I've found the secret

There’s no secret. Weight is lost, eating less calories than you burn. That’s it. How you accomplish that is a personal choice. Nutritional needs are important, so you may want to make sure you are achieving them as well.

A low fat diet vegan diet is fine as long as you are getting ENOUGH fat. Many vitamins are fat soluble and you do need some in your diet. I don’t know what your lunch included, but the rest looks a bit low on fat to me; as a vegan (or even vegetarian) do make sure you get enough protein too. I was vegetarian for 14 years and I know I was deficient in some areas, I had to overhaul my diet when I became anaemic and low on vitamin K.

I lost most of my weight eating 1800-2000 calories (that included Exercise calories. Female, 5'7".)

I agree with all the previous posters that it's important to get enough protein and fat.

So, make sure you're hitting those numbers for protein and fat in your FOOD diary.

The other thing I'd mention is variety. In my opinion I need a whole lot of variety in my nutrition plan. If I ate the same handful of foods every day I would be missing a lot of micronutrients. Even though it makes it easier to log food if I'm eating the same rotating foods, spending five extra minutes logging food is to me the better choice.

That diet would be a disaster for me. My protein needs are far higher.

I'm glad to hear you've found something that works for you I've been a vegan for about 3 years, if you want to friend me.

I tried low-fat back in the day, when I was a new vegan. I really liked the high volume of food and how it made me rethink my nutrition. For example, I never really incorporated nuts and seeds into my diet before then and I eat WAY more greens now, which I credit to the habits I gained during that time. Even now, I tend to lean on some of the habits I learned then to help me get back on track or make stuff more calorie-friendly.

The main issue I had with a low-fat vegan diet was, well, it was low-fat. I learned that I didn't feel well and would still be hungry if I was below 35 grams of fat, even if I'd eaten so much I was heartily sick of eating. Once I bumped up the fat, I felt a lot better. Also, it was harder to get protein while eating mostly whole foods. Not impossible, obviously, but I had to research and be more careful about how I spent my calories.

Obviously, I don't know what your protein intake is like, but if you want a number to shoot for, I've found that 70-90 grams is ideal when eating 1,800 calories as a 5'7, 30-something woman who exercises and is trying to lose weight. Some of my favorite protein sources are tofu, tempeh, and seitan-- all of which are compatible with low-fat. Let me know and I'll send you some of my favorite recipes Good luck and please feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the nutrition/supplementation side of things--it can be a pretty steep learning curve.

It works because it is fewer than your maintenance calories, not because it is low fat. Fat and protein are both essential nutrients, and it doesn't sound like that diet would provide enough of either, unless there are additional things being consumed that haven't been disclosed.

Ellienz1 wrote: »

It is low fat but thats why it works the starch soloution instructs low fat. My protein is around 35g a day. Maybe it won't be beneficial for me in the long run but maybe it will. I'm not clogging up my body with dairy and red meat

There are many health and ethical reasons for going vegan or vegetarian, and you can defo eat well on either of those diets (with planning and monitoring so that you don’t end up deficient as I did). BUT, and this is a big “but” - red meat and dairy do not clog up your systems. As long as you are genetically able to digest milk then it is a v good source of cheap protein, fats and carbs, with lots of trace elements like calcium. There are ethical and sustainability issues around eating meat and drinking milk (disclaimer - I now consume both) but please don’t promulgate the misinformation about “clogging up”.