Lest you think all bodybuilders are literal meatheads, the Times today introduces the world to the niche community of vegan bodybuilders across the country, who are pumping iron and, uh, kale all the way to the top.
Jimi Sitko is a competitive bodybuilder, standing 5 foot 11 inches with 180 lbs of finely toned muscle and a belly full of tofu. He does it as "an attempt to improve diet and health," while other vegan bodybuilders—there are 5,000 registered users on veganbodybuilding.com—do it for moral reasons or a way to rebel against steroid culture. “I had buddies at the gym, they just thought I was crazy,” said one vegan bodybuilder, Kenneth Williams. “I had a great physique and they said, ‘You’re going to get skinny, sick and frail, and die.’ I wasn’t encouraged.” But he ended up winning a competition against meat-eating builders, a victory that made him feel like a "warrior," not just an "athlete"—albeit one who would wear a synthetic loincloth while carousing through the battlefields.
If you'd like to jump-start your own career as a vegan bodybuilder, the board-certified nutritionists at Gothamist recommend bulking up with these and then slowly chiseling away the fat with this.
