Bunch of judgmental posts in here. I may have contributed one of them a year ago but I had a 25 hour drive recently and listened to a book called “How Not to Die”. It’s written by a doctor who combs through thousands of peer-reviewed, placebo-controlled, double-blind studies that were NOT paid for by a lobby group or otherwise biased source. The bottom-line is that purely from a health standpoint, WE EAT TOO MUCH MEAT IN A WESTERN DIET, and certainly too much in a western diet for people who weight train.
Read: he isn’t telling everyone to go 100% plant based. The science shows the benefits of having more veggies and whole fruits (not just juices). The science shows the strain on the body of too much animal sourced protein. The science shows how to reverse certain diet-derived-diseases with strict diets based around cruciferous veggies, fruits, beans, etc.
The reality FOR ME, was that after two months of a purely plant-based diet (no animal sourced anything, no processed foods, nothing but fruits, grains, veggies, beans, roots, spices, and the like), I felt better in some ways, but had lost 25lbs of fat and muscle, was weaker in the gym (not weak, but weaker), and had less energy overall.
Why?? The science showed that I should have been running better. I was taking much better shits from all the fiber. I had lost a lot of body fat. My skin looked “fresher” and my eyes looked brighter and my mood seemed calmer. But I didn’t go a day without people asking me what was wrong and why I looked skinnier (gasp!).
My opinion: I’m too damn big to be able to hit my macros with a plant-based diet. For someone needing 2500-3000 calories per day, it’s doable but would still require quite a bit of planning and preparing. But for me to maintain my 6’3”, 250lb, high-teens body fat percentage, functional strength-training body, consuming 4000ish plant-based calories per day and still having time to run a business and have a social life, just wasn’t even close to doable.
So now I just make sure I eat more veggies and fruits and beans than in the past. I don’t freak out anymore if I don’t have the largest steak on the menu, or if I don’t have animal sourced protein in every meal. I’m back over 250 and can still see my abs (with a trt dose that keeps me in a nominal ng/dL range), I still have better shits, better skin, and a better mood in general. And if I die when I’m 75 instead of 80, I’m ok with it.
I still recommend people read or listen to “How Not to Die”. There’s some pretty good info in it.