Powerful ideas from top nonfiction
Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 5,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trial
Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
The Plant-Based Athlete summary
Matt Frazier and Robert Cheeke
A Game-Changing Approach to Peak Performance
Listen to the first key idea
Key idea 1 of 7
4.5 (273 ratings)
25 mins
7 key ideas
Audio & text
What is The Plant-Based Athlete about?
The Plant-Based Athlete (2021) debunks the myth that our bodies need meat, eggs, and dairy to achieve peak athletic success. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with professional athletes, it shows that a plant-based diet actually results in better performance, recovery time, and overall health.
About the Author
Matt Frazier, a vegan ultramarathoner and entrepreneur, is the founder of No Meat Athlete – an online platform that aims to support and grow the plant-based athletic community. He’s the author of The No Meat Athlete Cookbook, and his work has been featured in Runner’s World, Sports Illustrated, Huffington Post, People, Forbes, and Business Insider, among others.
Robert Cheeke is known as the Godfather of Vegan Bodybuilding. He’s the author of Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness, Shred It!, and Plant-Based Muscle. He regularly contributes to No Meat Athlete, Forks Over Knives, and Vegan Strong, and he travels the world sharing his transformation story from skinny farm kid to two-time natural bodybuilding champion.
Table of Contents
Key idea 1 of 7
Plants are nutrient-rich and calorie-poor – so you’ll lose weight while eating more.
“Plant-Based Diets Take Over Sports World.”
“Why NFL Players and Other Athletes Are Going Vegan.”
These recent, real-life headlines clearly demonstrate that the world has taken notice of a secret hiding in plain sight: a plant-based diet will improve your physical performance. Not only that, it’ll ward off injuries and enable you to live longer.
Anyone in any sport can benefit from adopting a meat-free lifestyle. Olympic medalists like swimmer Rebecca Soni and figure skater Meagan Duhamel swear by plants’ performance-boosting benefits. Mike Tyson made an epic boxing comeback at the age of 52; leading a plant-based lifestyle for ten years had replenished his youthful strength and power. And ultrarunning legend Scott Jurek has long espoused the recovery-enhancing power of plants.
Whether you’re an elite champion or a weekend warrior, eating whole-plant foods will level up your athletic prowess and overall health. That’s because at the foundational level, plants boast qualities that make them far superior to animal products.
The key message here is: Plants are nutrient-rich and calorie-poor – so you’ll lose weight while eating more.
Ready for a crash course in the makeup of food?
Macronutrients are the building blocks of nutrition; they’re what provide calories – that is, energy – for your body. The three main macronutrients are proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.
Micronutrients, on the other hand, are the minerals and vitamins that play a crucial role in keeping you healthy. Plants contain an abundance of micronutrients that help your body produce energy, boost your immune system, and repair muscles.
A food’s calorie density reflects how many calories it contains per unit of measurement. On food labels, this is usually listed as calories per gram. Plants like cruciferous veggies, fruits, and grains are high in volume but low in calories, so you’ll feel full sooner compared to calorie-rich, low-volume foods like meat or oil.
Then there’s nutrient density – how many nutrients per calorie a food or beverage contains. Plants have a high nutrient to calorie ratio. Combined with their low-calorie density, this means that you can eat more – and more healthily – and you’ll still lose weight. As an added bonus, shedding extra pounds can often make it easier, and more enjoyable, to exercise.
The goal with all these components is not necessarily to eat certain quantities of each; it’s about achieving a diverse mix. We’ll get into the nitty-gritty of exactly how to do this in the following blinks. First up? Protein.
Want to see all full key ideas from The Plant-Based Athlete?
Key ideas in The Plant-Based Athlete
More knowledge in less time
Read or listen
Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
Find your next read
Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
Shortcasts New
We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.
Who should read The Plant-Based Athlete
- Athletes looking to increase energy levels, speed, and recovery times
- People who want to improve their digestion or lose weight
- Anyone seeking long-term health for themselves and the planet
Categories with The Plant-Based Athlete
Books like The Plant-Based Athlete
What our members say
Sven O.
It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.
Thi Viet Quynh N.
Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.
Jonathan A.
Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.
Renee D.
Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.
Start growing with Blinkist now
25 Million
Downloads on all platforms
4.7 Stars
Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
91%
Of Blinkist members create a better reading habit*
*Based on survey data from Blinkist customers