When the Biggest and Most Developed Muscle in the Body is the Heart

Tivonews Team 3.9.2019


We met Maximilian Lang (Max) in a vegan cruise around the Baltic Sea in July. It was the second time we have met him. The first time was in a previous vegan cruise to the Norwegan fjordlands.

Max is a 31 year old fellow, originally from Germany, who lives today near Zurich, Switzerland and works doing projects in informatics. When we last met him we weren't able to ignore the change he has made. He has never looked bad, but gained muscles - as a vegan. We had a conversation with him in order to ask him how he has done it.

And this is what he told us:

I have first been a vegetarian since the age of 7. I was on holiday and saw animals being slaughtered next to a restaurant at the beach. There were sheep and calves. They were taken above the fire. I made the connection. I thought to myself, animals are my friends and I don’t want to eat them now. That was the point I stopped eating meat. My sister, who was then 6, stopped too. Our parents were very open to this as we didn't eat much meat anyway, about once a week. My parents kept on eating meat, and my sister and myself ate all the rest - vegetables, rice and so on. For many years I kept on being a vegetarian without thinking much about it.

One day, after I started studying informatics while working as an IT technician, I began to think more about what I'm gonna do in future. I read a lot about personal development and asked myself where I am standing in life, what I am doing and what I want to do. I began to question more and more values and conventions of society. I thought also about nutrition and what I eat. At first I bought organic food, including organic eggs and organic cheese. A couple of weeks later I learned where eggs come from. I learned about the symbols and what "free range" means. I learned that there wasn't much difference between free range and regular chickens. I watched Youtube videos that showed male chicks being grinded. I realized it was like the meat production. I saw another video on Youtube about the milk production, the separation of young calves from their mothers, the mothers crying for them for weeks, the slaughter and so on. I changed my habits in a few days. It was an immediate process. I actually never liked eggs much. I always tried to avoid eggs. I realized that cheese makes me lazy and feel bad. I went vegan in 2014, 5 years ago. I was 26.

I used to do road cycling, sometimes three or four hours a day. I was very thin as a vegetarian. Sometimes I was less than 70 kilos. As I went vegan I started with weightlifting almost at the same time. I searched for alternative methods of exercising in order to stay fit and active without spending too much time on it. As a vegetarian, people used to laugh at me saying "you're so thin", "eat a piece of meat" and so on. I wanted to show people that even as a vegan I can gain weight and be fit. I started weightlifting. I gained all my weight as a vegan. Now people see my muscles ask my how do I train and what do I eat, and I tell them. They say they didn't know they can build muscle without eating meat. I usually exercise in the afternoon.

I have enough protein. In the first two years I didn't take any supplements. Today I usually take a protein supplement after training, especially when I'm stressed at work and don't have time to get my needs in other ways. I usually eat whole plant based foods and hardly processed food - vegetables, rice, chickpeas, lentils, nuts - and I get all the proteins I need.

I convinced my sister to go vegan a year and a half after I went vegan myself. I have another sister, 18 years old. She and my parents aren't vegan. It's hard for my parents to understand everything because they originally came from a farm. It's hard for them to be so different from their grandparents. For my younger sister it's hard because she lives with our parents. I believe that once she moves out, she will go vegan. Nowadays, When I visit my parents, they mostly eat vegan. They understand that that's the way I want it and that it's hard for me to see it.

Follow Max on Instagram:
Max Lang (@maximilianlang)