Will this way of eating help me lose weight?
 

I am not looking for a quick fix. I need a healthy diet plan and I love my fruit and veggies but I really need to lose 50 pounds. Can anyone help?

I was a vegetarian for 8 years. It did not help me lose weight. You still have to be a part of some sort of calorie restricting plan. You may want to check out south beach. I think it would be easily adapted to fit a vegetarian diet if that's what you choose.

Becoming a vegetarian doesn't make anyone lose weight. In fact I know of several people who gained weight after going veg because they replaced meat with pasta, bread, sweets, etc.

You're only going to lose weight if you reduce the amount of calories/carbs you consume. Being a vegetarian doesn't change anything in the equation.

thank you for your views on my post. Am I in the wrong place then if I want to stop eating meat but also need to lose weight? If so, can some one point me in the right direction? I have tried SB and I know you can't have any fruit (for awhile) but I don't want to give that up.

No you absolutely can lose weight and become a vegetarian as long as you make good food choices. I just meant that it isn't a guarantee.

You are in the right place, My3angels. I think they were just trying to answer the title of the post by saying that vegetarianism does not equate weight loss. It depends on how you ate while you were eating meat, and what you replace it with on your vegetarian plan. If you ate Italian subs, cheeseburgers, sausages, etc on a daily basis and now you replace that with grilled vegetables and a reasonable portion of beans/grains, you'll probably lose weight. However, if you follow my example, I gave up salmon and lean meats and replaced it with spaghetti, risotto, cheesy-buttery baked potatoes, etc. I ate more carbs than I ever had, and it piled on the pounds.

You can make any diet work for you. If you liked SB other than Phase 1, then just skip Phase 1. It's only there to help break you from simple carbohydrates and give you a little rush of motivation. Since vegetarianism is an exclusion of meat/flesh and not a method of weight loss on it's own, you can mix it with any other weight loss method that you like. It can even be mixed with low carb, although you do have to get a little more creative with that one. Probably your easiest diets that mesh with Veg is calorie counting or WW, since you don't have to restrict anything else other than meat that you already choose to give up.

Any diet in particular that you are interested in? If you give us a plan, maybe we can help with specific suggestions.

Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman may be a book that you'd be interested in. People lose weight pretty fast, but it's somewhat restrictive. It does allow fruit. It's the diet that Alanis Morrisette is on.

You might want to look at Dr. Dean Ornish's books/cookbooks, too. He advocates a veggie (or mostly veggie) diet plus exercise plus some kind of support system --- meditation, time with family, etc. (If the emotional emptiness if filled, you don't try to fill it with food.) Lots of variety/choices.

I agree with the folks above who said vegetarian lifestyle alone won't pull you through. I have learned over the past seven or so years a lot about food, portions, fat, calories, and food density. Before my 12 year old's birth, I was floored by the idea a co-worker shared with me: after a super big lunch she was going to eat just a salad for dinner to compensate for the calories. I've come a long way. ;-)

I slowly lost weight since my 9 year old's birth by making item by item eliminations. First, I had to eliminate certain basic veggies because it caused colic so I had to learn new veggies. Then, I gave up meat mostly because I didn't ever care about meat--just the sauces. So I could cover tofu dogs, garden burgers, etc with all the crap I loved and had no problems. By that time, I'd lost 20 pounds because I eliminated a lot of caloric meat/fat for smaller portions and reduced fat/calories.

Next, I gave up dairy products in solidarity to my son's 2-year lactose intolerance and learned it is possible to live without dairy (I've added it back in, in moderation over the past year). I lost another 15 pounds with that one.

I slowly increased walking and aerobics until I made it down to a fluctuating 180-190.

As a recommendation, I really love Barbara Rolls' Volumetrics. It complements my vegetarian meals. Instead of noodles and a spicy yummy stir fry, I substitute bean sprouts. The philosophy is to eat water rich foods like bean sprouts, water mellon, grapes, etc. It also suggests eating every 3-4 hours to keep the stomach functioning properly and avoid hunger pains. I really love the whole thing. I think it's great for maintaining, too.

Weight Watchers is a great program for vegetarians and vegans! You can eat as much fruit and vegetables as you need/want.

If you haven't looked into WW since the "new" plan PointsPlus came out, I recommend looking again. It's great!

when i first became a vegan i weighed 138 which for me is 28 lbs above my ideal weight. Initially I lost weight and felt incredibly healthy b/c I also gave up sugar and coffee but ...
then i discovered Vegan Baking. I learned how to make vegan cup cakes, icing, soups w/ coconut milk, hot chocolate the sugar was added back into my diet and before long I was a vegan tipping the scales at 165.
I am still a vegan but recently I am eating clean and I stopped boozing it up all week-end and I won't ever eat a whole container of hummus at one sitting again.

I agree. Just cutting meat and/or dairy/eggs out of your diet won't help you lose weight alone. I think that becoming a vegetarian/vegan makes you more aware of what you eat, which can make you healthier, by choosing healthy food to eat, or it can make you less healthy, by choosing to eat chips and salsa all the time. Most people just assume all vegetarians/vegans are skinny because you ARE cutting out a lot of calories, but that's just not true; in order to lose weight it's your lifestyle that needs to change, not just your diet. With that said, I've heard so many good things about Weight Watchers (it's even praised in my school's nursing books!). My boyfriends Mum is using it and she has not only lost weight, but is able to eat healthier. Weight Watchers is one of the most sustainable weight loss programs that makes you change how you see eating, not just how many calories you ingest. I wouldn't really recommend any weight loss plans that involve crash dieting or counting calories, because you'll just gain that weight back once you stop the diet.

Best of luck!