Any Vegans here?

Yogi_Carl

I am not all that happy about eating animal products, but I understand I need to keep up my protein intake when reducing weight and am concerned that all those carbs on a vegan diet may stand in the way of me losing weight.

Any vegans out there?

lainie1949

I have been plant based since the end of August. I have had a few slips but still I have lost 10 lbs. It can be done. Good luck to you on your journey.

zhidecitta

I'm a vegan, and it really isn't that bad to get your protein. Try focusing on eating more beans, lentils, quinoa, soy, nuts, gluten (seitan). and peas. Also, if you're going to be working out, they make vegan friendly protein drinks. Pea, rice, and hemp are all used to make the protein shakes. The problem isn't so much getting protein, as it is getting the right ratio. Quinoa is a pseudograin, and has a more calories than ideal. Personally, I am a huge fan of the beans and lentils. You can cook them a thousand ways, and they're high protein. Being a vegan though, you want to make sure you eat at least two different categories of protein to make sure you're getting the complete set of amino acids. There are charts out there that show what kind of things complement eachother well, and a quick google gives me this:
http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/images/complementary-protein-chart.gif

So it shouldn't stop you from losing weight, but just make sure not to eat all your calories in carbs and have nothing left for protein. As a vegan, it's really easy to end up eating nothing but carbs in a day if you're not careful.

miamartin88

I am having the same problem. I do not want to start eating any kind of meat but I am considering eating fish just to cut down the amount of carbs I eat. I am 126 pounds and want to lose around 10 pounds, and I go to the gym 4 times a week doing purely cardio, but am seriously struggling. I can only put this down to the amount of carbs.

La3l

I am whole food plant based too. As long as the carbs are whole foods...not processed like oats, qunioa, and sweet potatoes you should continue to lose weight. You get plenty of protein from especially black and kidney beans.

beautifulswan1

I have been plant-based since March of 2011. I find that I seem to be lacking the protein department as well. Looking to improve that! Nice to meet everyone!

redraidergirl2009

Hi, I'm vegan. Recently someone told me to watch out my carbs since I'm vegan so I was curious and looked back at my entries before I was vegan and on average, I ate 100g more carbs back then than I do now. Food for thought.

Eating lots of veggies will aid in protein since they pretty much all have some and things like quinoa, beans, tobuleh, concouse, ect are very high in protein. You would have to be calorie deficient in order to not get enough protein.

zhidecitta

If you're eating veggies, yeah, it's easy to get your protein. The protein concerns are incredibly over blown by most people. Unfortunately, I have an amazing double dark chocolate brownie recipe that's vegan safe, and could easily fill a day's calorie quota. A person who eats entirely starches and breads is still vegan by definition. There shouldn't be any protein worries for anyone who's eating fresh foods and home cooked meals though, whatever they are.

uhhuthatsright

Hi! I'm vegan too. I have a favorite low calorie dish you might like.
We call it mixed grill. (I bought a grill wok to make it in. It was only like $10 at Target) Take a whole package of woodstock organic extra firm Tofu and cut it into 1 inch rectangles. Cut up veggies like green beans, bell pepper, onion, carrot, celery,mushroom, hot peppers,eggplants, etc. Sprinkle with a natural vinagrette. If you have time let it marinate if not just put it on the grill as is.
If you have extra calories to spare you can add pineapple chunks or canned potato to the mix. You can make this dish Asian, Mexican, or Italian depending on what herbs you put in the vinagrette. We useally eat it as is. But you can eat it over brown rice or in a tortillas. It's also good on top of green salad.
It's great to take to parties since it only takes 15 min. to prep. You can throw it on the grill while you're getting ready. I like to serve it in a big wooden salad bowl. Everybody always likes it carnivores, low carbers, dudes & ladies. And to top it all off it's cheap! This has about 10 g. of protein per serving.