I don't know if this has been posted before, and I apologize if it has, but since I am new here, I would like to address the vegetarian/vegan community:

Have any of you ever experienced someone's shock that you are a vegetarian/vegan and fat?

I find that when I tell people I am vegetarian and have been for the last four years (before that, one year of being vegan), they are shocked that I am so big. Of course, many of them don't come right out and say that, but I'll get the passive-aggressive approach instead: "I thought it would be easy to stay in shape if you ate only vegetables," and the like. I'm easily hurt by these comments (I didn't get a thick skin with my thick thighs!), but I try to laugh off their comments with, "Onion rings are vegetarian, too!"

Anyone else dealt with this stereotype of very fit, healthy vegetarians?

No, not really, but maybe they weren't that rude about it.

I personally think that people are pretty dumb for thinking that not eating meat = skinny. You see it every day, for some reason they think that being a vegetarian means that you're skinny and fit because of the stereotype that comes with people who are typically vegetarians..... the hippie environmental, outdoorsy types, which for the most part, is pretty true. But still, it is annoying.

Yeah, I got that a bit when I was more toward the vegan end.

I'd ask for vegan dishes and they'd assume it was for my tall, lean spouse, and the crazy meat ladden thing was for me.

A.

In my experience, I have always known slender vegans. But, all the vegetarians I have known have been overweight. .... leading me to the ultra-silly expectation that vegans are always slim and vegetarians are overweight!

Maybe there are SO few vegans and vegetarians that we have actually met, that we form the stereotype rather quickly - much quicker than if we had met 100 vegans and 100 vegetarians....

Another funny stereotype - I remember when the Atkin's revolution had just started. My parents were on it, EVERYONE's parents were on it! They would all eat bacon and eggs for breakfast, cheese and meat for lunch and a big roast and possibly an egg salad for dinner. I still 'unfairly' associate Atkin's people with this stereotype - eating extremely rich, fatty, greasy, yucky foods that are terrible for environmental sustainability ..... I also associate Atkin's people as being somewhat middle-aged, wanting to lose weight somewhat quickly..... in the beginning they always think "I will eat this way forever", but then they eventually cave, eating bread again, and gaining it all back plus more (just like my parents did - x 3)

Thats unfair for me. For example, maybe there are "Vegan Atkins" people that eat NO meat or cheese?? Ok.... now I am rambling.

I never had this association with vegetarians because my sister went vegetarian when I was in elementary school and she gained weight from the diet. Then when I went vegetarian in high school my parents reminded me to be careful of my diet and not start eating fast food all the time like my sister did. And I haven't known too many vegetarians throughout my life. I did know two vegans while in high school and one of them was super skinny but she had always been that way and the other one was a normal weight and I had known her a long time before she went vegan and she didn't appear to lose much weight.

I did fall for the super skinny sickly looking vegan stereotype once when I was watching a tv show because she did kinda look sickly and way underweight and my mom and I were like wow vegan is not healthy. for shame to me!

I think the stereotypye comes from people thinking that vegetarians/vegans choose this lifestyle to be healthy. That is what I always thought. But now, as I realize there are so many overweight vegetarians/vegans, I think they must be making the choice because they just don't want to be harming animals.

LOL! My vegan daughter is not fat or skinny. Just average. And she eats plenty of junk, just not animal junk. Potato chips fried in veg oil are vegan...and the wacky cake recipe that I used to fix when the kids were little...no eggs, no butter, but plenty enough of sugar and oil! She still makes it. I'm pretty sure she is into the environmental stuff, footprints, animal rights, sustainability and all and not trying to be necessarily *healthy*

Barb

When I first started to abstain from the meat, I actually gained weight. I had been on the South Beach, and I have never lost down to that weight since. There are plenty on bad options for veges and even vegans. But, I wouldn't go back to meat again even if it guaranteed 30 pounds weight loss tomorrow!

I've never experienced anyone being openly shocked, but when I tell them that, that's always running through my head. I think it's irrational for people to think vegetarian=skinny. It's like, hey guys, vegetarians don't only eat raw celery!!

On another note, I was vegan for 6 months (ended up going off it on a trip to Germany and never went back ) but during that time I lost about 30 pounds, and I was not restricting calories or portions at all. It's harder for vegans to be fat, in my opinion, because you can't really eat out much or eat a lot of packaged foods unless you're living on Swedish Fish and Oreos.

I stopped eating meat in January, and when I went home for a visit in March my mom asked me if I was still a vegetarian. I said yes, and her first question was "well, how much weight have you lost?" UGH. I didn't become a vegetarian to lose weight. I lost 110 pounds a few years ago eating plenty of meat, and I'm struggling to lose a single pound now. Meat has nothing to do with that. There are so many other reasons not to eat meat, some of them health reasons but that's just the tip of the iceberg.

I remember when I gained a bunch of weight from being vegetarian. THE CULPRIT? Grilled-cheese sandwiches.

And then when I went vegan, gained some more weight. THE OTHER CULPRIT? Tofutti everything. Me and cream cheese had a love affair we just couldn't break off.

Just reading that post gave me a major Tofutti craving!! I love the Cuties and the pints of chocolate...yummm

I really think that uninformed people assume that you only eat salads when you're a vegetarian. Ummmm, chocolate is vegetarian!!!!!!! lol

losing weight has definitely be harder; well at least food has been harder to deny. My problem is I went vegan and when I was looking up vegan things online its like everyone is trying to make the fattening things vegan (muffins, brownies, then lists of treats that are vegan) to prove that vegan food is just as good but it really caused me to want bad things more. I get excited about something being vegan like dark chocolate and can't help myself. Or I want to bake vegan things to see how they turn out and I do! I have still been losing weight but it has been a little more difficult since going vegan for sure.

I have been a vegetarian my whole life (I just dont like the flavor of meat) and honestly I can say that it hasnt effected me losing or gaining weight...I gained weight because I ate all the time and I ate unhealthy food...and outsiders couldnt understand how a vegetarian could be fat...I think our best bet is just to talk to ppl and help them understand how being a vegetarian works.....