Losing weight as a male vegan??

[BreadmanInAus]

Hey,
Um this is the first time I've been on so I'll just tell you about me. I'm 18, live in Australia and have been a vegan for 2 years last November.
Anyways...
Well I used to eat REALLY well as a vegan loads of fruit; greens; fungis; nuts etc. Always wholesome whole vegan food and then...
I moved in with a new person and although I remained vegan all their bad eating habits started to rub of on me and I started eating lots of vegan junkie or really heavy vegan gourmet foods.
So it's been 7 months and I've put on about 10 kilograms and feel awful. I've tried a couple of times to get back to how I was eating before but I'm just having intense sugar (processed sugar!) cravings.
Any help??

[Johnstuff]

I find it helps to not keep 'sweets' in the house 'cause I don't have the will power not to eat them.

Excercise is always good for burning off energy/calories if you don't already, try increasing the amount of exercise you do.

[Barry]

I know how you feel! My weight has been a bit up and down over the last five years. I went from being really skinny, to being about a stone overweight, to being just about right. For me it was all about excercise - jogging and weights. I also had to really cut down on carbs cause I was eating waaaay too much bread, rice and pasta. I suppose it's just a case of getting back into healthy habits, both in terms of eating and excercise. Good luck!

[harpy]

Hello BreadMan - maybe you could go back to eating a lot of fruit and wean yourself off the processed sugar that way? If you keep the fruit really handy - i.e. where you'll come to it before the other stuff - that might make it easier.

[xrodolfox]

I've had the same issues, to some extent.

The trick is about what is available.
If your roommate is sabotaging your habits, you might need to set up some rules so that his/her habits don't rub off on you. That might mean labeling foods as "yours" and "mine", etc. The trick is to ONLY buy what is healthy for you. The real restraint will have to be when you shop, not when you are hungry (and can't really have much restraint.

You will go through some unpleasant withdrawal, but it should be find if you eat enough. Stave it off by eating lots of fruit? Either way, what you have in your pantry is what you will eat. When a person is hungry, they don't make the best choices in foods. So shop with a list on a full stomach, and make sure you eat your food and not your roomies. You will have to fight to keep your habits, but once you win that fight, you'll know how to do it for the rest of your life.

It isn't easy!

[DavidT]

Habit helps too - find the times you really enjoy, say, an apple or a banana. There seem to be specific times of the day when a particular piece of fruit seems, I dunno, right somehow, it's weird but true, especially when I'm at work.

I like an orange when I get up, an apple mid-afternoon, a banana if I'm peckish at bedtime.

But red grapes...don't leave them in front of me, they just go!

[veggiemrs]

you need to speed up your metabolism through exercise. Even a simple 15 minute daily routine will get you on your way

[powerlifer]

You have to try go back to eating clean like you were before, or restrict your calories.

Weight loss only happens when you expend more calories than you consume.

Programs like fitday that track your calories can help.

[Ms_Derious]

Everyone has given really good advice. To be honest, the only way to find your ideal weight and stick to it is to learn to listen to your body properly. Find the healthy foods you really like and keep them in stock. Try prepping snacks at the same time as cooking dinner, so, while your pasta is boiling you can be cutting up veggie sticks to munch on the next day. Half the time we think we want junk food because we are too lazy to actually prep something healthy.

Also, I find weighing out high calorie snacks into sensible portions helps. For example, I have a small portion (25g) of mixed nuts mid morning most days. If I just had a whole bag in my desk draw, I'd eat 3-4 times that amount, but 25g actually staves off any hunger pangs until lunchtime.

Whatever you do, don't make it into a big deal about weightloss. What you need to concentrate on is eating what is healthy for you. When you do that, your weight will normalise to a point where just being a tiny bit more active will help you stay at the right weight for you. At the end of the day, as long as you are healthy, weight doesn't really matter.