What is a good vegetarian diet for an athlete?

actually you may need some meat in that diet… Cellulose isn’t exactly energizing and you will need as much energy as you can get if you’re going to enter any type of sport or engage in heavy activity….

Don’t leave out the legumes!

I count at least three errors here: 1) There are no nutrients in meat that can’t be obtained from vegetarian sources. 2) Meat is a lousy energy source for a high-energy diet - too much fat and not enough fiber (including cellulose) for the calorie intake, not to mention its great environmental inefficiency and destructiveness. And 3) unless you limit yourself to eating paper, cotton, wood pulp, and the cardboard box that contains the high-fiber cereal in those silly commercials, cellulose will be only a small part of the myriad essential nutrients you get from plant-source foods.

There are professional and champion vegetarian runners, bike racers, baseball and football players and body builders. All that is necessary is to eat a variety of healthy foods.

Eating lots of veggies and fruits.

ok, if thats true, explain the reason behind the extra supplements required for a vegetarian diet. if everything was in the plants we would not be eating meat in the first place, secondly if you’re eating the fatty slices of course you’ll only get fat from it. have you got any idea how energy consumption works? did you know that Fat is chock full of energy but it lacks the ability to burn properly? thirdly, 100g Meat contains more protein and glycogen than 2 KG of vegetables. and while were on the subject of proteins did you know the highest amount of protein is 12G for 100g of beans all the others have 3g. while meat has over 30g of proteins per 100g of red meat

also @filletofspam post your proof of the vegetarian bodybuilder and if he has actually won anything .-.

Informer, I’m sorry I didn’t see this sooner, and couldn’t answer until now. 1) You don’t have to be a vegetarian to take nutritional supplements; many meat-eaters do it, too. There are meat-eaters, vegetarians, and vegans both at the high end of the supplement consumption spectrum and at the low end. Once again, there is not one single nutrient in meat that is not also available from vegetarian sources, nor does a healthy vegetarian diet require a single nutritional supplement that would not be equally advisable for meat-eaters. 2) “If everything was in the plants we would not be eating meat in the first place.” The logic of that statement implies that if we are eating something, it must be nutritionally necessary, which I’m sure you do not believe if you stop to think about it for a moment. Many of us give up (or never begin) eating meat just like many of us give up eating candy or junk food. 3) You speak of fat as though I had said it is a bad thing and should be avoided. Fat - like protein and carbohydrates, the other calorie sources - is a macronutrient, meaning that we need a lot of it relative to other (micro)nutrients. But macronutrients are also the most plentiful and easy to come by if one is not literally starving. For most people (including most athletes), the trick of a healthy diet is to get all of the much more scarce micronutrients one needs without consuming excessive calories. Even lean meats are very calorie dense compared to the scant amount of micronutrients (and fiber) they provide; fattier cuts, all the more so. Oily plant-source foods, on the other hand - like nuts, seeds, avocados, etc. - not only provide healthier fats than those from meat, but they are also chock full of needed micronutrients. 4) You are mistaken about the protein content of both meat and vegetables. 30 grams of protein per 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of meat is at the extreme high end; 25 grams is more typical. 100 grams of meat also gives you more than 430 calories. Compare that to a simple meal of one cup of cooked lentils and one cup of cooked broccoli, which comes to 23 grams of protein and 220 calories. With the meat, you get a substantial dose of cholesterol and other saturated fats, and a variety of toxic effects increasing the risk of several major disease categories. With the lentils and broccoli, you get plenty of fiber (leaving you with a greater and longer-lasting sense of satiety, as well as aiding in your digestion and elimination), and a whole slew of antioxidants and other disease-preventing phytochemical micronutrients. And if you like, you can double your portions (and your protein intake) without significantly exceeding the calorie count of the meat alternative. 5) Regarding “the vegetarian bodybuilder,” take your choice:

http://funadvice.com/r/bv23kc0po73

http://funadvice.com/r/169puqpmr91

http://funadvice.com/r/169puqpmsr2