losing weight on a vegan diet!!

skyhowl wrote: »

elphie754 wrote: »

kiwiknit wrote: »

Be nice. She asked for support and advice not a lecture. This is not the space to vent your feelings about a vegan diet or what it means to tensleysiham and whether she is "doing it right".
I am vegan and just work on a calorie deficit mindset. I mainly eat homemade whole foods, having said that I live in an area with very little processed vegan meats, cheeses, etc. I eat lots of vegetables, fruit, grains, tempeh, tofu and legumes. These are my favourite foods plus they fill me up. I do tend to use many herbs and spices as I like highly flavoured food and cuisines. I exercise most days. When I need to lose weight I track my food and excerise daily. Mainly because I eat too much otherwise.
I have been vegan for over 10 years and are very healthy and have never had a problem being so. There are a ton of great cookbooks and blogs out there for new and fresh recipe ideas. Have fun with it. There are so many awesome plant foods that most people never even think of. My diet expanded once becoming vegan. Enjoy!

No one was "not being nice". There is a lot of psuedoscientific junk out there regarding vegan and vegetarian diets. Many actually believe that cutting out meat will automatically result in weight loss and are confused when they don't lose weight, or even gain weight (see the numerous threads here about going vegetarian/vegan and gain in weight). Telling someone they should be skeptical about what they read is not "not being supportive" or "not nice".

I agree, it is very important that the OP know that in order to lose weight it requires a calorie deficit and unfortauntly most of the information on Vegan diet just suggest to cut out animal products. which doesn't necessarily mean that you will lose weight.

Which could be why the OP is hoping to hear from other vegans on a weight loss journey, perhaps for advice and to hear how they're doing this?

I mean... If she just reads five threads on here she will quickly see that a caloric deficit is required for weight loss regardless of what those calories are made up of (meat or otherwise).

It does seem like people often jump right on posters with their own assumptions before all of the information has been provided.

I was a vegan for four years for both health and animal reasons. Not all vegans cut out all animals products, those would be "strict vegans." I eventually did.

I went through phases of veganism... And I did lose a lot of weight twice during my four years as a vegan. At one point I was eating all whole foods and another time I was eating mostly processed began foods (fake meat, fake cheese, etc). I wouldn't recommend the latter (although you can still lose weight is a deficit is present) and the former is difficult to maintain long term. It's all about finding balance.

I stopped being vegan because at one point I realized that if someone asked me why I was a vegan, I had lost my answer. Next, i went out and got sushi lol.

A vegan diet does not help you lose weight any faster. All about the calories in versus calories out. Good luck!

johunt615 wrote: »

Ummm lots of science out there that vegans and vegetarians have some advantages over meat eaters. Loma Linda study also shows vegans have lower BMI's overall.

One thing you will need to make sure of is that you take B12 supplement that is one thing vegans can't get eating a plant based diet.

I have 2 vegans in my family and they are skinny.

I ate vegan for one year and I felt the most energy I had in a long time. I'm vegetarian now (sometimes eating tuna) and I will probably go back for dietary and health reasons.

Good luck!

If you sometimes eat tuna on a vegetarian diet, its actually considered a pescetarian diet. There's a difference between the two (I'm pescetarian and wouldn't pass as a vegetarian just because I eat seafood on some days).

The mistake I made with vegan foods was thinking any 'plant-based whole food' concoction was good. So i made vegan 'cheese'cake, ice-cream, cookies etc. Needless to say, just cos I was replacing the dairy and eggs in my baking with nuts, avocado and coconut cream did not mean I was avoiding the fat!

Find a good vegan cookbook (Thug Kitchen is great, unless you're sensitive to swear words!) and still keep watch on your caloric intake. As long as you're in deficit, you should drop weigh.

Good Luck!

hjlourenshj wrote: »

johunt615 wrote: »

Ummm lots of science out there that vegans and vegetarians have some advantages over meat eaters. Loma Linda study also shows vegans have lower BMI's overall.

One thing you will need to make sure of is that you take B12 supplement that is one thing vegans can't get eating a plant based diet.

I have 2 vegans in my family and they are skinny.

I ate vegan for one year and I felt the most energy I had in a long time. I'm vegetarian now (sometimes eating tuna) and I will probably go back for dietary and health reasons.

Good luck!

And 95% of the basketbal players in the NBA are considerd overweight if you look at their BMI. Now your not going to say that playing basketbal makes you fat right? Vegans have a overall lower BMI because people who are vegan tend to be more concious about there health and lifestyle. Its say's something about the people, it doesnt mean that cutting out meat will make you loose weight.

Most people understand that the "healthy bmi" is just a guide and that there are some who have more muscle mass that are perfectly healthy outside of the "normal" bmi. My apologies for not stating what I thought most people understood. I'm kinda new here and I'm not sure how to go about posting comments that are short and concise.

There are some studies like this one that say cutting out meat helps you loose weight and faster.
https://www.springer.com/gp/about-springer/media/springer-select/-to-shed-weight--go-vegan/679206

But listen to each his own. I only responded because I have some knowledge of veganism and there is some science to back that there are some advantages of eating a plant based diet. Boy thats a run on sentence.

I'm not a vegan however I tried it and I had more energy and I maintained my weight for a year not counting calories or watching what I ate.

I am not sure if it has already been mentioned; but be aware of the sugar content in vegan foods & recipes. I love vegan food, don't get me wrong, but like all other foods you need to choose the healthier options for weight loss to be achieved. As a side note you will need to take a B12 supplement when going vegan.

The one thing I'd say - in addition to the good advice above about maintaining a calorie deficit and getting good nutrition, recognizing that veganism adds some (minor) challenges to that - is to be skeptical of nutritional advice from vegan blogs and web sites. There is both good and bad info out there, and some of these folks have seized on bad science to justify an advocacy position.

In particular, some vegan sites I've read claim that the USDA overstates protein requirements. Based on my reading (of research studies, not blogs/general sites), the USDA is giving you minimum protein requirements to avoid malnutrition, for average people. Average people are not trying to lose weight via substantial calorie deficits, nor are they doing major workouts routinely.

It is absolutely possible to get enough protein as a vegan.

But note that there's decent research suggesting that people in a calorie deficit need relatively more protein, as do people who are working out heavily/regularly, and that those of us who get lots of our protein from plant sources may benefit from a few extra grams because we're trying to balance out complete protein from sources that can sometimes be incomplete in their complement of amino acids. If we get insufficient protein, we risk unnecessary loss of lean tissue generally, and muscle mass specifically, while losing fat.

Personally, I try for .6-.8g protein per pound of goal weight daily (yes, I meant pound, not kg). That's pretty conservative. Some vegan sources advocate a lower standard; some body-building/weight-training sources advocate a higher standard. I'm not vegan, but I've been vegetarian for over 42 years, so I get quite a bit of protein from plant sources, and I've done a lot of reading and research on this point.

But it's still just my opinion.

elphie754 wrote: »

kiwiknit wrote: »

Be nice. She asked for support and advice not a lecture. This is not the space to vent your feelings about a vegan diet or what it means to tensleysiham and whether she is "doing it right".
I am vegan and just work on a calorie deficit mindset. I mainly eat homemade whole foods, having said that I live in an area with very little processed vegan meats, cheeses, etc. I eat lots of vegetables, fruit, grains, tempeh, tofu and legumes. These are my favourite foods plus they fill me up. I do tend to use many herbs and spices as I like highly flavoured food and cuisines. I exercise most days. When I need to lose weight I track my food and excerise daily. Mainly because I eat too much otherwise.
I have been vegan for over 10 years and are very healthy and have never had a problem being so. There are a ton of great cookbooks and blogs out there for new and fresh recipe ideas. Have fun with it. There are so many awesome plant foods that most people never even think of. My diet expanded once becoming vegan. Enjoy!

No one was "not being nice". There is a lot of psuedoscientific junk out there regarding vegan and vegetarian diets. Many actually believe that cutting out meat will automatically result in weight loss and are confused when they don't lose weight, or even gain weight (see the numerous threads here about going vegetarian/vegan and gain in weight). Telling someone they should be skeptical about what they read is not "not being supportive" or "not nice".

I actually consider it nicer (as in more helpful) to let someone know that veganism won't result in weight loss (unless it happens to create a calorie deficit). If I start doing something for a specific result and someone knows that it won't work out the way I plan, I always appreciate them letting me know. I can then decide for myself whether or not I want to listen to them. But if they just watch me and don't say anything . . . that, to me, is not nice.