Vegan(ish) muscle building

Dr. John Berardi, occasionally quoted here, tried an experiment recently. He ate a largely vegan diet - with the exception of some eggs - with the goal of gaining lean body mass. Putting on muscle without meat.

The experiment is interesting, since so few athletes and weight trainees eat a vegetarian or vegan diet.

Here are links to his article.

First, the launch of the program on 1/13/09.

JB Goes Vegetarian

Second, here is the wrapup, which includes links to two articles about what vegans and non-vegans can learn from each other, and about the upsides/downsides to meat.

The Sexiest Vegetarian

His gains were good - he put on 7 pounds, 4.9 pounds of which was lean mass and 2.1 pounds of which was fat. Not bad for a dedicated attempt to bulk up.