Recipes Appendix A. Energy Costs of Physical Activity Appendix B. Food Guidance Systems Appendix C. Foods Containing FODMAPs Appendix D.

Glycemic Index of Common Foods Appendix E. Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamins and Minerals Appendix F. Metric Conversions for Common Measures.

Enette Larson-Meyer, PhD, RD, CSSD, FACSM, is a professor at Virginia Tech and is a well-respected researcher in the area of sports and exercise metabolism. Her research centers on how nutrition influences the health and performance of active individuals at all stages of the life cycle and at all levels of performance—from the casual exerciser to the elite athlete.

Larson-Meyer is the author of Vegetarian Sports Nutrition Human Kinetics, and has also authored over 80 scientific journal articles and book chapters. She served on the International Olympic Committee IOC Sports Nutrition Consensus Panel and on the IOC Consensus Panel for Supplementation in the Elite Athlete.

She is a board certified specialist in sports dietetics, is a former sports dietitian for the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and is active in SCAN the sports, cardiovascular, and wellness nutrition practice group of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the American College of Sports Medicine, where she serves as an associate editor for medicine and science in sports and exercise.

She is also a past chair of both SCAN and the vegetarian nutrition VN practice group of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Personal interests include trail running, flat water kayaking, Irish step dancing, yoga, and being the number-one fan of her one semi-vegetarian and two vegetarian children.

Matt Ruscigno, MPH, RD, is a leading expert in plant-based nutrition and has followed a vegan diet for more than 20 years. He is a coauthor of the No Meat Athlete book with Matt Frazier and Appetite for Reduction with Isa Moskowitz and is lead author of Cacao, Superfoods for Life.

He is the past chair of the vegetarian nutrition VN practice group of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and currently is the chief nutrition officer at Nutrinic, a start-up health-care company using plant-based nutrition for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

Recreationally, he has raced ultramarathons, Ironman races, and hour mountain bike races, and he has bike toured over 15, miles. He is a long-time resident of Los Angeles, California.

Since then, I've encountered increasing interest year after year. And to learn everything you need to know, just read Plant-Based Sports Nutrition. Enette Larson-Meyer and Matt Ruscigno are as informed on the subject as they are passionate and experienced. There's no better source than this book. Plants are the athletic fuel of the future!

Considering protein supplements for plant-based athletes Ideas for grab-and-go breakfasts Why athletes need carbohydrates. Related Products. Customer Reviews. Asian Journal of Sports Medicine, 6 1 , E Dietary Flavanols: A Review of Select Effects on Vascular Function, Blood Pressure, and Exercise Performance.

Journal of the American College of Nutrition. Naghedi-Baghdar, H. Javan, R. Effect of diet on blood viscosity in healthy humans: A systematic review. Electronic Physician, 10 3 , Raúl Domínguez, Eduardo Cuenca, José Luis Maté-Muñoz, Pablo García-Fernández, Noemí Serra-Paya, María Carmen Lozano Estevan,.

Manuel Vicente Garnacho-Castaño. Effects of Beetroot Juice Supplementation on Cardiorespiratory Endurance in Athletes. A Systematic Review. Nutrients, 9 1 , Song, M. Association of Animal and Plant Protein Intake With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality.

JAMA Internal Medicine, 10 , Dinu, M. Vegetarian, vegan diets and multiple health outcomes: A systematic review with meta-analysis of observational studies. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 57 17 , Parker, H.

Diet quality of vegetarian diets compared with nonvegetarian diets: A systematic review. Nutrition Reviews, 77 3 , Rizzo, Nico S. Nutrient Profiles of Vegetarian and Nonvegetarian Dietary Patterns. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 12 , — Jenner SL, Buckley GL, Belski R, Devlin BL, Forsyth AK.

Dietary Intakes of Professional and Semi-Professional Team Sport Athletes Do Not Meet Sport Nutrition Recommendations-A Systematic Literature Review. Crimarco, S. Springfield, C. Petlura, T. Streaty, K. Cunanan, J. Lee, P. Fielding-Singh, M. M Carter, M. A Topf, H.

C Wastyk, E. D Sonnenburg, J. L Sonnenburg, C. D Gardner, A randomized crossover trial on the effect of plant-based compared with animal-based meat on trimethylamine-N-oxide and cardiovascular disease risk factors in generally healthy adults: Study With Appetizing Plantfood—Meat Eating Alternative Trial SWAP-MEAT , The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume , Issue 5, November , Pages —,.

Guyenet, S. Impact of Whole, Fresh Fruit Consumption on Energy Intake and Adiposity: A Systematic Review. Frontiers in Nutrition Lausanne , 6, Maki, K. The Relationship between Whole Grain Intake and Body Weight: Results of Meta-Analyses of Observational Studies and Randomized Controlled Trials.

Nutrients, 11 6 , About Us Unity Lab Science of Supplements. About Us. Unity Lab. Science of Supplements. Not so much on the protein. I love reading your blog. Even though I am a meatmeat athlete 🙂 I dont really consume all that much these days Im just loathe to surrender my beloved beef jerky….

Hey MizFit, I used to love beef jerky! But alas, not for me. Great post, Matt! I would love to see you post a menu from a typical week. Nicki, thanks for the idea. I am just starting to learn to run, barefoot style, and a vegetarian newbie.

I know that because I still have a lot of weight to lose that I will have to tweak a few things, but it would still be helpful for me. Did you already post one somewhere that I missed?

I still have about 60 lbs to lose to meet my goal, but I am feeling stronger and better all around since going vegetarian. I have a very similar diet, although I do not limit eggs. I also have the luxury of getting them straight from the farm literally and meeting the chickens! For me, not eating dairy is super important.

My runs definitely suffer if I eat it. I think people need to realize that switching to a vegetarian diet is going to be trial and error- you have to figure out what works for you!

And got sick. And then it CLICKED for me. It was an epiphany. Other people are the same way with bread, eggs, certain fruits, etc. but reaping the benefits nonetheless.

My name is Anthony, and I have been vegan for 7 months now and I agree with Bridget there is allot of trial and error. One of the things that I found was I was not getting enough carbs. This is my daily routine…….

I do change up the potatoes for pasta and brown rice for variety and I through in steamed veggies if I have the time. The fruit smoothies are usually the organics mixed berries from Safeway which contain strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries, and I throw in some frozen pineapple and some ground flax.

I usually do my workouts at 1pm so I have two meals on board before the workout and the 3pm meal makes a great post workout meal.

I have never felt and looked better and I came from being on pain management for multiple spinal cord surgeries and sever chronic pain. The vegan diet has been nothing short of amazing for me. Ok all your posts got my attention and I ordered Thrive, I just read it this weekend and I like the concept…I think I understand better now his thoughts, but in some ways it does feel to strict or too raw for my tastes.

This post was good to help remind me to lean in to it and keep finding ways to make it work best for me. RunToTheFinish, yeah I like to think of Thrive as the benchmark that I strive to get as close as possible to while still enjoying the food that I love.

The principles are great, so you can keep them in mind while you choose your meals, and the smoothie and gel recipes are the most valuable part, for me. Hey there,love thee blog been following for long now, i just cant seem to lose weight.

My diet reflects your a lot. Keep up the great work. Chris, thanks for such a nice comment. Congratulations on taking that challenge!

This is great info. for newbies. I think they often believe that becoming vegetarian is harder than it really is. I think the key is variety, eating lots of different whole foods ensures all bases are covered.

Awesome post! But this post is really helpful in giving me ideas of what I should be eating. I do know that when I went vegan, my energy greatly improved, and my sleeping patterns became so much more regular. At annual exams, I have consistently showed great cholesterol numbers with no deficiencies.

Lisa, g? Do you know of any research that supports the idea for athletes? Many government- and organization-recommended protein amounts seem reasonable, but then when authors talk to athletes, they say athletes need so much more. Thanks for the list Matt! Once I became vegan, I noticed even more significant gains.

Any animal fat is a big No, No for me. Great post Matt! We need to get together someday and come up with an action plan for Harford County. It sucks to be veg here. What do you think? I just ran a 5k near D. for an animal sanctuary and noticed they had several vegan running clubs there. Joe, a Harford County vegan or vegetarian, for me running club is a great idea.

I keep trying to enter my email address to download the book but every time I enter a it goes right away??? Well first of all, I love the post!

Thanks for writing it — it is very informative, especially for a newbie vegetarian and a newbie athlete. Also, I appreciate the caloric breakdown… I thought I should be eating a lot more protein and after reading this I Googled it and realized that I was off.

I should obviously still include it, but I was going a little overboard with protein and neglecting the carbs! Perfect timing! I just recently cut our red meat, pork and chicken still working on fish and shrimp and this is a great guideline. Also helpful would be maybe a day or two of your typical meals, if you feel comfortable 🙂 Thanks!

Matt, I have had a similar experience as you. About a year ago I started following the Thrive diet fairly religiously and noticed gains. HOWEVER, I always wonder whether it was Thrive or the fact that I was no longer following the standard american diet. I have since transitioned to a modified Paleo diet and have not noticed any drops in performance yet.

BTW, first comment, but I love your site! It makes sense that almost any well thought-out diet is going to be better over the standard Western diet. this was an excellent read thank you so much! saving this for future refernce, i have a 14km run in aug this will help alot.

Getting a wide arrange of food is definitely essential. Do you have any suggestions for getting the necessary nutrients on the go? For example, do you suggest always keeping something like Vega powder on-hand or making nutrient-rich smoothies with local fruits and veggies?

Raam, the nomad thing is awesome! I just checked out your blog. The idea of bringing Vega powder along to put in smoothies is certainly a way to get a lot of good, necessary nutrients.

Almost all of their products cost more than a dollar per serving. Check out my post on pinole. You might be able to adapt it with local ingredients or to add nutrients that you think are necessary.

Thanks, Matt! That suggestion is fantastic. Looking forward to learning more. Also, check our Mike Wardian as another vegetarian endurance athlete. Your foods list looks very similar to what I prefer to eat. I do have a bit more low fat organic dairy, organic cage free locally sourced eggs, and processed soy in my diet.

Those foods are still in my diet since my husband is not a vegetarian and they keep him more satisfied eating a vegetarian diet.

Cooking with some of those foods keeps him from eating meat except on holidays. I used to eat a lot of that stuff when I first became a vegetarian 18 years ago, but slowly over time transitioned to a more vegan diet.

I think the title is Mexican vegetarian chili with rice. It does look good! that list there that you have? thats MY list… :O i am pleased as punch too since i came up with my list all on my own!!!!

well from reading a lot of blogs, but eventually it came down to exactly what you wrote. i am anxiously awaiting my No Meat Athlete shirt 🙁. But I survived 8 years of competitive h.

But I agree with others who commented — you have to find what works for you. And I have to say…for some people, that means eating meat.

Thanks for such a great breakdown!! Good points, Lauren. Great article! I am also of the opinion that we need far less protein than is being touted out there, provided of course that we consume high quality carbs and not junk. Matt, a thought-provoking post.

After years of steadily decreasing meat consumption resulting from healthy diet concerns, I went vegetarian late last year.

At that time, I could no longer reconcile meat consumption with my views on the environment and humane treatment of animals. Shortly after going vegetarian, I started training for my first marathon, which I completed on May 1.

Training on a vegetarian diet, my running was stronger than ever, and my pace improved by 1 to 2 minutes per mile. The trend has continued in my post-marathon training. I attributed the improvements mostly to the training program itself, partially to increased cross-training, core and upper body work, and partially to a little extra weight loss during peak training mileage.

It very well may be that the vegetarian diet itself was also a major contributor to the improved performance. At the very least, it has been totally compatible with building strength and endurance! Hey Vern, thanks for sharing your story. Not so different from mine, except that I was already a runner.

And I became so much stronger as a runner after I became vegetarian. Glad to see you have a blog to help spread the word! Fitness Model Competition I am entering 1 possibly 2 fitness model competitions this Oct 23rd or Nov 6th and am going to enter as a Vegan.

I will keep you posted on my progress and my workouts — lots of weight training and endurance cardio. Wish me luck! Matt- I love your blog!

I am also a vegan runner. I was a runner before I was vegan but I think the 2 go perfectly hand in hand. I am also a blogger, residing in San Diego. Where do you live? Thanks for all you do!! Love your blog. I am new to the world of vegan and running. Hi I am a football player and I want to eat more vegetarian meals.

I am concerned about lower protein amounts in my foods. This article will help me to know that it is possible. Do you have some tips for this? possible vegetables that help facilitate this better. Hershel Walker is vegetarian now, right?