High calorie vegan meals

[EnduranceNinja]

Reading about Phelps diet a question came to mind. This is not ment to be a challenge but how would you vegans make a 12000 calorie diet some what like Phelps does? Personally I am looking to modify my diet with more fresh foods and I would like to see how many of you would come about making a vegan diet. I could really use some of those meal ideas. I don't plan to ever go vegan but one or two vegan meals a day would benefit me. And lets say instead of 12000 calories make it half that. My max calories consumed during intense Ironman training is around 5000 calories. Currently I have been trying to eat a little more clean with some success.

Thanks for your time.

[igmistro]

Do you care whether they are carb, protein or fat calories? or is there some ratio of each you're looking for?

[EnduranceNinja]

Good question Igmistro,

I don't think it really matters I was just curious what vegan foods could be used for people who need to get in major calories. Usually I try for 60% carbs. 20-30% fat. and I go for 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight that is 135 grams of protein for me. Personally I try to eat over 3000 calories a day. My Dr. and my wife would like me to gain 5 to 10 pounds. But I would like to make my diet more balanced thats why I would like to add more vegan/vegatarian meals.

And reading the post on an Olympic diet I am really curious what vegans would put together if they needed a Phelps like diet.

[sbdiane]

Seems to me unless you ate a lot of macadamia nut butter or similar foods, you'd have to eat so much food so often to make 12,000 calories that not much training would get done.

[igmistro]

Well... If you look closely at Phelps' diet you should notice that more then 60% of his calories come from vegan sources. And probably another 10% at least are vegetarian (eggs, dairy, etc.). Based on the article I don't think he gets more then 25% of his calories from meat and possibly even less.

Non raw vegans can easily beat Phelps' diet in calories. However, if better nutrition is your real goal then the question becomes a little more complicated.

My best advice without going farther into your motivation - is to make starchy vegetables, whole grain pasta, wild/brown rice, etc the staple of your vegan meals. If you don't care about food combining rules then adding some oils will bump up the calories even higher, or you can add some tofu, tempeh, legumes, nuts, seeds, etc. There are tons on free recipes online. Or you can buy Erin's book :-).