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Pros & Cons of a Vegan Diet for Weight Loss & Cycling Performance?

Ive been vegan since April 2001. I had a lot of health issues in the past. Not any more. People have pm'd to ask me too be legit and share my list of pros and cons about the vegan lifestyle in terms of weight loss and cycling performance.

Here is a list of pros & cons after cycling over 210 000km as a vegan.

Pros:
# Easier to stay at peak watts per kg.
# Faster recovery due to increased carbohydrate intake. (glycogen is like EPO).
# Reduced chance of heart disease, cancer, stroke, impotence, diabetes.
# Greater connection with nature.
#Increased ease of breathing due to less dietary allergies like lactose intolerance.
#Sweat isnt so corrosive it starts to melt your bars under your bar tape.
#99% of carbohydrate base foods are vegan anyway.
#Stronger immune system means more time riding vs being sick.

Cons.
#Can be socially awkward at the start. Bit like waking into a supermarket for the first time in lycra. You get used to it though.

#Can be situationally inconvenient. Bit like snapping a RD and trying to bring your bike on the train at peak hour so you don't have to walk 30km. Some people walk and some just get on the train.

#Your face starts to look as lean as Lance's and people think you are taking drugs.

#Drunk people at parties when finding out you are vegan will be concerned you are not getting enough protein and try and offer you a hotdog so 'you don't get weak and ill'. This can get a bit boring. Bit like fixing flats. You just deal with it though.

So just incase anyone had any doubts, there you go. Thats all that you have to know. Pretty straight forward.
 
durianrider said:
Ive been vegan since April 2001. I had a lot of health issues in the past. Not any more. People have pm'd to ask me too be legit and share my list of pros and cons about the vegan lifestyle in terms of weight loss and cycling performance.

Here is a list of pros & cons after cycling over 210 000km as a vegan.

Pros:
# Easier to stay at peak watts per kg.
# Faster recovery due to increased carbohydrate intake. (glycogen is like EPO).
# Reduced chance of heart disease, cancer, stroke, impotence, diabetes.
# Greater connection with nature.
#Increased ease of breathing due to less dietary allergies like lactose intolerance.
#Sweat isnt so corrosive it starts to melt your bars under your bar tape.
#99% of carbohydrate base foods are vegan anyway.
#Stronger immune system means more time riding vs being sick.

Cons.
#Can be socially awkward at the start. Bit like waking into a supermarket for the first time in lycra. You get used to it though.

#Can be situationally inconvenient. Bit like snapping a RD and trying to bring your bike on the train at peak hour so you don't have to walk 30km. Some people walk and some just get on the train.

#Your face starts to look as lean as Lance's and people think you are taking drugs.

#Drunk people at parties when finding out you are vegan will be concerned you are not getting enough protein and try and offer you a hotdog so 'you don't get weak and ill'. This can get a bit boring. Bit like fixing flats. You just deal with it though.

So just incase anyone had any doubts, there you go. Thats all that you have to know. Pretty straight forward.

Strange, when I went vegan I didn't get the self- aggrandizing, low self esteem (flys in the face of much vegan philosophy) narcissist's handbook. How'd you rate?
 
durianrider said:
Ive been vegan since April 2001. I had a lot of health issues in the past. Not any more. People have pm'd to ask me too be legit and share my list of pros and cons about the vegan lifestyle in terms of weight loss and cycling performance.

Here is a list of pros & cons after cycling over 210 000km as a vegan.

Pros:
# Easier to stay at peak watts per kg.
# Faster recovery due to increased carbohydrate intake. (glycogen is like EPO).
# Reduced chance of heart disease, cancer, stroke, impotence, diabetes.
# Greater connection with nature.
#Increased ease of breathing due to less dietary allergies like lactose intolerance.
#Sweat isnt so corrosive it starts to melt your bars under your bar tape.
#99% of carbohydrate base foods are vegan anyway.
#Stronger immune system means more time riding vs being sick.

Cons.
#Can be socially awkward at the start. Bit like waking into a supermarket for the first time in lycra. You get used to it though.

#Can be situationally inconvenient. Bit like snapping a RD and trying to bring your bike on the train at peak hour so you don't have to walk 30km. Some people walk and some just get on the train.

#Your face starts to look as lean as Lance's and people think you are taking drugs.

#Drunk people at parties when finding out you are vegan will be concerned you are not getting enough protein and try and offer you a hotdog so 'you don't get weak and ill'. This can get a bit boring. Bit like fixing flats. You just deal with it though.

So just incase anyone had any doubts, there you go. Thats all that you have to know. Pretty straight forward.
I've heard that going vegan makes you turn out like this guy:

brandon_routh_20157.jpg


Too bad I'm too addicted to my hourly bacon and egg rolls, lardshakes and mars bars to keep it up...
 
durianrider said:
Ive been vegan since April 2001. I had a lot of health issues in the past. Not any more. People have pm'd to ask me too be legit and share my list of pros and cons about the vegan lifestyle in terms of weight loss and cycling performance.

Here is a list of pros & cons after cycling over 210 000km as a vegan.

Pros:
# Easier to stay at peak watts per kg.
Rubbish.
# Faster recovery due to increased carbohydrate intake. (glycogen is like EPO).

Also rubbish, being vegan does not mean you eat more carbs, that is a diet choice. Non-vegans can eat less, as much or more carbs than you.

Glycogen is nothing like EPO.

# Reduced chance of heart disease, cancer, stroke, impotence, diabetes.

This is only correct if you compare it the general population. It is not correct when compared to people who monitor their diet and nutrition.

# Greater connection with nature.
I'm pretty sure meat isn't grown in a lab just yet.

#Increased ease of breathing due to less dietary allergies like lactose intolerance.
This only applies if you actually have dietary allergies and don't do anything about them. Lactose free milk? Veganism doesn't avoid on of the main dietary allergens, gluten.

#Sweat isnt so corrosive it starts to melt your bars under your bar tape.

I have no idea if this is true, honestly sounds like rubbish though.

#99% of carbohydrate base foods are vegan anyway.
Yes, almost by definition. Meals tend to consist of more than one ingredient though.

#Stronger immune system means more time riding vs being sick.

Huh? Reference?

Cons.
#Can be socially awkward at the start. Bit like waking into a supermarket for the first time in lycra. You get used to it though.

#Can be situationally inconvenient. Bit like snapping a RD and trying to bring your bike on the train at peak hour so you don't have to walk 30km. Some people walk and some just get on the train.

#Your face starts to look as lean as Lance's and people think you are taking drugs.

#Drunk people at parties when finding out you are vegan will be concerned you are not getting enough protein and try and offer you a hotdog so 'you don't get weak and ill'. This can get a bit boring. Bit like fixing flats. You just deal with it though.

So just incase anyone had any doubts, there you go. Thats all that you have to know. Pretty straight forward.

You forgot that a vegan diet can be very unhealthy, as can any diet where you limit your choices of nutrition. Fat soluble vitamins A and D are much more easily obtained from meat and dairy products.
 
Aug 16, 2011
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durianrider said:
Ive been vegan since April 2001. I had a lot of health issues in the past. Not any more. People have pm'd to ask me too be legit and share my list of pros and cons about the vegan lifestyle in terms of weight loss and cycling performance.

Here is a list of pros & cons after cycling over 210 000km as a vegan.

Pros:
# Easier to stay at peak watts per kg.
# Faster recovery due to increased carbohydrate intake. (glycogen is like EPO).
# Reduced chance of heart disease, cancer, stroke, impotence, diabetes.
# Greater connection with nature.
#Increased ease of breathing due to less dietary allergies like lactose intolerance.
#Sweat isnt so corrosive it starts to melt your bars under your bar tape.
#99% of carbohydrate base foods are vegan anyway.
#Stronger immune system means more time riding vs being sick.

Cons.
#Can be socially awkward at the start. Bit like waking into a supermarket for the first time in lycra. You get used to it though.

#Can be situationally inconvenient. Bit like snapping a RD and trying to bring your bike on the train at peak hour so you don't have to walk 30km. Some people walk and some just get on the train.

#Your face starts to look as lean as Lance's and people think you are taking drugs.

#Drunk people at parties when finding out you are vegan will be concerned you are not getting enough protein and try and offer you a hotdog so 'you don't get weak and ill'. This can get a bit boring. Bit like fixing flats. You just deal with it though.

So just incase anyone had any doubts, there you go. Thats all that you have to know. Pretty straight forward.

I second this list. Did you guys know that it's actually been proven...scientifically...by science, that being Vegan just makes you better than the rest of the general population. :D
 
Mar 18, 2009
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durianrider said:
Ive been vegan since April 2001. I had a lot of health issues in the past. Not any more. People have pm'd to ask me too be legit and share my list of pros and cons about the vegan lifestyle in terms of weight loss and cycling performance.

If people have pm'd you, why don't you just pm them back rather than subject the rest of us to more of your drivel in yet another thread on the same topic? Mods - can we combine this with all DR's other threads on trying to convince us to become vegans?
 
Mar 10, 2009
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DR
I just cannot take you seriously because you are so in love with the crap you post. I know you think your personal experiences are revelations of glorious vegan diet and 230,000 kilometres of cycling madness is fulfilling our need for cycling knowledge but enthusiasm does not make crap, silk.

Bacon! Vegans spend more time answering to bacon than any other meat.

Being vegan does not bring you closer to nature than hunting it and gutting it and cooking it and eating it, than pulling it out of the ground.

Obesity is rampant among Vegan children for many of the same reasons as the omnivores.

Eating meat probably gave you the mental advantage to be smug about not eating it.

Animals taste good for a reason. Because we are able to eat them.

Many of our ape cousins are omnivorous. Some Chimps are cannibals too but I don't want to eat you so you are still safe.

Keep trying, I like your enthusiasm. Put a shirt on too.
 
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Master50 said:
but I don't want to eat you so you are still safe.

No one would want to eat him, he looks like he just finished the Sandakan death march.

Loud talker too, have seen him around the place here and he always likes everyone to know just what he is talking about. It's usually something to do with how awesome he is.
 
Since this vegan diet stuff is such a performance boost, I'd be curious to know how many grand tour winners have been on it. Those guys'll do anything and everything, legal or otherwise (if they think they can get away with it), to enhance their chances for a result. So if it's any advantage whatsoever, their numbers surely must be a testament to the diet's success.
 
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StyrbjornSterki said:
Since this vegan diet stuff is such a performance boost, I'd be curious to know how many grand tour winners have been on it. Those guys'll do anything and everything, legal or otherwise (if they think they can get away with it), to enhance their chances for a result. So if it's any advantage whatsoever, their numbers surely must be a testament to the diet's success.

Oh, but don't you know that vegan DR smokes all the pros on his local Strava hill when they come down for the TDU? All the pros should be vegan so they can have a chance at hanging with DR and his uber cool Strava times. :rolleyes:
 
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Same old arguments for, and against. . . lol ;)

What it all comes down to is one's belief system within themselves. "Evidence" to support one's perspective will ALWAYS present itself to confirm your own personal belief system. So in every sense of the word .... to "argue" for or against that which you most strongly believe in .... you are ultimately doing so with no one but yourself :)
 
Jan 10, 2011
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King Boonen said:
Peer-reviewed paper please.

Then I'll thank you.

there you go...

Kung AW, Age-related osteoporosis in Chinese: an evaluation of the response of intestinal calcium absorption and calcitropic hormones to dietary calcium deprivation. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 1998 / 68 (6) / 1291-1297.

O'Brien, K.O. et al, Increased efficiency of calcium absorption from the rectum and distal colon of humans. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1996 / 63 (4) / 579-583.

For abstracts go here
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
 
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Euskadi said:
there you go...

Kung AW, Age-related osteoporosis in Chinese: an evaluation of the response of intestinal calcium absorption and calcitropic hormones to dietary calcium deprivation. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 1998 / 68 (6) / 1291-1297.

O'Brien, K.O. et al, Increased efficiency of calcium absorption from the rectum and distal colon of humans. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1996 / 63 (4) / 579-583.

For abstracts go here
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed

These papers say nothing about which countries have the highest dairy intake and how this dairy intake (low v high) relates to osteoporosis. They discuss the well known calcium-parathyroid hormone homeostasis and the roles of calcium supplementation and excretion have on these homeostatic mechanisms. Nothing on dairy calcium and osteoporosis etc.
 

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