Vegetarian diet

JamieD328

I had been thinking the same thing- looking at a vegetarian diet to lose weight. While considering that a large portion of my daily calories are from meat, I thought I'd see if a "healthy" vegetarian diet included lower calorie sources of protein to cut back on the tasty animal protein that normally dominates my plate. So if there is any vegetarians I didn't offend by the tasty animal comment, I'm sure I and the original poster would like to read feed back about a properly balanced, and low calorie, vegetarian diet and whether or not its feasible to help lose weight.

Loralrose

I had been thinking the same thing- looking at a vegetarian diet to lose weight. While considering that a large portion of my daily calories are from meat, I thought I'd see if a "healthy" vegetarian diet included lower calorie sources of protein to cut back on the tasty animal protein that normally dominates my plate. So if there is any vegetarians I didn't offend by the tasty animal comment, I'm sure I and the original poster would like to read feed back about a properly balanced, and low calorie, vegetarian diet and whether or not its feasible to help lose weight.

Haha, I am not offended by "tasty animals," even if I don't agree! Personally I love me some legumes

It is definitely possible to lose weight with a balanced, low-calorie vegetarian diet. Switching to a vegetarian diet will not automatically help you lose weight, but it might be helpful for you if most of your calories are coming from meat. My problem foods are sweets and snacks, so being vegetarian has not helped me control my weight at all.

Why not try easing into it? Start out making two days a week meatless days. Try to avoid replacing meat with cheese, since that won't really help you cut calories. Try stuff like beans, peas, nuts and lentils, and increase your portions of fruits and vegetables. Find some tasty looking recipes to try - don't just sit down to a block of cold tofu! There are lots of great recipes online. Maybe cooking without meat will help you be more creative and find new, healthier meals. If you find that going vegetarian makes it easier to meet your goals, there's no reason not to do it. A vegetarian diet can be perfectly healthy - in fact I don't think there's much difference between vegetarian and omnivore diets when it comes to getting good nutrition.

You might also decide that the solution is to eat less meat or eat it less frequently instead of cutting it out entirely. Meat isn't actually that calorie dense depending on the source: one chicken breast is only 150 calories, a 4 oz serving of lean beef is about 200. Where meat becomes a problem is when you are eating several "servings" (3-4 oz) in one sitting... that'll rack up calories fast. Just remember that everything is okay in moderation.

Best of luck to you!

Aaron_K123

I was wondering if any of you's would ever consider going vegetarian as a method to loose weight? or have any of you's done it and had success from it?

Considering that I think most people overeat on carbs not protein I don't really see switching to being vegetarian as particularly useful as a weight-loss aid. If you find your difficulty in keeping your calories low is that you love meat so much you eat way to much of it I think trying to go cold turkey (no pun intended) is not going to work for you. If you don't have problems avoiding meat anyways then i doubt declaring that you are now going to avoid meat is really going to help you diet in and of itself.

IIIIISerenityNowIIIII

I've been vegetarian for 15 years and you can see I'm needing to lose quite a bit of weight. So, it doesn't necessarily help you lose weight. Cupcakes are vegetarian

Now, it may help you tremendously if you cut back on meat, but not go vegetarian. You may want to replace some fattier cuts of meat for fish or another protein more often.

It's really just about calorie deficit. You don't have to give up an entire food group in order to lose weight. I quit meat because of the inhumane living conditions meat-industry animals are raised on.

jec228

I was pescatarian (only fish) for about 4 years. i cut out all other white and red meat, pork, etc. and i have been at a healthy weight and sometimes overweight throughout those 4 years. i recently started eating chicken & turkey again this year. I originally cut it out because my mom had been pescatarian for quite some time and said she felt much better.... so i was curious to know if it would make me feel any differently too. i am inclined to always be experimenting with my diet and trying new things/cutting them out to see what works best for me.
I also read a few books about factory farms and meat production that really turned me off from eating meat for awhile anyways. I think it could be a method of weightloss if you live off of salads but that's not really ideal long term. As many others have said you can be vegetarian and still eat pizza and breadsticks so it's really what you make of it. Good luck!

daffodilsoup

All of this information is actually really informative and useful! I can see everyone's point of View and after reading through It all, each of you's make sence! I get that becoming vegetarian isn't going to instantly make you loose weight, I kind of just meant it more so if someone decided to go vegetarian whilst keeping up with exercise would they efficiently loose weight like someone who wasn't vegetarian.

But thanks heaps for replying and giving me a better understanding of it (:

I think it's harder to loose weight vegetarian. You know what's vegetarian? Cheese pizza, cake, cookies ect...

Can't omnivores eat cheese pizza, cake, and cookies too?