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Veganism for weight loss
jungaar
Posts: 5 Member
in Debate Club
Is there such a thing? If you want to lose weight, but keep your muscle mass, would a vegan diet help in any way?
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Replies
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Can vegans lose weight? Absolutely. I lost over 40 pounds in the last year as a vegan.
Is a plant-based diet better for weight loss than a diet that includes meat, dairy, and eggs? There are so many different ways to eat as a vegan (and so many ways to eat meat, eggs, and dairy) that I don't think one can conclude that.0 -
I believe there is such a thing, if I remember correctly. I'm not sure if the vegan lifestyle would help or hurt weight loss/ muscles in any way, but I do know that one would have to search extra-hard for palatable protein sources other than meat.0
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Absolutely. Check out Brian Turner's channel (HumerusFitness) and Jon Venus's channel on YouTube. Both vegan weightlifters/body builders. Vegan foods are typically less calorie-dense than foods containing animals products, so many people find losing weight easier on a vegan diet. Eating less calorie-dense foods means you can eat a higher volume of food for the same or less amount of calories. And by 'vegan' foods I mean things like whole grains, fruits, vegetables, etc., not oreo's, dark chocolate, and potato chips.1
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I believe there is such a thing, if I remember correctly. I'm not sure if the vegan lifestyle would help or hurt weight loss/ muscles in any way, but I do know that one would have to search extra-hard for palatable protein sources other than meat.
It wouldn't require a hard search -- vegans can get protein from beans, grains, tofu, tempeh, seitan, and protein powders. I can even get tofu, pre-cooked lentils, tempeh, and vegan protein powders at my local (non-health food) grocery store now. Once these foods are in the diet, protein needs can be rounded out with nuts/nut butters and the protein that is vegetables.0 -
Is there such a thing? If you want to lose weight, but keep your muscle mass, would a vegan diet help in any way?
OR, you can just keep protein high, and follow a structured lifting program to make sure that you get adequate training stimulus, and eat in a moderate deficit of about 250 calories....
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Is there such a thing? If you want to lose weight, but keep your muscle mass, would a vegan diet help in any way?
OR, you can just keep protein high, and follow a structured lifting program to make sure that you get adequate training stimulus, and eat in a moderate deficit of about 250 calories....
This (done either as a vegan or a non-vegan) is what is going to help with the muscle mass. Veganism is pretty much an irrelevant factor for weight loss/muscle retention as far as I'm concerned.
Vegans can be fat, scrawny, or at a healthy weight.0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Can vegans lose weight? Absolutely. I lost over 40 pounds in the last year as a vegan.
Is a plant-based diet better for weight loss than a diet that includes meat, dairy, and eggs? There are so many different ways to eat as a vegan (and so many ways to eat meat, eggs, and dairy) that I don't think one can conclude that.
Yeah, this.
A friend of mine is losing weight after changing from vegetarianism to veganism (for ethical reasons), She acknowledges it's because the foods she tended to overeat on the most were cheese and sweets with butter, cream, or egg, and that although one can find replacements as a vegan it takes more work (or so far she is happy not doing so). But I'm sure you can get around that.0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Can vegans lose weight? Absolutely. I lost over 40 pounds in the last year as a vegan.
Is a plant-based diet better for weight loss than a diet that includes meat, dairy, and eggs? There are so many different ways to eat as a vegan (and so many ways to eat meat, eggs, and dairy) that I don't think one can conclude that.
Yeah, this.
A friend of mine is losing weight after changing from vegetarianism to veganism (for ethical reasons), She acknowledges it's because the foods she tended to overeat on the most were cheese and sweets with butter, cream, or egg, and that although one can find replacements as a vegan it takes more work (or so far she is happy not doing so). But I'm sure you can get around that.0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Is there such a thing? If you want to lose weight, but keep your muscle mass, would a vegan diet help in any way?
OR, you can just keep protein high, and follow a structured lifting program to make sure that you get adequate training stimulus, and eat in a moderate deficit of about 250 calories....
This (done either as a vegan or a non-vegan) is what is going to help with the muscle mass. Veganism is pretty much an irrelevant factor for weight loss/muscle retention as far as I'm concerned.
Vegans can be fat, scrawny, or at a healthy weight.
agree0 -
Is there such a thing? If you want to lose weight, but keep your muscle mass, would a vegan diet help in any way?
I find this confusing
Are you asking if veganism is a weight loss plan? No it's not. It's an ethical life choice..
Can you maintain muscle and hit a defecit whilst following a vegan way of eating? You can preserve as much as possible with a shed load of commitment and focus, hitting adequate protein minimums and following a decent progressive resistance programme
Are you at a point where you want to take a decision to become vegan or is this just a pontification thread?0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »Can vegans lose weight? Absolutely. I lost over 40 pounds in the last year as a vegan.
Is a plant-based diet better for weight loss than a diet that includes meat, dairy, and eggs? There are so many different ways to eat as a vegan (and so many ways to eat meat, eggs, and dairy) that I don't think one can conclude that.
Yeah, this.
A friend of mine is losing weight after changing from vegetarianism to veganism (for ethical reasons), She acknowledges it's because the foods she tended to overeat on the most were cheese and sweets with butter, cream, or egg, and that although one can find replacements as a vegan it takes more work (or so far she is happy not doing so). But I'm sure you can get around that.
Vegan desserts are getting better all the time. Coconut whipped cream, cashew milk ice cream, it's like living in a golden age.
Many people do see a dip in their weight after going vegan because it does remove some of the easier options for foods we may struggle to control. And I will admit it does remove a lot of incidental eating (like when people bring cookies or cake to work, they usually aren't vegan, so I skip them).
But it's also fairly easy to either find vegan recipes for the foods you love (Pinterest is a gold mine) or to buy them at any halfway decent "health food" store. Unless one takes the route your friend takes, it would be easy to maintain or gain weight as a vegan.0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »Can vegans lose weight? Absolutely. I lost over 40 pounds in the last year as a vegan.
Is a plant-based diet better for weight loss than a diet that includes meat, dairy, and eggs? There are so many different ways to eat as a vegan (and so many ways to eat meat, eggs, and dairy) that I don't think one can conclude that.
Yeah, this.
A friend of mine is losing weight after changing from vegetarianism to veganism (for ethical reasons), She acknowledges it's because the foods she tended to overeat on the most were cheese and sweets with butter, cream, or egg, and that although one can find replacements as a vegan it takes more work (or so far she is happy not doing so). But I'm sure you can get around that.
Vegan desserts are getting better all the time. Coconut whipped cream, cashew milk ice cream, it's like living in a golden age.
Many people do see a dip in their weight after going vegan because it does remove some of the easier options for foods we may struggle to control. And I will admit it does remove a lot of incidental eating (like when people bring cookies or cake to work, they usually aren't vegan, so I skip them).
But it's also fairly easy to either find vegan recipes for the foods you love (Pinterest is a gold mine) or to buy them at any halfway decent "health food" store. Unless one takes the route your friend takes, it would be easy to maintain or gain weight as a vegan.
I think part of this is that she mostly ate high cal desserts at mainstream restaurants. Increasingly local restaurants will have vegan options, but not necessarily have adjusted their desserts. (We eat out together a lot, so this is just my observation.) I guess the question will be whether she bothers finding substitutes. Right now she's trying to lose some, so not seeking them out.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »Can vegans lose weight? Absolutely. I lost over 40 pounds in the last year as a vegan.
Is a plant-based diet better for weight loss than a diet that includes meat, dairy, and eggs? There are so many different ways to eat as a vegan (and so many ways to eat meat, eggs, and dairy) that I don't think one can conclude that.
Yeah, this.
A friend of mine is losing weight after changing from vegetarianism to veganism (for ethical reasons), She acknowledges it's because the foods she tended to overeat on the most were cheese and sweets with butter, cream, or egg, and that although one can find replacements as a vegan it takes more work (or so far she is happy not doing so). But I'm sure you can get around that.
Vegan desserts are getting better all the time. Coconut whipped cream, cashew milk ice cream, it's like living in a golden age.
Many people do see a dip in their weight after going vegan because it does remove some of the easier options for foods we may struggle to control. And I will admit it does remove a lot of incidental eating (like when people bring cookies or cake to work, they usually aren't vegan, so I skip them).
But it's also fairly easy to either find vegan recipes for the foods you love (Pinterest is a gold mine) or to buy them at any halfway decent "health food" store. Unless one takes the route your friend takes, it would be easy to maintain or gain weight as a vegan.
I think part of this is that she mostly ate high cal desserts at mainstream restaurants. Increasingly local restaurants will have vegan options, but not necessarily have adjusted their desserts. (We eat out together a lot, so this is just my observation.) I guess the question will be whether she bothers finding substitutes. Right now she's trying to lose some, so not seeking them out.
Yeah, desserts are the last frontier of vegan options at mainstream restaurants. I can virtually always find something to eat for an appetizer or entree, but there are hardly ever any desserts.0 -
Depends what you mean. Can a vegan lose weight? Obviously. Are you going to lose weight just by going vegan? Possibly, depending how you ate beforehand and how you eat after, potato chips are vegan after all.
What you need for weight loss is a calorie deficit, if you want to do that while vegan, you can do that.0 -
Tons of people decide to go vegan as a way to lose weight, but it's not a guarantee that you will lose weight.
When people "lose weight by going vegan" it's because the number of calories their consuming is reduced to be less than they burn. This is a very likely outcome if you're swapping a diet high in processed meats, cheese and junk food for veggies and beans.
However, what often happens is people going vegan try to "veganize" their existing diet. Like mentioned above, potato chips are vegan. So are Oreo cookies and Pepsi. Calorie for calorie, there's often not a lot of difference between vegan yogurt and ice cream and dairy yogurt and ice cream.
This being said, I am a huge advocate for a vegan friendly diet, or even just heading in that direction by including more plant based foods in your life. My personal recommendation based on my experiences is try to start enjoying vegan meals, but don't try to replace your current diet with vegan versions. It tends to be more expensive and disappointing. A black bean burger, no matter how delicious will never be the same as a beef burger and if you bite into that burger expecting it to replace your beef burger, you will be disappointed and possibly never appreciate how delicious that black bean burger is. Vegan ice cream, while delicious, costs almost 3 times as much as regular ice cream and doesn't save you any calories at all.
However, if you're thinking veganism for environmental or ethical reasons, that's a different situation.
Bottom line is yes, you can lose weight becoming vegan. No you don't have to become vegan to lose weight. Calories in, calories out. Plants are delicious.1 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »Can vegans lose weight? Absolutely. I lost over 40 pounds in the last year as a vegan.
Is a plant-based diet better for weight loss than a diet that includes meat, dairy, and eggs? There are so many different ways to eat as a vegan (and so many ways to eat meat, eggs, and dairy) that I don't think one can conclude that.
Yeah, this.
A friend of mine is losing weight after changing from vegetarianism to veganism (for ethical reasons), She acknowledges it's because the foods she tended to overeat on the most were cheese and sweets with butter, cream, or egg, and that although one can find replacements as a vegan it takes more work (or so far she is happy not doing so). But I'm sure you can get around that.
Ya, I'm an omnivore and lost about 20 pounds when I was in Costa Rica for two months, during which time the vast majority of my diet consisted of plant-based foods. Instead of ice cream and other high calorie desserts, I had banana, mangoes or pineapple. Instead of cheese, I had coconut meat, which I had to work for. Low calorie fruits and vegetables were abundant; high calorie foods less so. Rice and beans don't tempt me to overeat the way pizza does. There were no Oreos or potato chips where I was.
I also walked, gardened, cooked, and taught and practiced yoga.0 -
I would just try CICO for weight loss.0
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You can lose weight with any food choices. It's all about CICO.
I've been vegan since I was about 11 years old. I've been slim and muscular. I've been obese.
CICO.
CICO.0 -
It is worth mentioning there are some people (who I'll say are wrong) that believe a person cannot become overweight or obese on frugivore / fruititarian diet. In particular DurianRider and Freelee the Banana Girl - both of whom I detest for both their trolling, insulting the overweight, and lying about health and nutrition - are known to promote this view.0
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It is worth mentioning there are some people (who I'll say are wrong) that believe a person cannot become overweight or obese on frugivore / fruititarian diet. In particular DurianRider and Freelee the Banana Girl - both of whom I detest for both their trolling, insulting the overweight, and lying about health and nutrition - are known to promote this view.
Crackpots gonna crackpot . . .
I can't stand either of them.0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »It is worth mentioning there are some people (who I'll say are wrong) that believe a person cannot become overweight or obese on frugivore / fruititarian diet. In particular DurianRider and Freelee the Banana Girl - both of whom I detest for both their trolling, insulting the overweight, and lying about health and nutrition - are known to promote this view.
Crackpots gonna crackpot . . .
I can't stand either of them.
Yeah, but enough vegans get crap for being vegan without people like that causing spotlight fallacy about what most vegans are like.0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »It is worth mentioning there are some people (who I'll say are wrong) that believe a person cannot become overweight or obese on frugivore / fruititarian diet. In particular DurianRider and Freelee the Banana Girl - both of whom I detest for both their trolling, insulting the overweight, and lying about health and nutrition - are known to promote this view.
Crackpots gonna crackpot . . .
I can't stand either of them.
Yeah, but enough vegans get crap for being vegan without people like that causing spotlight fallacy about what most vegans are like.
Unfortunately, I think a lot of the crap vegans get is from the over-zealous newbies who think the whole world should following their lifestyle. Kind of the same reason why I know so many people who stay away from crossfit as they don't want to get "forced" into following paleo.0 -
I'm watching "vegucated" on Netflix right now! Interesting watch!0
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janejellyroll wrote: »It is worth mentioning there are some people (who I'll say are wrong) that believe a person cannot become overweight or obese on frugivore / fruititarian diet. In particular DurianRider and Freelee the Banana Girl - both of whom I detest for both their trolling, insulting the overweight, and lying about health and nutrition - are known to promote this view.
Crackpots gonna crackpot . . .
I can't stand either of them.
Yeah, but enough vegans get crap for being vegan without people like that causing spotlight fallacy about what most vegans are like.
Unfortunately, I think a lot of the crap vegans get is from the over-zealous newbies who think the whole world should following their lifestyle. Kind of the same reason why I know so many people who stay away from crossfit as they don't want to get "forced" into following paleo.
Yeah, it's a shame. I just try to remember that the over-zealous advocates for whatever diet or workout program is being discussed are not necessarily representative. It's easier when you know some counter-examples, of course.0 -
I'm watching "vegucated" on Netflix right now! Interesting watch!
This is an interesting "documentary" and definitely some food for thought. Unfortunately, most of the "facts" that get touted in these types of films, (Vegucated, Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, Forks over Knives, etc) are either far from being actual facts, or usually some kind of agenda biased view of the information that presents conclusions that can't generally be taken from the data.
I'd love to see a valid, non-propagandic documentary that presents real information that is useful and actionable... but unfortunately, if one exists I have yet to see it.0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »It is worth mentioning there are some people (who I'll say are wrong) that believe a person cannot become overweight or obese on frugivore / fruititarian diet. In particular DurianRider and Freelee the Banana Girl - both of whom I detest for both their trolling, insulting the overweight, and lying about health and nutrition - are known to promote this view.
Crackpots gonna crackpot . . .
I can't stand either of them.
Yeah, but enough vegans get crap for being vegan without people like that causing spotlight fallacy about what most vegans are like.
That's true. Other than their hateful speech, bullying, and promotion of dangerous lies, it's the fact that I will meet people who associate me with them that annoys me most about them.0 -
BecomingBane wrote: »I'm watching "vegucated" on Netflix right now! Interesting watch!
This is an interesting "documentary" and definitely some food for thought. Unfortunately, most of the "facts" that get touted in these types of films, (Vegucated, Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, Forks over Knives, etc) are either far from being actual facts, or usually some kind of agenda biased view of the information that presents conclusions that can't generally be taken from the data.
I'd love to see a valid, non-propagandic documentary that presents real information that is useful and actionable... but unfortunately, if one exists I have yet to see it.
Yeah, every vegan group that pulls these "facts" kind of things just causes me to think of the term "lying for Jesus" (http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Lying_for_Jesus) because the parallel.
All I can think is make veganism about the ethics. If you're tricking and lying to human beings to because you believe in animal dignity and ethical treatment, you've just contradicted yourself by denying the dignity of the intelligence of the human animal and acting unethically towards human animals.0 -
BecomingBane wrote: »I'm watching "vegucated" on Netflix right now! Interesting watch!
This is an interesting "documentary" and definitely some food for thought. Unfortunately, most of the "facts" that get touted in these types of films, (Vegucated, Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, Forks over Knives, etc) are either far from being actual facts, or usually some kind of agenda biased view of the information that presents conclusions that can't generally be taken from the data.
I'd love to see a valid, non-propagandic documentary that presents real information that is useful and actionable... but unfortunately, if one exists I have yet to see it.
Yeah, every vegan group that pulls these "facts" kind of things just causes me to think of the term "lying for Jesus" (http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Lying_for_Jesus) because the parallel.
All I can think is make veganism about the ethics. If you're tricking and lying to human beings to because you believe in animal dignity and ethical treatment, you've just contradicted yourself by denying the dignity of the intelligence of the human animal and acting unethically towards human animals.
I feel you there. Personally, it's a ethical religious choice for me and I give not one care what choices others make. I also don't feel the need to belittle anyone, lie to them, etc. Frankly, I'm disgusted by this type of behavior for all of the reasons that you point out.
Unfortunately, based on the number of other vegans I've met in my life, I'm in the minority. (I hope that's not true, but current data sample in my life doesn't give me hope.)0 -
Keyword: palatable. Although you definitely have a point there regarding some of those items, in my humble opinion, those foods can be described as follows:janejellyroll wrote: »I believe there is such a thing, if I remember correctly. I'm not sure if the vegan lifestyle would help or hurt weight loss/ muscles in any way, but I do know that one would have to search extra-hard for palatable protein sources other than meat.
It wouldn't require a hard search -- vegans can get protein from beans, grains, tofu, tempeh, seitan, and protein powders. I can even get tofu, pre-cooked lentils, tempeh, and vegan protein powders at my local (non-health food) grocery store now. Once these foods are in the diet, protein needs can be rounded out with nuts/nut butters and the protein that is vegetables.
Beans=yum but can cause digestive blues later
Grains=yum but better known as carbs than protein
Tofu =Ewww!
Tempeh=sounds nasty
Seitan=sounds very nasty, actually downright evil. (Waits for others to get the pun)
Protein powder=IMO, only good as a snack and with whole milk, which is indeed not vegan. Also causes digestive distress. Meh.
Nuts/nut butter=yum unless you're allergic to it (which is, like, a good chunk of the world population)
Vegetable= I didn't even know that, but sounds yuck.0
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