My wife and I decided to start following a pescetarian diet around new years, not as a way to lose weight, but more so to incorporate a cleaner diet. The first few months went fairly well and my energy level was fine b/c my volume was low b/c I was studying for the PE exam. Since April I have ramped my training back up and the past few weeks my weight has begun to drop. I am 27 yrs old, 5’8", I raced B2B half last year at 154 lbs, I am not hovering around 149, and I feel like my bike power has dropped and so has my energy level. I typically try to consume 2500-3000 calories/day.
My question is, is it possible that I am not getting enough protein in my diet? I shoot for 1.2-1.6 g/kg, and typically hit that number. If that is plenty of protein, is it possible that a plant based protein source is not providing me with all the benefits of an animal based protein. My main sources of protein currently are beans, salmon, nut butters, nuts, seeds and the occasional post workout recovery drink. If not the protein, does anything else come to mind as a cause?
my wife’s FTP has been steadily going up for 3 years not eating any meat at all, including fish.
so the idea that plant based proteins can’t work, is certainly not true. Further, given that these things get broken down into amino acids and reassembled, it can’t really matter.
are you not getting enough protein? maybe, but assuming you want to stay at 154lbs, you probably just need to eat more calories in general.
but you would probably be a faster triathlete at 149lbs.
get your iron levels checked?
mercury poisoning? (mostly joking!)
oh, yeah, and like another guy said, training a lot makes ya tired, that is normal =)
You say you “feel” like your bike power has dropped. Do you have a powermeter to confirm this? Also,154 might have been a sweet spot for you as far as racing weight goes. I, for example, can not go below 142 during the bike racing season or I start to lose power.
Look at the other foods you are eating. As your training volume increases so will your food intake. Eating a plant based diet means eating more frequently. Dont wast time eating things that will not give you any return. Eat cleaner, more leafy greens and whole grains. Add in some Vega one if you feel you need more. As I always say feel free to contact me with questions. I eat mostly plant based and perform better than I have ever have before.
I went vegetarian in 1997, and re-introduced occasional seafood (we’re talking less than once a week) in about 2004. My bike power is just fine…
It’s entirely possible that you’re not getting enough protein, but it’s more likely that you are. Don’t underestimate the protein content of wheat-based foods and between grains, beans, nuts and fish you’ll be getting a complete protein source. My advice would be to not sweat the protein level and to focus on getting energy-dense meals with a full complement of vitamins/minerals. The only time I worry about protein is directly after workouts.
For comparative purposes, I’m 34, 5’10" and about 135lbs. My body fat is very low and my weight is pretty stable… I lost about 8lbs last year when I stopped drinking and I’m taking in 2500-3000 calories/day. I’m looking to increase that at the moment as I’m increasing my training volume (currently ~8hrs/wk, will be more than doubling that over the summer). For the record, I’m not manorexic, I’m just very lean and naturally small-boned.
If your energy levels have dropped, it may be that you’re just not resting sufficiently after increasing the training volume. An alternative is that you simply need more calories to cope. The weight loss may be primarily fat, or you may also be taking in less sodium (hence your total water content will drop and you’ll weigh less). Try upping the calories and see how you respond.
A final thought is that you may not be getting all the vitamins you need - you could try a multi-vitamin supplement and see if that helps. B-vitamins can be more difficult in a meatless diet…
Thanks to all for the quick feedback. I currently do not have a powermeter, I complete all of my bike training on RPE and my run training based on pace. Yesterday day morning I had 4x5minVO2max (which is totally bogus b/c i do not have any metrics to go by, I just try to be completely spent after each interval) and felt like I had very little to give. My run times have actually gotten faster this year.
I must add that I spent all weekend in vegas for a bachelor party so that may have had something to do with my lack of energy. My body is not used to little sleep and lots of partying.
My training volume has not increased substantially, more intensity than anything. Most of my work has been on short high intensity sets b/c my time was limited to where I could only target a sprint as my first race of the season.
As someone who was previously much heavier (235#), I struggle with allowing myself to eat enough food, it is a mental barrier that i am slowly getting over.
Is there any concern with having too much soy based protein your diet? At least twice a week we will have tempeh or some other sort of soy based protein.
One other thing that may be missing is a creatine supplement. We need creatine to build muscle and we produce about half of what we need in our bodies in our kidneys and liver. The other half we get from our diet, and it is usually from meat for carivores. For us vegetarians and pescetarians, we should be taking a supplement, particularly when in training if we want to get the results in building muscles. Studies have shown that pure vegetarians have a significantly lower level of creatine in their systems than carnivores and omnivores. I use a powdered creatine that I add to my protein shakes after training. About 5 gms is about right for me, but there are charts you can find on the Internet that describe dosage based on body weight. Too much is not good for you and can damage your liver, so use with some intelligence.
I started a vegan diet (specifically, the Engine 2 diet) a little over six months ago and have only increased my power on the bike since then. (I’m just a beginner cyclist though.) Check out this quote from this article entitled “Debunking 12 Myths About a Vegetarian Diet”:
"Myth 1: You can’t get enough protein eating a plant-based diet.
Reality: Not only will you get all the protein you need, for the first time in your life you won’t suffer from an excess of it. Ample amounts of protein are thriving in whole, natural plant-based foods. For example, spinach is 51% protein; mushrooms, 35%; beans, 26%; oatmeal, 16%; whole wheat pasta, 15%; corn, 12%; and potatoes, 11%.
Look around you and tell me the last time you saw someone who was hospitalized for a protein deficiency. Or look around in nature, where you will notice that the largest and strongest animals, such as elephants, gorillas, hippos, and bison, are all plant eaters."
If you feel your lack of meat consumption is making you weak, you might consider whether any of the following adjustments to your diet would help:
Make sure that the total fat of each food item that you eat represents no more than 25 percent of the food item’s total calories. Note that various vegeterian food items, such as nuts, coconut, olives, and avocado have a high percentage of fat. You’ll want to consume such food items sparingly.
Make sure you drink a glass of vitamin B12 fortified soy milk and/or eat a bowl of vitamin B-12 fortified cereal every day. (The only nutrient that plant-based foods lack is vitamin B12.)
Make sure you have adequate sources of iron, vitamin D, calcium, iodine, and omega-3 fatty acids. For example, I add ground flaxseed meal (omega-3 fatty acids) and blackstrap molasses (iron) to my cereal every day. I also add a pinch of iodized salt to some of my meals. Like vitamin B12, I get calcium from fortified cereals or soy milk. “Great sources of calcium include green leafy vegetables, nuts, oranges, kidney beans, lima beans, whole grains, Swiss chard, lentils, raisins, broccoli, kale, celery, tofu and romaine lettuce.”
Speaking of the Gorilla diet, maybe you are missing the grubs/ants/caterpillar/invertebrate component?
Western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla): This subspecies consumes parts of at least 97 plant species. About 67% of their diet is fruit, 17% is leaves, seeds and stems and 3% is termites and caterpillars.
• Eastern lowland gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri): This subspecies consumes parts of at least 104 plant species.
• Mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei): This subspecies consumes parts of at least 142 plant species and only 3 types of fruit (there is hardly any fruit available due to the high altitude. About 86% of their diet is leaves, shoots, and stems, 7% is roots, 3% is flowers, 2% is fruit, and 2% ants, snails, and grubs.
• Cross River gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli): This subspecies is not as well studied as the other subspecies. However their diet has been studied through their fecal matter and is known to include fruit, leaves, stems, piths, and some invertebrates.
In all seriousness, I am a big proponent of the theory that it is difficult to generalize with things like training/diet/etc because we are all essentially different. What may work for your buddy, may not work for you and vice versa. An educated approach testing various combinations seems to be optimal, though probably hard to do in practice…
Any info out there that supports the idea that some people are best on an all veg diet, some with some meat products? (certainly not saying anyone should be carnivore)
Reality: Not only will you get all the protein you need, for the first time in your life you won’t suffer from an excess of it. Ample amounts of protein are thriving in whole, natural plant-based foods. For example, spinach is 51% protein; mushrooms, 35%; beans, 26%; oatmeal, 16%; whole wheat pasta, 15%; corn, 12%; and potatoes, 11%.
Those numbers ignore the fact that many of those items are extremely low in total protein. For example, in 100g of spinach, there’s only 2.2 grams of protein. Mushrooms are similar (2.5g protein per 100g). So you have to eat a crapload of vegetation in order to get reasonable amounts of protein. Of course, soy products are a little better (~10% rather than 2%), but none hold a candle to meat when it comes to protein density. Eating a pound of spinach (for example) to get 10g of protein is madness, especially when there are easier ways to get it.