Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty has claimed going vegan caused him to lose muscle and strength.
In a interview with Joe, Peaty said he experimented with veganism back in 2018, but he struggled to get enough protein from the diet, which caused him to lose muscle mass.
“It’s hard to understand how much protein you need. For me, I need meat to get enough protein,” said Peaty. “It’s a hard diet to adjust to. It’s just too hard with the amount of muscle I have to sustain,” he added.
Although Peaty’s first attempt at going vegan wasn’t successful, the swimming champ did say that he would give the diet another try, while also revealing that he does swap meat for a vegetarian alternative now and again.
“It could just come down to education, or not knowing what I was consuming [when I was a vegan],” said Peaty. “I’m a big guy so I do need a lot of protein. Sometimes I will swap meat for a vegetarian option – I think it’s important to branch out and explore different options.”
For now, Peaty is focusing on fueling for performance, rather than eating any specific diet or “putting away X amount of calories”. “It’s also important that we focus on cleaner foods so we’re not carrying excess body fat,” he says.
However, Peaty says that he’s not against having a cheat day now and again. “If you look at what The Rock does, he’ll eat around 3,000 calories a day and then have a cheat day where he eats 12,000 calories,” he says.
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