BBG Guide for Vegans?

Speaking as a vegan and bodybuilder, nutrition guides and meal plans are not applicable to all people. People have individual lives, metabolisms, histories, eating patterns, nutrient uptakes, etc.

No meal plan or nutrition guide is going to be accurate for everyone as it can't control for all of your individual variables.

That said, the first person that you should speak with is your doctor. Have yourself tested for nutrient deficiencies (my tests are free as part of my regular physicals and covered by my insurance). The doctor will then prescribe you vitamins or something to deal with your deficiencies and most likely have you consult with a dietitian.

Other than that, the best advice anyone can give you is to meet your macro nutrient goals, consume a variety of foods and produce in as many different colors as possible and eat up to your calorie goals as stated by mfp (unless otherwise dictated by medical advice)

I took a look into BBG... it the same. It's nothing special, won't work for everyone's needs and falls in line with pretty much all other pre-packaged dietary meal plans. It makes unfounded claims and nothing but exercise can really "kickstart" your metabolism. Metabolism simply doesn't work that way. The program itself if expensive, the workouts are not as effective as others (although more effective than doing nothing) and generally in line with other fad diets. Ultimately, it won't teach you the healthy habits needed to maintain your weight loss for the long term and weight loss at fast rates like this almost never sticks because of the lack of education and habit change.

Your best bets would be to eat whatever you want within the calorie goals given you by mfp, set your rate of loss to 1lb a week or less, prepare yourself for a long, but rewarding journey and get healthy and lose weight slowly and in a way that is sustainable for the long haul.

Your profile is fairly closed and not knowing your goals or how much you have to lose make it difficult to give you any more meaningful advice. Your picture shows that you have a small child, congratulations. Please also consider that if you happen to be breastfeeding, you should not be restricting calories as it will make your milk less nutrient rich for your child. I obviously don't know if that is the case for you, but it's not uncommon to see people on the forums who recently had their baby and want to lose their baby weight immediately without considering how their diet affects their child who relies on them for nutrition.

I apologize if anything I said is offensive to you, it's not meant to be. But I'm happy to speak with you in more detail regarding vegan health and nutrition, but ultimately your doctor or a dietitian will be your best bet for this kind of advice.

If you are just looking for recipes, they are plentiful and a quick google search will turn up millions. My favorite website for recipes happens to be http://vegweb.com/

Good luck meeting your goals.



*edited to correct spelling errors

mechabee wrote: »

You were not offensive at all! I've updated my profile to give more of a timeline, AFAIK it should be public.
A couple of points:

+ I am breastfeeding exclusively and have been eating around 1100 calories a day. So far, it hasn't hurt my milk production.
+ I've been vegan for 6 years (vegetarian longer) and have never had any deficiencies aside from Vitamin D, which I've been making up for by eating more vitamin D rich foods. I've also been taking my prenatal/breastfeeding vitamin, which comes with B vitamins that cannot be obtained without animal products.

I guess I want to do BBG because I've already lost almost all of the weight I WANT to lose, I would just like to begin making muscle and toning up. BBG seemed nice because it was all layed out but you're completely correct, there are too many variables. I should just buckledown and make my own workout plan/meal plans.

Thank you for your indepth post!

I would highly recommend, that, as a beginner you do find a good, and reputable workout plan. You are your own gym, Strong Curves, Strong lifts, Ice Cream Fitness, Nia Shanks Lift like a girl/Beautiful Badass, New rules of lifting..... literally anything will be good for you as you are most likely not knowledgeable enough yet to build your own well balanced routine.

Diet is another story. You will most likely have to build that yourself, but there are plenty of resources that can assist you. Just start out by tracking here on MFP and try to meet the macro goals provided. Assuming you eat a reasonable variety of foods and produce, you will be ok with micro nutrients. Although you will want to talk to your doctor regarding a D deficiency... that can have some pretty bad side effects if untreated.

No problem. I'm a long time vegan, body builder and advocate of science based fitness. There are lots of paths to get there, and many of them work (although not for the reasons some think). I'm happy to help in any way that I can.

Friend me if you are inclined, and reach out to me with any specific questions that you might have. I'll do my best to provide a science based answer if I'm able, or point you to a more knowledgeable source when I'm not able. Don't forget what a valuable resource your GP/Doctor can be either.