I Used To Be Vegan

Well Beyond 40

JJ Virgin

Fitness, Health & Fitness, Nutrition

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2026

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is a low-fat vegan diet costing you muscle mass? I used to be a total cardio junkie and vegan, thinking I was doing the healthiest thing possible until a humiliating body composition test revealed my body fat had skyrocketed to 25%. Today, I am walking you through the physiological breakdown that occurs with chronic endurance training and inadequate protein, explaining why these habits can lead to a "muscle loss cocktail" and metabolic disaster. My goal is to share how shifting to a "muscle first" philosophy, incorporating resistance training, HIIT, and optimal amino acid balance, is the true key to aging powerfully. What you’ll learn: (02:00) Why chronic endurance training combined with a low-fat vegan diet led to muscle loss and increased body fat. (05:02) How prolonged endurance exercise can elevate cortisol and create a catabolic environment when recovery and protein intake are insufficient. (07:41) What research shows about muscle protein synthesis on vegan versus omnivore diets when protein intake is matched. (09:16) Why athletes require more protein than the standard RDA to preserve lean mass and support recovery. (10:52) How skeletal muscle mass directly influences resting metabolic rate and long-term fat burning. (12:13) Why muscle is the body’s primary site for glucose disposal and essential for insulin sensitivity. (15:19) How high-intensity interval training can stimulate mitochondrial growth and improve metabolic health in less time than traditional endurance training. (19:42) Why essential amino acids can act as “muscle insurance,” especially for women over 40 facing anabolic resistance. Love the podcast? Here’s what to do: Subscribe to the podcast. Leave a review. Text a screenshot to me at 813-565-2627 and wait for a personal reply because your voice is so important to me. Want to listen to the show completely ad-free? Go to http://subscribetojj.com Click “TRY FREE” and start your ad-free journey today! When you’re ready, enjoy the VIP experience for just $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year (save 17%!) Full show notes (including all links mentioned): https://jjvirgin.com/weneedprotein Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Now are all the traitors present?
0:02.0	Let's get started, shall we?
0:04.0	From rags to riches.
0:06.0	I'm so sick of this.
0:07.0	Working like a dog and being treated worse.
0:09.0	Yorkshire to New York.
0:11.0	Poor climbers, you and me.
0:12.0	A life dedicated to revenge.
0:14.0	Let's make this an occasion to remember.
0:17.0	A Woman of Substance on Channel 4.
0:19.0	Stream now.
0:20.0	At a Cardo, you'll save 25% on your first shop and get free delivery, which means if you
0:25.6	were to buy a four cheese pizza, you'd basically be getting one of the cheeses for free.
0:30.2	Save and splurge at Accardo, the online supermarket. Geographical and other restrictions.
0:34.6	Minimum spend £60 and charges apply. New customers only,
0:43.0	maximum saving £20 terms at Accardo.com. I'm Kyle Wood, host of Fun Facts Daily. We all know the Winter Olympics have thrilling competitions, but the history of the sports is more odd and
0:48.0	interesting than you might realize. Like archaeologists have found skis that are over 8,000 years
0:53.3	old, meaning that people in Russia and
0:55.4	Scandinavia were skiing before the Great Pyramids were built in Egypt. Fun Facts Daily is covering
1:01.1	all the stuff you never realized you always wanted to know about the Winter Olympics and
1:05.7	hundreds of other topics. So follow Fun Facts Daily wherever you get your podcasts.
1:13.4	True fact, I used to be a total cardio junkie, endurance trainer, and vegan. Can you believe that? Know in me now?
	...

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