Philosophical Vegan Forum

I was recently told by an Englishman that I am the only healthy looking vegan he had ever seen. Is there any truth to the stereotype of the unhealthy looking vegan? Is it possible that non-vegans perceive vegans as unhealthy because the movement tends to attract more of the academic, thinking person than the tanned, muscular type of person people find healthy looking. Is it possible that vegans are in fact unhealthy as many vegans are on unhealthful vegan diets? Should we (vegans) try harder to look like what society perceives as a healthy look?

I think its a baseless assertion. I think its a result of the perception of vegans as "dirty hippies"... I always question someone who starts of saying "all the vegans Ive met....". Ive been vegan for a long time, and unless I go out of my way to attend a vegan meet up, 1) I don't know who is vegan or not since its not brought up normally 2) do to our small percentage of the population, it is highly unlikely to meet many vegans randomly.

Veganism attracts people with real eating disorders. In part because it's easier for them to go vegan since they're used to dieting, and in part because they can use it as an excuse to mask their eating disorders (even if they aren't actually vegan, anorexics may claim they are so they won't be expected to eat in public).
These vegans are also the most likely to proclaim their diets in social situations as an excuse.
If I can't be bothered to eat with others at some nasty restaurant, I avoid saying I'm vegan.

My height-weight ratio is precisely ideal, I'm neither under weight nor overweight according to numerical metrics.
I'm not sure if we need to yield to social pressures to keep up unrealistic body types, but if a vegan is underweight by height:weight definition, that's definitely a problem.
If you're so weak you can't do a single pull-up, I'd say that's also a problem. Generally, achieving parity with carnists (not the body building ones) is important.

Ironically, serious body building can actually be unhealthy (due to the higher metabolic stress the body is put under), but for vegans who are willing to make that sacrifice and become hulks, that's awesome and I have nothing but respect and admiration for what they're doing.

Is there any data on how many push-ups/pull-ups the average non-obese carnist can do? Sex adjusted.
I think that would be a great minimum goal for vegans, wherein we could be critical of those falling under that standard. Being able to do more than average is more arbitrary.

I don't know if there is any truth to the stereotype of the unhealthy looking vegan, and the next question would require some research about the actual population of vegans in order to find out if your hypothesis about veganism attracting intellectual people and not muscular types is correct. I myself am unable to eat a completely balanced vegan diet simply because of my sheer laziness resulting from my rigorous high school life (I am taking steps to become less lazy). As for your last question, i don't find that it is necessary for vegans to look like society's definition of "healthy", although if all vegans looked like the social ideal then veganism would be much more popular like new fads such as crossfit. Despite looking "healthy" being a possible form of encouragement to go vegan for people, I think that the real focus of veganism should be for people to live a life full of good judgement and ethical choices, so I don't think vegans should try harder to look like what society perceives to be a healthy look because that is not what being vegan is about. I hope I was able to answer your questions to an extent, but I feel that my ability to debate issues is not fully developed because I am merely a high school student. Sorry if I sound ignorant XD

maxeemindee wrote:Despite looking "healthy" being a possible form of encouragement to go vegan for people, I think that the real focus of veganism should be for people to live a life full of good judgement and ethical choices, so I don't think vegans should try harder to look like what society perceives to be a healthy look because that is not what being vegan is about. I hope I was able to answer your questions to an extent, but I feel that my ability to debate issues is not fully developed because I am merely a high school student. Sorry if I sound ignorant XD

No worries, you don't sound ignorant at all. However, think of the following question for a moment? Would more or less non-vegans decide to go vegan if vegans were perceived as healthier looking than the average meat eater? It's great that you are walking the walk but it's also important that you encourage others do walk the same walk as you. Like it or not, but how you look will have great importance in your vegan conversion success rate.

brimstoneSalad wrote:Is there any data on how many push-ups/pull-ups the average non-obese carnist can do? Sex adjusted.
I think that would be a great minimum goal for vegans, wherein we could be critical of those falling under that standard. Being able to do more than average is more arbitrary.

It seems like there's no data on the average amount. But most people can barely do 1 pull-up.

Although,

Males over the age of 18 are expected to perform 8 repetitions of pullups to be classified as in “borderline shape” according to the President’s Council.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/34452 ... ge-man-do/

According to opinion on the web, the average man can do one pull-up.
In a poll on Bodybuilding.com, 56.3 percent of men claimed to be able
to do between one and five pull-ups, 27 percent claimed between six
and 10, 10 percent said they could do 11 to 16 and a little over 6
percent could pull-up more than 17 times.

http://www.mangoboss.com/HowManyPullups ... ManDo.html

I did look unhealthy until recently. I had gained a shit-ton of weight without really knowing it. Now I'm lifting weights again and cutting heavily back on refined sugar, fat and salt, so I'm dropping a lot of weight.

People pay a lot more attention to how you look when you're vegan, so I think it's important not to be either a fat slob or a twig.

Thanks!

I like the military 50th percentile of ten. And it's a nice round number. But 8 sounds reasonable too.

It's sad that most people can barely do one. That's a pretty easy mark to hit.

I wonder if the simple number would be OK, or if carnists would say "Yeah, but you're not fat like me, so I'm still stronger!"
I like to do pull ups wearing a heavy backpack, which somewhat makes up for that body-weight difference. It's admittedly a little hard to pull of many pull-ups with 50 pounds on your back.

Maybe we should be able to do more than the average number at more than the average weight (with added weight)?

So:
84 kg minus whatever you weigh. Wear it on your back, and then do 8 pull-ups, and nobody can say boo.

I'm not sure if I can do that, since I don't have a pull-up bar that's safe to put my weight on now.
It seems like a reasonable goal, though, and not particularly hard to reach or maintain.

I think a lot of people don't do any pull-up exercises (like me) because they don't have a stable bar to hold on to in the house.
Meaby building one in the garden/courtyard would be a good idea, if you can. Otherwise, there might be parks in your area with the equipment to do it.
Wearing a backpack of 24kg and do about 10 pull-ups? Challenge accepted

For people that can't do a single pull-up - and it's normal if you don't exercise and are phisically out of shape - there are tutorials on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwE_fhS8muE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAEua0zu_74

Yes I am, I've always been a little heavy and due to how my teenage years were I stopped caring about myself. But in recent years I've been working on myself and trying to improve my overall health. When I switched to vegan I actually had very little knowledge of its health benefits. I would never consider myself an ambassador of anything really. However after being on this sight and reading different posts I realized that by becoming a vegan I kind of accept that role of ambassador, whether I want to or not. If people I know or meet will look at me as an example of vegans then I need to be able to present myself in a way that does not reflect poorly on my newly found community.