Vegetarian

adortiz1990

I have started a vegetarian diet. I am struggling to drop weight and I am hoping this will help. I have no problem being active. I love to workout! However, I eat so bad and the sad part is I know it's bad. So I recently decided I was going to see how eating vegetarian worked out for me. I want to go full vegan but one step at a time. I could use any advice on how to make this transition easier. I should say that I am not big on any meat except chicken and shrimp. So I think this will be semi easy. It's going to be hard to let go off the process foods, but truthfully that is hard with any diet. Any advice or meal ideas would be greatly appreciated.

fuzzylop72

Going vegetarian doesn't have any advantages in fat loss. However, that said, in your condition i'd just work on eliminating meat, and replacing it with higher protein plant foods (especially legumes, tofu, seitan, etc). If you're so inclined, you can work on reducing your consumption of eggs and dairy if you want to go vegan.

I'd be careful about fiber, and track it in mfp making sure to increase it moderately, and don't do something like doubling it overnight. That can cause a lot of bloating and discomfort.

janejellyroll

Vegetarianism will only result in weight loss if you wind up consuming fewer calories than your body is using. If you're already not eating much meat, I'm not sure if this will change anything for you. I

That said, it's easy to combine calorie counting and vegetarianism (or veganism).

I'm not sure why you mean about getting off the processed foods -- there are many vegetarian and vegan processed foods. Some of them are actually a great help for those looking for convenient, healthy, and tasty ways to stay within their calorie goals. I'm thinking of things like tofu, canned beans, frozen vegetables, protein powder, seitan, and plant milks.

My best advice is to try new foods regularly. If you're not already familiar with higher protein plant foods like tofu, tempeh, seitan, and beans, give them a try.

adortiz1990

I understand going vegetarian is not a magic weight loss formula. However, I feel going this route will help keep me disciplined in my eating habits. It will keep me from stopping and getting nachos or chicken strips everyday for lunch and dinner. I have tried cutting carbs and counting calories and it does not seem to help. So maybe my body will react better to a vegetarian diet. I'm new to all of this. I've always been active so my weight never concerned me but I'm getting older and I know being active will become a lot harder if I don't get the weight under control. I am not a fan of tofu, but I did stock up on beans when I went to the grocery store.

fitjp88

I am vegan and it doesn't stop be from eating junk. I just eat vegan junk. I would recommend focusing a plant based diet and make sure you are counting calories. Unfortunately if you want to lose weight, you still need to count calories.

I am sensitive to soy so I rarely eat tofu but you may need to think out side of the box. If you are just vegetarian, You can could have eggs and veggies for breakfast. For lunch keep it simple, you can do a taco salad bowl, with salsa, black beans, tomatoes, rice, etc and for dinner do a skillet meal https://www.shelikesfood.com/30-easy-vegetarian-one-pot-dinner-recipes/

fuzzylop72

adortiz1990 wrote: »

I understand going vegetarian is not a magic weight loss formula. However, I feel going this route will help keep me disciplined in my eating habits. It will keep me from stopping and getting nachos or chicken strips everyday for lunch and dinner. I have tried cutting carbs and counting calories and it does not seem to help. So maybe my body will react better to a vegetarian diet. I'm new to all of this. I've always been active so my weight never concerned me but I'm getting older and I know being active will become a lot harder if I don't get the weight under control. I am not a fan of tofu, but I did stock up on beans when I went to the grocery store.

If you don't like tofu, give seitan a try. There's also a lot of (pretty highly processed) meat substitutes composed of a variety of things (soy, seitan, and pea protein being the big 3) which can help you reach your protein goals (especially if calories get pretty low).

adortiz1990

Thank you!

AnnPT77

adortiz1990 wrote: »

I understand going vegetarian is not a magic weight loss formula. However, I feel going this route will help keep me disciplined in my eating habits. It will keep me from stopping and getting nachos or chicken strips everyday for lunch and dinner. I have tried cutting carbs and counting calories and it does not seem to help. So maybe my body will react better to a vegetarian diet. I'm new to all of this. I've always been active so my weight never concerned me but I'm getting older and I know being active will become a lot harder if I don't get the weight under control. I am not a fan of tofu, but I did stock up on beans when I went to the grocery store.

I've been vegetarian for 44 years, from thin to fat to obese to thin again, so pretty much the poster li'l ol' lady for the idea that vegetarianism has no weight loss magic. (Nachos are vegetarian, BTW, if you leave off the beef/chicken. They remain seductively tasty. With vegan cheese or no cheese, they're potentially even vegan.).

There are lots of foods that are not meat or fish (or even eggs/dairy) that are relatively high in protein: Legumes (beans, lentils, to a lesser extent peanuts), mushrooms (high protein per calorie but not calorie dense), some veggies (broccoli, spinach, etc.), soy products. Besides tofu, there's actual soybeans (cooked, or dry-roasted as a snack food), and other soy products like miso, tempeh (looks kinda gross, but the plain type is neutral tasting). Seitan is also available - it's just wheat gluten.

Personally, I think the commercial fake-meat products are not very tasty, and often too high in calories for the level of nutrition, so I don't eat them. I also don't care much for protein bars or protein powder, but those are also an option if you enjoy them.

I get a minimum 100g protein daily, often more, though I admit I eat a lot of dairy (love it). I think I could do 100g fully plant based, but I wouldn't enjoy that as much. I ate a bit less than 100g while on lower calories/losing weight, probably more like 80-90g and up.

I found this thread super helpful in identifying even vegetarian protein sources:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10247171/carbs-and-fats-are-cheap-heres-a-guide-to-getting-your-proteins-worth-fiber-also

It links to a spreadsheet that lists many, many foods by protein efficiency, most protein for fewest calories. You'll want to scroll past some of the meaty fishy stuff near the top, but you'll find many veggie sources on the list.

Be aware that many plant sources of protein aren't complete proteins: They don't include the correct balance of all the essential amino acids for best nutrition. Therefore, it's good to include a variety of sources in your eating, and perhaps even learn a bit about how to vary them, in order to get best nutrition. Also, there are other nutrients that can be challenging to get from plants, like (especially) Vitamin B-12. A little bit of reading about vegan/vegetarian nutrition, from authoritative sources, not "alt-health" blogs, is a good plan.

I have to say, if I were in advice mode, I'd suggest considering keeping some amount of the meats/fish you enjoy in your eating, in smaller quantities, but setting goals of increasing plant foods (like getting 5-10 or more veggie/fruit servings daily). It's socially easier, easier to hit a calorie goal while getting enough protein, etc. This is pretty much what I always suggest, unless someone has an ethical reason to eliminate some/all animal foods.

Best wishes!