❓Does eating vegetarian always make you skinny? Can you build muscle on a vegetarian diet?

Whether you gain or lose weight, and whether you can build muscle, fundamentally comes down to your calorie surplus or deficit and total protein intake — it has nothing directly to do with whether that protein comes from plants or animals. You can absolutely overeat calories on a vegetarian diet (refined carbs, fried vegetarian foods, and nut butters all pile up calories easily), and you can just as easily build muscle normally by eating enough soy products, legumes, and plant protein powder combined with resistance training. In fact, quite a few professional bodybuilders and powerlifters are vegetarian, and their muscle mass is no less than that of omnivorous athletes. On the flip side, the impression that "vegetarian equals skinny" largely comes from the fact that a lot of people unintentionally cut their total calories when they first switch to vegetarian (eating more vegetables and less meat, without upping their intake of staples and soy products to compensate) — that's a common phenomenon during the dietary adjustment period, not an inevitable result of vegetarianism itself. If you want to build muscle, it's the same formula: a calorie surplus, roughly 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, and resistance training — just swap the protein sources for soy products, plant protein powder, and quinoa.