Weight Loss

[Skajen]

Having recently became vegan, after being vegetarian for 6 years i just wondered whether u guys lost any weight in the transistion? or is it a misconception that vegans eat less fattening things :p


jen x

[Artichoke47]

I think it's a misconception. Everyone is different. Nuts, avocado, and oils are all vegan and fatty (albeit good fats, assuming you're not eating deep-fried food and/or hydrogenated oils).

I lost a bit of weight, went from a size 4 to a size 2/0, but I don't know how much weight that was; I don't weigh myself.

[FestiveF]

vegans as a whole probably do, in fact, eat less fattening things. But, what you eat is up to you. If you eat healthily and exercise (given that you have no physically limiting disorder) then you most likely will lose weight, Good luck!

[miss_laura]

I put on weight when I went vegan. Not really because I went vegan, I just went through a rough patch when I ate a lot of chips, bread, crisps, chocolate, nuts, etc. I don't think it's at all true that vegans eat less fattening things

[screamingcarrot]

i think its like anything, you have to find your balance. when i first stared being vegan i lost weight because although i was eating what i thought was the same amount as before,generally speaking vegan foods (the natural ones that is) are, in my experience at least, lower calorie. so i started eating more energy packed foods like avocados/nuts/peanut butter etc and put on a bit of nweight., but now ive found a balance and am roughly the same as what i was before being vegan, only i feel happier, less guilty and healthier.
i think if you follow a natural vegan diet, alot of wholegrains, fruit vegetables and mono/polyunsaturated fats and legumes and soya products..you cant really go wrong. and you can still have treats aswell..i love my vegan alporo soya deserts and vegan choccies! :D

[celtic rose]

I lost a stone in the first six months of being vegan.
Mainly because I was eating more healthily and I was a little over-weight to start with.
It certainly wasn't because I was starving, I just wasn't eating junk anymore.

[Mystic]

IMO, the only reason why vegans 'tend to be leaner' is because vegan junk food is not in your face everywhere. For example, when I go to social gatherings, there is never vegan nibblies and noone (besides me) ever has a vegan birthday cake! I can't just pick up chocolate chip cookies - I have to plan to get them. If I want fast food, I have to travel 40 minutes to the nearest vegan fast food shop for a burger and fries. If veganism were mainstream, as a whole, we would be the same weight as omnivores.

[screamingcarrot]

thats a very good point. i hadnt thought of it in that light. i guess it depends where you live though..we have some great health food shops where im living right now and pass every day on my way home from work.they stock amazing vegan stuff..chocolate coated dates even! so even we vegans sometimes have to show a bit of restraint (if not for our waistline for our wallets!)

[Mystic]

thats a very good point. i hadnt thought of it in that light. i guess it depends where you live though..we have some great health food shops where im living right now and pass every day on my way home from work.they stock amazing vegan stuff..chocolate coated dates even! so even we vegans sometimes have to show a bit of restraint (if not for our waistline for our wallets!)

CHOCOLATE COATED DATES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am coming to where you are :D

[screamingcarrot]

living in scotland at the mo, so a bit far..but im sure you can get em in oz.
actually, as much as i love those medjool dates, i did find the choccy ones a bit sickly sweet.. :( !

[Mystic]

Nothing is too sweet for banana :D In fact, as a child, I used to eat those mini packets of sugar like from cafes and stuff. Must have something to do with the fact that my father was a chocolate manufacturer :rolleyes:

[screamingcarrot]

is he still a choc manufacturer??!! that plus pms = bad combination!

i think my family probably kept him in business. mum ate so much chocolate while pregnant with me that she said i was born with chocolate running thru my veins.

maybe thats why im so sweet... :rolleyes:

[Mystic]

Hehehe no he's not - his business went bankrupt after he married a junkie :rolleyes: That was 10 years ago. Actually it was more drinking chocolate that he was involved in.

[waveslidah]

My diet is mostly vegan but not completely. I went from veggie to low fat vegan about 1.5 years ago to lose weight but I was lossing weight too fast and I just couldn't stick to it. So I would agree that a vegan diet is very conducive to lossing weight. For some vegans, especially those who exercise a lot, you really need to eat a lot of food in order to meet your energy needs. Healthy weight lose is less than 2 lbs a week and ensures that the weight being lost is fat as opposed to muscle and water.

[adam antichrist]

I had always been super-thin up until I was 27 in 2000, and I went on medication that is notorious for having a side effect of rapid weight gain. I put on 10 kilos in 2 months and it never came off!

I think it changed my metabolism, but I have gone from being someone who could eat as much as they liked all the time to being concerned about my weight. When I went vegan last year I didn't lose any weight, but that is due to my overeating habits and not the food itself.

I am probably 5 kg overweight and would love to lose the belly, it's not really a spare tyre- more of an inner tube! But I would love to have my flat stomach back. Probably never see my abs again! :rolleyes:

I think some vegan products are worse than some of the non-vegan stuff, hydrolised oils for example in vegan chocolate, cheese, margarine etc. I still eat em but! ;)

[eve]

Yes I've noticed that many vegans eat crap instead of food. What's with all the vegan chocolate, vegan cookies, vegan desserts etc? it is nothing but crap. Then we get posters saying that they ought to be losing weight but can't, plus some revealing poor medical conditions that are not usually related to following a vegan lifestyle. It would be good if people ate food only, instead of being vegan junkies. Sorry, just in the mood! :p

[IntoTheBlue]

Yes I've noticed that many vegans eat crap instead of food. What's with all the vegan chocolate, vegan cookies, vegan desserts etc?

I've noticed this too. When I first became vegetarian over 20 years ago there were very few convenience foods and most veggies that I knew at that time ate the much laughed at typical vegetarian diet if lentils, brown rice and home made nut cuttlets etc and they were all slimmer than the average person.

Now there are many more ready meals, cakes, biscuits and chocolate available to veggies and vegans, and most of my vegan friends in particular are slightly over weight. I became vegan 10 years ago and the availability of vegan convenience and sweet foods has rocketed in that time.

You only have to look on the internet to see that you can buy on-line all manner of vegan high fat, high salt and high sugar foods. Even much of the vegan stuff in health food shops contain far too much rubbish.

[ehkarnes]

the sweets are definitaly a problem but what i see as being a really big problem in the states is that most people becoming vegan are in college and they cant afford to go out and get fresh veggies all the time and work on a well balanced meal. they also cant afford to buy junk food off the internet. but oh goodness can they get some carbs. im talking serious carbs. all they eat. and for that a lot of the recent vegans i have met blow up like balloons because they either dont know how to balance themselves or cant afford to.

[harpy]

I think you are right about the carbs, ehkarnes - and it applies equally to some older vegans who can afford other foods.

Some mainstream "healthy eating" advice used at one time to encourage people to eat virtually unlimited bread, pasta etc but, for me at any rate, that's not a good idea, even if it's the wholemeal versions.

[waveslidah]

I was lossing weight too fast and I just couldn't stick to it. So I would agree that a vegan diet is very conducive to lossing weight.

One thing that I didn't mention was that I avoided foods with Partially Hydrogenated Fats, which is in a lot of vegan sweets. It seems that their is a growing consensus amoung scientists that these fats are the worst, even more unhealthy than animal fat. Of course I'm eating a muffin right now loaded with hydrogenated fat but its Friday so toda esta bien.

[eve]

ehkarnes, you say:

but what i see as being a really big problem in the states is that most people becoming vegan are in college and they cant afford to go out and get fresh veggies all the time and work on a well balanced meal.
But surely it is cheaper and more beneficial, to fill up a little plastic container with a few edible vegies and some beans or something? It can be varied every day after all.
As for waveslidah eating a muffin loaded with hydrogenated fat - why does Friday mean that all is well? Do you intend to die this weekend? :D

[adam antichrist]

Hmmm I knew hydrogenated oils were bad, but I just found this (http://www.truthpublishing.com/PoisonintheFood.html) and they are really really bad, like eat at own risk style bad....

links to an article on a book called 'poison in the food'

[tails4wagging]

I didint lose weight, if anything I gained it... :(

[gicuzzi]

During my first attempt at veganism I gained 20 lbs and haven't been able to lose it since... Hopefully this time will be different and I'll eat more fruits and veggies and less refined carbs, etc.

[waveslidah]

As for waveslidah eating a muffin loaded with hydrogenated fat - why does Friday mean that all is well? Do you intend to die this weekend?


Yeah I tried to kill myself by learning how to wakeboard this weekend (since the ocean has been flat as a lake) but instead I just hurt myself really bad.