With the growth of social media as a platform to share information, veganism is becoming more visible, and could be becoming more accepted in sports and in the health and fitness industry. However, to date, there appears to be a lack of literature that discusses how to manage vegan diets for athletic purposes. This article attempted to review literature in order to provide recommendations for how to construct a vegan diet for athletes and exercisers.

It has been shown that it is possible to modify macronutrient oxidation, physical fitness and resting energy expenditure (REE) by changes in diet composition. Furthermore, mitochondrial oxidation can be significantly increased by a diet with a low glycemic index. The purpose of our trial was to compare the effects of a vegetarian (V) and conventional diet (C) with the same caloric restriction (-500 kcal/day) on physical fitness and REE after 12 weeks of diet plus aerobic exercisein 74 patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). An open, parallel, randomized study design was used.

During an endurance run (1,000 km in 20 days) it was investigated whether an ovo-lacto-vegetarian diet (OLVD) could cover the nutritional requirements of endurance athletes. A regular western diet (RWD) was used as reference. Both diets were offered with an energy content of 4,500 kcal per day and an energy percentage of carbohydrate:fat:protein of 60:30:10. The runners were divided into two dietary groups according to their usual dietary habits.

With the growing interest in the potential health benefits of plant-based diets, it is relevant to consider whether vegetarian dietary practices could influence athletic performance. Accordingly, this review examines whether nutrients that may differ between vegetarian and omnivorous diets could affect physical performance. We also describe recent studies that attempt to assess the effects of a vegetarian diet on performance and comment on other nutritional aspects of vegetarianism of relevance to athletes.