Eat as much as you want of vegan foods but follow a few sensible rules.
1) No or low fat.
2) No or few refined flour products (if you want to have bread or pasta go whole-grain)
3) Minimal use of sugar (can use to sweeten healthy foods like oatmeal, or to sweeten stewed apples, if they're a bit tart).
There is so much to eat on this kind of program that the only problem would be cravings, which might sabotage your progress when stressed etc.
Potatoes are great and not fattening unless they're fried or covered with cheese. Try mashed potatoes with a gravy made with mushrooms, stock, a touch of soy sauce (for colour) and thickened with corn flour. Delicious, warm, filling and no fat.
Pasta can also be put to work in helping you lose weight. Choose vegetables that you like (for me pumpkin, zucchini, eggplant) and make them comprise half of a tomato sauce pasta. Just roast the veggies separately or slow simmer them in the pasta sauce and add cooked pasta. The trick to eating satisfying foods like pasta and lose weight is to not have a huge bowl of pasta (or several) with two slithers of veg.
You can be as creative or monotonous as you want. But to lose weight in a healthy vegan way this will allow you to: eat to fullness (thus reducing cravings), lose weight, and be nutritionally insured.
EDIT:
Some respondents have said you don't need to lose weight and if you end up looking good but feeling bad then I'd agree. But if you eat low fat and vegan, reducing flour etc. you will find that your weight will stabilise at a fairly low point and there you'll look your best and be in good health. If you want to lose more weight after that stabilising point then it would be going too far, but see how close it actually is to the goal 122 pounds first. Good luck.How do I lose weight on a vegan diet?
Honestly you do not need to lose weight and you certainly should not be aiming to get down ot 122, that would give you BMI of 18.5 which is right on the verge of being underweight. I know I cannot stop you losing but I will strongly advise you against it. I bet you are really thin and pretty, but you just cannot see that, I honestly know where your coming from.
You really do not need to lose weight. I am the same height, and at that height you can be up to 160-165 and still be in your bmi. I think you are probably in the mid-low range and you definitely do not need to lose weight. Maybe you should try weight-bearing exercises to achieve a more firm/toned look?How do I lose weight on a vegan diet?
Hi 51,
I lost 30 pounds adopting a vegan diet. Here are some sample meal plans with links to recipes http://www.lose-weight-for-life.com/meal鈥?/a> If you sign up for the newsletter they will send you a 7 day meal plan that is even more detailed. I bet you won't have any trouble losing the weight!
Congratulations to you for quitting smoking :)
Good luck,
Diane
just eat healthy... and exercise
your weight will come back if you eat healthy and workout,
if your weight doesn't come back, it's because it's not a healthy weight for you,
but your weight will come back, with workout 30 minutes 4 times a week, it's perfectHow do I lose weight on a vegan diet?
I'm glad to hear you gave up smoking, it's normal to gain some weight after this. Exercise more and cut down on the: rice, pasta and sweets.
BTW: 135lbs at 5'8 isn't bad, you probably just need some more exercise to get tuned up.
Perhaps you could reduce your intake of heavy starch such as bread, cereals, pasta, rice, nuts, potatoes and sweet potatoes.
Light starch such as beans, peas and lentils is OK.
Eat more vegetables and eat 6 times a day.
Eating 6 times a day keeps the metabolism running faster and vegetables are filling (in large amounts) and very little calories.
Also don't get your protein too low. You want at least 50 grams of protein a day. And don't get your fat percentage below 20% because you need fat to function. You can still lose weight on a diet of only 20-30% fat, but going less than 20% can be quite unhealthy. You need fat for the following reasons:
* Providing long lasting energy
* Helping you feel full after eating
* Helping make hormones
* Forming part of your brain and nervous system
* Forming cell membranes for every cell in your body
* Carrying vitamins throughout your body
* Helping to regulate your body temperature and keep you warm
* Providing two essential fatty acids, called linoleic acid and linolenic acid, that your body cannot make by itself
Personally, I am in love with the website Fit Day.com which allows you to track everything you eat. You can get your macro percentages (protein, carbs, fats).... and it tracks micronutrients like vitamins. You have to sign up for an account which allows you to keep all your records permanently and it's free.
First, you should really establish what your maintenance calories are. I've gone to many websites to calculate this and they are all different, so I don't have a good website to recommend. For me, I get a calorie range of 1,400-1,800 a day for maintenance.
Once you figure out your calories for maintenance, then you should set your goal calories for the day below maintenance..... be it 1,200 or 1,500 or whatever you choose. For me, Fit Day keeps track of all the calories so it is just super convenient to use.
There is a website called freedieting.com that has a GREAT protein/carb/fat calculator.... you put in the calories that are your goal calories for the day and then you put in the percentages that you want of protein, fat, carbs (depending on what diet plan you are using like the zone diet or whatever your choice is) The zone diet for example is 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat.... but there are many diet ratios to choose from... or you can just enter in your own percentage values.
Then based on the number of calories per day, the calculator gives you the number in grams of each macronutrient. It's really a nice feature.
You really don't have much weight to lose, so with these tools you should be on track in no time.
If you were overweight you should be worried about your health - but you are perhaps worrying about your appearance. Most men I know find women who are healthy (not skinny) and have a sense of fun and a positive attitude attractive - skinny, self conscious, self critical girls are a turn off - so I hope you are trying to lose weight for good reasons :-)
Also - what weight? Muscle weighs more than fat, so do you just want to lose weight or lose fat? If you want to lose fat I think exercise is a better prescription than starving your body into consuming its muscles, which it will do before it consumes fat reserves. I have met 'skinny fat' girls before now - these are girls that look slim, but there is no muscle on them, they are weak - just thin fat... They look slim, but I am sure they are as unhealthy as many obese people. That is the problem with judging only by outward appearances.
Anyway I can't give you any ideas regarding food - if I ever wanted to lose weight I found I could run of at least 2 pounds a week just in two or three 20 minute runs each week. At least if you do that your body knows you need the muscles and will start using the fat reserves.
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