Mystery of the fat vegan
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in a word - potato chips. Seems simple enough!0
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Wow - kudos for tracking your food types and amounts. It is a little crazy to think someone eating raw could gain weight, but if you're not eating enough satisfying foods, I can absolutely see how you would over-eat. Congrats on losing now and I wish you luck on your goal!0
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An imperfect vegan or "veganish diet" is a vegetarian. It is a clear black and white definition - no animal products of any kind. If you want to eggs fine, but then you're a vegetarian. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Likewise you're either a virgin or you're not. But when you start eating meat, that's so far away from being a vegan, it confuses meat eaters whom you tell that you are a vegan. She's just someone that eats some meatless meals.
^This
I have been vegetarian for around 20 years. I was vegan for about 1 week a month ago, now I'm back on the cheese and eggs but still have non dairy milk. That makes me vegetarian again...not vegan
Also of course you can have a fat vegan the same as you can have a fat anything. My friend makes the most amazing vegan cakes....0 -
I am glad you mentioned this, I still say I am 'transitioning to vegan' (It's been 3 months since I ate meat (side note I kept thinking of Dim Sum so I had a 'last meat meal' so I would stop thinking about it, it totally worked because I felt so sick for a day after eating it so I am not tempted anymore,) but only 2 weeks since I last ate dairy) because I have a very hard time finding vegan dishes when I go out to eat. I don't really eat bread or pasta anymore if I don't make it at home and know what is in it. (mostly because I did that and I ended up a fat vegetarian, then an even fatter Standard American Diet (SAD) person) Still, I am a fat person trying to be a vegan, and I'm not comfortable mentioning my choice when I go out because of the judgmental stare. I order off the vegetarian menu, always make sure there to ask to leave off eggs when applicable but I haven't worked up to asking if they use vegetable oil or butter. I am happy when I go to places where dishes are clearly labeled vegan, or just get a salad but I know that I am not a 'real' vegan until I am able to dine out without consuming any animal products. I was (or thought I was) a vegetarian for ethical reasons but I realized I was only lying to myself, and for me I found it hard to really draw lines as far as what is okay and not okay as a vegetarian, so I would like to just exclude all animal products in the future. Of course, since I am fat, I have to admit 'health reasons' was what inspired me to get back on the wagon.0
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Very true! Just because you're vegan or vegetarian doesn't mean you're eating healthy foods. I have a friend that is vegan and complains about her weight when she is always eating potato chips, french fries, lots of pasta, and breads. Hmm! I don't know why you have problems with weight!
Just goes to show we all can make poor food choices :ohwell:0 -
HFCS and concentrated fructose has nothing to do with not being a vegan though since they're both plant bi-products...?
Tell that to every vegan who uses agave syrup then since it contains more concentrated fructose than HFCS.
I am a newly vegan and making some adjustments by adding egg whites and possibly fish. If that makes me no longer vegan, so be it. I can live with that.
Umm....please don't call yourself a vegan.
I agree, if you're purposefully eating egg and fish, don't call yourself vegan. Eating fish isn't even vegetarian. When someone walks into a restaurant and orders fish and says they're vegan or vegetarian, it makes it harder for everyone else who is actually vegetarian because now that restaurant, that server, and any friends this person happens to be with, now believes that fish is vegetarian and they will be likely to serve it to others in the future. I commend you for cutting out your consumption of most animal foods 100%, but don't label yourself inaccurately.
Anyway, on subject, people have asked me why I'm overweight as a vegan and I just kind of stare at them. I ate a lot of carbs, I ate too much junk food. My portions were too large. In short, I'm fat for the same reason most people are!0 -
An imperfect vegan or "veganish diet" is a vegetarian. It is a clear black and white definition - no animal products of any kind. If you want to eggs fine, but then you're a vegetarian. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Likewise you're either a virgin or you're not. But when you start eating meat, that's so far away from being a vegan, it confuses meat eaters whom you tell that you are a vegan. She's just someone that eats some meatless meals.
^This
I have been vegetarian for around 20 years. I was vegan for about 1 week a month ago, now I'm back on the cheese and eggs but still have non dairy milk. That makes me vegetarian again...not vegan
Also of course you can have a fat vegan the same as you can have a fat anything. My friend makes the most amazing vegan cakes....
Words do have meaning and yes vegan = no animal products. But even when I was hardcore vegan for years at a time, I later found out I *wasn't.* Why? My bagels had dough conditioners made from slaughterhouse-derived hair and feathers that weren't listed on the label. Does that mean I wasn't vegan? I certainly wasn't pure, even if my intent was.
I call myself 'vegan-ish' mainly because when I eat out, I expect egg and dairy to sneak in somehow--the bread, crackers, sauces...that sort of thing. I used to be *that* vegan who interrogated the wait staff like the Spanish Inquisition. I probably ruined many waiters' shifts in my day.
I don't eat any meat of any kind--fish, chicken, pork, cow, etc. But I don't sweat the small stuff, and I am clear to waiters that I am 100% vegetarian, but try my best to not eat eggs and dairy. So I'm not ordering overtly non-vegan foods. That said, there are some rare occasions when dairy will tempt me--probably a couple times a month. That's another reason I call myself 'vegan-ish' which means that around 98% of my calories are plant-based, with maybe 2% coming from dairy.0 -
An imperfect vegan or "veganish diet" is a vegetarian. It is a clear black and white definition - no animal products of any kind. If you want to eggs fine, but then you're a vegetarian. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Likewise you're either a virgin or you're not. But when you start eating meat, that's so far away from being a vegan, it confuses meat eaters whom you tell that you are a vegan. She's just someone that eats some meatless meals.
I was waiting for the vegan police to arrive...
No eating eggs every now and then is not purely vegan, but it is more about what we are striving for. I'm sorry if eating something last week with dairy in it disqualifies me as being totally vegan, but if someone is inviting me to dinner and asks what sort of foods I like, I'm not going to fumble around and tell them, "Well, I mostly eat vegan but occasionally I've had pasta served to me with some shredded cheese on top and I didn't want to be rude so I just set the vegan-o-meter back and call myself a vegetarian." No. I'm going to tell someone I eat a vegan diet, because I am striving to be fully vegan. We are simply human. We try our best and sometimes, we don't follow through.
I won't be the annoying kid who says, well, I'm vegan but I still eat butter, but it sure as hell isn't as annoying as the person who has the call everyone out because they aren't 100% vegan 24/7.0 -
Top 10 reasons why I cannot begin to fathom why people don't understand how you can be fat and vegan:
(1) Nuts, seeds, and peanuts
(2) Nut and peanut butter
(3) Avocados
(4) Yummy vegan baked goods
(5) Vegan chocolate
(6) Cliff/Lara/Pure bars
(7) Dried fruit
(8) Bread, brown rice, (vegan) whole wheat pasta, potatoes, sweet potatoes, quinoa
(9) Hummus (especially with vegan chips or crackers)
(10) High quality olive oil
Notice that many of those are allowable on whole foods vegan diets (e.g. avocados, nuts).
People gain weight because they eat more calories than their body uses--you can do this as an omni, you can do this as a vegan, and you can do this anywhere in between.0 -
Nothing. Its just some of my vegan friends state they only wish to eat foods that naturally occur in nature yet they splurge on agave or other products that have concentrated fructoseWhat does agave syrup have to do with killing animals?
Okay. I got it now. But, their sweetening choice isn't so much about being vegan, is it? I know some vegans avoid granulated refined sugar because they don't know if it's beet or cane sugar. Cane sugar *can* be processed through bone char, which is objectionable to some vegans. Beet sugar is fine, but the source of sugar--beet or cane--is rarely stated on labels.
Just FYI, foods processed with bone char cannot be labeled organic, so all sugar labeled organic has been processed without bone char (i.e. it's vegan).0 -
Totally possible to be a fat vegan! I think maybe 20 years ago it would have been hard, but now with the availability of vegan junk food and sweets, it's so easy to go overboard. Plus all the amazing vegan cookbooks...Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World? Um...yeah. It is waaaaaay easy to make decadent treats that just so happen to be vegan.
Not that there's anything wrong with that! I love that I have so many options and can make naughty desserts just like the rest of them. But it just means that modern-day vegans have to watch what they eat and use moderation on treats just like everyone else.0 -
As a fellow vegan, I found one of the best things I did to help build/maintain muscle while I was loosing weight was eat have shakes with vegan protein powder. They do taste very good if you mix them with the right stuff.
I would go onto an impartial review site like http://veganproteinpowders.net and pick one that tasted good and buy it. You will not regret it the difference between having protein and not is like night and day.0 -
I won't be the annoying kid who says, well, I'm vegan but I still eat butter, but it sure as hell isn't as annoying as the person who has the call everyone out because they aren't 100% vegan 24/7.
If you meant me, I was saying I know I won't be vegan until I can stop eating butter.0 -
I won't be the annoying kid who says, well, I'm vegan but I still eat butter, but it sure as hell isn't as annoying as the person who has the call everyone out because they aren't 100% vegan 24/7.
If you meant me, I was saying I know I won't be vegan until I can stop eating butter.
I think she was just speaking generally.0 -
Totally possible to be a fat vegan! I think maybe 20 years ago it would have been hard, but now with the availability of vegan junk food and sweets, it's so easy to go overboard. Plus all the amazing vegan cookbooks...Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World? Um...yeah. It is waaaaaay easy to make decadent treats that just so happen to be vegan.
Not that there's anything wrong with that! I love that I have so many options and can make naughty desserts just like the rest of them. But it just means that modern-day vegans have to watch what they eat and use moderation on treats just like everyone else.
While I love vegan baked goods (and avoid them for obvious reasons) I'm certain I could get fat if I didn't limit my intake of nuts/seeds, avocado, and brown rice--all of which were available in the U.S. 20-30 years ago (or at least in California where I lived as a child and ate all of the above regularly). You do not need to eat junk food to get fat, all you need to do is eat more calories than your body needs to sustain itself.0 -
Bump for later0
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Thumbs up on that, Vegetarian for 22 years, vegan for 1, steadily put on weight when went vego, cheese bread carbs.. Very easy to be an overweight vegan, You really gotta watch those Faux meats too, really calorie dense..0
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also, just because its vegan it doesnt mean its healthy, you can get vegan cookies, theyre still cookies, filled with sugar and carbs and calories. its possible to be overweight no matter how or what you eat sometimes0
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An imperfect vegan or "veganish diet" is a vegetarian. It is a clear black and white definition - no animal products of any kind. If you want to eggs fine, but then you're a vegetarian. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Likewise you're either a virgin or you're not. But when you start eating meat, that's so far away from being a vegan, it confuses meat eaters whom you tell that you are a vegan. She's just someone that eats some meatless meals.
I was waiting for the vegan police to arrive...
No eating eggs every now and then is not purely vegan, but it is more about what we are striving for. I'm sorry if eating something last week with dairy in it disqualifies me as being totally vegan, but if someone is inviting me to dinner and asks what sort of foods I like, I'm not going to fumble around and tell them, "Well, I mostly eat vegan but occasionally I've had pasta served to me with some shredded cheese on top and I didn't want to be rude so I just set the vegan-o-meter back and call myself a vegetarian." No. I'm going to tell someone I eat a vegan diet, because I am striving to be fully vegan. We are simply human. We try our best and sometimes, we don't follow through.
I won't be the annoying kid who says, well, I'm vegan but I still eat butter, but it sure as hell isn't as annoying as the person who has the call everyone out because they aren't 100% vegan 24/7.
This is a really important point about clear lines.....
Its great to be a 'Vegetarian' and try to avoid Dairy, Your striving forward, raising the Vegetarian bar, But if you say your a Vegan who eats dairy occasionally, your regressing, or lowering the vegan bar, and thats what causes the problem
I get that its a personal journey and its a good argument to say Oh its what were striving for, thats true in alot of ways, but you've spent alot more time thinking about it than Meat eaters... calling yourself vegan when technically your not REALLY hurts those of us who avoid 100%
Your a Vegetarian if you eat dairy, theres nothing wrong with that! but calling yourself 'veganish' deminishes the Vegan term, Be a proud Vegetarian! thats cool!! and avoid dairy when you want/strive for it - if your part time vegan dont use the vegan term in restaurants or with meat eaters, as you confuse them and make it much harder for 100% vegans
its tough for me when i order something and have to keep explaining no dairy because the waiter has a friend whos 'vegan' but eats cheese or drinks cows milk..... ive had to explain menus to cafe chefs who had a vegan sign on dish when it had cheese.. 'Oh my mates vegan and he eats cheese' ..... then hes not vegan dude... hes vegetarian, and your a professional cook?
Its so important to draw the lines, ive eaten dairy accidentally because i presumed the feta was vegan as the dish had a vegan sign.. Im not sure if the 'Veganish' (and i mean all people who are occasional vegans) can truely understand how awful a reaction that causes, other than to say to them, imagine you accidentally ate dog or cat because someone thought they where vegetarian..... And all because there is confusion about what is true Vegan.... the veganish, though well intentioned are largely the cause of this confusion, Be a proud vegetarian, i was for 22 years before pushing onto veganism!
I hope i dont come across as a vegan police @sshole, i really respect where the OP and all of us are coming from on meatless diets, and i know we're all on our own path! this post isnt directed at anyone in particular, im just trying to highlight why its important to stick to the terms, even when a vegetarian i hated people presuming i was pescetarian and including fish sauce etc in meals... again because people who are pesco say 'Im a vegetarian but i eat fish', no dude your a pescetarian.. and your confusing the normal meat eating population by blurring the lines...0 -
I'm just starting to make the transition to a vegetarian based diet and browsing a few vegetarian/vegan forums and sites, I'm surprised at how much processed/high calorie foods are promoted. I've been reading lot of threads focused on getting in specific nutriients and most seem to be eating high calorie/high carb fortified cereals, breads and milks. Since I'm mostly wheat free and totally milk (of any kind) free, I'm kind of the odd man out for not eating any of these fortified foods lol. But, my calorie intake is also very low compared to some of those eating those other things. I can definitley see how it would be easy to gain weight being a vegetarian/vegan!0
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Top 10 reasons why I cannot begin to fathom why people don't understand how you can be fat and vegan:
(1) Nuts, seeds, and peanuts
(2) Nut and peanut butter
(3) Avocados
(4) Yummy vegan baked goods
(5) Vegan chocolate
(6) Cliff/Lara/Pure bars
(7) Dried fruit
(8) Bread, brown rice, (vegan) whole wheat pasta, potatoes, sweet potatoes, quinoa
(9) Hummus (especially with vegan chips or crackers)
(10) High quality olive oil
Notice that many of those are allowable on whole foods vegan diets (e.g. avocados, nuts).
People gain weight because they eat more calories than their body uses--you can do this as an omni, you can do this as a vegan, and you can do this anywhere in between.
Agree completely. And if you don't care as much about completely eating whole foods: Oreos and nutter butters (depending on your view of sugar), French fries and onion rings, potato chips, soy or coconut ice cream, cashew cheeses.... The list goes on and on for foods as high in calories as their non-vegan equivalents. I made a vegan goat cheese from cashews recently and, although very tasty, it had more calories than the real stuff.
I gained about 10 pounds when I switched my diet about three years ago because I starving all the time due to the decrease in protein in my diet. I adjusted eventually and the weight did come off again.0 -
Well considering carbs come from non-animal sources this shouldn't be a surprise at all.0
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Aren't Oreos a vegan safe food?0
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Aren't Oreos a vegan safe food?
Depends on the individual's view. Some vegans don't eat refined cane sugar as it can be processed with bone char.0 -
I'm a fat vegan who eats mostly whole foods. One of my biggest issues- BEER! Some vegans abstain from alcohol, but many do not. A lot of trendy, hipster-type places that serve yummy vegan food also serve yummy micro-brews that can reach 200 cals a glass. MFP helped me realize just how many calories I was wasting on beer specifically, and alcohol more generally.0
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Also, many vegans consume agave as an animal-free alternative to honey, whether or not they care about the bone char sugar. Agave, though not exactly like honey in taste or texture, has a similar enough consistency and sweetness that it makes a decent substitute.0
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Date Sugar seems to be the only "nutritious sweetener". It's just dried and pulverized dates - and is "off the charts" better (in comparison with all other sweeteners (except Black Strap Molasses - which is a close 2nd).
I'm laughing my @ss off...reading these comments by people who are whining about being "fat vegans" (even Fat (Raw Food) Vegans.
Yes - if you eat 27 TBSP of tahini every day (with 15 TBSP of peanut butter for dessert) - you will probably gain weight.
Hopefully everyone has now heard of Whole-Food/Plant-Based (WFPB)?? (T. Colin Campbell, Caldwell and Rip Esselstyn, Dr. John McDougal)?0 -
My question would be...why are you eating egg whites and fish?
You can't think that it's good for the chickens or the cows...so you must think that you need the protein?
Please read "The China Study" and/or "Whole" by T. Colin Campbell
Human Breast Milk is 5 or 6% protein...but most people are consuming 15 or 20%...and running around freaking out and worrying about not getting enough protein...and buying supplements and protein drinks, etc.
Virtually nobody in America is protein deficient.0 -
100%
When I went vegan two years ago, I maintained for about 2 months then started to gain because of all the larabars I kept eating and vegan baking I was doing! I remember making cashew cheese from 2-3 cups of cashews and eating nearly the entire thing within 2-3 days. It doesn't help that no one else in my family didnt really want to eat some of the healthier food I made, so I had to justify eating it so it wouldn't go bad. But of course, I was overweight because I ate over calories and didnt workout, the diet itself (if done correctly) isn't to blame.Top 10 reasons why I cannot begin to fathom why people don't understand how you can be fat and vegan:
(1) Nuts, seeds, and peanuts
(2) Nut and peanut butter
(3) Avocados
(4) Yummy vegan baked goods
(5) Vegan chocolate
(6) Cliff/Lara/Pure bars
(7) Dried fruit
(8) Bread, brown rice, (vegan) whole wheat pasta, potatoes, sweet potatoes, quinoa
(9) Hummus (especially with vegan chips or crackers)
(10) High quality olive oil
Notice that many of those are allowable on whole foods vegan diets (e.g. avocados, nuts).
People gain weight because they eat more calories than their body uses--you can do this as an omni, you can do this as a vegan, and you can do this anywhere in between.
Agree completely. And if you don't care as much about completely eating whole foods: Oreos and nutter butters (depending on your view of sugar), French fries and onion rings, potato chips, soy or coconut ice cream, cashew cheeses.... The list goes on and on for foods as high in calories as their non-vegan equivalents. I made a vegan goat cheese from cashews recently and, although very tasty, it had more calories than the real stuff.
I gained about 10 pounds when I switched my diet about three years ago because I starving all the time due to the decrease in protein in my diet. I adjusted eventually and the weight did come off again.0 -
Human Breast Milk is 5 or 6% protein...but most people are consuming 15 or 20%...and running around freaking out and worrying about not getting enough protein...and buying supplements and protein drinks, etc.
Virtually nobody in America is protein deficient.
I'm just wondering, what the heck does human breast milk have to do with anything? If you're trying to compare the amount of protein that babies get from breast milk with the protein recommendations for adults I think you're way off base. Babies have different nutritional needs than adults because of how their bodies and brains are developing, and their nutritional needs change as they grow.
Back on topic, I totally get how it can be so easy to eat more calories as a vegan. In high school one of my friends went vegan and lived on popcorn drenched in vegan butter and salt, and candy.0
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