I don’t do supplements and I gain muscle weight like crazy...

mjbnj0001

In my 20s, I turned vegan for nearly a decade (I'm 60+ now and fully an omnivore, although I'm happy for a few days at a time with lowered-meat and or veggie meals).

My goals back then weren't weight-related; I was a big guy (high school football, shot put and discus and adult scuba instructor nights & weekends while being a full-time computer programmer). I didn't lose weight, much, and didn't gain much either with that full activity level (2-3 nights a week in a pool, plus 3 wkends a month, 10 months a year in the ocean or large lakes). This was with a "70s-style" veggie diet - lots of grains, nuts, legumes, etc., in a "Diet for a Small Planet"-type approach (think "50 ways to do a veggie casserole," LOL). I'm fairly sure a determined person could gain weight this way, but there'd be a lot of food bulk involved.

Due to a lot of life issues, I'm now looking to lose a substantial amount of weight. CICO, MFP-style combined with a lower-glycemic approach seems to be working for me. Opposite that, I'd gain. Plus have all sorts of health probs resulting. Be careful on how you try to gain; there is such a thing as bad gain to risk your health and well-being.

psuLemon

onehotjeep wrote: »

As a vegan you have a better advantage to gain quality muscle over the vegetarians and animal flesh eaters because plant base protein is utilized so much more efficiently than animal protein. And everybody says muscle weighs more than fat, but that's just based on density. In actuality a pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat. They are both a pound. Though it's easier to gain that pound in fat, I don't think that's the weight your looking to gain. Definitely go with quality muscle weight obviously for the health benefits. Here is my secret weapon for a high quality protein source. It called Juice Plus Complete protein and it is by far the best available on the market. Mix with Silk protein nut milk for extra protein and richness
42 years old
6' tall
201 lbs
And Vegan AF

This is completely false. Animal proteins are much more bio available and stimulate muscle protein synthesis at much lower rates as compared to plant based proteins, since animal proteins have much higher levels of Leucine in them; whey protein being one of the best sources, followed by meat and eggs. To maximize MPS, you can do so with about 25g of Whey protein. To get the equivalent of plant based proteins, it would be about 40g.

fuzzylop72

@psuLemon that depends entirely on the plant protein you're comparing it against. Soy, for example, actually has high levels of leucine, roughly comparable to eggs (and more than beef) per serving. Pumpkin seed protein, while quite a bit lower than soy, is also pretty high in leucine per 100g.

Plant proteins have a wide variety of amino ratios, so you can't make very many sweeping generalizations.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-000082000000000000000.html

psuLemon

fuzzylop72 wrote: »

@psuLemon that depends entirely on the plant protein you're comparing it against. Soy, for example, actually has high levels of leucine, roughly comparable to eggs (and more than beef) per serving. Pumpkin seed protein, while quite a bit lower than soy, is also pretty high in leucine per 100g.

Plant proteins have a wide variety of amino ratios, so you can't make very many sweeping generalizations.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-000082000000000000000.html

So essentially, you either eat food or take a soy protein supplement.


ETA: https://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/high-leucine-foods.php

Doesn't completely jive with your list, but soy is up there.

jofjltncb6

ejikslonik wrote: »

If you trying to gain muscle weight, eat more sprouted buckwheat, homemade almonds milk and sesame milk before workouts. Eat at least 1 avocado a day, 3-6 cups of spinach... I don’t do supplements and I gain muscle weight like crazy...

The dreaded "I easily gain too much muscle" level of muscle gains of a preworkout diet of three very specific ingredients...and one very specific fruit...and one very specific vegetable.