Meatless Meathead: Why You Don’t Need Meat To Build Muscle

Key Takeaways

Both animal and plant foods deserve a place in a healthy diet (for most people).
The health risks of consuming ONLY plants or ONLY meat likely far outweigh any benefit (for most people).
The impact of the conventional meat industry may be more devastating than you had previously thought.
Meat production may not be as environmentally unfriendly as you had previously thought.
If you consume enough variety and quantity, plant protein is equally as effective as animal protein for building muscle.

Full Story

I don’t even know who I am anymore. All of my adult life, I’ve been the prototypical gym rat, chained to the weights and devouring chicken breast, ground turkey, and steak at nearly every meal. In other words, a true meathead.

This past month, everything changed. I swapped the turkey for tofu, the chicken for chickpea pasta, and the pork for protein powder. I became a vegetarian.

If you expect me to put my hair in a man-bun, start walking around barefoot, and swear-off all animal products for the rest of my life, I’m sorry to disappoint you, Mr. or Ms. Diehard Vegan. I don’t believe that a diet free of animal products is optimal for health and fitness for most people.

Humans have been eating animals for millions of years and they provide valuable nutrients that you (or your great, great x100 grandfather foraging around the African Savannah) would be hard pressed to find anywhere else in nature (1, 2).

Not so fast, carnivores! If you’re rubbing your bacon grease-stained hands together with delight, ready for me to dismantle the vegan argument and praise meat as the food of the Gods, I’m going to disappoint you, too. I don’t believe a diet that consists 100% of animal products is optimal for health and fitness for most people.

Many plants are full of antioxidants and other compounds, as well as fiber, that are indisputably beneficial to human health (3). Those that try to convince you otherwise value personal anecdote and individual studies over meta analyses and randomized controlled trials, the gold standards of nutrition research (4, 5).

For an entertaining and eye-opening example of the strength of anecdote and false logic, listen to this episode of the Joe Rogan Experience featuring Dr. Paul Saladino, perhaps the best known carnivore advocate in the space, and then read this point-by-point breakdown of his claims by Dr. Layne Norton (6, 7).

As with most concepts, the optimal solution usually lies somewhere in the middle. In this case, it does! The consumption of plants and animal products both offer individual health benefits that will help you gain muscle, prevent excess fat gain,. and live a long and healthy life.

If plant and animal foods each deserve a place in a healthy diet, then why in the world did I decide to reduce my intake of meat? Allow me to explain.

Just One Question - Why?!

Before we dive into my meat-free month, let’s discuss why I chose to partake in this experiment. Here are some reasons that didn’t drive my decision:

Curiosity or boredom - I was perfectly content with my previous diet in every way, and I enjoy eating the same foods day in and day out.
Environmental concerns* - Although vegans everywhere might slam their laptop screens, pick up their buckets of fake animal blood, and prepare to boycott Solokas Focus, I am not sold on the environmental repercussions of meat eating (8). While it appears that large-scale, conventional meat industry certainly contributes negatively to the environment, there is little reason to believe that sustainable, smaller-scale meat production has any significant harmful environmental effects (9, 10).

Moreover, the effect of meat production on the environment is not nearly as harmful as many will have you believe. As far as the most recent data is concerned, meat production accounts for about 3% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions while the energy industry, including fossil fuel emissions, is responsible for about 80% of greenhouse gas emissions (11, 12).

*This is outside my scope. Please take my opinion on the environment with a grain of salt.

Health concerns - As I’ve mentioned, meat - even the red kind! - is one of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet. Specifically, beef contains high amounts of vitamins and minerals, including:
- Vitamin B12 and B6
- Niacin
- Selenium
- Zinc
- Iron

As well as high amounts of other beneficial compounds, such as:

Creatine
Taurine
Glutathione (15).

Not all forms of meat are created equal, especially if you consume it often. Due to the saturated fat content and risk of the formation of heterocyclic amines and advanced glycation end-products when cooked at high temperatures (charred), high intakes of highly processed meat - your Big Mac, bacon, sausages- have been associated (correlation NOT causation) with an increased risk of a number of diseases such as:

Type 2 Diabetes
Heart Disease
Some Cancers
Early Death (16).

On the other hand, a high intake of minimally processed meats - your classic organic chicken breast/thighs, turkey, grass fed steaks- offer much of the same health benefits with less long-term health risk (17).

The Only Reason

Here is the reason (that’s right, only one!) that did drive my meatless experiment: Ethics

I am not a philosopher or ethics expert and don’t intend to impersonate one on the internet, but I’ll share my line of thinking relevant to my decision on the conventional meat industry:

The animals that we raise for meat are sentient beings, i.e. have consciousness and, on some level, “know” that they are “alive” (18).

2. These animals are raised without regard for pain, distress, or suffering, just so our chicken nuggets can be a few dollars cheaper.

3. Suffering is a painful, anguishing, and real experience on a psychological and existential level, capable of being felt by any sentient being, humans and other animals alike (19).

As Yuval Noah Harari puts it:
- “The root of the problem is that domesticated animals have inherited from their wild ancestors many physical, emotional and social needs that are redundant in farms. Farmers routinely ignore these needs without paying any economic price. They lock animals in tiny cages, mutilate their horns and tails, separate mothers from offspring, and selectively breed monstrosities. The animals suffer greatly, yet they live on and multiply…”
- “This is why the fate of farm animals is not an ethical side issue. It concerns the majority of Earth’s large creatures: tens of billions of sentient beings, each with a complex world of sensations and emotions, but which live and die on an industrial production line.”
- “For 4bn years, life on Earth was governed by natural selection. Now it is governed increasingly by human intelligent design. Biotechnology, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence will soon enable humans to reshape living beings in radical new ways, which will redefine the very meaning of life.” (Highly recommend checking out Harari’s full article for more) (20).

4. The conventional meat industry is one of the most severe crimes in the history of the world (no exaggeration here).

5. By reducing my conventionally-produced meat consumption, I may be able reduce my contribution to the unimaginable magnitude of this crime (21).

Side Note - What is “Meat”?

Isn’t it interesting that we have different names for animals and the meat they provide? On the farm, a cow is called a cow. But in our fridge, we refer to a cow as beef, steak, and burgers. We say “I’m going to have a burger for dinner”, not “I’m really craving some cow tonight.”

We don’t have separate terms for avocados, oranges, or spinach before and after they’re processed - we refer to them by the same name whether they’re found in nature or on our shelves. But with meat, we don’t apply the same logic.

Instead, perhaps to make the concept of eating another sentient being easier to stomach (literally and figuratively), we give abstract names to meat. For instance, we call:

Cows - Beef
Baby Cows - Veal
Chicken - Poultry
Fat Ducks - Foie Gras
Pigs - Pork
Deer - Venison
Sheep - Mutton
Calf Testicles - Rocky Mountain Oysters
Coconut - Oh wait, not the same type of meat.
You get my point

The language we use to talk about animals and their meat may point to the cognitive dissonance and ignorant bliss we humans enjoy with regard to the necessary “processing” required to get a cow from Point A (grazing on a pasture, mooing happily away) to Point B (in between our burger buns). Language is a powerful vehicle that conveys a society’s values, culture, and its perception of the world.

Our use of different terms to distinguish live animals from those that are to be consumed may be an example of using language to distance ourselves from the reality of eating “dead animals” and to dissociate from the “face on the plate” (22). I don’t intend to sound like the picketing PETA protesters hanging outside your local BBQ joint, just a thought-provoking point to consider.

Isn’t Animal Protein Better for Building Muscle?

In American culture, meat of all kinds is associated with masculinity, muscle, and strength. The term “Meathead” says it all - meat grows your biceps, makes you grow a lumberjack beard, and gives you superhuman strength, right?

On the other hand, the terms “Vegan” and “Vegetarian” are associated with femininity, slenderness, and being a delicate flower. Of course, incredibly impressive vegan bodybuilders and popular, albeit TOTALLY unreasonable, documentaries such as “Game Changers” have challenged traditional stereotypes. However, the stigma around a plant-based diet has held steadfast in popular culture (23, 24).

Lumberjacks and pseudo-documentaries aside, the carnivore vs. vegan diet raises an important question: Is animal protein superior for building muscle?

Most animal sources of protein are complete, meaning they contain all nine essential amino acids, while most plant sources protein are incomplete, meaning they lack at least one of the essential amino acids. Case closed, bacon over beans, right? Wrong!

The most current evidence suggests that it is the total amount of amino acids consumed throughout the day, not in each meal, that matters most for muscle-building (25-28). This means that if you consume a wide variety of plant protein sources over the course of the day, your net muscle protein synthesis rates will be just as high as someone that consumed all animal protein (and you’ll build just as much muscle!)

Keep in mind the most important considerations for protein intake when it comes to muscle-building:

Total daily protein + calorie intake matter much more than the protein content of an individual meal.
If you consume plenty of protein (~1 gram/lb of bodyweight per day) from a variety of sources, protein quality is a nonissue.
Animal foods score highest on measures of protein quality.
If you’re a vegetarian/vegan that consumes the lower end of recommended amount of protein/day, you may need to take care to consume foods in certain combinations throughout the day to maximize the anabolic response (29, 30, 31).

If you’re a vegetarian/vegan that consumes plenty of protein each day, you will likely consume an adequate amount of amino acids throughout the day to maximize muscle building (unless you’re a total weirdo that consumes 150 grams of protein exclusively from beans each day. In that case, I’d recommend you consult with several medical specialists).

The Grass Isn’t Always Greener - Downsides of Plant Protein

With enough variety and overall quantity, plant protein is equivalent to animal protein for building muscle (32, 33). That being said, consuming a diet that consists 100% of plant foods presents significant challenges to those trying to optimize their body composition, including:

Consuming too many carbohydrates, fats, or calories in an effort to eat enough protein
- Plant foods that are many claim are “high” in protein - think peanut butter, legumes, and other grains - come along with plenty of extra calories. Compared to consuming animal protein sources that are nearly 100% protein, such as lean meats, egg whites, and fish, consuming only plants makes it difficult to hit you protein goal within the confines of your macronutrient and calorie goals.
Lacking variety in your protein choices
- Tofu, lentils, and chickpeas are fantastic, but you can only them so often without losing your mind! If you’re a person that gets bored eating the same foods consistently, you may have trouble consuming enough protein each day.
Consuming foods that disrupt your digestion
- Most plant protein sources are full of fiber. Consuming high amounts of fiber is tremendously beneficial for your health IF your stomach can handle it. But if you’re consuming 100-200 grams of protein per day from legumes, lentils, and oats, your may have some digestive troubles.

Now, if you choose to eat a vegetarian over a vegan diet and regularly consume eggs, dairy, and even fish, these issues are much less of a concern. Although it is possible to eat enough high quality protein from plant sources to build and maintain muscle, the addition of animal products makes it significantly easier.

Wrap Up

WOW, that got hand of hand quickly. Because it’s such a polarizing topic for a many people, there is a lot to discuss in the great vegan vs. carnivore debate. The barebones, spark notes to remember from today’s discussion include:

Both animal and plant foods deserve a place in a healthy diet (for most people).
The health risks of consuming ONLY plants or ONLY meat likely far outweigh any benefit (for most people).
The impact of the conventional meat industry may be more devastating than you had previously thought.
Meat production may not be as environmentally unfriendly as you had previously thought.
If you consume enough variety and quantity, plant protein is equally as effective as animal protein for building muscle.

We didn’t even get to my 30 day meat-free experiment! In Part 2, find out about my PERSONAL experience with eating meatless for an entire month, including answers to:

Was I able to eat enough protein?
What were my main sources of protein each day (I took notes!)
Did I lose all my muscle?
Would I do it again and how will I eat moving forward?
The final word.

Thanks for reading. If you have any questions, concerns, or just want to indoctrinate me to your vegan or carnivore way of life, feel free to reach out!

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