Hello all, first let me say I am new to this forum and to posting like this in general so please be gentle if I violate etiquette somehow and kindly show me how it's supposed to be done. That being said, I did LAWL many years ago and lost significant weight, gained it back (my fault) and am ready to do it again because it does work! My question to all the vegetarians out there is this: I know about hummus, ricotta, etc but how do you count meat analogs (ie: fake meats)? Is there an exchange system like it must have X grams of protein but not more than X grams of fat/carbs or you have to count it as a protein + a fat/starch? The last time I did LAWL the counselor told me this wasn't a good program for vegetarians (I was not fully veg yet back then) but I find that hard to believe. Thanks for any help!

Hi Kenya, don't worry, we won't be mean to you! I always thought that 1 veggie burger was equal to 1 protein, 1 veggie sausage pattie= 1/2 a protein but I can't be sure. There are a couple of us vegetarians on here, so we will do our best to help you. A lot of our daily chatter takes place on the Losers and Friends thread. You are welcome to come there are introduce yourself and chat with us!

Hi Kenya -

No meanies here! Welcome!

I laughed when you said the LAWL counselor told you it was not a good plan for vegetarians. Too funny. You really stumped her there! I am not a vegetarian, but you certainly can adjust the plan to make it so.

I believe that you could find the approximate cal/fat of meats in the plans and use that average to apply to non-meat proteins. It may take a while to come up with them, but once it was done you have the list.

Thanks ladies, that was kind of what I was thinking of doing, since meat technically has no carbs in it if there are carbs in a fake meat I suppose I should count that in my starches. Thank you for the welcomes and I'll definitely stop by the Losers and Friends thread!

Hi Kenya

It is true that Vegetarian protein contains more carbs. I have noticed that beans and nuts cause weight gain for me...if I use them as protein.

However, there are some good Vegetarian protein I found:
1)Allegro cheese - 30g - 1g fat, 11 g protein
2)Lite Ricotta - 1/4 cup - 2.5g fat, 7 g protein
3)fat free cottage cheese ( a tad high in sodium- so i don't use)
4)Lite Tofu from Silken
5)Soy burger- 95 g(1 protein) - contains 14-16 gm of protein
6)ground soy

These are few containing low carb or low fat. I am not a fan of garden veggie burger because it contains more carbs and less protein.

Hope this helps

Hi, Kenya --
I am a (mostly) Vegetarian -- having taken up seafood in the past few years. I was told that -- on the gold plan and the purple -- a veggie burger or veggie dog or plain Quorn cutlet is one protein. I have pretty much applied that to most of the veggie burgers out there and to similarly sized veggie products (like the Boca Italian sausages and such). I think that the mini-links are a bit different. I think I counted 2 of them as one protein. Unless I see actual breading on the thing (like the Veggie corn dog I just ate), I don't count a starch.
This worked for me throughout the plan -- I lost 40 lbs, meeting my goal.
Sadly for me, I have gotten a bit lax and put some back on so I've just returned to the plan. Hope I can remember all of these equivalents.

Hi Kenya:

I happen to have the Gold Plan book in my hands and here is the list for

Vegetarian Proteins:

Vegetarians may choose from the proteins below. For clients who eat a half protein in the morning, you may also use 2 links of vegetarian breakfast sausages (low-sodium preferred).

Beans, bagged, anytype, cooked 1 cup
Beans and peas, mix, cooked 1 cup
Cottage cheese, 1% 1/2 cup (mistake in book ?)
Chickpeas, dried, cooked 1 cup
Dal, cooked 1 cup
Eggbeaters/substitude, plain 1/2 cup
Eggs, large, whole 2 (up to 6 per week)
Lentils, cooked 1 cup
Miso 3 oz
Nut butters, any 2 Tbsp
Nuts, and variety, unsalted 3 Tbsp
Peanut butter, regular or reduced fat 2 Tbsp
Quorn Naked Cutlets 1 cutlet
Ricotta cheese, part-skim 4 oz
Seeds, any variety, unsalted 3 Tbsp
Seiten 3 ozs
Soybeans, adamame, without shell 1 cup
Soy cheese 2 ozs
Soy milk, plain or lowfat, fortified 1 cup
Soy yogurt 1 cup
Tempeh 2/3 cup
Textured Vegetable Protein 2 ozs
Tofu, firm, raw 1/2 cup
Vegetarian burger, any variety 1
Vegetarian burger crumbles 1 1/3 cup (WOW that's a lot)
Vegetarian chicken nuggets, plain 4 nuggets
Vegetarian hot dog, any variety 1

Hope that helps. Remember, this is for Gold and probably Blue portion sizes. I think if your are on Purple, sizes are a bit larger. I don't have a Purple book.

Some of these things I have never heard of, so I'm curious and going to have to check out what the heck they are? Tempeh? Seiten???? Quorn???

Good luck.