Weight gain - should I be worried

[tammay]

Hi all,
My first time posting but I've been lurking for a while.

I decided to go vegan about a week and a half ago mainly for health reasons. I was on a vegetarian diet but I found I was eating too much dairy and eggs and it wasn't making me feel great. So I cut both out and concentrated on veggies and fruit, legume, some grains, some good fats. I'm feeling wonderful and I'm so glad I made the change, not just for health reasons but also for ethical reasons (which I don't fully understand, but I've ordered a few books on veganism which I'm hoping will tell me more).

I've been trying to lose a little weight for some time. Actually, I've pretty much been on a diet most of my life and I'm just sick of the diet-binge cycle. Last year I managed to lose 30 pounds doing lowcarb dieting (I wasn't a vegetarian then!) and then went off and gained about 15 of those back. When I did get back to vegetarianism about 3 months ago, I did lowcarb again and lost about half of those 15 pounds. I was hoping with a vegan diet I would be able to lose the rest of that and stay at my goal weight.

However, with only 10 days of veganism, I stepped on the scale this morning for the first time since going vegan and I've gained 2.5 pounds, along with about 1/2 an inch in the bust, hips, waist. The frustrating this is that I don't feel as if I've gained at all. My clothes are fitting nicely and even a bit looser since I last weighed (when I was doing strictly vegetarian lowcarb). It's frustrating to have a gain when I'm feeling so great and eating so well.

I'm thinking maybe the fact that I've changed the ratios of fat/carbs/protein in my diet has something to do with it. When I was vegetarian lowcarbing, I was averaging about 40 carbs a day (not Atkins level, as I was trying to follow Protein Power), about 65-70% fat, and, since PP puts an emphasis on protein, I was doing about 80-90 gr protein a day (most of it in dairy and eggs), and about 1500-1600 calories. With my vegan menu, I am averaging about 120 carbs a day, 40% fat, 60-65 gr of protein a day (though I'm at about 80 today) and 1300 calories. So I'm thinking the fact that I've raised my carb level by 2/3 is part of the reason why I'm showing a gain this week.

Should I assume my body will ajust to the new ratios? Should I just chuck the scale all together and go by what I feel? Should I tweak my diet?

I do not want to go back to eating dairy and eggs (and definately not meat!) and I don't want to go back to eating lowcarb, as I know lowcarb on a vegan diet will get old very fast. Also, the carbs I'm eating are very healthy - legume, fruits and veggies, some whole grains. It's just annoying that I'm eating so well now and gaining weight when before I was eating stuff like full-fat dairy and cream in my coffee (cut the coffee out too, since I can't drink it with soy milk or soy cream in it - sticking to tea which, again, is healthier).

Here's a typical day for me. If anyone wants to critique my menu, I'm happy to listen.

Breakfast: either a tofu scramble made with 1 tsp of olive oil, 3 oz tofu, veggies - or a tofu smoothie made with tofu, a bit of soy milk, and 1/2 scoop of protein powder - a serving of fruit and, if I'm having the smoothie, some raw veggie on the side, like celery sticks or carrot sticks - iced tea sweetened with Splenda.

Snack: fruit serving (if I'm hungry for it which usually I'm not)

Lunch: lots of veggies with either Morningstar veggie "crumble" (the regular one that's lowfat) or some TVP and 1/2 cup beans sauteed in 1 tsp olive oil - sometimes I add some tomato puree and/or tomato paste - a fruit serving

Snack: 1 oz nuts

Dinner: Big salad with vinigrette (1 tbsp olive oil) and 1/2 cup beans and sometimes a few black olives or 1/2 of a small avocado - fruit serving (usually grapes or pineapple, my favorites) - a small cake made of wheat bran, wheat germ, and applesauce, and a dash of soy milk.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Tam

[moonshadow]

hi tammay,

when i was 19, i started gaining weight dispite a good diet. it took me two years to go see a doctor about it, and it turned out that my thyroid was under producing. a few years later, and medicated for hypothyroidism, i was still having trouble losing the weight that i was told should be easy to lose due to having my thyroid hormones under control. when we were trying to conceive, i found out that i have pcos, which makes it difficult to lose weight.

it is slowly happening, though!

i recommend seeing your doctor, in case something hormonal is up. if it isn't then you can be happily look to other causes. if there is something going on, it's best to sort it out early, you know? the two years my thyroid disorder was undiagnosed were horrible.

best of luck to you!

[tammay]

Hi Hannah,
thank you for the reply. I don't think it's an issue of hyperthyroidism, though, since I've always been able to lose weight fine. In reviewing my menu, I really think it's the fact that I doubled my carb intake and my body is ajusting. I'm going to concentrate on how I feel and what I'm doing and have faith that my body will ajust.

Tam

[ravenfire]

I also have a low thyroid now (I actually started out with an overactive one and had it destroyed via radiation). I've had to learn that as long as I feel healthy, I can't worry about what my body looks like. I'm 5'5" and weigh around 185 lbs, however, I'm healthy and that's all that matters to me now. I used to really stress about the excess weight because I was always thin before, but now I've made peace with my body size and am okay with it.

[Hemlock]

Being a vegan is no guarantee of being thin, I constantly have to watch what I eat and all my tests (thyroid etc) came back ok. Some folk just have to eat less and exercise more than others!!!

[Nest]

Hi Tammay. Have you looked at the weight-loss thread in the Health sub-board? (There are about 10 pages so far.) There is a lot of info there that might help you.

My only advice - such as it is - is to give your body time to ajust. In January I went from l/o veggie to vegan and I've lost 12 kilo's (about 26 pounds) as of a month ago; I haven't weighed myself recently but I've lost more since then. A couple of days ago I discovered I've dropped 3 sizes in jeans!

I'm not dieting, just eating healthy (low fat) vegan food.

Welcome to the board and good luck.

[foxytina_69]

what kinds of healthy vegan foods are you eating nest?

when i first went vegan i lost lots of weight due to what i was eating. i was eating mainly whole foods. fruits, fruit juices, salads, baked beans, toast, trail mix, and soup.

[harpy]

Maybe your body is panicking that there's a famine on and is holding on to calories? 1300 calories doesn't seem much at all.

[foxytina_69]

tammay, you say you have upped your carbs to 120 grams from 40 grams. with this can come temporary water retention as your body readjusts to the new way of eating. continue on, keep doing what youre doing, drink lots of water, stay light on the salt and i bet youll notice youll start dropping weight. the carbs could just be making your cells swell and tissues swell since theyre not used to it. give it a few weeks so your body can readjust! also, be careful about splenda. artifical sweeteners can have a big impact on water retention.

[Nest]

what kinds of healthy vegan foods are you eating nest?

when i first went vegan i lost lots of weight due to what i was eating. i was eating mainly whole foods. fruits, fruit juices, salads, baked beans, toast, trail mix, and soup.

Well, I used to eat cheese with absolutely everything!!! And I ate chocolate every day, too. Anyway, I cut out chocolate, cheese, (hot) chips, & ice-cream. (I've almost cut out sugar too.)

I now eat brown rice (instead of white), wholemeal bread & pasta, low-fat vegan ice-cream (as a treat), and I've switched from "regular" soy-milk to non-fat soy milk. I have basically gone from a very high-fat diet to a low-fat one. I eat more fruit & vegetables now, plus tahini and other nut spreads, also "convenience foods" like veggie-burgers made with lentils & chickpeas, baked beans.

So I haven't actually been dieting, but going vegan has just naturally kick-started my weight-loss!
__________________

[foxytina_69]

thats great nest!

heres a list of foods i compiled when i lost alot of weight when first turning vegan. these are the foods i ate regularly:

beans
rice toast
salad
fruits
pickled foods (beets, pickles, etc.)
organic soups
organic cereals w/ soy milk
juice (apple, orange)
trail mix

i definitely need to eat more like this!

[herbwormwood]

Tammay, are you definitely overweight? I heard on the radio this morning that a lot of girls are on diets but they are not overweight. They see models and pop stars who are underweight- thin and they think that is what they should look like. It is not so much an eating disorder as an unrealistic expectation of what they should be like.

[tammay]

Hey all,
Nest, I can relate to the cheese thing. I LOVE cheese and as a lowcarber I ate a lot of it - and not lowfat either!

herbwormwood, for my height I am considered overweight but according to the charts, only (thank goodness!) slightly. I'm 5' and weigh 132. I think according to the BMI, I should be at about 130 to be "normal" for my height (as I'm right on the border of "normal" and "overweight" - 25.8). However, the slimmest I've been has been 123 and I'd love to get down to that number (or at least 125) so I'm not far away at all.

Tam