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Freedom251 › Blog › clinical trials

Can Vegetarians Build Muscle as Well as Meat Eaters? What the New Trial Shows—and What It Doesn’t

By Freedom251 Team · · 3 min read

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The new IMPACT trial is designed to compare muscle-related outcomes in adults aged 55 and older who follow lacto-ovo vegetarian or omnivorous diets while doing resistance exercise. But the accessible trial record does not report the results. That means it cannot yet substantiate which group gained more muscle—or whether there was a meaningful difference.

What the IMPACT trial compared

The IMPACT study was conducted in Amsterdam, Netherlands, from March 12, 2024, through June 27, 2025. It compared adults aged 55 and older who followed self-selected lacto-ovo vegetarian or omnivorous diets, with both groups doing resistance exercise. A lacto-ovo vegetarian diet includes dairy products and eggs.

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The available journal and PubMed records establish the broad comparison, but do not provide the sample size, participants’ baseline protein intake, exercise protocol, primary outcome, adherence, or muscle-change estimates. The exact publication date and full results are also not confirmed in the accessible record. PubMed’s IMPACT listing and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition record therefore do not support a claim that one diet produced greater gains.

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Can this trial answer whether vegetarians gain as much muscle?

Not from the results currently visible in those records. To answer that question, readers need the trial’s actual muscle outcome and the difference in change between the diet groups, alongside its uncertainty. Without those figures, it is not possible to tell whether the groups gained different amounts, had statistically distinguishable outcomes, or were similar within the study’s precision.

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The comparison also concerns self-selected dietary patterns in older adults, not a controlled switch from meat to vegetarian eating or a single protein supplement. The accessible listing does not provide enough methodological detail to assess how baseline diets, protein intake, training, or adherence may have influenced the comparison.

What a separate protein-supplement trial found

A different randomized trial, published in 2025, studied young, healthy, recreationally active adults who continued their habitual omnivorous diets while completing supervised lower-body resistance training three times a week for 12 weeks. Participants supplemented with either a soy-and-pea protein blend or whey, taking three 15-gram doses daily (45 grams per day in total). The study reported no statistically significant between-group differences in whole-body lean mass, appendicular and leg lean mass, vastus lateralis muscle cross-sectional area, or leg-press one-repetition maximum. Whole-body lean mass rose by 2.4 kg in the plant-protein group and 2.5 kg in the animal-protein group, according to that trial’s authors.

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The authors concluded that supplementing dietary protein with either source similarly supported training-related muscle adaptations. This finding concerns protein supplements added to habitual omnivorous diets in younger adults; it is not the result of the IMPACT trial and does not establish the effect of a vegetarian diet in adults aged 55 and older. Read the separate trial on PubMed Central.

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Why hormone findings are not muscle-gain evidence

A 2026 review summarizes a cross-sectional comparison involving 233 vegan men, 226 meat-eaters, and 237 vegetarians. The underlying study by Allen, Appleby, Davey, and Key (2000) found higher total testosterone in vegan men, but sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) also rose proportionally. The review reports no significant differences in calculated free testosterone, androstanediol glucuronide, or luteinizing hormone. This was observational hormone research, not a resistance-training trial, so it cannot show that one diet leads to greater muscle gains. See the 2026 review.

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What to look for when the full IMPACT results are available

  • The measured outcome: Which muscle or strength measure was primary, and how much did each group change?
  • The between-group estimate: A difference in group averages alone is not enough; the estimate’s uncertainty helps show whether the study can distinguish the outcomes.
  • Training and diet details: Duration, supervision, adherence, baseline protein intake, and how the dietary groups were defined affect how broadly the result applies.
  • Who took part: The trial concerns adults aged 55 and older in Amsterdam. Its findings, once available, should not automatically be generalized to younger people or every vegetarian diet.

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clinical trialsmuscle gainnutritionresistance trainingvegetarian diets

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