has anybody lost weight by cutting out meat?

daniellealys

i gained 20lbs over a few years after becoming a vegetarian. sounds silly but i got fat. I dont recommend it. I am now paleo for 4 months and have lost 40lbs!

bcattoes

I cut out red meat in July of last year. Mostly, it was to give myself a challenge and something to focus on besides "losing weight". It gave me a small victory each day in order keep myself charged up. I agree with the earlier poster, that it comes down to calories. I think 100 calories of chicken and 100 calories of steak, are 100 calories.

100 calories of chicken and 100 calories of steak are both still 100 calories of meat. But 100 calories of beans is different. Not calorie wise, but nutrient content wise.

Nutrient wise steak and chicken is fairly different too. Where do you draw the line?

Look at 8oz of beef tenderloin vs 8oz of boneless/skinless chicken breast.

Draw what line? The line between meat and veggies is pretty clear, I think.

spirit80

Meat everyday. Bacon, steak, chicken, pork, and turkey. I like Variety!

belgerian

I have not cut out meat I just dont eat it all that much any more becouse of all the processing that goes on, I still enjoy a nice steak or hamburger every now and then just more often then than now. My weight loss had to do with a calorie deficit by eating healthier and excercise.

jadedone

I don't think it is the most practical choice. I find if I don't have meat, I tend to replace it with the wrong items.

I feel better with a certain balance of macros. If I go too far off, I don't fell satiated. And that includes the protein target.

Play around with your macros and portions for a 3 week period and monitor how you feel.

Personally, I have problems keeping up my iron, so going vegan would be pretty hard. My body actually starts craving red meat when I am low on iron.

I tend towards chicken and fish when cooking at home. And beef and pork when I go out. But I totally hear you on the chemical laden conventional meat, I stick with free range/organic/grassfed etc as much as possible. I am lucky, since where I live, this is even common in the takeout places!

lithezebra

I lost weight by putting meat back in my diet, and not only fish, but chicken and beef too. I mostly buy organic, or free range at least.

BellehavenfarmDawn

I don't eat any meat fish or dairy. Like others I am following Eat To Live. Just today my doctor Halved pressure meds. My healthy eating did that! a month ago I stopped taking any thing of arthritis because I feel great.

I have lost 20 lbs in 3 months, but only the last three weeks has been healthy plant based. In the months before I was eliminating craving drinks and foods, one by one.

I am never hungry. Big change was having a cup or more of beans, eating way more veg...raw and cooked.

the exciting part is that this is so good for you. when I first read the book I thought I couldn't do it but now it is easy. Dr. Fuhrman also wrote Health for Life which details a step by step approach. I haven't read it.

also organic or not, most animals don't have a decent life nor a humane death. that's an issue for me but I know not for everyone.

forks over Knives movie on Netflix was educational for me.

We have a group here is you are interested in learning more. best wishes!

Dawn

judydelo1

I was put on a vegan diet in August by my health practitioner for health reasons and I lost 10 lbs in roughly 5 months without counting calories or exercising.

I feel so much better and now I have the incentive to keep going. So I'm counting cals and I've began exercising.

If you decide to go vegetarian or vegan . . . just don't become a junk food vegetarian. I know a vegetarian that doesn't eat ANY vegetables except for french fries. Now THAT'S not healthy.

judydelo1

I don't eat any meat fish or dairy. Like others I am following Eat To Live. Just today my doctor Halved pressure meds. My healthy eating did that! a month ago I stopped taking any thing of arthritis because I feel great.

I have lost 20 lbs in 3 months, but only the last three weeks has been healthy plant based. In the months before I was eliminating craving drinks and foods, one by one.

I am never hungry. Big change was having a cup or more of beans, eating way more veg...raw and cooked.

the exciting part is that this is so good for you. when I first read the book I thought I couldn't do it but now it is easy. Dr. Fuhrman also wrote Health for Life which details a step by step approach. I haven't read it.

also organic or not, most animals don't have a decent life nor a humane death. that's an issue for me but I know not for everyone.

forks over Knives movie on Netflix was educational for me.

We have a group here is you are interested in learning more. best wishes!

Dawn

Hi . . .do you mind me asking . . . what's the group you're referring to?

zillah73

i gained 20lbs over a few years after becoming a vegetarian. sounds silly but i got fat. I dont recommend it. I am now paleo for 4 months and have lost 40lbs!

Doesn't sound silly to me. I have a friend who has been a vegetarian as long as I have known her and far longer than me and she is quite heavy. She is probably the pickiest eater I have ever seen and pretty much subsists off white pasta, bread, cheese and a small array of other orange/tan foods. I am not remotely surprised she struggles with weight and feeling crappy. It isn't about the meat, it's about the quality and variety of food, nutrients, calorie intake, etc. Whether you eat meat or not, you gotta sometimes eat the yummy green stuff. :laugh:

keegalie

bwahaha omg that made my night

rm7161

Lost 60 lbs without cutting out meat. Heck I even eat the skin on the chicken

If you feel you want to be vegetarian for ethical reasons... that's fine. But you don't have to cut out anything really in order to lose weight, just eat less overall maintaining a calorie deficit will do the trick.

theskinnylist

I lost 68 lbs going vegan.

justal313

Are you going to not eat meat for the rest of your life. When I was 27 I weighed 263 pounds and I cut all meat out of my diet (and a LOT of the fat) and lost over 80 pounds. 2 years after I lost all the weight I had fish and then fish became chicken and chicken became beef and pork. I put all the weight back.

All I am doing now is exercising and eating sensible portions. I've lost 97 pounds, I'm 3 pounds away from my goal and the ONLY thing I've stopped eating is potato chips inside my tuna sandwiches. I drink beer just not as much, I have dessert, just not as much and I exercise.

But yes, you can lose weight by cutting out meat as long as you dont replace the meat with crap, but this would totally be because you stopped eating 20oz of fat laden beef at the drop of a hat. Meat in and of itself isn't specifially bad, just some cuts of meat are more calorically dense.

My biggest piece of advice is not to buy meat replacements that supposedly taste like meat. A black bean veggie burger is awesome. A "hamburger" flavored boca burger is awful.

Just make sure you are eating vegetarian because you don't want to eat meat not because you want to lose weight, that won't last forever.

rm7161

Just make sure you are eating vegetarian because you don't want to eat meat not because you want to lose weight, that won't last forever.

Exactly. Cutting out various foods is not a silver bullet to weight loss. However you create that calorie deficit, is how it is done. People mainly go vegetarian because this is their ethical viewpoint, it's far more than just a diet to lose weight for most. You can be an overweight vegetarian as easily as an overweight meat eater... it's all about overeating.

jennaworksout

my friend is a vegetarian, and she has gained weight so depends on what you eat even thought its not meat.

andybuzzo

I lost 20lbs by cutting out meat. in less than 2 months no exorcise

RjoyD

I always gain weight and feel horrible when I don't eat some type of meat, but then again it might actually equate with the level of protein my body needs as well.

Perhaps if you try eating more organic types of protein?
I realize they can be more expensive ,but if you buy sale items or just less when it comes to meat products and then fill in nutrition gaps with vegetarian type proteins (they seem to be cheaper) and/or fish(I know, also meat) you can still have healthy meat in your meals and not make yourself poor while doing it.
...Just a thought is all :-) ....

denizfindigi

For about a year I was only consuming fish (in the meat category) and for me it was really really hard to lose weight. The main reason is that fish is not the easiest thing to cook at home (I mean you cook it on the oven and on the stove for a couple of times but then it gets super boring and you do not feel like eating it any longer) and there are not many options to eat when you are eating out (after a while the grilled salmon makes you BORED - so bored that you do not feel like eating anything..)

I would always describe myself as someone who adored fish but there came a moment I realized that if this was what I was going to do for a lifetime, I was probably not going to be able to eat fish at all after a while because it started to lose all it's taste for me. So I started to eat poultry again and I am doing A LOT BETTER at losing weight.
(this may all be because I hate eggs and I was getting most of my proteins from fish which made me eat too much fish)

So.. this is my personal experience with it. I am wishing you the best but remember that it is not as easy as it feels like in the beginning.