Vegetarian/Vegan Diet for months and NO weight loss?

Lives2Travel

Vegans tend to eat more carbs than a person who eats a omnivore diet, because its a diet based on pulses like beans and lentils, grains, veggies, fruits which are wholly made up of the macronutrient carbohydrate, thus you are probably consuming a low protein, high carb diet. I am not saying this is a bad thing at all, but even if you eat protein rich foods like beans and broccoli - you have to consume A LOT before you get adequate protein levels. Have you ever looked at a macronutrient breakdown of your calorie intake?
I tried veganism and found it hard because not he days my body wasn't burning all those stored carbs, I felt like I had to eat less to compensate. Hence I went back to dairy but no meat just fish.

What does this have to do with lack of weight weight loss?

The reason the OP isn't losing weight has nothing to do with "macronutrient breakdown", but rather the fact they are not consuming less calories than they are burning.

To counteract your little piece of "anectdata"... I have what most people consider a very high carb to protein ratio (55/15) and yet, I'm consistently losing weight, not finding it hard, and not feeling hungry.

P.S. Your body doesn't have any stored carbs, only stored fat. Unused carbs are turned into fat, however, if you're eating at a deficit, you don't have any unused carbs, so problem solved.

I think you'll find macronutrient breakdown has everything to do with weight loss results. Lets take two people. both who have a BMRR (maintenance) of 2300 calories, so they start eating at a deficit of 500 calories. Person 1 eats 1800 calories of 80% carbs with 20% of protein and fats in one day. And Person 2 who eats the exact same amount of 1800 calories of 30-40% protein, 30% healthy fats and 30% complex carbs. Which do you think will lose fat the fastest? Yes they will both lose weight as they are eating at a large calorific deficit, but the person who is getting a good 30-40% of their calories from protein will accelerate the fat loss at a much quicker rate.

Why? because protein builds muscle - and more muscle burns fat.

Sigh..... you cannot build significant (if any) muscle while eating at a deficit. For this reason, the breakdown of calories does not matter for speed of weight loss.

dcarter1020

You need to eat at a calorie deficit regardless of what foods you chose to eat or not eat. Good luck.

This ^^. I actually gained weight when I became vegetarian. It took me many moons to understand how to properly fuel my body. I also had to add in exercise and lifting. I think it's hard for people to give suggestions when we have no idea the quantity you're eating. Logging has been the most important thing for me on my weight loss journey. It's made me more accountable. If I'm not logging it, then the only person I'm cheating is myself. Add me and you can take a look at my diary. Good luck!