1. Introduction
DISEASES
Over the past few years, the number of people who have avoided animal products has been rising steadily. A plant-based diet is associated with a healthier lifestyle and has positive effects on various diseases. More and more healthy active people and performance-orientated athletes are giving up animal products for various reasons, such as for an improved performance or faster regeneration. However, the data in this context are limited. This study aimed to obtain initial findings on the influence of a diet change to veganism on the performance of strength-trained individuals. For this study, a total of 15 omnivorous individuals were recruited. They documented their dietary food intakes over 16 weeks. Every four weeks, the strength performance was tested via a leg press and bench press. In the first 8 weeks, the participants maintained their omnivorous diet, followed by 8 weeks of a vegan dietary phase. In total, 10 subjects participated successfully, and their data were part of the statistical analyses. There was no difference in the absolute and relative strength performance for the leg and bench press after changing to a vegan diet. For the total calorie intake and carbohydrates, only a small treatment effect, but no time effect, was observed. However, for the protein intake, a time and group effect were detected. In addition, the relative protein intake decreased significantly and was lower than the current recommendations for athletes. The results demonstrate that a change to a vegan diet has no beneficial nor negative effect on the strength performance when the total calorie intake and carbohydrate content are covered in the first 8 weeks.An increasing number of people are reducing their consumption of animal-based foods or abstaining completely from eating these products [However, in addition to these positive effects on health, there are also several risks of a vegan diet. This diet is often associated with an undersupply of macro- and micro-nutrients. Compared to omnivorous diets with lower energy intakes [So far, a plant-based diet has not been sufficiently studied in sports science. A few existing studies in this context showed that a vegan diet could be associated with a positive health status [Based on the lack of studies on the topic of strength training, a 16-week intervention was conducted with the aim of investigating the influence of changing to a vegan diet on omnivorous athletes. The aim of this study is to highlight the influences of different diets on the lower and upper limb strength.