Research
Energy balance
Short-term adoption of a vegan diet (e.g., 3 weeks) leads to significant weight loss and reduced caloric intake without negatively impacting fitness scores or sports performance.
If you switch to a vegan diet, expect to lose weight, likely fat, due to lower calorie density. Your strength and fitness scores should remain stable in the short term (3 weeks) if you keep training. Monitor your energy levels and adjust portions if you feel fatigued.
LimitedSupportsLOW confidence
The experimental group significantly reduced weight, average consumption of calories, protein and fat. There were no changes in the Fitness scores of the experimental group. It was concluded that a short-term vegan diet decreased body weight, with no impact on sports performance.
Why this rating
Small sample size (N=12) and short duration (3 weeks) limit generalizability.
Source
Influence of the vegan diet on sports performance
Patrícia Filipa Saraiva de Sousa · Sustainability and Sports Science Journal · 2023
DOI 10.61486/lisw1172
narrative_reviewCited 2×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- A well-planned vegan diet is compatible with and supports athletic performance, offering benefits such as increased glycogen storage, reduced oxidative stress, and improved blood flow, without compromising strength or aerobic capacity compared to omnivorous diets.Moderate
- Vegan athletes may experience slower recovery from exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) compared to omnivores, characterized by greater delayed onset muscle soreness and reduced jump performance, likely due to lower protein and amino acid intake.Limited
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