...a strict vegetarian as stated in his biography of 1998 written by the LJS? Has he migrated to a vegan diet? And are Strength & Conditioning programs emphasizing plant based nutrition at all?
Is Tom Osborne still...
- Thread starter chrsmneric
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Idk about TO's current diet, but protein is key to any sports nutrition program. You can do this with lentils, beans, nuts as a substitute but is out of the question for college athletics. I remember the story of Brandon Rigoni waking at 330AM and munching a baked chicken breast and going back to bed.
Is it out of the question...because of the vigorous workouts? I'm curious what the recommended protein intake for an athlete should be? Quite a few MMA fighters and long distance runners are vegan so it seems like its entirely possible...
Do you mean it is out of the question given the practical constraints of living in college, i.e., living in a dorm, with limited access to a kitchen and foods off campus? If so, I'd agree it's very impractical. But there have been plenty of professional athletes that have gone vegan and maintained their protein intake. I have a friend from college who is now a body builder and went vegan in the last year--he is ripped and eats something like 250-300g of protein per day. I'm training for a marathon, I've been a vegetarian since 2008 (now mostly vegan, trying to become completely vegan), and I'm running my best times since I was a cross country runner in college a decade ago.
I don't think there is much demand for a plant based diet for strength and conditioning programs, so I'd be very surprised. The main reason my body builder friend went from a meat to a vegan diet is that he felt terrible and had no energy (even though he looked ripped) when he was eating little else but chicken and high protein meats. But he is a body builder and their diets are crazy. I think the onus is on advocates of plant based diets to show not only that the diet works just as well in acquiring and maintaining muscle mass, but that it has other health benefits over a meat-based approach as well. I have no question about the latter when compared to the standard American diet, but I'm skeptical the science supports the idea that a plant based approach is superior to a meat diet for building and maintaining muscle.
Impressive! 250grams of protein is ruthless, but I guess for building muscle mass to that extent it is necessary. If Frost plans to cut excess fat off our boys on the line, you'd think there'd be some diet changes as well as workout adjustments.