Vegan + active but gaining.

Noamsh
Noamsh Posts: 79 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So this is actually about my mom and not myself.
She's 50 y/o, and has always been naturally thin. A couple of years back she switched to a vegan diet and started working out 4-6 times a week (mostly low impact) and was in great shape. A few months ago she quit smoking, and even though her nutrition and exercise regimen did not change, she started gaining a lot of weight, and still is (all fat, not muscle).
And honestly, she's driving me crazy to try to figure out what's wrong with her. =P

Any ideas what might be the cause?

Replies

  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
    She's eating too much.
  • Noamsh
    Noamsh Posts: 79 Member
    Sorry, I forgot to say, I counted cals for her for a couple of days, she's eating around 1500 a day. (5'2, 115 lbs)
  • MadameLAL
    MadameLAL Posts: 108
    Your subject line should read 'My mother quit smoking and is gaining weight.' This can happen with any diet. Just have her log her intake, either here or manually. I suspect she is grazing more. Also smoking raises the metabolism slightly, so she may need slightly less calories to maintain her weight.
  • lucasmoten
    lucasmoten Posts: 143 Member
    Recommend logging religiously.

    I quit smoking last year and didn't endure any weight gain as a result. The only thing I know that is influenced is once you quit, you need slightly less vitamin C (though more wont hurt), and metabolism may be slightly lower. The latter could influence weight gain if all other things are equal, but you'd need to be measuring religiously before and after to notice the impact.

    When I first quit, I ended up going through lots of hard candies and sugar-free gum. The stuff adds up. For me it was about 100+ calories a day that I had to offset by reducing my caloric intake in other areas.
  • MadameLAL
    MadameLAL Posts: 108
    Sorry, I forgot to say, I counted cals for her for a couple of days, she's eating around 1500 a day. (5'2, 115 lbs)

    The older you get, the fewer calories you need. My maintenance calories with no activity is less than 10 calories per pound of body weight. I'm 59. If she's at all like me, that means 1,150 calories per day, plus whatever she burns in exercise. That's not much.
  • QuilterInVA
    QuilterInVA Posts: 672 Member
    1500 too many calories. She really needs to do strength training to build muscle and to lose fat and not muscle. I'm 72, 5'3" and I only loose if I eat 1200 calories and to and hour of cardio daily and 45 minutes of strength training 3 times a week. I also do low carb because carbs cause water storage - 1 gram of carb causes 4 grams of water to be absorbed.

    The other thing is she is at a normal weight for her height. She needs to do strength training to tone up her body, not lose more weight.

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