Becoming vegetarian

cleowalmsley123

I've decided to become a vegetarian, has anyone on here noticed any difference health wise or lost any weight from becoming a vegetarian?

MelaniaTrump

I'm doing it slowly. Giving up fatty red meat first. Losing weight.
I could never give up broiled fish or skim milk w/ coffee though.

SonyaCele

i have some vegetarian days , and i don't feel as perky on those days. i need my shot of animal protein.

tlflag1620

Becoming vegetarian won't make you lose weight, you can still overeat on a vegetarian diet. That said, if going vegetarian causes you to make healthier choices and eat more nutritiously (certainly NOT a given, though, there's plenty of vegetarian "junk food" out there), you may indeed feel better. But you do not need to give up animal products to lose weight or improve health.

AnnPT77

I've been an ovo-lacto vegetarian for 41 years. I gained from normal weight (nearly underweight) to obese as a vegetarian, and recently went all the way back in the other direction (though not to underweight), still as a vegetarian.

There is no weight loss or health magic about being a vegetarian (or a vegan), IMO, no matter what evangelists for the lifestyle(s) may tell you.

You can eat healthy or unhealthy vegetarian foods, just like you can eat healthy or unhealthy omnivorean (izzat a word? ) foods. You can eat too little, too much, or just right - just as with any other way of eating.

It is more difficult to get enough protein, but very doable, with attention. If you have some strong ethical reason for becoming vegetarian/vegan, go for it. If not, it's quite possibly more nutritional and social bother than it's worth, frankly. (Again, just my opinion . . . but with decades of experience behind it.)

cleowalmsley123

My friend who recently became vegetarian told me to watch Cowspiracy which made me want to become vegetarian for environmental factors (even though I love meat!). My vegetarian friend has recently lost a lot of weight so I just wondered if that was a bonus. Does not eating meat help clear your system like a sort of detox in any way? Thanks for replies

AnnPT77

cleowalmsley123 wrote: »

My vegetarian friend has recently lost a lot of weight so I just wondered if that was a bonus. Does not eating meat help clear your system like a sort of detox in any way? Thanks for replies

I have a suspicion that for some people it may be easier to lose weight if they start eating dramatically more vegetables and whole foods, while still getting enough protein and healthy fat, as long as they don't do a lot of deep-frying and such. High-volume/low-calorie foods can be very filling & satisfying.

But for weight loss, I think there's no magic: I think it's all calories in < calories out. For healthy eating, there's no formula, but I don't think there's magic there, either. Michael Pollan's "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." is pretty good advice.

I don't really believe in detoxes - I think that as long as you're fundamentally healthy, your liver & kidneys do a pretty good job of detoxing your body. If you generally eat in a healthy way, get enough exercise to achieve basic fitness, and don't go off the deep end with alcohol or other questionable habits, I personally believe you're doing what's needed to support them in their detoxifying job. Beyond that, I think most "detoxes" are a gimmick - not to mention a method for detoxing dollars from one's wallet, typically.

There do seem to be a few folks on MFP who've been helped by making some kind of dramatic break with their old way of eating, and often that new way is some kind of "lots of veggies/whole foods" variation. (But note: I also see quite a few fail utterly using that same method, when they find it too big a change all at once, and unsustainable. So it depends. But the converted are still here evangelizing, and the failed are gone, so not speaking up to counter.)

If you feel committed to an ethically-based change (including environmentally-motivated ethical reasons), it's doable, and can be a healthy way of eating. Please consider the social implications as well: Do you want to be the one at Christmas dinner eating the side dishes, and asking people to leave the yummy bacon out of their special brussel sprouts? Will you be comfortable navigating the dinner party at your non-vegetarian boss's house?

It's a valid choice, I'm certainly not backing out of vegetarianism at this point, and all of these issues can be handled. Reducing the role of meat in your diet, or focusing on ethically or sustainably raised animal products, might be another option, if your concerns are environmental - especially if you love meat. (I never much liked it.)

emmycantbemeeko

cleowalmsley123 wrote: »

My friend who recently became vegetarian told me to watch Cowspiracy which made me want to become vegetarian for environmental factors (even though I love meat!). My vegetarian friend has recently lost a lot of weight so I just wondered if that was a bonus. Does not eating meat help clear your system like a sort of detox in any way? Thanks for replies

No. Your body is detoxed by your liver and kidneys, and if they're not working, your problems go way beyond anything a dietary change is going to help.

I've been a vegetarian or a pescatarian since I was about 13. It's hard to say if it had a positive effect on my weight as I was still growing at that point.

I will say that I've managed to both gain and lose weight while eating no meat. A really nutritionally balanced vegetarian diet, with lots of vegetables and legumes, can be very healthy. But a vegetarian diet can also be mostly pasta, chips, crackers, bread, fried things, and prepared foods, or heavy on the soy-based (and sometimes astonishingly high-calorie) faux-meat products. I have met plenty of fat vegetarians. Plenty of calorie-dense, nutritionally-empty foods are technically vegetarian.

Other than your own determination (because it's certainly POSSIBLE to learn to cook and eat in a whole new way, it's just not easy, especially if you like meat, which I never did), a big deciding factor in your success is how supportive of vegetarianism your environment is. If you have a number of vegetarian friends and live in a large city, it's MUCH easier to find healthy vegetarian options in social settings and grocery stores, and to avoid awkward and tiresome confrontations about it (every meat eater who complains that vegetarians give them a hard time should experience the fun that is being a vegetarian in the deep south and CONSTANTLY being badgered about how it's not healthy to NOT eat meat). If everyone around you loves their ribs and steak 7 days a week and the stores and restaurants you frequent don't have a large selection of good produce and vegetarian products, it can be much more of an uphill slog. I've experienced both situations. When your only option at social event after social event is bread and fatty sides, it's easy to pack on pounds.

Even as someone who doesn't like meat, either for the taste or the ecological impact, I don't think there's anything inherently unhealthy about eating meat in moderation, and cutting it out alone isn't going to impact your weight much unless you happen to have eaten a lot of really high-calorie meat and you replace it with moderate portions of a non-meat protein. And even then, it's just because you reduced your calories, not because of the meat elimination.

Squirrel698

I've done my share of detoxes back when I was drinking nothing but the freshly squeezed juice kool-aid (see what I did there). I did lose weight, both around my middle and in my savings account. The weight eventually returned to my middle, but I'm still waiting for it to go back to my pocket book. There are better options.

Going vegetarian was a religious, moral and ethical choice for me. It had nothing to do with weight loss. Indeed, I gained quite a bit of weight as a vegetarian on things like glazed nuts and dried fruit.

Although I will say I did lose a great deal of unexpected weight as a raw vegan, but that's a ridiculous lifestyle, and it turns out quite unhealthy in the long run. I was eating at 50 to 60 percent fat every day but the weight was falling off.

The idea is, you cook nothing; everything is raw, and there is an over-reliance on the food processor. I actually miss the zucchini spaghetti I use to make with a spiral vegetable cutter and the sauce out of sun-dried tomatoes. However it took hours and hours of work in the kitchen, and I just burned out on living like that.

These days I eat a salad at least once a day, supplement with a hemp protein shake, and have eggs quite often for protein. I also eat a lot of soy products, which I'm not thrilled about, but it's a dangerous world we live in. It's going to get you one way or another.

emmam1212

I was a vegetarian for 5 years and they were the skinniest years of my life. It really depends on what you eat though. Plenty of processed foods are technically vegetarian so if you do it you really have to still focus on eating whole healthy foods.

Sued0nim

There are reasons chose a vegetarian lifestyle

Weight loss is not one of them

Without dietary focus neither is health

rsleighty

Back to OP, Depends, do you already eat and enjoy vegetarian foods? If not, going straight into it might not be the best way. Start with one no meat day a week and go from there.

I was mostly vegetarian for about 6 mo (meanng, if someone else cooked and meat was a flavoring in something I would eat it anyway) . I did lose weight but I was not a huge meat eater before that and tracked my food consistently.

hamstertango

Hi, as a vegetarian for 27 years ( no meat or fish) since aged 13, I was fine until I went off to university weight-wise.

Our family ate a very good pulse, lentil, soya and vegetable based veggie diet courtesy of my mum but unfortunately I didn't learn how to cook it myself (or was too lazy) so when I went to uni I ate easy stuff and far too much cheese and pasta and pizza. Since then I've been in the overweight range (until now).

As an adult It's been very hard to eat healthy when you are the only veggie in the family as you want to eat what they eat but just supplement the meat for a veggie option, that was often a pie or processed products that are high calorie-fat-wise.

I've now learned that to do this for myself I have to accept that I will usually be eating something totally different to my family (they're not keen on lentils, pulses and soya!) and therefore cooking two different meals. Actually it's been fine, I've enjoyed rediscovering my healthy childhood dinners!

Also I take Berrocca every single day (it's really improved my health and energy levels) and Floravital liquid iron.

Good luck with your new veggie diet!

88meli88

Hi, I was vegetarian for 10 years for philosophical reasons from about 25 to 35 (no meat, fish but yes eggs and yes dairy) and I had the following weight/health events during that time:

** Gained lots of weight when didn't pay attention to what I ate, was too busy with work and moved too little.

** Lost lots of weight when I controlled my portions and moved more.

** It was harder to control appetite during weightloss than now b/c there are fewer protein sources (mind you, I love cooking and did my best to include complex carbs and lots of pulses)

** Goes to show that being vegetarian in itself is not a guarantee of weight loss and of course it's CICO.

** Health-wise I did not notice anything special - vegetarian or not I love cooking and eat homemade healthy meals - except for one bout of anemia that was not fully related to the food I ate.

So yes, do it if you are driven to it by whatever reason but the rules of CICO apply and make sure to include protein or else it might be hard to control cravings. Good luck!

kk_inprogress

OP, you can become vegetarian for a variety of reasons, but for weight loss it is not only unnecessary, but potentially not helpful at all.

In order to lose weight, you need to intake less calories than you burn - it doesn't matter what those calories are. You can become vegetarian but if you are not counting those calories the same way you would meat, you can still gain/maintain your weight.

If you're considering vegetarian, do it for ethical or taste reasons- not weight loss.

NWCountryGal

I've transitioned, but slowly, into vegetarian. I lost 24 lbs before starting that transition though. I just didn't want to eat animal-protein anymore and I won't go into the whys of it here.

I've never felt better about "what" I am eating now, plant-based foods. I still have to make sure I get enough calories a day, to keep up with what I burn, fuel my body. I maintain my weight with at least 1700 cals, and if I want to lose, I have to figure a deficit by either burning more with exercise, or eating a little less.

Always has to be a slight deficit, and I do mean slight. I like to eat, so if I want to lose stored fat I have to get off my rear.

I agree with kkenseth said, 100%, Denise

cleowalmsley123

Some very interesting answers. Like I said I want to stop eating meat for environmental factors and watching an animal rights short film that really upset me. I have changed my diet over all to that of a healthy one as well as becoming vegetarian. I used to eat meat every day (processed, take always and fried). I've always been told eating meat every day is bad (no matter how you cook it) so wondered what exactly those reasons were?

Hornsby

There are none (health wise anyway). Ethical reasons is a different topic.

mitch16

I've been vegetarian on and off over the years... Never really lost weight doing it as I relied on dairy too much as a protein source. Also became tired of every meal kind of being a production--and tired of wet casseroles.

Have been much more successful losing weight while being an omnivore--my favorite meals are some sort of meat or fish barbecued on the grill with a big helping of veggies or salad on the side.

zoeysasha37

Threads like these make me smh.
I haven't eaten meat for 34 yrs. Guess what --- I was still over weight. Just because one becomes vegan or vegetarian doesn't mean they will lose weight or become healthier.

To lose weight all you need is a calorie deficit. Calories In - calories out.