Comparing Vegetarian and Vegan Athletic Performance, Endurance, and Strength

"Comparing Vegetarian and Vegan Athletic
Performance, Endurance, and Strength" Few studies have investigated
the impact of a plant-based diet on athletic performance, but
the majority of the studies that have been done show no differences
in endurance, performance, or strength. So, while plant-based diets
do not seem to provide advantages or disadvantages
on exercise performance, what plant-based diets can do
is reduce the risk of chronic disease. This is a point
I made in my video Why All Athletes Should
Eat Plant-Based Diets, because surprisingly,
endurance athletes may have more advanced atherosclerosis
and more heart muscle damage, compared with sedentary individuals.

So, it’s even more important
they eat healthy. But due to the favorable impact
on health, it could be assumed that performance
would also be influenced by plant-based diets. Let’s take a closer look
at the available evidence. This is the most commonly cited review. Studies connecting vegetarian diets
to improved health are well-established; however, the evidence for this phenomenon
to be transferred to improved physical performance
in athletes is less clear, finding no differences
—at least acutely— between a vegetarian-based diet
and an omnivorous diet in muscular power, muscular strength,
short burst, or endurance performance.

The intervention studies in this review,
however, only lasted days or weeks. So, being a vegetarian for four days
may not tip the balance, or even a few months, but that’s
a considerable limitation. These are people
who have been eating meat their whole lives and subsequently adopt
a vegetarian diet only for the duration of the study,
rather than comparing participants who have adhered to a vegetarian
or meat-containing diet long-term. This study compared exercise capacity
of vegan, vegetarian, and meat-eating recreational
runners and found similar maximum power output
among all three groups, suggesting there’s no significant difference
in maximum exercise capacity. But that’s at the same training frequency,
time, and distance. Perhaps plant-based diets
might enhance recovery and allow such athletes
to train longer and harder? A number of studies have come out
since this review was published in 2016.
What’s the update? Well, this study compared
the cardiorespiratory fitness and peak torque strength differences
between vegetarian and omnivore endurance athletes. Most of the vegetarians
were actually vegans and most or at least two years and… results from this study indicate that vegetarian endurance athletes’
cardiorespiratory ﬁtness was greater than that for their
omnivorous counterparts.

They had a greater VO2 max, meaning a greater maximal oxygen uptake, greater aerobic capacity
as measured on a progressive, graded, maximal treadmill test
to exhaustion, though peak torque, peak strength
based on leg extensions didn’t differ between diet groups. Bottom line: these data suggest
that vegetarian diets do not compromise
performance outcomes and may facilitate
aerobic capacity in athletes. In this 2020 study, all the plant-
based participants were eating vegan for an average of four years.

So, they were essentially comparing
those who ate meat for 21 years versus those who ate
meat for 25 years. But after four years
eating plants, you might expect to see
some sort of difference. Yet, no signiﬁcant differences
were noted for upper and lower body muscle strength,
like in the last new study. Both groups of athletes were comparable
for total body weight and lean body mass, though age
was signiﬁcantly higher in vegans compared with omnivores; so, that put them
at a little disadvantage. Yet still, there it is again. Significantly better aerobic capacity. Then, they had them pedal
until exhaustion, and the vegan group lasted
about 25 percent longer— 12 minutes as opposed to
9 minutes. Is that just because their
aerobic capacity is so high? No, even after controlling
for VO2 max levels, there was still a signiﬁcant endurance advantage
in the vegans. The researchers conclude
that in the very least, a strictly plant-based diet
doesn’t seem to be detrimental to endurance
and muscle strength, and endurance might
actually be better in vegans, contrary to popular belief..