Vegetarian struggling!

I am mostly vegetarian (I eat meat sparingly). I usually do breakfast smoothies or greek yogurt with fruit for breakfast and a big salad for lunch with garbonzo beans. I try to limit starchy carbs to 1 meal a day. I usually don't have problems with my calorie limits (and I'm at 1200-1300 per day).

Essentially if you replace a carb with veggies you can eat A LOT more for way fewer calories.

Good luck!

try to focus on on getting as much protein as you can (as well as a moderate amount of healthy fat--nuts/avocado/olive oil/ect. i usually get about 40g a day) while sticking to your calorie budget. everything else will fall into place. i would research high protein vegetarian recipes and substitutions. you'd be surprised at how much more food you can eat, and how much easier it is to stick to a calorie budget. starches and sugars are not good friends when trying to lose weight.

I bought "The Vegetarian Bible" cookbook, and it's wonderful! I've made several of the recipes, and they're all great. I've gone the next step to vegan and am finding, for the first time in my life, I can't always eat as many calories as I'm supposed to! The vegan meals I've been preparing are so filling! My daughter says she's experiencing the same thing. Hang in there! It takes our bodies a while to adjust to dietary changes. Meanwhile, there a millions of websites with vegetarian and/or vegan recipes. I google, search, and find ones that appeal to me, then try them out. I have a binder full of them now.

www.sanjeevkapoor.com

A wealth of vege recipes along with low fat/diabetic versions

I keep goin back to it . . .hope it helps

i am a vegetarian my diary is open feel free to take a peek , i use to eat ready prepared vege food but with the help of internet have found and tweeked a few recipes and started making my own things, been a vegetarian for 6 years now and i'm still learning

bump

Feel free to add me if you want, too! I am vegan, been at my goal for over 4 months so I do maintenance calories but my diary is open.

I've been a vegetarian for 15 years and I think I've learned how to eat pretty reasonably. My diary is open, but you can add me as a friend if you like. Last year I reduced my processed carb intake because diabetes runs in my family and I wanted to avoid that path for myself if possible. Now I eat a lot more whole grains and try to keep the "white" starches to a minimum. I'm definitely not perfect and I believe in indulging at times, but maybe you can get some inspiration at least.

I posted this for someone else recently, but I'll paste it here for you too. Various ideas for eating less starches as a vegetarian:

Stir fry dishes are actually quite delicious without rice and once you get used to the idea you don't really miss it.

Soups and stews are very filling and can be made a thousand different ways to curb whatever craving you might have. Even when I ate fewer carb I would toss in some potato, just not very much of it.

If you like casseroles and lasagnas try making something like a zucchini or eggplant parmesan where you layer up veggies in the dish instead of noodles.

Whenever you're in the mood for a sandwich, try just eating half of one but accompany it with some fresh veggies and hummus or a side of fresh fruit.

Try making a tofu scramble with loads of veggies and some melted cheese over the top. I eat this sort of thing with a couple of whole wheat or corn tortillas sometimes, but it's really tasty without it.

Scoop the seeds out of a zucchini or other squash and fill it with all kinds of tasty things. Look up "zucchini boats" on google image search and you'll be overwhelmed with ideas.

Make a pesto and toss some cooked seitan in it. Eat this with steamed veggies, over salad, in a whole grain wrap, or however else you want.

Try out spaghetti squash. There is a pretty big thread about it in the recipe forums right now: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/757783-my-favorite-spaghetti-squash-recipe-what-s-yours

Stuff peppers or tomatoes with protein of your choice, a mix of diced veggies, some seasonings, and broil with a bit of cheese.

Cook up some seitan with fresh green beans, chopped mushrooms, and slivered almonds.

It may sound a bit boring, but salads are pretty awesome and extremely versatile on a reduced carb diet. You can do a caprese salad, a taco salad, and asian salad, a salad with fruit and nuts, a salad with crumbled seasoned tofu, a salad with chickpeas or some other kind of beans... the list is pretty endless.

Chili! Low calorie, filling, easy to make, and crazy flavorful.

Shave a zucchini with a vegetable peeler and cook it in a small amount of oil or butter, then use it much how you'd use pasta. Top with some marinara and eat with a salad.