'Experiences of a personal trainer, training a vegetarian'

by Christer Fredrickson
As a personal trainer , one of my biggest challenges can be training a vegetarian. The importance of eating protein with a complete amino acid profile to promote lean muscle growth is very important, and the challange lies in the fact that a vegetarian diet needs to be done strategically to ensure all 9 of the essential amino acids (Histidine, Isoleucine, Leucine, Lysine, Methionine, Phenylalanine, Threonine, Tryptophan, and Valine) are present to complete the protein source, and that I have to educate my vegetarian clients on how to mix thier vegetable sources in order to get all these essential amino acids together. Basically, if all 9 essential amino acids are not present to complete the protein, muscle tissue after resistance training will not be able to repair and grow.

A client of mine who was a vegetarian and wanted to gain a lot of muscle was very successful after I gave them a simple formula to mix their vegetable sources to complete the protien. It consisted of merely mixing any form of rice or any whole wheat product with a legume (beans or peas) or a nut or seed with lots of assorted vegetables on the side. Also, soy protein by itself is a complete protein without any mixing with other vegetable sources so it was advised to do protein supplementation in the form of a soy protein shake to really boost the protein intake to promote lean muscle tissue development.

After just three weeks of a personal training program with me complete with intense weight training and observing a vegetarian diet with careful selection and mixing of the vegetable sources, my vegetarian client lost almost 3% bodyfat while at the same time her overall body weight remained close to where we started, indicating that her BMI improved with a significant increase in lean muscle development. The importance of leaner, denser muscle development is that it increases our metabolic rate which in turn promotes greater fat loss and the less health risks associated with having higher than normal fat on our bodies.

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