By: Chris Gates

There has long been a claim that if you want to build muscle, eating meat is going to benefit you much more than eating plants.

But is that claim actually true?

What does the research say?

Is protein from animal meat truly superior to eating plant-based sources of protein?

Can you build muscle with a vegan diet?

There’s some new research on this topic that’s really interesting, and it suggests that perhaps there’s more flexibility in what dietary approach you choose in order to maximize your gains in the gym.

So let’s dive in, with the intent of answering this question: Can you build muscle with a vegan diet?

Research Evidence

For the longest time, research studies had always favored eating animal protein over eating plant-based sources of protein. Much of that is due to the fact that research studies had routinely measured results in the short term.

In this 2015 study, for instance, eating plant-based protein sources resulted in “a lower muscle protein synthetic response when compared with several animal-based proteins.” Presumably, the lower response was due to plant protein providing less of the amino acids necessary to optimally build muscle. But this study (and many others) did not evaluate the long-term effects of plant-based vs. animal-based protein consumption.

And really when we’re looking at exercise research, the longer a study duration is, the better opportunity we have to practically apply the results to our own training and lives. Because you’re not trying to lift just once — you’re trying to lift consistently for a long time and build as much muscle as possible.

Two new studies suggest that either an animal-based or plant-based approach can work relatively well if your goal is building muscle.

A study published in February 2021 compared the two dietary approaches over 12 weeks of training, and both diets resulted in comparable increases in lean mass and strength. Another study (just three days long) showed positive results as well when subjects consumed a high-protein diet and supplemented appropriately.

Pros and Cons to Each Diet

While these findings suggest a plant-based diet may be as viable for building muscle as a diet that includes primarily animal protein, I think it’s important to consider a few caveats.

In short, while plant-based protein sources may be as effective at building muscle, the plant-based approach probably involves a little more work, attention to detail, and less room for error in chasing your goals in the gym and seeing results. Let me explain…

If you choose to go plant-based (or if you are already following a plant-based approach), you’re likely going to have to find ways to supplement your diet to get the necessary amino acids that support muscle repair and growth. Primarily, this means finding foods or supplements that are high in leucine, as leucine is the major driver for muscle growth among amino acids.

Plants are also harder to digest, and digestibility is important to ensure that amino acids and other nutrients can be broken down and delivered to the muscles. This may be part of the reason why the shorter-duration studies I mentioned earlier in this article favored animal protein.

The studies that show promise for the plant-based approach have subjects eating a pretty consistent amount of protein throughout the day (ie. getting 3-4 large servings of protein equally spaced out), so that may be necessary as well.

And beyond that, after you build muscle and want to cut down to shed body fat, it may be harder to continue to effectively consume high protein while cutting calories because many of the high-protein vegan options are higher in fat and/or carbs.

So as you can see, there are a lot of odds and ends you need to clean up and account for. But if you do, the recent research of a plant-based approach to training and nutrition seems like it can be effective.

Coaching Cues

To be open and honest, I’ve believed the previous research for years and indicated time and time again that animal protein sources are going to be more beneficial for building muscle and strength than plant-based protein sources.

And technically, from a practicality standpoint, I think they probably still are.

But with that said, I’m always open to change my mind and this new research seems pretty darn promising.

But I still get hung up on the pros and cons. There’s more there that you have to account for to make a plant-based approach work (or so it seems), and I’m not sure that’s going to be the easiest for you to do if you want to build muscle and strength.

Quite simply, most people don’t want to carefully control every single aspect of their diet to get in better shape. It’s just too much, and at a certain point leads to burnout and abandoning goals altogether.

Most people want a couple of simple steps that they can use and see progress on. Over time, if the progress continues, you may then want to take the next step, learn more, and implement more to really optimize and maximize your results.

And while I don’t know this for certain, it seems like there may be a little bit more room for error and flexibility if you’re eating primarily animal-based protein sources, as compared to plant-based. Animal protein has a greater volume of the amino acids essential to building muscle, and by having access to protein sources with fewer carbohydrates, and in some cases fats, it can make building and managing your diet easier as your goals change (ie. transitioning from a muscle building phase to a fat loss phase).

But you certainly can build muscle and strength on a vegan diet. These research studies give us a few solid pieces of information to use if that’s an approach you want to try.

1. You need to consume enough protein. This applies to any dietary approach. A high-protein diet (~1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight or more) is the best place to start.
2. Consistent servings of protein seem to be ideal. So if you’re 180 pounds, try to get 4-5 servings of 30-40 grams of protein a day. And if you can space them out relatively equally, that’s going to be most optimal.
3. Your training program needs to be structured appropriately, and you need to be consistently challenging yourself and training harder and harder over time (progressive overload).
4. Your recovery needs to be dialed in. Try to get somewhere in the range of 7-9 hours of sleep every night. Also doing things like keeping stress levels low, hydrating adequately, and structuring de-load weeks into your training program are important.

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A special h/t to the MASS Research Review, which pointed me in the right direction on the research studies cited in this article.

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If you’re interested in building muscle and getting in better shape, and want some coaching to help guide you through the process with a customized training and nutrition plan, check out my coaching page to learn more about online personal training! If you’d like to discuss your goals and what type of program we can build for you, fill out my coaching application form and I’ll reach out to you!

CGF