The need for specific, vegan-friendly bodybuilding advice helped create the career of 31-year-old Robert Cheeke of Corvallis, Ore. He gives motivational lectures, sells vegan-themed T-shirts and gym bags and wrote a book about vegan bodybuilding that discusses how he went from 120 pounds as a teenage vegan to 195 pounds today.

“In those days, that meant a dozen tofu dogs a day, six Clif Bars, refried beans, whatever I could eat was calories,” he said. “It worked, but it was tough on my stomach. It wasn’t healthy.”



Cheeke said he was now focused on plant-based eating, including kale, avocados, beans and spinach, much of it organically grown in his garden.