A common trend in nutrition plans for women’s fitness and weight loss is the use of vegan meal plans. While they are easy to make and supply vitamins and minerals they do not always come up with the best benefits. Apart from that a vegan diet does not add any special benefit to muscle training and high intensity workouts. Here’s why:

Protein Deficiency

Chicken, turkey and other meats are excellent sources of protein. Every individual who works out and wants to witness good gains ultimately consumes proteins in huge quantities starting with egg whites. The vegan alternatives for protein sources such as tofu and beans etc. are not as protein loaded as meat is. The downside is that you will have to consume large quantities of nuts or tofu to pack the same protein content of a roast chicken breast. This immense difference in protein levels diminishes the muscle pump you get after an intense workout and stunts muscle growth to a certain extent.

Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency

Studies have shown that following a vegan diet causes vitamin and mineral deficiency in many individuals. While the concept behind a vegan diet is to be natural and eat green, the very change from a regular balanced diet to a completely organic one creates a depletion of certain minerals in your body. This particularly applies to hardcore non vegetarians who have opted for the vegan way because any and every source of energy that they obtained from meat is now out of the equation. And to compensate for that, the only way is to make sure they consume more quantities of food to increase the vitamin and mineral intake. However, this results in consumption of additional calories.

Eating out

When you follow a vegan diet, it becomes increasingly hard to eat out. Despite many restaurants being vegan friendly, the quest does not come handy all the time. For example, what if you are at a party and all the snacks you have are not vegan friendly?

Options for vegans is very limited when it comes to restaurants and there have been many cases where a fellow vegan had to starve for a while because of a lack of better option. And ultimately, you are only left with one option, which is to carry a vegan snack with you every time you step out.

Too much soy protein

Studies have shown that eating large quantities of soy protein can increase estrogen levels. High levels of estrogen have been linked to some types of breast cancer. Some breast cancer cells have receptors that attach to estrogen and helps the cell grow at a faster rate. Doctors will often recommend that the patient stop eating soy protein all together, and start taking an estrogen blocking drug.