Low carb/ vegitarian

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ohkurt
ohkurt Posts: 11
in Food and Nutrition
Could anyone please give any advice they know about these two ways of eating, or maybe a mixture of both. Than kyou so much! :)

Replies

  • JenMc14
    JenMc14 Posts: 2,389 Member
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    What, exactly, are you looking for? Vegetarian, very basically speaking, means you don't eat meat. For some that also means fish/seafood, eggs or dairy. (Eliminating all animal products would be vegan.)

    Low carb means limiting your carb I take.some people,cut out things like grains and beans and other high carb foods entirely, others just stop at X amount of carbs, regardless of the food. Others still are sort of in between the two.
  • ohkurt
    ohkurt Posts: 11
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    Well I am trying do start a low carb, but im not entirely sure how to start, and I also am looking into vegitarian. I am looking into low carb as it has helped some family I know but I need someone who has really live by it, and knows the dos and donts.
  • Lizabelle1212
    Lizabelle1212 Posts: 252 Member
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    Are you looking to do low-carb AND vegetarian? Or either/or? Trying to do both, to me, seems like it would be difficult since people who go low-carb tend to rely so heavily on meat & eggs for a good amount of their food intake. Also, just in my humble opinion, going vegetarian should be something you do for ethics/beliefs reasons... not health reasons, because going veg doesn't automatically mean you're eating more healthily and will lose weight.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
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    There are some a great low carb groups here on MFP. I think you'd have great difficulty eating both vegetarian and low carb at the same time, and eat a varied diet, but you might be able to find someone in one of those groups who's able to manage both.

    Otherwise, you might check out websites like Atkins. All of the information on how to get started, which foods you should eat to maintain a certain carb goal, etc. would be available on their site.
  • BarbieAS
    BarbieAS Posts: 1,414 Member
    edited December 2014
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    I'm just going to put one thing out there - while both low carb and vegetarian are perfectly wonderful ways of eating if they're sustainable and enjoyable for you, you would have an EXTREMELY difficult time combining the two, at least if you mean true low carb (as in, less than 20 or so grams of carbs per day). They are nearly mutually exclusive ways of eating. As the previous poster said, when you eat "low carb," you limit/exclude carbohydrates from your diet, which means no grains, potatoes, beans, sugar, or fruit (generally). When you eat vegetarian, you exclude all sources of animal proteins. Assuming that you're ok with ovo-lacto vegetarianism (aka, eggs and dairy are fine), then you'd basically be left with eggs, cheese, butter, vegetables, and nuts and oils (and probably a couple other things, but those are the biggies). If you don't think you can eat only from those categories for the rest of your life, I wouldn't consider attempting to combine the two ways of eating.

    **ETA: I see a few others made the same point before me while I was typing my novel. Great minds, and all.
  • amanda1005
    amanda1005 Posts: 31 Member
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    I have been a vegetarian for over 12 years, and Ive been low carb for 2.... but according to everyone else, this is impossible... hmm... There are tons of groups and resources online to recipes and tips for vegketo. PM if you please.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
    edited December 2014
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    amanda1005 wrote: »
    I have been a vegetarian for over 12 years, and Ive been low carb for 2.... but according to everyone else, this is impossible... hmm... There are tons of groups and resources online to recipes and tips for vegketo. PM if you please.

    where do you get your protein? most vegetarians I know get a lot of their protein from legumes and lentils and such...which are hardly low carb.

    I would also wonder what you consider to be "low carb"....I know quite a few vegetarians and I wouldn't consider a single one of them "low carb"

  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
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    Vegetarian and low-carb are basically opposites of each other. That's a pretty tough commitment if you're talking about strictly weight loss and not ethical or medical reasons.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    edited December 2014
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    amanda1005 wrote: »
    I have been a vegetarian for over 12 years, and Ive been low carb for 2.... but according to everyone else, this is impossible... hmm... There are tons of groups and resources online to recipes and tips for vegketo. PM if you please.

    No one said it was "impossible" just difficult. Also, what's your definition of "low carb"? Mine is less than 50 grams of carbs per day. For someone starting a low carb diet for the first time it should ideally be a bit lower than that. I've seen some in these forums who defined low carb as "less than 200" which is definitely NOT low carb and certainly more than I'd ever consider eating in a day.
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
    edited December 2014
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    I'm a vegetarian, and while I try to keep my carbs on the lower side, it's impossible to keep them really low.

    If you're veggie, the only good sources of protein that are low-carb are eggs, cheese, and tofu. For some people, tofu is hard on the digestion and isn't an option (speaking from experience here). Eggs and cheese have a lot of fat and aren't always diet-friendly options for meeting a high daily protein requirement.

    I keep my macros at 40-30-30 and usually come under my carb allotment, or I should say my net carb allotment (subtracting fiber). My main sources of protein are Greek yogurt, beans (high fiber, but higher carb than would be allowed on a super low carb plan, but not a moderate carb one), and protein bars/shakes. I usually net less than 100g of carbs a day and get 100g of protein a day. That's moderate carb, but not low carb.

    So, the bottom line is that you can do LOWER carb, but not LOW carb.
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
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    amanda1005 wrote: »
    I have been a vegetarian for over 12 years, and Ive been low carb for 2.... but according to everyone else, this is impossible... hmm... There are tons of groups and resources online to recipes and tips for vegketo. PM if you please.

    What do you eat? Just dairy?
  • BarbieAS
    BarbieAS Posts: 1,414 Member
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    amanda1005 wrote: »
    I have been a vegetarian for over 12 years, and Ive been low carb for 2.... but according to everyone else, this is impossible... hmm... There are tons of groups and resources online to recipes and tips for vegketo. PM if you please.

    When you say "low carb," how many grams of carbs are you consuming per day? And I didn't say impossible, I said difficult and likely unpleasant. For someone who's unfamiliar and inexperienced with either lifestyle, probably not something they would want to attempt right off the bat and expect to succeed.
  • jim180155
    jim180155 Posts: 769 Member
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    amanda1005 wrote: »
    I have been a vegetarian for over 12 years, and Ive been low carb for 2.... but according to everyone else, this is impossible... hmm... There are tons of groups and resources online to recipes and tips for vegketo. PM if you please.

    Too bad your diary isn't open. I wanted to see how you did that.
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
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    I honestly can't see how to low carb as a veggie without resorting to a lot of the fake meat products and they are processed food and terrible choices to make.

    I'd rather eat whole foods and have higher carbs.
  • ohkurt
    ohkurt Posts: 11
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    I was just wondering. Because I am not sure which one to do. And the vegitarian is because it sucks seeing animals killed for food but I also know that meat is yummy. I am just having a hard time choosing which one would be better for me. And if I pick one of those how would I even start. The input on here is great though. Keep it up I appreciate all the time you all are talking out to comment back on here.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,021 Member
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    If you watch really really biased documentaries, that should help, it seems to have helped hundreds right here on MFP. j/k
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
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    ohkurt wrote: »
    I was just wondering. Because I am not sure which one to do. And the vegitarian is because it sucks seeing animals killed for food but I also know that meat is yummy. I am just having a hard time choosing which one would be better for me. And if I pick one of those how would I even start. The input on here is great though. Keep it up I appreciate all the time you all are talking out to comment back on here.
    Why don't you give one a try for awhile and see how it goes? There's nothing that says you can't change mid-stream if it's not the right fit. And you could certainly give a vegetarian lower carb diet a try from the start.
  • Raulam65
    Raulam65 Posts: 5 Member
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    Look up "The Primal Blueprint" by Mark Sisson. It's a gluten free, lower carb eating plan which does make some provision for Vegetarian.
  • sullus
    sullus Posts: 2,839 Member
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    ohkurt wrote: »
    I was just wondering. Because I am not sure which one to do. And the vegitarian is because it sucks seeing animals killed for food but I also know that meat is yummy. I am just having a hard time choosing which one would be better for me. And if I pick one of those how would I even start. The input on here is great though. Keep it up I appreciate all the time you all are talking out to comment back on here.

    Neither one is "better" or "worse" for you healthwise. Mentally you may feel better with one or the other and we can't decide that for you.

    As far as how to get started .. hmmm .. if only you had access to a device that could be connected to a global information network and a way to search its indexed contents .. oh well, maybe some day in the future ..

    But seriously. Do some research on low carb and vegetarian diets. Educate yourself on the subjects and your answers become obvious to you.

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