Going Vegan and Need Advice

Welcome to The Club!

This is a pretty cool general guideline I found years ago: (Not mine, and probably copyrighted somewhere...)

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A Healthy Vegan Weight Loss Plan:
Simple Steps To Success

A vegan diet is a very healthy way to eat. It is much easier than you might think. Below is a summary of the basic foods to eat and the foods to avoid.

What to Eat


Eat at least 400 calories for breakfast every day. If you are not in the habit of eating breakfast, you must change your habits!

Oatmeal or other cooked whole grains are a perfect breakfast.

Eat one serving of fresh fruit with your breakfast grains (berries are especially good). Add one Tbsp of ground flaxseed or one ounce of walnuts for omega 3 fats.

• Eat as many vegetables as you want. The more leafy greens and green vegetables you eat, the better. Sweet potatoes and regular potatoes are excellent weight loss foods. They are high in fiber, low in fat, and very satisfying. They are especially good for lunches and snacks.

• Eat one cup of legumes per day. Beans, peas, and lentils are all legumes. Soy beans are OK, but only in the form of whole soy beans, edamame or tempeh.

• Eat 2 or 3 servings of fresh fruit per day. Berries are perfect for breakfast. Your other two fruits can be eaten as snacks, appetizers, or dessert. Eating an apple before a meal will naturally reduce the calories you consume.

• Eat enough intact whole grains to satisfy your hunger.
Examples are oatmeal, brown rice, millet, and quinoa. You may eat whole grain pasta if you eat it with lots of vegetables and an oil-free marinara sauce. There is no reason to be hungry on a vegan weight loss plan.

• You may have 3 Tbsp of nut or tofu-based salad dressing, 1/4 of an avocado, or several olives per day. Eat them with your salads. The natural fats will help your body absorb nutrients from the vegetables.

• Take a Vitamin B12 supplement twice a week.


What To Avoid

• Avoid all animal products. Eat no meat, poultry, fish or other sea animals, dairy products, or eggs.

• Avoid processed and packaged foods until you learn to read labels and you know exactly what you are doing. Avoid mock meats, vegan cheeses, and anything else with a label.

• Avoid sugar and all other concentrated sweeteners, including agave nectar and fruit juice concentrates.

• Avoid bread, bagels, and other flour products, even products made of whole grain flour. See above for the exception: whole grain pasta.

• Avoid dried fruits most of the time. They have a high calorie density.

• Avoid high fat plant foods like nuts, seeds, avocado, tofu, coconut, and olives. See above for a few exceptions.

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Wishing you all success!

Hi. I've been vegan for about ten years now. My best advice is to find a good source for vegan nutritional information and be wary of people who recommend additional restrictions on top of going vegan (for example: people who may tell you that you have to eliminate oil or cooked food or processed food or faux meat/cheeses or whatever). Going vegan can be challenging in the beginning and sometimes you will just want to have some vegan ice cream or some mashed potatoes with olive oil or whatever and there is no solid reason to deny yourself these foods (and eliminating other foods can also make it challenging to meet your nutritional needs).

Veganhealth.org is a website with a ton of great information on nutrition. "Vegan for Life" by Jack Norris and Virginia Messina is a book I've found very useful -- it's by two vegan RDs and includes information on what you might want to supplement and sample meal plans for different types of lifestyles. "Vegan for Her" by Virginia Messina is a similar book with a focus on women, it's really good as well.

My tips: Make sure you pick up a B12 supplement (they're cheap and available almost everywhere), challenge yourself to try new recipes (there are vegan cookbooks for almost every cooking style and cuisine), and set realistic goals (some people decide to start by making one meal a day animal product-free, mastering that, and then adding another meal; other people feel more inspired to switch all at once -- you have to do what will work best for your personality and lifestyle).

Vegan Outreach is another website with some good resources for going vegan. They also have a vegan mentor program where you can be paired online with a vegan who has a lifestyle that is like yours and can help you navigate going vegan. Good luck!

What To Avoid

• Avoid all animal products. Eat no meat, poultry, fish or other sea animals, dairy products, or eggs.

Well, yes...

• Avoid processed and packaged foods until you learn to read labels and you know exactly what you are doing. Avoid mock meats, vegan cheeses, and anything else with a label.

I could see how this could be beneficial but not necessary if one knows how to read a label...which isn't too hard.

• Avoid sugar and all other concentrated sweeteners, including agave nectar and fruit juice concentrates.

Why, this has nothing to do with being vegan...

• Avoid bread, bagels, and other flour products, even products made of whole grain flour. See above for the exception: whole grain pasta.

Again, why...I'm not vegan, but I eat vegetarian 3-4 days out of the week...I eat bread...it's not an issue...sour dough is my favorite...I see no point in this. Pasta makes for a nice main course on a vegetarian day.

• Avoid dried fruits most of the time. They have a high calorie density.

They might have high calorie density, but who cares so long as you hit your calorie targets...dried fruit is one of my staples on a long ride.

• Avoid high fat plant foods like nuts, seeds, avocado, tofu, coconut, and olives. See above for a few exceptions.

I see no need to avoid these nutritional powerhouses...this just doesn't even make sense. Not to mention, dietary fat is essential to proper nutrtion...pretty much everything you suggested in the "to do" list had basically no fat...where are you going to get your requiste fats if you're avoiding these very nutrition, healthy sources.

Also, please don't avoid foods like avocados and nuts. Fat is good for you as long as it's the right kind of fat and those foods have the right kind of fat. You need the fats for your organs to function if you're not getting it in other places such as dairy.

They're not low calorie, but please don't think that the only way to do vegan right is to do it low calorie. Never compromise nourishment, or nutrition, because of a calorie goal. You have to eat healthy to be healthy, healthy does not mean purely your calorie goal as the end all be all measurement. There is literally 0 benefit to seeking a healthy lifestyle if all you are doing is focusing on the calories.