Overweight Vegetarian! Yes it is possible.

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  • haleyjones7
    haleyjones7 Posts: 16 Member
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    I too have had the same problem.
    I am a vegetarian and I found myself filling up on carbs and junk food.
    After I cut all of the junk food out of my diet and white carbs, I lost 10 pounds within two weeks.
    Try eating more vegetables, almonds, nuts, and fruits and less fill up carbs and dairy.
  • AshleyCMoody
    AshleyCMoody Posts: 144 Member
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    Thanks guys! I really appreciate your advice and support. Nice to know I'm not alone.
  • robynmoosehead
    robynmoosehead Posts: 66 Member
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    Alatariel75 wrote: »

    Potato gnocchi with basil pesto. I reckon I could pack twice my daily calories away in that alone! I think it's even vegan!

    I'd double check your pesto if I were you. If it's made with proper Italian parmesan then it's not even vegetarian!

    Most of the cheaper, more common brands are made with cheap Italian hard cheese and they're usually ok but seriously double check.
    PROPER PESTO IS NOT VEGETARIAN

    or just make your own. It's so quick and easy. I've got a few recipes kicking around somewhere and they're easy to make veggie.
  • kaileyfry
    kaileyfry Posts: 56 Member
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    Do you eat allot of carbs?
  • AshleyCMoody
    AshleyCMoody Posts: 144 Member
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    kaileyfry wrote: »
    Do you eat allot of carbs?

    Yes way too many that is a big weakness of mine.
  • mikehardin62
    mikehardin62 Posts: 122 Member
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    Hello i am Mike and i have been with MFP since June...doing Calorie King before that. I have lost a few pounds, but i have 15 more to go. Let me back up...i am down from 2670lbs to 195lbs. ..with a goal of 180lbs. ..please help!
  • AshleyCMoody
    AshleyCMoody Posts: 144 Member
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    mikehardin62 wrote: »
    Hello i am Mike and i have been with MFP since June...doing Calorie King before that. I have lost a few pounds, but i have 15 more to go. Let me back up...i am down from 2670lbs to 195lbs. ..with a goal of 180lbs. ..please help!

    Congrats on ur progress so far! Are u a vegetarian?
  • high_carb_daisy
    high_carb_daisy Posts: 4 Member
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    Hey Ashley,
    My problem is my sweet tooth too! Have been veggie for years and vegan for the past couple, and its so easy to put on the weight! Anyways I find dairy can hinder the weightloss (cheese,cream, butter) whats working for me anyways is a high carb/low fat diet. Loads of whole grains like oats, wholemeal pasta, couscous, brownrice with beans n veg, i dont limit at all. And for sweet fixes mostly dried fruit, prunes are good and dried apple slices. Of your looking for easy recipes I can advise some veg friendly websites :smile:
    Lg, Daisy
  • AshleyCMoody
    AshleyCMoody Posts: 144 Member
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    high_carb_daisy wrote: »
    Hey Ashley,
    My problem is my sweet tooth too! Have been veggie for years and vegan for the past couple, and its so easy to put on the weight! Anyways I find dairy can hinder the weightloss (cheese,cream, butter) whats working for me anyways is a high carb/low fat diet. Loads of whole grains like oats, wholemeal pasta, couscous, brownrice with beans n veg, i dont limit at all. And for sweet fixes mostly dried fruit, prunes are good and dried apple slices. Of your looking for easy recipes I can advise some veg friendly websites :smile:
    Lg, Daisy

    Thanks, I love dried apples. Good idea!
  • tiffpileg
    tiffpileg Posts: 3 Member
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    Go vegan girl! It is a lifesavor to your health. Trust me, the pounds will melt off
  • ffbrown25
    ffbrown25 Posts: 110 Member
    edited August 2015
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    AshleyCMoody wrote: »
    Lol. Yeah, that's the goal. I'm looking for more specific foods that vegetarians can eat and still be full and get the proper nutrients without going over on calories.

    More veggies and less dairy, pastas and breads. It all comes down to CICO--calories in, calories out, meaning that theoretically it doesn't matter what you eat as long as you burn more. But when I meet vegetarians who are overweight, they are almost always overdoing the breads, the dairy, the pastas. Veggies will fill you up! Make giant salads with fruit and beans for lunch, eat eggs for breakfast, eat more veggies for dinner. Buy a good protein powder. You'll get it! ;)
  • AshleyCMoody
    AshleyCMoody Posts: 144 Member
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    Thanks ladies. :smile:
  • rwhyte12
    rwhyte12 Posts: 203 Member
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    Hi. I'm not vegetarian but I was until recently just getting more and more overweight while doing exercise and eating 1200 calories a day without eating exercise calories back. I found that it is not the calories in and calories out but the composition of what I eat.

    I find that 100 grams of carbs or less is all I can eat. 50-60 grams of fat (mostly olive oil) makes me full. I eat protein at 80 to 100 grams, really limitless. Then, I just only eat sugar from fruit in an incidental way.

    So I went from just having a bad metabolism to having one that is burning through weight. I'm 21 pounds down in five weeks. It's the same level of exercise but I eat between 1200 and 1500 calories. I am full all day. For snacking, I have whey protein once or twice a day and I also eat a mixture of seeds (about four tablepoons) that is filling.

    At 100 grams of protein, I can get two slices of bread and then whatever is in veggies and fruits.

    So I think composition is the key. Hope that helps.
    Good luck.
  • JoeyFrappuccino
    JoeyFrappuccino Posts: 88 Member
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    rwhyte12 wrote: »
    Hi. I'm not vegetarian but I was until recently just getting more and more overweight while doing exercise and eating 1200 calories a day without eating exercise calories back. I found that it is not the calories in and calories out but the composition of what I eat.

    I find that 100 grams of carbs or less is all I can eat. 50-60 grams of fat (mostly olive oil) makes me full. I eat protein at 80 to 100 grams, really limitless. Then, I just only eat sugar from fruit in an incidental way.

    So I went from just having a bad metabolism to having one that is burning through weight. I'm 21 pounds down in five weeks. It's the same level of exercise but I eat between 1200 and 1500 calories. I am full all day. For snacking, I have whey protein once or twice a day and I also eat a mixture of seeds (about four tablepoons) that is filling.

    At 100 grams of protein, I can get two slices of bread and then whatever is in veggies and fruits.

    So I think composition is the key. Hope that helps.
    Good luck.

    Weight loss is calories in < calories out. It's not "bad metabolism" or "composition". If you're eating 1500 calories and losing weight, then you were eating more than 1200 calories while you were gaining weight.
  • rwhyte12
    rwhyte12 Posts: 203 Member
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    JoeyFrappuccino wrote: »
    rwhyte12 wrote: »
    Hi. I'm not vegetarian but I was until recently just getting more and more overweight while doing exercise and eating 1200 calories a day without eating exercise calories back. I found that it is not the calories in and calories out but the composition of what I eat.

    I find that 100 grams of carbs or less is all I can eat. 50-60 grams of fat (mostly olive oil) makes me full. I eat protein at 80 to 100 grams, really limitless. Then, I just only eat sugar from fruit in an incidental way.

    So I went from just having a bad metabolism to having one that is burning through weight. I'm 21 pounds down in five weeks. It's the same level of exercise but I eat between 1200 and 1500 calories. I am full all day. For snacking, I have whey protein once or twice a day and I also eat a mixture of seeds (about four tablepoons) that is filling.

    At 100 grams of protein, I can get two slices of bread and then whatever is in veggies and fruits.

    So I think composition is the key. Hope that helps.
    Good luck.

    Weight loss is calories in < calories out. It's not "bad metabolism" or "composition". If you're eating 1500 calories and losing weight, then you were eating more than 1200 calories while you were gaining weight.

    Hi. I speak for myself when I put anything down. So prior to changing the composition of what I was eating, I was gaining at 1200 calories with exercise. I felt doomed. It took a bit of changing around the composition but it's awesome that the weight is now coming down. That's why I passed this on. It could be the thing that is needed to help someone else with weightloss.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,070 Member
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    I've been vegetarian (ovo-lacto) since 1974 - before a lot of you were even born ;) . And I've been overweight for most of that time (highest BMI around 32, now down to 25.1).

    One of my main strategies for getting calories down while keeping nutrients high has been to eliminate pointless carbs. I'm not on a low-carb diet, but there are a lot of carb-intensive things that don't IMO contribute enough nutrition to be worth the calories.

    I'm talking about breads, pasta, rice, that sort of thing - even whole grain types. (Please note: I do know these do have nutritional value! It's just that other things do more for nutrition & satiety for the same calories.) Instead of a sandwich, I eat what I would've put in the sandwich. Same deal with pasta - eat the topping.

    I do get quite a bit of my protein from milk products, especially greek yogurt, which I eat virtually every day. Other protein staples are legumes (beans, peas, lentils, peanuts (especially peanut butter)), nuts (reasonable portions), quinoa, and eggs. I try not to overdose on soy (reasons too complicated to go into here), but do eat edamame (frozen or dry roasted), tempeh, and miso a few times a week.

    I find protein and fat satiating, so try hard to get adequate protein, and to eat some healthy fat with (nuts, avocado, olive oil . . . ) with each meal. And of course I eat *lots* of non-starchy veggies.
  • JoeyFrappuccino
    JoeyFrappuccino Posts: 88 Member
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    rwhyte12 wrote: »
    JoeyFrappuccino wrote: »
    rwhyte12 wrote: »
    Hi. I'm not vegetarian but I was until recently just getting more and more overweight while doing exercise and eating 1200 calories a day without eating exercise calories back. I found that it is not the calories in and calories out but the composition of what I eat.

    I find that 100 grams of carbs or less is all I can eat. 50-60 grams of fat (mostly olive oil) makes me full. I eat protein at 80 to 100 grams, really limitless. Then, I just only eat sugar from fruit in an incidental way.

    So I went from just having a bad metabolism to having one that is burning through weight. I'm 21 pounds down in five weeks. It's the same level of exercise but I eat between 1200 and 1500 calories. I am full all day. For snacking, I have whey protein once or twice a day and I also eat a mixture of seeds (about four tablepoons) that is filling.

    At 100 grams of protein, I can get two slices of bread and then whatever is in veggies and fruits.

    So I think composition is the key. Hope that helps.
    Good luck.

    Weight loss is calories in < calories out. It's not "bad metabolism" or "composition". If you're eating 1500 calories and losing weight, then you were eating more than 1200 calories while you were gaining weight.

    Hi. I speak for myself when I put anything down. So prior to changing the composition of what I was eating, I was gaining at 1200 calories with exercise. I felt doomed. It took a bit of changing around the composition but it's awesome that the weight is now coming down. That's why I passed this on. It could be the thing that is needed to help someone else with weightloss.

    Hello. I'm happy for your success, and I believe that you've found something that worked for you, but if you're losing weight eating 1500 calories from protein and fat, it is simply impossible that you would not have lost even more weight eating 1200 calories from any source, even pure sugar. Many people find weight loss/maintenance easier with a diet heavier in fats and proteins than in carbs, but that's only because they find those nutrients more satiating and therefore consume fewer calories. I agree that it can be helpful advice, but the claim that eating more calories causes more weight loss only contributes to the misinformation and confusion that many people face when attempting to lose weight. If eating 1500 calories caused you to lose more weight than eating 1200, why not eat 1800? 2100?
  • AshleyCMoody
    AshleyCMoody Posts: 144 Member
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    Thank you for the comment about composition and metabolism. There is a lot more to nutrition and not only weightloss but FAT loss than just calories in and calories out. I am not going to be full and have proper nutrients to fuel my metabolism if I just eat a few candy bars a day, even if I burn those calories off. I really appreciate your comment.
  • AshleyCMoody
    AshleyCMoody Posts: 144 Member
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Instead of a sandwich, I eat what I would've put in the sandwich. Same deal with pasta - eat the topping.

    I find protein and fat satiating, so try hard to get adequate protein, and to eat some healthy fat with (nuts, avocado, olive oil . . . ) with each meal. And of course I eat *lots* of non-starchy veggies.

    Thanks for the advice about leaving the bread off sandwiches and avoiding starchy vegetables. Good ideas!
  • Kimegatron
    Kimegatron Posts: 772 Member
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    You know what really gets me at parties... They know I'm a vegetarian, or ask... And then get cheese pizza. Like... Where's mah veggies?!?!?!? Where's my coveted mushyrooms and onions :'( I like toppings too :(

    Or at family gatherings, all I ask is if there will be anything vegetarian, because if not, I can eat before or on the way(I'm not fussy, it's my lifestyle, not theirs, so if they don't want to get something, it's totally fine)... SO they say say they will get me salad. I will die on just salad. I will drink the entire dressing bottle just to be full. I WILL EAT ALL THE DINNER ROLLS.

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