Thinking of going vegetarian. Advice?

MinnieM83

I'm thinking of taking on a mostly vegetairan lifestyle. I do like my steak and burgers and pizza and chicken too much to give it up completely, so I would like to go MOSTLY vegetarian. Is this a difficult process? I have no trouble with veggies, I'd much rather have those than other foods most times as it is. I would really like some pointers, or to hear how others have made the switch and if it's more helpful in the long run as far as weight loss and whatnot.

Thanks!!! :-)

BenPolonowski

I eat "mostly" vegetarian. It was not to hard to switch from eating more meat, I simply began to reduce my portion size. I use more quinoa, nuts, avocados, and yogurt for protein.
For me, the best part of eating less meat is that my vegetable portions are really big.

kylamaries

For this life choice, I don't think you need to label it as vegetarian or not. Eat what you want to eat; if you want your steak, burgers, pizza, or chicken go for it! Play around and substitute meat dishes for other things (eg. try a vegetarian Mediterranean pizza instead of a sausage/pepperoni/etc.).

amandaj1966

Hi MinnieM83,

For me, becoming a vegetarian was easy, I saw a programme on tv about animals, I won't go into details but I just thought to myself that I didn't want to be part of the whole killing animals to eat etc...
I liked the taste of meat so thought I would go back to it but I haven't and am not tempted.

I think it would be difficult to give up certain meats, what are your reasons for wanting to became a " half vegetarian "

If its a weight loss plan and only a weight loss plan then it probably won't work as vegetarian food can be very high in calories too.

Good luck. xx

Silvara_11

NO don't do it! I was "mostly" vegetarian for 3 years, generally only ate fish out side of veggies and it caused my iron levels to go supper low and by end of last year I could barely function. It has taken me 6 months to get back on track but I bet I wasn't functioning at full capacity for at least a year out of the the 3!

A vegetarian lifestyle is great whatever your reasons but you need to eat a much greater amount of green veg to get your required Iron.

Just make sure you take supplements. I say everything in moderation.

FerociousKoala

I was a vegetarian for quite a while until I gave up because I needed easier/cheaper protein for sports. It was easiest for me to wean myself off of it while also replacing your proteins with vegetable/dairy sources. I would also mark a special day on the calendar to go out and treat myself to something meaty. Also, don't keep meat in your fridge or you will be tempted by it until you get out of the habit of craving meat for protein.
There are plenty of veg substitutes that aren't too bad and are packed with protein like black bean burgers.
I also have a friend who weaned herself by simply cutting red meat out, then cutting poultry out, etc. Until she was 100% vegetarian and she's still going strong 2 years later.
Just find out what works best for you and use all of your willpower to try new foods and cut out those cravings!

BarackMeLikeAHurricane

NO don't do it! I was "mostly" vegetarian for 3 years, generally only ate fish out side of veggies and it caused my iron levels to go supper low and by end of last year I could barely function. It has taken me 6 months to get back on track but I bet I wasn't functioning at full capacity for at least a year out of the the 3!

A vegetarian lifestyle is great whatever your reasons but you need to eat a much greater amount of green veg to get your required Iron.

Just make sure you take supplements. I say everything in moderation.

I'm a vegetarian and my iron is fine. I hardly ever eat vegetables unless you count tomato sauce on pizza as a vegetable. I just take a vitamin with iron in it. Even before I started taking the vitamin my iron was fine.

The most important thing to do is to make sure you eat enough complete proteins (egg whites and whey are great) and to make sure you don't eat too many carbs.

Also, watch out for hidden animal parts in food. Check for gelatin, glycerin, stearic acid, rennet, etc. on food labels.

MinnieM83

Thank you SO much everyone!!! This has helped me immensely!! :-)

magerum

Meat is delicious, don't do it.

BeachIron

Meat is delicious, don't do it.

^ This.

neanderthin

Meat is delicious, don't do it.

^ This.

Some plants eat meat, so they must be delicious.:happy:

dynamiteglow

Ok Homework: Watch Food Matters and Forks Over Knives. Then you will have some kind of an educated opinion which may help you make a decision. You can find them at the Library or on Netflix:-) Enjoy!

SkepticallyFit

It's very easy to get your iron on a vegetarian diet. Oatmeal, oat flakes, pretty much all veggies, nuts/almonds, beans. Probably others, but the point is you can get plenty of iron (I currently get too much). I'm ovo-lacto vegetarian, so I also eat cheese and eggs, which provides more iron as well as B vitamins. However, like any specialized diet, you have to be conscious of what you're eating. Switching to a vegetarian diet is actually great motivation to become more health conscious, instead of the autopilot eating that plagues most people.

Just make sure you don't skimp on the protein and healthy fat (such as olive oil). Veggies alone won't fill you up.

Eyesee

Yeah, I never got that whole "I had to go back! Iron/protein deficiency!" thing. I'm sure a few people have rare conditions that made this occur, but more likely I'd probably bet they just missed bacon. (Which is fine, but just be honest about it.)

I've been a vegetarian for 15 years, for a few of them I earned awards doing competitive sports, I really didn't eat very many veggies either, or even take a daily vitamin except for when I remembered occasionally. My blood results have always been excellent (even since I have gotten fat) and this is also true of the many vegetarians and vegans that I know. (Though the vegans have to eat more vegetables than us!) Also, I've been tracking food on and off for 5 years, and I've always met/exceeded the protein goals of the day when I met my calories without even trying. Almost everything has protein in it, especially if you still eat eggs, milk, and cheese, or if you eat stuff like veggie hotdogs, sausage and burgers. There are even really yummy veggie chicken nuggets (though they're kind of expensive).

I agree on watching Forks Over Knives. Haven't seen Food Matters yet, but I'm going to check it out since the other person recommended it. Good luck!

Eyesee

Also, there's a cool "21 Day Kickstart" thing that my mom lost 17 pounds doing. Here's their Facebook page, there's a book that goes along with it: https://www.facebook.com/21DayKickstart

redraidergirl2009

What you're referring to if called "flexitarian". People that are flexitarian stick to a mostly vegetarian diet, but eat meat once in awhile and usually that's something like twice a week to once a month...ect..

Think of the foods you already like and think of ways to make them vegetarian like tacos, use beans, no meat. Pasta, added veggies like zucchini, not meat, ect, it's not very hard.

Zombielicious

I'm a vegetarian and my iron is fine. I hardly ever eat vegetables unless you count tomato sauce on pizza as a vegetable. I just take a vitamin with iron in it. Even before I started taking the vitamin my iron was fine.

The most important thing to do is to make sure you eat enough complete proteins (egg whites and whey are great) and to make sure you don't eat too many carbs.

Also, watch out for hidden animal parts in food. Check for gelatin, glycerin, stearic acid, rennet, etc. on food labels.

Just out of curiosity...if you don't eat meat and you don't eat many vegetables or many carbs...what do you eat on a regular basis? Most vegetarians that don't eat many vegetables are generally carb loaders.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

EyeBite

Do it! I've been a vegetarian all 26 years of my life but that doesn't mean I eat healthy. Now I'm starting to turn things around and seeing all the nutrients I've been missing out on that I should have gotten as a vegetarian who eat healthfully. Do your research and don't get tripped up on bias "research" and "statistics" that are influenced by the meat or dairy industry. I would go vegan but I really like honey. It's really hard to break habits formed over the years that everyone else considers "normal". You are just going to have to break off and think on your own. Personally, I think vegetarian/vegan are just labels. The idea is to eat nutrient rich foods, excluding animals; and animal products if you are vegan.

Think also on this: if meat is so necessary for fitness and health, why do we have nearly perfectly healthy, vegan/vegetarian professional, athletes? Why do vegetarians/vegans tend to live longer, disease free lives than pepple who aren't?

Zaniejane

This is easy, eat meat some days and make some delicious vegetarian dishes on other days. There are so many options!

EyeBite

*ate

KarenJanine

What are your reasons for wanting to go veggie?

If its for moral/ethical/environmental reasons then that's great, go for it.

If you think it's a way to lose weight and get healthier then cutting out meat/fish is not necessary, especially as you say you love meat.

Sarauk2sf

It is pretty easy imo (except having to give up bacon), but I am not sure why you are looking to go 'mostly' vegetarian. Unless you have a moral, religious or medical reason, then I would wonder why you would want to, especially as you like the taste and are not actually going to give up meat.

Being a vegetarian is not any better or worse for weight loss than being a meat eater. I was a fat vegetarian and a lean vegetarian. There are fat meat eaters and lean meat eaters.

The only thing that *may* make it easier is that you are restricting. However, meat can be pretty good for your calorie buck so I am not sure it really makes it easier for most to adhere to their diet.

jofjltncb6

Ok Homework: Watch Food Matters and Forks Over Knives. Then you will have some kind of an educated opinion which may help you make a decision. You can find them at the Library or on Netflix:-) Enjoy!

Yeah, as if those two "documentaries" are so rock solid. If you do watch these two agenda-drive propaganda pieces, at least do a little research to understand the "science" behind them. Here are a couple of rebuttals...(I'm sure there are more out there):
http://pickyvegan.com/food-matters-review/ and http://www.pikespeakskeptics.org/?p=50 and then there's http://anthonycolpo.com/forks-over-knives-the-latest-vegan-nonsense-dissected-debunked-and-destroyed/ (not saying that's particularly unbiased, but it's just as unbiased as the documentaries themselves, albeit from a different perspective).

MinMin97

Vegetarian cooking is amazing, delicious and fun. It's a total culinary adventure, your tastebuds will thank you. I myself and mostly veg, but I like a little meat every week. Not opposed to eating meat, but more veggies suits me.

Spresto2

I've been a vegetarian for 13 years (since 17 years old). I've enjoyed a very healthy life so far with the exception that at about age 26, I started to become more overweight. I had sort of teetered on the high end of my "healthy" weight the whole time as a veggie but now I am struggling to get back to healthy weight (30 lbs to go). I think vegetarianism isn't a sure-fire way to lose weight. I know where you are coming from with your mindset though and fully encourage anyone to reduce or cut out meat products...but perhaps if it's weight loss from vegetarianism you are seeking information about, as someone who has lived this lifestyle and has constantly struggled with weight, I would say you may end up disappointed with your results. I do not carb load as many posters assume...though it can be easy to do that...for anyone really, even meat eaters. It's just about balance and mindfulness. There are plenty of foods you can eat that are good for you as a vegetarian that are nutritious and full of all the things that keep our bodies young and vibrant, you just have to constantly be picking these foods up whilst still counting calories. I think it many be a misconception that you can eat as much as you want of healthy foods without having to be as concerned, I can say from my own experience that a calories is definitely a calorie, it's just with fruits, veg, fiber and protein rich vegetarian foods, you do feel full on less, so that works in our favor usually. Long story short, not a weight loss plan really. And a little bit of meat isn't so bad if you can pick the ones that are best such as grass fed beef and the less toxic salmon or tuna that isn't as "old" and therefore not as full of mercury. Count calories no matter you eat what is my advice...but you may find with veggie foods you are fuller and more energetic on less calories more easily and with less "suffering".

TMcChamp

I haven't eaten most meats for 16 years!! (feeeling old and rickety right now). My only advice is LISTEN to your body. I have massive iron issues, my circulating iron is often borderline and i don't store iron, but reading my body I can know when to pick up my oron intake (molasses added to oats, dried apricots, and upping leafy greens, i will also occassionally take an iron tab). I eat Chicken, fish and turkey.

HollisGrant

NO don't do it! I was "mostly" vegetarian for 3 years, generally only ate fish out side of veggies and it caused my iron levels to go supper low and by end of last year I could barely function. It has taken me 6 months to get back on track but I bet I wasn't functioning at full capacity for at least a year out of the the 3!

A vegetarian lifestyle is great whatever your reasons but you need to eat a much greater amount of green veg to get your required Iron.

Just make sure you take supplements. I say everything in moderation.

Lentils are high in iron as well as high in protein (1 cup has the protein of 3 eggs). Green leafy vegetables are not the only iron sources. I always meet or exceed the MFP iron requirements and never take supplements.. Editing to add that I have a lot of energy and feel great.

FITIsTheNewPINK

Hey!
I was a vegetarian for 2+ years and speak only from personal experience.
In terms of weight loss/gain, as vegetarians we often reach for bread, cheese, and other less than healthy options, which causes weight gain, also, due to a slight lack of complete proteins we eat more than we normally would. Personally I gained a significant amount of weight from vegetarianism alone.
Also, I became hypoglycemic due to a lack of protein, so keep an eye on your general health.
With that being said, I think it's really a personal thing. It may be great for you, or you could have a less than pleasant experience like me. Just watch your carb/protein ratios and glucose levels

AleciaG724

I've been Veg for 3 1/2 years. Before that I ate all types of meat & loved my steaks bloody-rare. It's not been difficult for me as I did it very gradually over a period of about 3 years. I started learning to cook vegetarian for my two children who became veg during college. I loved the challenge of making veg versions of some of their favorite family dinners. As I experimented on the weekends they were home, I found myself wanting to make more meat-free meals even when they were back at school. Once or twice a week, became 3 or 4 times a week and then I finally realized I wouldn't miss the meat at all. Now my two teenagers are also veg, but I place no pressure on them, if they want to eat meat they can, but they choose not to. I tell them the vegetarian police are not going to come & lock them up if they eat meat... I provide good, healthy, delicious food and my husband eats whatever I make at home. He eats meat when we eat out and occasionally will buy a steak or rotisserie chicken for himself for dinner. This is working great for us & I don't see a time that I will ever go back to eating meat.

Check out this blog - she is Veg, but her husband is not, so most things she makes you can easily add meat, or make it without.
www.kitchentreaty.com

Now like others have said, if you load up on fat & carbs, you're not going to lose weight, you might even gain some. I eat a serving of total cereal a few days a week & I track my nutrition on a weekly basis. I do have a protein smoothie every few days if I have not met my goal for protein with my food choices. I try to net about 1600 cals - my diary is open if you want to check out what I eat. I log everything and try to exercise at least 30 mins/day. Feel free to friend me if you'd like.

Good luck with your decision!