Workout Questions

[Rearden]

imo "eating healthy" and "vegan diet" arent exactly the same thing.

If youre interested in gaining muscle mass you're going to need to up the protein. Lean/Lowfat animal products are great for this. Our bodies can very easily tolerate (and depending on who you talk to demand) diets where lean meat is factored in. By being a vegan or even vegetarian you lose a lot of those benefits (protein especially but other nutrients can also be missing). It is possible to be a vegetarian and consume a balanced diet without serious gaps, but it would require some supplementation and likely a complicated diet with a large variety of foodstuffs. Additionally I would like you to note that many vegetable proteins arent as useful when compared to other protein sources; also some sources like soy may well negatively impact your own natural testosterone levels.

Human beings are omnivores; I will never understand why it is considered fashionable or healthy to function otherwise.

You will have an extremely difficult time gaining lean mass and losing weight without keeping the above in mind. Also, you have not provided much information as to the total calories consumed in your diet (which matters right along with the source of those calories). And finally, checking the scales 5 times a day and worrying about suddenly becoming too bulky.... bad. Weight loss is about long term stable results, not water weight loss, not in day weight fluctuations, not yo yo dieting, but rather establishing a healthy eating and exercise system that works best for your body with respect to your goals. As for "not wanting to look like a bodybuilder"... ok... most guys in a gym or on this forum do not want to look like 350+lbs shaved and oiled up freaks. As per your height, weight, and relative inexperience you seem on track to be "skinny fat" not at all overweight but also with no definable muscle mass. Even hitting the weights hard and resting/eating properly it will take time before you even become reasonably muscular; at which point you can further adjust your routine to maintain that physique or increase muscle mass further down the road as you like.

My big question is... in the face of all of this... why Vegan?

OP, I respect your desire to improve your body and get fit. I'm only trying to suggest that your diet plan and way of thinking are not the best ways to get to where you want to go.