Hey chicks, I'm pretty much a seasoned calorie counter, but I've been wondering if cutting out some of the carbs from my diet would improve my progress as I lose weight very slowly. Like.. maybe a pound loss per fortnight if I work at it.
I'm a strict vegetarian, and I don't like to eat cheese/milk.. I'm not really a vegan because I eat free range eggs. Eggs are probably the one thing stopping me from going properly vegan because I love them, haha.

So, understandably, most of my diet seems to consist of carbs. On a typical day, my food goes something like.. cornflakes with soy milk for breakfast, a home-made egg sandwich for lunch (or homemade veggie soup, but usually the sandwich), and pasta with veggie mince bolognese or jacket potatoes for dinner. Every meal is busting with carbs, haha. So, does anyone have an idea what I can swap in to cut back on some carbs?

Thanks!

Eating too many carbs, is really the issue when it comes to weight loss. Carbs turn to sugar and then fat if you can't burn them off. So the less carbs you have, the less work needed to burn them off.

Thanks collingwood, I did figure that was why my weight isn't coming off very fast. I just basically need some ideas of low-carb veggie foods that I could swap my current diet-stuffs for.

Colingwood, I think you are oversimplifying. Glucose is the body's primary food source but it can use alternative food sources. People do lose weight on high carb diets. Cutting out carbs tends to cut out a lot of calories for many people as well as reduce their glucose stores (additional weight loss).

March, I eat high carb but I tend to limit my refined carbs. I don't see a lot of veggies in your diet either. For breakfast, how about pumpkin chia pudding
http://www.choosingraw.com/pumpkin-chia-pudding/

For lunch, you could try an egg wrap with collards or romaine lettuce. Or perhaps a salad with chopped egg.

For dinner, you could try spaghetti squash as a substitute for the pasta. For me, I tend to eat a bean dish like spicy Ethiopian style lentils over a bed of cooked greens or Chana masala over slightly smashed cauliflower.

I've been low carb for a few days now trying to stick on 50g or under, and today I worked out for the first time since going low on carbs. I thought I was going to die, felt like I was going to throw up and it was a 20 minute workout that I usually breeze through. I had to lie down for an hour and eat a banana. I'm not sure low carb suits me, I think I may go back to counting calories. That was pretty scary.

Alot of leafy green almost have a 50/50 carb to protein ratio. If you eat big quantities of salads you'd be surprised how the protein can add up. Instead of an egg salad sandwich get rid of the bread and put your egg salad on a bed of greens. Also I didn't hear you mention legumes. Lentils, beans, these still have carbs, but also pack much more protein than grains. If you aren't afraid of some extra fat in your diet you can add nuts and seeds. These have less carb to protein ratio also. Also quinoa (keen wa) has more protein than most grain sources. I use it instead of rice alot.

As a veggie I am sure you have heard that we really dont need all the protein the body building industry likes to tout that we do. But for me both protein and fiber seem to do the most most me sticking to plan, and when I am conscientious and try to avoid starchy foods I do better with losing weight.

You have to give low carb a bit longer to work correctly. It can feel pretty cruddy while your body is switching over from burning carbs for fuel, to fat.

-Quinoa is a good source of protein for vegetarians, and a tasty alternative to rice/grains.

-You might want to look into making protein shakes (peanut butter, whey or soy powder, nuts, fruit, etc) instead of cereal.

-Of course, good ol' tofu is great for diets. It absorbs pretty much everything you put on it, so it is easy to add to meals like spaghetti bolognese, or put on a salad, etc.

It's a good thing that you do eat eggs already, that should make it much easier to skim out the carbs and replace with more egg/egg white based meals like omelets instead of sandwiches.

You can do it! Good luck!

I'm also a vegetarian who's toying with the idea of eating primal. I did it a while back and lost weight (while not even trying!), but then I read The China Study by T. Colin Campbell and really felt convicted to become a vegetarian. That was last fall and since then I've steadily gained weight I'm to the point where I'm wondering what good the possible health benefits of being a vegetarian are, if I keep gaining weight which isn't healthy. For the first time in my live my bmi is in the overweight zone ugh. I'm going to look into vegetarian primal eating, or possibly a very restricted meat primal diet. If there's a will there's a way

veggiegirl, I've been sort of going through the same thing myself. I've been trying to be a vegan now for about 5 years but I keep falling off and I've gained 65 pounds (but I blame that more on stress and life changes that pushed me to binge eat than on trying to be vegan). I did well on a low carb diet some years back when I was eating meat, losing 35 pounds.

I'm now looking to try to get back to a more controlled carb diet (though not totally low carb) and adding back some dairy and eggs and even a little fish. I'm still quite apprehensive about it, but I'm willing to give it a shot for a little while. I can always go back to vegetarianism if I don't feel good about it.

Tam

When I ate primal I followed Mark Sissone's plan and kept my daily carb intake in the 50-100 range. I think I'm going to start doing that again and also introduce fish into my diet again. So I guess that would make me a pescitarian now I eat eggs so I'll continue doing that, but I am going to cut milk and cheese way back again, which I did while eating primal before.

I have been a pescatarian for 20 years... so I eat seafood, eggs, cheese.... and am on atkins. I don't eat fish everyday... it's tough if you won't eat cheese... but it's doable and it WORKS... I did Atkins awhile back and ended up losing 50lbs in 6mos... but then stopped.. and gained double back... but now I"m back to Atkins.. just started back on Wed... and it works, for me anyway. I know that my body has a carb intolerance. I have always eaten what most would consider "healthy" .. my carbs were whole grain carbs.. but I turn it right into fat.

There's lots of veggie options, tofu, boca, morning star, quorn products, etc. that you can have to boost protein.

Wanted to check in also. For the last few days, I've been focusing my diet on proteins, veggies, and fats, with only 1 serving of grains (a high-fiber cereal, which I need for the "crunch" effect, as I'm not a huge fan of nuts) and keeping my carbs to about 80-90 a day. So it's quite a bit higher than most low carb diets, but I read somewhere that a "low carb" diet is considered one where carbs are less than 100 a day. My plan is very balanced though (about 40% fat, 30% carbs, and 30% protein) and filled with veggies. In fact, it's ironic but I've been eating a lot more veggies, and especially salads, since adding dairy and eggs back into my diet (but not fish - I just couldn't do it!) I'm guessing that's because I was on a no-added-fat vegan diet before (a la McDougall, Fuhrman, Barnard, and the like) and salads without at least a little bit of oil are just not tasty for me.

I am eating quite a bit of dairy, I'll admit, but I'm feeling good on the plan. But I'm feeling good so far. I'll be monitoring how I feel because the big issue that I have with low carb is health issues. When I did blood work last year as a vegan, everything was fine (blood pressure, cholesterol, etc). So I'l admit I'm still dealing with the brainwash of the no-fat-added doctors about the evils of eating more than 10% of daily calories from fat and eating more than 5% of calories from protein. So I'm planning on doing bloodwork again in another 5 weeks (before I leave for a trip to the States) after I've done this plan for a while and see how everything goes.

How is everyone else doing?

Tam

Low carb vegetarian is indeed a challenge. I was a veggie for well over 12 years and gave it up for better health. Thats me.

Upping good quality fats are the first step. Real butter, cold pressed oils will help. Eggs are excellent so you have a good start. Plenty of fresh greens and veggies. This is the time to concentrate on as fresh as possible. The fiber will help and the vitamins are more likely.

Cutting down the starch will be hard. Consider raw nuts (not roasted), whole grains in their natural state (not refined) and sprouted grains. I am on the fence with legumes, personally I would rather have root veggies like carrots and yams before legumes.

I wish you the best in finding what works for you. Lowering carbs is always a good thing and moving towards real food is the best.