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plants vs meat
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I have been a vegetarian for about 3 years and this way of eating really rings true for me. However.....I have gained 30 pounds! I am post menopausal so the brown rice, beans, oats,corn are all total bombs for me(they used not to be but as I age, things change). When I was eating meat, and veggies(whole 30 style), I was much lighter but cholesterol went over 300-went to plant based and dropped 100 points but added on the scale.
I hate to think I have to go back to meat to get the weight off-all my blood numbers are fabulous and am on NO meds except for joint stuff which the added weight isn't helping.
I just need to HTFU and decrease the grains or is this typical for aging vegetarians??? I realize there are plenty of snacks that are veggie but certainly calorie bombs.
I workout a lot-but not really high impact or really high intensity due to joint issues. Do hot yoga 3 times a week, weight 3-4, walk 3 times a week 5-7 miles.
Any guidance would be appreciated!
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Re: plants vs meat [cayenne] [ In reply to ]
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Weight loss is almost always about diet. You need to find some way of restricting your calorie intake that works for you.

Exercise will only get you so far because you burn relatively few calories doing it vs. how much you can take in with eating. You can easily eat in a few minutes what it would take you an hour or more to burn off.

Lots of other reasons to work out, but if you can't figure out your diet it's not likely to help you all that much with weight loss.

Seems like a sensible place to start would be with restricting the intake of what you already eat. Try cutting your portions by a third and see what happens.
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Re: plants vs meat [cayenne] [ In reply to ]
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I went on a vegan diet for 8 months and noticed that my weight also increased. It was largely due to increased carbohydrate (sugar) consumption. I didn't eat any food from animals but increased my consumption of rice, pasta, beans, cereals etc. I did a blood test before and after the 8 month period and my cholesterol went down from 175 to 128 but my blood sugar went way up.

Since then, I went back to non-vegetarian diet and decreased my carb (no rice, pasta, sugar and very little fruit) and increased my natural fat (olive oils, avocado, grain fed beef/chicken, fish). In the year since my vegan experience my cholesterol has stayed down and now my blood sugar is also excellent.

In my case, carbohydrates in all forms, was the culprit for me often feeling bloated, lethargic and too much body fat, even though I was lean. Now, my body fat is also far lower and I ignore my weight because it doesn't matter.
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Re: plants vs meat [cayenne] [ In reply to ]
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You may be eating foods that do not satisfy your taste buds causing you to eat more or foods that not healthy.


_____________________________________
DISH is how we do it.
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Re: plants vs meat [Sanuk] [ In reply to ]
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Sanuk wrote:
I went on a vegan diet for 8 months and noticed that my weight also increased. It was largely due to increased carbohydrate (sugar) consumption. I didn't eat any food from animals but increased my consumption of rice, pasta, beans, cereals etc. I did a blood test before and after the 8 month period and my cholesterol went down from 175 to 128 but my blood sugar went way up.

Since then, I went back to non-vegetarian diet and decreased my carb (no rice, pasta, sugar and very little fruit) and increased my natural fat (olive oils, avocado, grain fed beef/chicken, fish). In the year since my vegan experience my cholesterol has stayed down and now my blood sugar is also excellent.


This reflects my experience as a nutritionist dealing with people every day who want weight loss help. The few vegans who are successful stick to a RAW diet. Your downfall is that Oreo cookies are included, but most muscle-building calories are not. If you insist on staying vegan, I suggest replacing the beans / rice protein with daily vegan protein powder smoothies instead to reduce your starchy carb intake. Or, learn to love a body that resembles the bloated carbs you're eating ;-)

DFL > DNF > DNS
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Re: plants vs meat [cayenne] [ In reply to ]
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cayenne wrote:
I have been a vegetarian for about 3 years and this way of eating really rings true for me. However.....I have gained 30 pounds! I am post menopausal so the brown rice, beans, oats,corn are all total bombs for me(they used not to be but as I age, things change). When I was eating meat, and veggies(whole 30 style), I was much lighter but cholesterol went over 300-went to plant based and dropped 100 points but added on the scale.
I hate to think I have to go back to meat to get the weight off-all my blood numbers are fabulous and am on NO meds except for joint stuff which the added weight isn't helping.
I just need to HTFU and decrease the grains or is this typical for aging vegetarians??? I realize there are plenty of snacks that are veggie but certainly calorie bombs.
I workout a lot-but not really high impact or really high intensity due to joint issues. Do hot yoga 3 times a week, weight 3-4, walk 3 times a week 5-7 miles.
Any guidance would be appreciated!

Sounds like you have a excellent exercise program.
You can lose weight anytime you want as a Vegan...or any diet
I am assuming as a 3 year veteran you know all plant based foods available to you .
You also know by now that being happy with your diet is not so easy. The main problem being that restricted food choices coupled with the lack of applied cooking techniques and motivation to make them interesting. If you are just cooking for yourself , motivation to cook anything can be tough....let alone throwing the same ol same ol into pot.
So with that being said , we know little about your diet.
I would love to give you some suggestions, 10 pounds a year gain is to me kinda crazy, you have to be eating too much of something that is satisfying some craving.
When you say bomb , you are referring to gas? If so you can work around that as well. There is a reason your blood numbers are fabulous. You don’t have to mess around with screwing those up , you just need to make some adjustments. You can call me ( i cook like this for a living)...i ‘ll give you a barrage of questions and try to give you some ideas. Greg Upshur in Stockbridge , Mich.
Umm, I am not a purist by any stretch of the imagination, i deal with many diets.

sometimes
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Re: plants vs meat [cayenne] [ In reply to ]
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you have to eat (and cook properly) foods that are low in caloric density . . . like vegetables. It's not simply 'not eating meat'. Check out the documentary or books 'Forks over Knives'
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Re: plants vs meat [cayenne] [ In reply to ]
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For the last 23 years, I've been a pollo-pescatarian [wikipedia says its a real thing] - i.e. I don't eat mammals, but I eat chicken and fish (and eggs, honey, shellfish, etc). I've gone from 138 lbs to 220 to 150 to 180. I've also gone from 16 to 39, but I was 150lbs less than 5 years ago.

A lot has to do with how lazy I am with my diet - cookies and candy is too tasty.
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Re: plants vs meat [cayenne] [ In reply to ]
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Interesting. I friend of mine went vegan about 6 months ago and he got hugely fat.

Another friend is vegan, and has been since her early teens, is very thin. She’s just better at it. She’s always said that being a healthy vegan requires quite a bit of work and knowledge.

Me? I’m lazy so, carnitas!

Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb
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Re: plants vs meat [cayenne] [ In reply to ]
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cayenne wrote:
I have been a vegetarian for about 3 years and this way of eating really rings true for me. However.....I have gained 30 pounds! I am post menopausal so the brown rice, beans, oats,corn are all total bombs for me(they used not to be but as I age, things change). When I was eating meat, and veggies(whole 30 style), I was much lighter but cholesterol went over 300-went to plant based and dropped 100 points but added on the scale.
I hate to think I have to go back to meat to get the weight off-all my blood numbers are fabulous and am on NO meds except for joint stuff which the added weight isn't helping.
I just need to HTFU and decrease the grains or is this typical for aging vegetarians??? I realize there are plenty of snacks that are veggie but certainly calorie bombs.
I workout a lot-but not really high impact or really high intensity due to joint issues. Do hot yoga 3 times a week, weight 3-4, walk 3 times a week 5-7 miles.
Any guidance would be appreciated!

The key is you are "post menopausal". Unfortunately for you, your calorie requirements to maintain a healthy weight are minuscule. Small portions. Sad!

===============
Proud member of the MSF (Maple Syrup Mafia)
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Re: plants vs meat [cayenne] [ In reply to ]
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Ive been vegan since 1995. The thing ive learned in that time is most people become nutrition or health experts when they find out youre vegan. Its annoying. Just eat a varied diet, not too much. Thats all there is to it.

who's smarter than you're? i'm!
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Re: plants vs meat [cayenne] [ In reply to ]
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What kind of functional strength work are you doing? I'm 15lbs lighter than I was a year ago, but 8-10lbs heavier than when I was racing a ton. Training volume for me is ~1/3-1/2 of what it was when I raced, but training is a lot different now -- a decent amount of body weight strength workouts (~3/week), rowing machine, and the bike, sometimes XC skiing or snow shoeing when the weather is crap. I'm 2 pant sizes less than when I raced and have more muscle, am actually faster on the bike with similar overall power output (less in some specific areas simply because I'm not training for things like 30 second to 2 minute surges), still a little more body fat than I want but less "skinny fat" than when I raced, and have visible abs for the first time in, well, forever. The number on the scale means little overall, because it's obvious that my physical body is better, from how it looks, to how functionally strong I am, to the blood work, to how I feel. If I decided to drop my sweet tooth and really nail the diet in an overly strict way, I'd drop that last bit of body fat, but life is about joy & losing macarons & babka isn't worth the trade for "Men's Health" abs...but I'd still be heavier than my old race weight even if I made that choice.

All that said -- it could be your diet, but it could also be in large part to how you're training, or a combination of how you're training and how you're fueling that training. Yoga always makes me feel awesome, but doesn't do anything to change my physical body in the same way that simple body weight workouts do. Check out reddit's r/bodyweightfitness forum for a solid recommended routine for that.
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Re: plants vs meat [CaptainCanada] [ In reply to ]
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I think this is a "thing" too. My requirements are miniscule compared to a 35 year old. I am weight training to keep the muscle loss low but it is still going on I suspect. I have to wrap my head around eating 2 meals a day and having a smoothie with the protein powder as SallySP suggested. My glucose has been fine when tested.
That is just it, the BP, BS choly, all that, are great and I want to keep that up staying vegetarian. And that matches my morality as well as I don't raise my own chickens/turkeys etc for food. Just gotta cut the portions and limit the carbs in the form of rice, etc.
Thanks for the ideas ,all!
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Re: plants vs meat [veganerd] [ In reply to ]
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veganerd wrote:
Ive been vegan since 1995. The thing ive learned in that time is most people become nutrition or health experts when they find out youre vegan. Its annoying. Just eat a varied diet, not too much. Thats all there is to it.
Oh man that sounds all warm and fuzzy.. but bending the truth a bit?

sometimes
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Re: plants vs meat [cayenne] [ In reply to ]
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Meat!
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Re: plants vs meat [mustangchef] [ In reply to ]
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mustangchef wrote:
veganerd wrote:
Ive been vegan since 1995. The thing ive learned in that time is most people become nutrition or health experts when they find out youre vegan. Its annoying. Just eat a varied diet, not too much. Thats all there is to it.
Oh man that sounds all warm and fuzzy.. but bending the truth a bit?

Bending the truth? How so?

who's smarter than you're? i'm!
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Re: plants vs meat [307trout] [ In reply to ]
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307trout wrote:
Meat!

By far the best response in this post!

FWIW I was vegan for a few years and bloated up a decent amount. It was not until I dropped the heavy doses of carbs that I came down back down. If you go that route it will suck a bit as your body is used to them.

Today I do pretty much the same diet with the addition of "meat!" (to quote 307) and feel great. On that note I think you just need to experiment and find your own sweet spot. If there was a one vegan/paleo/blah blah diet that fit everyone we'd all be in much better shape.

Meat!
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Re: plants vs meat [307trout] [ In reply to ]
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307trout wrote:
Meat!

When in doubt, eat a steak. It's like legal doping.
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Re: plants vs meat [cayenne] [ In reply to ]
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I envisioned this as a "rock, paper, scissors" type of scenario. Obviously meat eats vegetables so it would be a really short game with a very predictable outcome.
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Re: plants vs meat [svennn] [ In reply to ]
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svennn wrote:
307trout wrote:
Meat!

When in doubt, eat a steak. It's like legal doping.

Alberto contador may take issue with that!

who's smarter than you're? i'm!
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Re: plants vs meat [307trout] [ In reply to ]
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Maybe i should update the hunters of the LR, but I put 60ish pounds of lean organic grass fed white tail in my freezer this weekend.

Lean meats even on the rare occasion wouldn't be bad.

Pactimo brand ambassador, ask me about promo codes
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Re: plants vs meat [MTBSully] [ In reply to ]
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This makes me jealous. I had a bag of fresh whitetail I put in the garage freezer just a couple of weeks ago, including some backstrap. All of the sudden yesterday I noticed that the damn freezer stopped working sometime recently, ruining all of it and some frozen custard from my favorite place that's now not open again until March. The loss of the backstrap is a kick in the face. Uggghhh.


MTBSully wrote:
Maybe i should update the hunters of the LR, but I put 60ish pounds of lean organic grass fed white tail in my freezer this weekend.

Lean meats even on the rare occasion wouldn't be bad.
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Re: plants vs meat [MidwestRoadie] [ In reply to ]
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MidwestRoadie wrote:
This makes me jealous. I had a bag of fresh whitetail I put in the garage freezer just a couple of weeks ago, including some backstrap. All of the sudden yesterday I noticed that the damn freezer stopped working sometime recently, ruining all of it and some frozen custard from my favorite place that's now not open again until March. The loss of the backstrap is a kick in the face. Uggghhh.

That is my nightmare. I have 2 elk, a mule deer, a pronghorn, and a couple wild turkeys in a big chest freezer that I check often. Freezer failure is an emergency of very high priority. Sorry to hear about your loss.
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Re: plants vs meat [MTBSully] [ In reply to ]
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MTBSully wrote:
Maybe i should update the hunters of the LR, but I put 60ish pounds of lean organic grass fed white tail in my freezer this weekend.

Lean meats even on the rare occasion wouldn't be bad.


When's dinner ;-))

DFL > DNF > DNS
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