Do vegans maintain on more calories?

chaarlotte289

It seems as though vegans maintain on more calories 2500+ than those who eat dairy/meat products and focus more on protein a pose to carbs. What are your thoughts on this? Do you believe this is true, not true, or too many variables that could contribute?

MarziPanda95

No. It's not true. Your maintenance calories are not dependant on the types of food you eat, but rather on height, weight, age, sex and activity level.

JoshuaMcAllister

What on earth would give you that idea?

They are simply more active, its got nothing to do with being vegan or not.

Sabine_Stroehm

chaarlotte289 wrote: »

It seems as though vegans maintain on more calories 2500+ than those who eat dairy/meat products and focus more on protein a pose to carbs. What are your thoughts on this? Do you believe this is true, not true, or too many variables that could contribute?

If anything, the opposite could *******possibly******* be true. (note all the asterisks hedging)

I'd bet a balanced diet that limits refined grains is the key.

ps: opposed.

MsBuzzkillington

No.

Christine_72

I can't think of a reason why vegans would maintain on more calories..

Where did you come up with this theory OP?

Stanley1903

A lot of vegan bloggers and writers claim to maintain eating 2,500-3,000 calories a day. They could be overestimating, but even at 2,200-2,700... That's still higher than I'd dream of eating.

tbonethemighty

correlation =/= causation

Vegans (at least all of the ones I know) lead a very different lifestyle from the majority of the population, and not just in terms of diet. Spurious comparison.

amusedmonkey

Vegans maintaining on higher calories is akin to some low carbers claiming they can lose more weight eating more calories. The culprit? Perceived hunger. When you feel satisfied with the foods you are eating and are not hungry, you tend to overestimate the calories you are eating because they "feel" like a lot. Some vegans, especially raw vegans, feel like they are eating a lot of food (and they are, because most vegetables and fruits have a low calorie density).

The same mechanism was shown to exist in people who are naturally thin. They feel like they are eating no less than their overweight friends, when in reality they tend to forget the days they are barely eating.

Just try it out for yourself, pay attention to your intake on days when your appetite is on either side of extremes. On some days 1200 calories feels like a feast and I could swear I had more to eat that day, on other days 2000 calories are not enough and I could swear I didn't eat that much. Accurate logging is what keeps me honest because you can't trust your perceived food intake.

Christine_72

Stanley1903 wrote: »

A lot of vegan bloggers and writers claim to maintain eating 2,500-3,000 calories a day. They could be overestimating, but even at 2,200-2,700... That's still higher than I'd dream of eating.

Freelee??

kommodevaran

Overestimation, deception, or delusion. The only thing I can imagine could be the grain of truth in this, is that plants, and raw food, uses more calories to digest, and that not all of the calories in raw/plant food are digested. It will not affect CI, though, and it will never account for a difference of 20-30% ingested calories, not ever.

dopeysmelly

kommodevaran wrote: »

Overestimation, deception, or delusion. The only thing I can imagine could be the grain of truth in this, is that plants, and raw food, uses more calories to digest, and that not all of the calories in raw/plant food are digested. It will not affect CI, though, and it will never account for a difference of 20-30% ingested calories, not ever.

This is what I have also heard too, but no idea if it's true or not. The only way to prove it would be a study in which participants were fed vegan for a few weeks and then included animal-based foods for a few weeks and then back on to vegan. I don't know whether a study such as this has been attempted.

I do know that I can eat gargantuan volumes of food, much more than when I included more animal-based foods (I just have an egg every couple of weeks and one small serving of fish a week), but assumed that was to do with calorie density of the food rather than something more fundamental with food metabolism going on.

Gamliela

amusedmonkey wrote: »

Vegans maintaining on higher calories is akin to some low carbers claiming they can lose more weight eating more calories. The culprit? Perceived hunger. When you feel satisfied with the foods you are eating and are not hungry, you tend to overestimate the calories you are eating because they "feel" like a lot. Some vegans, especially raw vegans, feel like they are eating a lot of food (and they are, because most vegetables and fruits have a low calorie density).

The same mechanism was shown to exist in people who are naturally thin. They feel like they are eating no less than their overweight friends, when in reality they tend to forget the days they are barely eating.

Just try it out for yourself, pay attention to your intake on days when your appetite is on either side of extremes. On some days 1200 calories feels like a feast and I could swear I had more to eat that day, on other days 2000 calories are not enough and I could swear I didn't eat that much. Accurate logging is what keeps me honest because you can't trust your perceived food intake.

My dad's entire side of the family are all naturally thin people. But when I think about their plates and what was on them, or how much they didn't like to always finish their meals, well, I can see the real reason they were thin.

Besides that they were all hyper people with nervous movements, never sitting for long and busy doing things around the house all the time. Its just a natural part of how they were.

cwolfman13

No

Noreenmarie1234

I have noticed all those vegan bloggers claim to maintain on 3000 though

robininfl

No, I think that it's just that a lot of vegans eat less calorie dense foods, so they feel like they are eating more - more food, yes. More calories, no. They may feel more like they have to make an effort to get enough calories in. It's harder to get enough fat, protein without thinking about it when you aren't eating animal products. Still easily possible, but it's more of a conscious effort.

HealthierRayne

Noreenmarie1234 wrote: »

I have noticed all those vegan bloggers claim to maintain on 3000 though

a lot of them also road bike like 50 hours a day, I think it's because they lead extremely active lives as well and fuel that exercise.

janejellyroll

Stanley1903 wrote: »

A lot of vegan bloggers and writers claim to maintain eating 2,500-3,000 calories a day. They could be overestimating, but even at 2,200-2,700... That's still higher than I'd dream of eating.

Many of the people making that claim are incredibly active. Many active people would require 2,500-3,000 to maintain.

snowflake930

Why would they?
Volume wise, maybe they get to eat more, but that is because vegetables are low in calories and you can eat a lot of them vs: meat which is more calorie dense per serving.