Should I Vegan? Broad topic.

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slingshotsparro
slingshotsparro Posts: 34 Member
in Food and Nutrition
In the last 24 hours, I have begun an interest in a vegan lifestyle. I am even looking at a serious set of vegan hiking boots called the "mountain masochists". (love that name). I have dabbled in Vegetarian lifestyle at one point, but gained enormous amounts of weight. (I subbed most of my meats for cheese. Honest mistake.)

Aside from the obvious planetary effect, and humanitarian statements, I am also curious about how this will affect my dieting efforts. I am a huge over eater. And an emotional eater. And I have limited impulse control. The theory is that a vegan diet may be what I need to give my diet some guidance. Unfortunately, I think that extra restriction will only send me spiraling into an overeat of defiance and enormous proportions.

Tell me about your experiences having to do with this subject matter. Is Veganism something you have tried or are trying now? Have any of you tried and then been unsuccessful? Is this something you would never consider? Do you have a lack of impulse control, or have a high rebellion rate to restriction? Chime in!
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  • svanhoecke
    svanhoecke Posts: 266
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    I am a vegan! I have been since last May. I love it. I feel lighter and less bloated all the time. I have more energy and have gotten sick less. (This is all just what I personally have experience). There are some great documentaries on Netflix you should check out for info about the health benefits of switching to plant based. Forks Over Knives, Food Matters, The Engine 2 Diet and more!

    Add me as a friend if you want some support!
  • psych0kitty
    psych0kitty Posts: 313
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    I was vegan for about a year in the middle of an 8-year span of vegetarianism. You have to eat carefully to make sure you get enough nutrients. I got really sick when I first started out because I thought I could just cut stuff out of my diet and be fine. WRONG. I had to drink Spirutein shakes (the vanilla is pretty good with grape juice!) and really load up on vegetables and legumes to get healthy again. Please research how to eat a healthy vegan diet.

    In terms of weight loss, you have to be careful with all the vegan products these days, because it's easy to overeat them and think it's ok since it's vegan. Yes, I've seen overweight vegans who don't cheat ever!

    The bottom line is, do what you feel is right. Try it and if after a couple of weeks, you find yourself obsessed with dairy or meat, maybe it's not right for you.
  • IeshaMonica
    IeshaMonica Posts: 35
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    i was vegetarian for two years and gained a lot of wight, thru over eating dairy and take aways. I've now been vegan for 7 weeks. i love it :) it's helped tremendously with my weight loss as i can't just snack on crap like chocolate, cheese, fast foods etc.
    there are a LOT of vegan alternatives where i live (in the UK) vegan yogurts, milk, cheese, chocolate, mayo even mock meat produce etc.
    i eat a lot of whole foods now and feel a lot more energetic, my skin has cleared up a lot and I've lost 16lbs in the first month of being vegan.
    i went vegan for ethical reasons but i personally think it is a great health boost for your body.
    if you do decide to go vegan, make sure you buy some vegan multi-vitamins :).

    add me on here if you like, i log my diary everyday and I'm always willing to answer any question just in-box me :)


    Iesha
  • lilpoindexter
    lilpoindexter Posts: 1,122 Member
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    Why would you do that? Chicken, pork and Beef are delicious.
  • kirlia
    kirlia Posts: 81 Member
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    Broad answer: yes.
  • slingshotsparro
    slingshotsparro Posts: 34 Member
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    I am a vegan! I have been since last May. I love it. I feel lighter and less bloated all the time. I have more energy and have gotten sick less. (This is all just what I personally have experience). There are some great documentaries on Netflix you should check out for info about the health benefits of switching to plant based. Forks Over Knives, Food Matters, The Engine 2 Diet and more!

    Add me as a friend if you want some support!

    I watched "veducated" on netflix last night. It's kinda what started this thought process.
  • musenchild
    musenchild Posts: 182 Member
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    You may want to post this in Happy Herbivores, there are a lot of vegans, vegetarians, v*gans of various descriptions, and "flexitarians" who would weigh in there.

    I have been vegetarian for ten years. At first, the strength of my convictions kept me from caving to "temptation" (it seems so ridiculous now!) I had a script that I would think about whenever I was finding it hard to resist. If you want to make a change and you think you will be tempted, make sure your reasons are very clear to yourself. Write them down, put them in a little list that you can remember. That helped me a lot; when I really stopped to think about it, it was not worth it.
  • slingshotsparro
    slingshotsparro Posts: 34 Member
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    Why would you do that? Chicken, pork and Beef are delicious.

    I watched a documentary depicting the treatment of livestock, and the conditions that they are subjected to. I just got sick over it. I may not end up being vegan for long, and I am certainly not starting today. But it gave me some serious "food" for thought.
  • CupcakeCrusoe
    CupcakeCrusoe Posts: 1,361 Member
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    I am experimenting with vegetarianism and veganism (although right now I'm more pescatarian because sushi is love), but if you have Netflix, two things on there to watch are "Forks Over Knives" and "Vegucated." Changed my life, along with reading "The China Study."

    Surprisingly, I really don't miss meat much at all. I occasionally want fried chicken when everyone else is eating it, but that's the worst it gets. And I honestly feel better.
  • pullipgirl
    pullipgirl Posts: 767 Member
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    I tried it but got copper poisoning from it, just do some research and make sure it's well balanced diet
  • redraidergirl2009
    redraidergirl2009 Posts: 2,560 Member
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    Well it's easy to still overeat and have a vegan diet. If you overindulge, it will not give you anymore restrictions than you have now. You can easily overeat on vegan food and there is lots of vegan junk food like oreos, chips, sodas, ect. If you are hoping that the restrictions of a vegan diet will help you meet your goals without addressing your issues of over eating then I wouldn't suggest trying to go vegan for that goal.
  • RunReadEat
    RunReadEat Posts: 37 Member
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    It doesn't have to be a big decision and you don't have to switch overnight. Start by educating yourself on plant-based foods and adding some vegan meals to your diet. You might find that you segue easily into a vegan lifestyle. Other posters are correct though that vegan does not necessarily mean healthy. So, you need to think about what you are eating and why, rather than just animal products vs. no animal products.
  • ilovedeadlifts
    ilovedeadlifts Posts: 2,923 Member
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    Why would you do that? Chicken, pork and Beef are delicious.

    this.

    I like my animal products, and would never get enough usable protein from veggies.
  • Wade406
    Wade406 Posts: 272 Member
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    Look into the McDougall diet. Or the Pam Popper diet. Or the Esselstyn diet. Or the Ornish diet. Or the Engine 2 diet. Or the Neal Barnard diet.

    All of these are a whole foods, plant-based approach to eating. No meat, no fish, no dairy or cheese, no oil. NO LIMIT on whole wheat bread, potatoes, rice, legumes, fruit, or all the other vegetables. I've been doing this for 9 weeks, and I feel and perform like I took 20 years off the clock. My lifting has improved. My rando ski racing times have drastically improved. My weight is back to my summer 2012 best weight.

    For more information search Youtube for: Tedx Kathy Freston, John McDougall the Starch Solution, Bill Clinton Esselstyn, Rip Esselstyn Engine 2, Tedx Vegan Bodybuilding.
  • Wade406
    Wade406 Posts: 272 Member
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    Why would you do that? Chicken, pork and Beef are delicious.

    this.

    I like my animal products, and would never get enough usable protein from veggies.

    Smokers like tobacco too.
    Vegetables have all the protein you need. And you can skip the eventual heart attack or stroke when you reach your senior years.
  • now_or_never13
    now_or_never13 Posts: 1,575 Member
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    Don't go Vegan for health as there are a lot of unhealthy vegans out there. Being vegan doesn't mean you will be healthy.

    If you decide to go Vegan make sure you do your research. There are a lot of things out there that you would think are vegan that aren't normally unless labelled as such (McDonald's fries in a lot of countries, Jello, some regular Sugar, marshmallows, etc). You need to research to ensure you are not consuming non-vegan foods as well as to ensure you will still get proper nutrients in your diet. Also, you will need to decide if you will be a vegan or follow a vegan diet. Full vegans will not consume anything that has animal products in it, they won't use products that were tested on animals, and they will not use/wear anything that has any animal products in it (a lot of cosmetics, lotions, shampoos, soaps, leather clothing, etc).

    I am a lacto-ovo vegetarian and it took a lot of research and such to ensure I was getting proper nutrition from my diet. I would love to go Vegan however due to finances I can't right now as a lot of vegan alternatives (mayos, cheese, yogurts, etc) are fairly expensive where I am.
  • sarahertzberger
    sarahertzberger Posts: 534 Member
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    Why would you do that? Chicken, pork and Beef are delicious.

    this.

    I like my animal products, and would never get enough usable protein from veggies.

    totally agree with this, I could never go without meats and other delicious things, God gave them to us to eat and that's what I'm going to do
  • imhungry2012
    imhungry2012 Posts: 240 Member
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    If you are seriously interested in it you should try it, sounds like others who have like it...but from what you said that you may need to find a way to control your urges/portions in general instead of putting a vegan bandaid on it? You can still over-eat vegan food and restricting yourself that much may backfire. Just a thought.

    I personally like dairy, meat and too many other things to consider it as an option!
  • Mochila09
    Mochila09 Posts: 51 Member
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    I've been vegan for 3 years now; vegetarian for about 5 years before that. Ditto what everyone else has said regarding the need to really be conscious of what you're eating so that you achieve a healthy balance. It's totally do-able!!

    As far as losing weight - going vegetarian then vegan didn't help me with that. In fact, I was running 3 miles/day, 4 days/ week, doing Jillian Michaels on my non-run days, and walking to work 4 times/week (2 miles). The scale never budged. It wasn't until I joined MFP and became aware of my calorie intake that I began to see that change. I did the crazy 1210 calories at first, and lost, then plateaued. I've now switched to TDEE. Eating 1785 calories (TDEE -20%). While I've only lost one pound (I just switched about 2 weeks ago), the change in my body has been surprising...in a great way!!

    You'll still have to deal with the issues you described (overeating, emotional eating), but it's a great trade-off in terms of all the reasons you listed for wanting to make the switch. Good luck to you!!
  • ilovedeadlifts
    ilovedeadlifts Posts: 2,923 Member
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    Vegetables have all the protein you need. And you can skip the eventual heart attack or stroke when you reach your senior years.

    Tobacco = / = meat


    And veggies aren't going to net me 180+ grams of protein per day........There's a reason there isn't an abundance of vegan bodybuilders or elite level athletes who are vegans........


    I'll gladly take the potential health risks that come along with enjoying the foods I love and being able to meet my current fitness goals.

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