vegan diet

ugwux004
ugwux004 Posts: 47 Member
what do you guys think about vegan diet? does it help lose weight?
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Replies

  • jddnw
    jddnw Posts: 319 Member
    No. If you want to be a vegan for humane reasons, more power to you. But if you just want to lose weight and eat healthy, there is no reason to exclude all animal foods from your diet.
  • jkwolly
    jkwolly Posts: 3,049 Member
    jddnw wrote: »
    No. If you want to be a vegan for humane reasons, more power to you. But if you just want to lose weight and eat healthy, there is no reason to exclude all animal foods from your diet.
    This

    Calories in vs. calories out.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    I've been vegan for nine years. I love it. However, it's not a weight loss diet. Vegans come in all shapes and sizes. I've been at my lowest weight as a vegan and my second highest weight as a vegan. It comes down to calories in and calories out.

    Some vegans lose weight because the animal products they eliminated were major sources of calories for them and they don't replace them with other things. However, lots of people find good replacements and are able to maintain their weight (or even gain weight). There are so many delicious vegan foods -- it's very easy to overdo it.

    Veganism is an ethical position on animal exploitation. It's certainly compatible with losing weight, but if you go vegan to lose weight, you may wind up disappointed. Or you may lose weight. It will come down to calories in and calories out, just as it does today.
  • Nikki10129
    Nikki10129 Posts: 292 Member
    Vegan or not, you still have to monitor what you eat. There is no easy way out of this, plenty of great vegan/vegetarian alternatives are just as high in calories as the animal product counterparts
  • ugwux004
    ugwux004 Posts: 47 Member
    What about Raw food Diet?
  • fairy2b
    fairy2b Posts: 126 Member
    I lost about 20lbs going vegan, but I focused on consuming mostly plant based foods. Lots of veggies, beans, and fruits. Anytime you up your veggie intake you're doing good things! But I stopped eating vegan because I found that just because it's vegan doesn't mean it's healthy. French fries are vegan. So are Oreos. So it all boils down to consuming healthy choices. I cut out animal products and alcohol for 21 days as a way of getting back on track to clean eating, but I find it easier to make healthy choices and maximize my protein intake when I'm incorporating lean meats and non fat dairy into my diet.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    ugwux004 wrote: »
    What about Raw food Diet?

    Even if the food you eat is uncooked, you will still need a calorie deficit to lose weight. Many people find it easy to create a calorie deficit on a raw food diet because it is easy to eat high volume and low calorie on the diet. But if you are replacing cooked foods with calorie-dense raw foods, you will simply maintain your weight or even gain. You also have to consider that many people find it difficult to sustain or that you will be at a higher risk for many deficiencies (even if you eat a variety of raw foods, our body is better able to absorb certain nutrients from cooked food).

    Do you think you would like a raw food diet? Do you think you could sustain it long-term? Are you willing to do the research to avoid negative health impacts? Only you know the answer to these questions. But even if the answer is yes, you will still need to create a calorie deficit in order to lose weight. Why not try, like many of us have, creating a calorie deficit while eating the foods you already enjoy? If you want to add more foods that are free of animal products or raw foods to that diet, you certainly can.
  • PRMinx
    PRMinx Posts: 4,585 Member
    ugwux004 wrote: »
    What about Raw food Diet?

    How about the eat less, move more diet?

    Seriously, why not give the MFP way a try?
  • Zinka61
    Zinka61 Posts: 523 Member
    There are thin vegans and fat vegans. I've eaten a mostly vegan diet for the last 24 years and gained 30 lbs in the last few years anyway. Now I've lost most of that, still on a vegan diet. I agree--There are many reasons to go vegan, but if weight loss is your main reason, why bother?
  • veganbettie
    veganbettie Posts: 701 Member
    vegan almost 8 years here and I still struggle with weight. You do it for ethics, not to lose weight.
  • fairy2b
    fairy2b Posts: 126 Member
    ugwux004 wrote: »
    What about Raw food Diet?

    I've done raw food diet too...and lost a bunch of weight but it's difficult to sustain. Who would have thought that only consuming 800 calories a day would lead to dramatic weight loss!?!?! There is so much time and prep involved once you start making recipes, getting dehydrators, sprouting, etc... it can be VERY time consuming and incredibly difficult when you're living in the everyday world.

    You have to eat SO MUCH in raw veggies to get enough calories. But again, you could eat 5 avocados a day, several handful of nuts and a tub of hummus and still be consuming too much fat for a day.

    I've done it all, and seriously, all the fad *kitten* doesn't last. You have to find a lifestyle that works. Tracking intake and activity is the only thing that has worked and has STAYED working for me. Yes, on raw foods I lost 20lbs, but then afterwards I binged on junk/cooked food that I hadn't had in 5 weeks and gained it all back when I went back to my old eating patterns.



  • jddnw
    jddnw Posts: 319 Member
    ugwux004 wrote: »
    What about Raw food Diet?

    Not very healthy and hard to sustain.
  • Yes! I went vegan for a few months and lost weight so fast! Vegan diets are super healthy if you know what you are doing and it makes the world a better place <3
  • Lesa_Sass
    Lesa_Sass Posts: 2,213 Member
    How about the Eat Less Than You Burn diet?
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    kkandblue wrote: »
    Yes! I went vegan for a few months and lost weight so fast! Vegan diets are super healthy if you know what you are doing and it makes the world a better place <3

    You lost weight fast because you were eating at a calorie deficit. This often happens to newer vegans because they remove calorie dense animal products from their food without replacing them with other things. But it isn't inherent to veganism -- a calorie deficit in any diet will produce the same results.

    I won't argue with you that veganism makes the world a better place -- I am not a fan of animal exploitation. But there is nothing automatically "super healthy" about it.
  • jkwolly
    jkwolly Posts: 3,049 Member
    Lesa_Sass wrote: »
    How about the Eat Less Than You Burn diet?

    OMG LIEEEEEES
  • Laurend224
    Laurend224 Posts: 1,748 Member
    ugwux004 wrote: »
    what do you guys think about vegan diet? does it help lose weight?


    No. While I won't discourage anyone from trying out a vegan diet, it is not necessary to do in order to lose weight. It's not a magic fix to get skinny, not all vegans are thin. IMO the only reason to go vegan is because you have ethical concerns about eating and using animal products. If you want to try it, go for it! But CICO is what will cgive you weight loss.
  • rawroy
    rawroy Posts: 106 Member
    I'm here as a Low Fat High Carb Plant Based (Healthy Vegan). I agree that just being Vegan is not enough but I learned to avoid the oils, saturated fats, cholesterol, and processed junk foods. I disagree with a lot of these posts about being sustainable. I've tried everything but this lifestyle in the last 40 years! Calorie Restriction, High Protein Low Carb Diets run rampid and are very unstable long term. Most people only do it as a 3 month challenge to lose weight for bikini season or try the Mon-Fri diet...then gain it all back after that goal is met. We find ourselves going right back to eating junk food. It's very easy for me to follow a plant based "lifestyle" because my cravings are completely gone for unhealthy food and I eat a lot more to now and always satiated and my energy is through the roof! I don't really count calories but I'm doing this out of my own curiosity and maybe it will inspire others. Friend me if your interested.
  • PRMinx
    PRMinx Posts: 4,585 Member
    rawroy wrote: »
    I'm here as a Low Fat High Carb Plant Based (Healthy Vegan). I agree that just being Vegan is not enough but I learned to avoid the oils, saturated fats, cholesterol, and processed junk foods. I disagree with a lot of these posts about being sustainable. I've tried everything but this lifestyle in the last 40 years! Calorie Restriction, High Protein Low Carb Diets run rampid and are very unstable long term. Most people only do it as a 3 month challenge to lose weight for bikini season or try the Mon-Fri diet...then gain it all back after that goal is met. We find ourselves going right back to eating junk food. It's very easy for me to follow a plant based "lifestyle" because my cravings are completely gone for unhealthy food and I eat a lot more to now and always satiated and my energy is through the roof! I don't really count calories but I'm doing this out of my own curiosity and maybe it will inspire others. Friend me if your interested.

    I'm confused about how eating a piece of chicken, or an egg, is going to lead to a junk food binge?

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    rawroy wrote: »
    I'm here as a Low Fat High Carb Plant Based (Healthy Vegan). I agree that just being Vegan is not enough but I learned to avoid the oils, saturated fats, cholesterol, and processed junk foods. I disagree with a lot of these posts about being sustainable. I've tried everything but this lifestyle in the last 40 years! Calorie Restriction, High Protein Low Carb Diets run rampid and are very unstable long term. Most people only do it as a 3 month challenge to lose weight for bikini season or try the Mon-Fri diet...then gain it all back after that goal is met. We find ourselves going right back to eating junk food. It's very easy for me to follow a plant based "lifestyle" because my cravings are completely gone for unhealthy food and I eat a lot more to now and always satiated and my energy is through the roof! I don't really count calories but I'm doing this out of my own curiosity and maybe it will inspire others. Friend me if your interested.

    Why is LFHC more sustainable than HPLC? I don't think either one sounds particularly sustainable, but that's based on my personal preference.

    If someone goes vegan, even LFHC vegan, to lose weight, then I doubt that will be particularly sustainable either.