Alexander Pohl, Frederik Schünemann, Käthe Bersiner, Sebastian Gehlert
8 min
This review evaluates the impact of vegan and vegetarian diets on exercise performance, specifically focusing on endurance and strength. As these plant-based diets differ from omnivorous diets in their nutrient composition, the authors examine whether these differences influence physiological adaptations to training. The study synthesizes literature from 1999 to 2021 to determine if dietary choice acts as a driver for muscle adaptation or acts as a barrier to optimal athletic outcomes.
Endurance performance is multifaceted, relying on factors such as mitochondrial density, hemoglobin concentration, and cardiovascular efficiency. The review notes that plant-based diets can be rich in carbohydrates—a primary fuel source for endurance—but may be lower in key nutrients like iron and vitamin D. Conversely, strength performance is heavily reliant on phosphagen stores, muscle protein synthesis (MPS), and neuromuscular function. Since animal products provide higher concentrations of creatine and essential amino acids (like leucine), vegetarian and vegan diets are sometimes theorized to be suboptimal for strength gains, though experimental data consistently show that well-planned plant-based diets can support strength training effectively.
Beyond macronutrient intake, the paper explores how diet modulates molecular pathways. Essential amino acids, creatine, and omega-3 fatty acids play roles in signaling pathways (e.g., mTOR, AMPK, PGC-1α) that govern muscle growth and mitochondrial biogenesis. Furthermore, the gut microbiome emerges as a critical, albeit underexplored, factor. Fiber-rich plant diets promote the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which may support gut health and influence systemic metabolic signaling, potentially creating a unique environment for exercise adaptation compared to the omnivorous gut microbiome.
For researchers and athletes, this paper highlights that the current evidence base does not suggest that plant-based diets are inherently detrimental to performance. Instead, it underscores the importance of meal planning to manage nutrient intake. The authors call for future longitudinal research that integrates blood metabolomics with molecular signaling analysis to move beyond simple performance comparisons and understand how diet fundamentally alters the body's adaptive response to exercise.
Muscular adaptations can be triggered by exercise and diet. As vegan and vegetarian diets differ in nutrient composition compared to an omnivorous diet, a change in dietary regimen might alter physiological responses to physical exercise and influence physical performance. Mitochondria abundance, muscle capillary density, hemoglobin concentration, endothelial function, functional heart morphology and availability of carbohydrates affect endurance performance and can be influenced by diet. Based on these factors, a vegan and vegetarian diet possesses potentially advantageous properties for endurance performance. Properties of the contractile elements, muscle protein synthesis, the neuromuscular system and phosphagen availability affect strength performance and can also be influenced by diet. However, a vegan and vegetarian diet possesses potentially disadvantageous properties for strength performance. Current research has failed to demonstrate consistent differences of performance between diets but a trend towards improved performance after vegetarian and vegan diets for both endurance and strength exercise has been shown. Importantly, diet alters molecular signaling via leucine, creatine, DHA and EPA that directly modulates skeletal muscle adaptation. By changing the gut microbiome, diet can modulate signaling through the production of SFCA.
Sam: Were all the apparent endurance benefits explained by body weight, or were there other signals?
Alex: Another comparison found higher estimated oxygen uptake and longer time to exhaustion in physically active vegan women, without a body-weight difference. Other comparisons found no endurance difference. Experimental studies were mixed too, rather than consistently favoring one diet.
Sam: So the review sees some favorable signals, but they depend on the test and population. What makes an endurance advantage biologically plausible?
Alex: Vegan and vegetarian diets generally supply more carbohydrates, an important fuel as exercise intensity rises. The authors also discuss potentially favorable heart function and blood-vessel function. But they identify counterweights, including lower iron status in some vegetarian and vegan groups.
Sam: Similar iron intake wouldn't necessarily settle that issue, because the iron must actually be absorbed?
Alex: Animal-derived iron is generally more available for absorption than plant-derived iron. Iron supports hemoglobin, the blood protein carrying oxygen. The review also says nobody had directly compared resting muscle carbohydrate stores across these dietary groups, leaving that proposed advantage unresolved.
Sam: Now switch to strength. Plant-based diets can contain less protein and creatine, the compound supporting rapid energy supply in muscle. Did that translate into weaker participants?
Alex: Generally, the comparisons did not show a consistent strength disadvantage. Resistance-training studies commonly found strength gains with both vegetarian and meat-containing diets. A particularly useful comparison looked at habitual vegans and omnivores while adjusting protein intake.
Sam: That's closer to testing whether protein provision explains the difference. What did the researchers actually match?
Alex: Each dietary group contained nineteen participants. Supplemental protein brought intake to the same target: one-point-six grams per kilogram of body weight each day. Both groups then followed the resistance-training program.
Sam: Did the groups merely gain similar strength, or did their muscles grow similarly too?
Alex: After twelve weeks, both groups improved leg-press strength and several measures of muscle size, with no detected differences between groups. That supports the adequacy of the vegan diet under this protein-adjusted condition. It doesn't establish that all vegan diets produce the same adaptation.
Sam: The review also suggests meat-containing diets may be better for increasing muscle mass. How does that fit with this comparison?
Alex: The evidence isn't uniform. Another intervention found similar strength gains but different directions of change in muscle mass, favoring the meat-containing diet. The review's broad claim about a muscle-mass disadvantage needs that qualification: the protein-adjusted comparison did not show one.
Sam: That's a reason to read the comparisons, rather than carry away only the summary. How does the molecular argument help?
Alex: It shows why protein is more than a supply of building blocks. Muscle protein synthesis means making muscle proteins. Resistance exercise stimulates that process, and essential amino acids can increase the response while helping create a positive balance between production and breakdown.
Sam: Which dietary component makes that signaling idea concrete?
Alex: Leucine, an essential amino acid, activates a pathway that helps initiate protein synthesis. Plant proteins often supply less leucine and can differ in digestibility. The review discusses combining plant sources, consuming more plant protein, or adding leucine as possible ways to address those differences.
Sam: So a dietary label groups together several adjustable properties. But the authors also discuss mechanisms that seem further from direct human evidence.
Alex: They do. Their discussion of omega-three fats includes migrating birds, cultured cells, rodents, and human studies. Some human studies suggest benefits for muscle mass or strength; others do not. The authors explicitly say there is no clear evidence that increased intake reliably improves human adaptation and performance.
Sam: There is another route in the review: gut microbes. What connects fiber in food to adaptation inside muscle?
Alex: Gut bacteria ferment dietary fiber into short-chain fatty acids. These products can supply energy, support the intestinal barrier, and potentially activate muscle pathways involved in energy regulation. Because vegan diets tend to contain more fiber, the authors propose a possible route toward endurance-related adaptation.
Sam: Is that a demonstrated explanation for better performance in vegan athletes?
Alex: No. The review says the connection between the gut microbiome and physical performance remains incompletely understood. Across the article, the central limitation is the gap between plausible signaling mechanisms and demonstrated long-term differences in humans.
Sam: So what would help close that gap, rather than produce another isolated performance comparison?
Alex: The authors call for longer studies measuring molecular signaling alongside physiological outcomes. They also propose blood metabolomics, which measures many small molecules, to track the broader metabolic changes accompanying a dietary switch. Their argument is that diet can change multiple pathways at once.
Sam: Who should read the full document, and where should they begin?
Alex: Researchers studying exercise adaptation or sports nutrition should start with the strength-performance evidence, especially the protein-adjusted comparison. Then read the molecular-regulator sections to separate human results from proposed mechanisms. For everyone else: a difference in nutrients is not, by itself, a difference in performance.
Sam: Keep the mechanism and the measured outcome separate.