Can I Get Six Pack Abs If I’m A Vegetarian?

Yes, you definitely can. Ever heard of Robert Cheeke? He’s a vegan bodybuilder. Another great example is Marzia Prince, the super sexy fitness model we just interviewed last week, she is also a vegetarian. The fact that Robert and Marzia and many other people like him exist out there should tell you — there’s not much out there that’s physically stopping you, as a vegetarian, from getting the six pack abs you want.

However — it’s not as straightforward as just eating a standard vegetarian diet and doing your workouts. There are three things you should be paying attention to, as a vegetarian, that those of us following a diet featuring meat might not have to consider.

Here they are.

It’s Much Harder to Get Complete Proteins

Complete proteins mean they have enough essential amino acids to meet your body’s needs for a balanced, complete diet. You don’t have to ensure that every protein you eat is “complete”, but it’s important to get enough complete proteins.

So where’s the problem?

Pretty much every great complete protein is derived from an animal product somehow — we’re talking various meats, fish, poultry, and then the derivatives, like eggs and yogurt and such.

That means if you’re a vegetarian who still eats cheese, eggs, and yogurt, you’ll be fine getting your protein from there.

You can also get complete proteins from products like quinoa and soybeans.

Eating Dairy For Proteins Has a Downside

It’s easy to find meat, fish, and poultry that isn’t too heavy in fat — there’s plenty of fish and chicken and turkey and lean cuts of beef out there that won’t overload your body with fats.

But when it comes to, say, yogurt — finding fat-free yogurt comes with a compromise: you have to look a little harder for the good stuff. There’s plenty of reduced-fat yogurt (and milk, and cheese, and other complete proteins) that have been practically tampered with by food companies trying to keep the taste of “regular yogurt” while eliminating all the fat.

You can’t have the best of both worlds. Go and buy reduced-fat dairy and just deal with the lack of it tasting like regular dairy, or find other sources for your protein. If you see a “0 calories!” yogurt that somehow has no fat but has 35 ingredients (yep, they’re out there!) — run far away.

Don’t buy weird eggs that claim to have lower fat through some strange process. Don’t buy things with “health” food claims on them if it means putting a lot of foreign stuff into your body. But it means you need to make a few sacrifices.

Eating the Right Vegetables

You’re going to want to increase your intake of certain vegetables. Cut back on the lettuce and the tomatoes and raise the quantity of things like lentils and chickpeas and black and kidney beans.

For a lot of people, these things aren’t part of a standard vegetarian diet. In fact, a lot of vegetarians who are not pursing six pack abs tend to eat “veggie” products that replace meat (veggie burgers with a lot of additives, and so on).

This is not the best approach. What you actually need to do is make some big changes to your vegetarian diet so that you’re getting the right levels of protein that meat-eaters enjoy.

There are lots of articles online that say a typical vegetarian or vegan diet is perfectly fine for protein quantities. And frankly, there’s nothing really wrong with those articles — the idea that vegetarians are not somehow getting enough protein is a bit of a myth.

But if you want a six pack? That’s a different story — you have to work a little bit harder to get the right amount of protein in your diet so you can make it through those workouts.

Too Much Work?

If all of this seems like way too much, take a look at my article on What Is The Best Protein Powder To Buy. Taking a whey protein isolate might be the trick if you’re having problems managing the headache of trying to get the right level of protein. But remember — whey protein isolate is an isolate. It is almost 100% protein and is not the same as eating an egg, some yogurt, some cheese, or some lentils. You can’t replace all your nutrition needs with a powder, and besides — who would want to?