A pure vegetarian (Vegan) diet is not conducive to building muscle, and a diet thatis not conducive to building muscle is also not conducive to getting and staying lean. Onething you will never see is a rock-hard, massive and muscular vegan. Lacto-vegetarians(Those who use dairy products) and ovo-lacto-vegetarians (Those who use eggs and dairyproducts) can build excellent physiques.
bodybuilding champion Bill Pearl is just oneexample. Pearl is well known for his lifelong aversion to eating meat, but he does usecomplete proteins from eggs or dairy products. With this semi-vegetarian approach, Pearlwon the Mr. America and Mr. Universe titles and became a legend in the bodybuilding and fitness world.
You can get fit, healthy and lean without consuming animal proteins, but unless you at least include eggs, dairy or protein powders, you will never develop a muscular physique. If a lean and muscular physique is what you're after, then heed the advice of Robert Kennedy, publisher of muscle Mag International and author of "Rock Hard, Super Nutrition for Bodybuilders:"
"The bodybuilder would be ill-advised to adopt a true vegetarian diet. You can be one of the millions who are eating less meat and more vegetables. You may even want to drop all flesh entirely. But it would be a mistake to try for pure vegetarianism. Only 3.7% of Americans consider themselves to be vegetarians, and of those only a fraction of 1% are purists. In the bodybuilding world of champions, that percentage is currently.... ZERO!"
