Veganism might not be for me.

[Alejandro The Vegan]

After only 4 and a half months of a vegan diet I'm starting to have second thoughts. I mentioned that I was vegetarian for a year before my switch to veganism.

 

But I'm losing weight and not really gaining any weight. I can't afford to eat so much on a vegan diet. If I wasn't trying to bulk up and I was just into running and a little weight lifting here and there it would be ok to be skinny.

 

But I want to gain muscle and some weight. I'm 5'7, I was 160-150lbs when I ate meat, but not fit.

I was 140 to 150ish when I was a vegetarian and working out once or twice a week.

Now that I been Vegan for 4 months I'm only 134lbs! I work out 4 to 5 times a week and I'm more cut, i can see that I'm stronger and I'm noticing more definition. But I just look too thin for my taste. And I read some of your guys' blogs and post about how much you eat, and It sounds like in order to put on some weight people are spending 20 to 40 dollars a day. I may be wrong but I'm on a budget and I can't afford to eat more than what I have projected to spend for the month.

 

I decided that I will give my self 3 more months. I will train just as hard or harder and I'm going to take my supplements more often (not over do it) And try to eat a bit more with out breaking the bank. If by late June I'm not at least 140 or 145 then I will have to forget about being Vegan, and people... I would love to be vegan for the rest of my life. But I don't think is practical for my goals.

 

I would love some feed back. positive.

[Nathan Nearing]

I can't speak for everyone else, but even when I was eating a ton of food (cutting back now) I wasn't spending 20 bucks a day. Not even close. And I never lost a huge amount of weight from going vegan.

 

Tell us what you are eating. If you are losing weight you simply aren't eating enough. It has nothing to do with being vegan or being a meatitarian. Not enough calories go in, weight goes down. Simple. Processed foods will always cost you more. I buy huge bags of brown rice from asian grocers and it ends up costing me a dollar or two per kilo. I buy most or all of my vegetables frozen and buy in season fruits. I eat simple, not a whole lot, but if I increased what I ate it would only cost me about 50 cents a day or a little more.

 

Also, gaining solid mass takes time. It won't happen overnight or even in a few months. Hell, look at Ryan. His size is a result of years of work. Progressive gains over time. Learn to see those gains and accept that more will come, and you will reach your goals.

 

 

I'd like to see how you're training as well. I'm not sure if you have a blog or not, but it would be interesting and help us comment more on your current concerns and issues.

 

 

Veganism is like anything else. Approached rationally and with dedication it's sustainable, healthy, and condusive to a strong, lean powerful body. It can also hurt you if you approach it the wrong way. Same goes for a lot of things.

[Alejandro The Vegan]

I can't speak for everyone else, but even when I was eating a ton of food (cutting back now) I wasn't spending 20 bucks a day. Not even close. And I never lost a huge amount of weight from going vegan.

 

Tell us what you are eating. If you are losing weight you simply aren't eating enough. It has nothing to do with being vegan or being a meatitarian. Not enough calories go in, weight goes down. Simple. Processed foods will always cost you more. I buy huge bags of brown rice from asian grocers and it ends up costing me a dollar or two per kilo. I buy most or all of my vegetables frozen and buy in season fruits. I eat simple, not a whole lot, but if I increased what I ate it would only cost me about 50 cents a day or a little more.

 

Also, gaining solid mass takes time. It won't happen overnight or even in a few months. Hell, look at Ryan. His size is a result of years of work. Progressive gains over time. Learn to see those gains and accept that more will come, and you will reach your goals.

 

 

I'd like to see how you're training as well. I'm not sure if you have a blog or not, but it would be interesting and help us comment more on your current concerns and issues.

 

 

Veganism is like anything else. Approached rationally and with dedication it's sustainable, healthy, and condusive to a strong, lean powerful body. It can also hurt you if you approach it the wrong way. Same goes for a lot of things.

 

Ok, good stuff. I'll give you an example of a typical day.

 

Morning:

 

Peanut butter and blueberry jelly sandwichs

1 pear

8oz of The Ultimate Meal (w/banana and half an apple)

 

Midday snack:

Organic Foodbar or Cliff Bar

almonds/dry cranberries

 

Lunch:

Baby Spinach & Avocado salad with tomatoes.

short grain brown rice, black beans with somoe multi grain tortillas

and some grilled tofu or tempeh.

 

I work out around 5 or 6 right after that:

 

brown rice protein shake with mangoes and apples

a soy cheese quesadilla with some sauteed broccoli, mushrooms over some quinoa or brown rice.

[Nathan Nearing]

Are you trying to bulk?

 

Well then you need to be eating double that, easy. Six meals a day is optimum; In fact it may help to increase the portion size you are consuming at one time now, and double the meal times.

 

90% of what you are eating is processed. I'm not surprised it's expensive to eat that way now, let alone if you have to increase your caloric intake. Ultimate Meal is okay, but it's damn expensive. Hit up TrueProtein, get some Nitrofusion from BB.com, or talk to LeanandGreen to get some powder from him. I like the quote from the author of Eat To Live; the salad IS the main course. Most of your calories are coming from things that should be sides or in smaller amounts. Fresh, unprocessed, whole foods are where it's at.

 

Also, let's look at the numbers. I'm eating 1500-1600 calories lately. I want to see my abs for once, haha, and it's working. 1500 is considered fast fat loss, where as 2000 will still cause fat loss, just slower (this is for me, but it goes for most of the population). We'll assume each of your meals is 400 calories. If you eat 4 meals at 400 you're looking at 1600 calories. That'll make you lose weight. However, you're eating about 300 per meal, which brings you to 1200 a day, 1300 maybe.

 

Double the food and you're doing okay. But you have to ditch the processed stuff and empty calories. Not all of it, if you don't want to. But it will make a world of difference.

[Couture547]

The vegan diet is the cheapest kind of diet there is without a doubt. I eat over 3K a day all organic and spend 300 a month on food and if i had to i could drop it to 150. Meat and dairy is extremely expensive. As far as losing weight goes, eat more carbs

[damdaman]

Double the food and you're doing okay. But you have to ditch the processed stuff and empty calories. Not all of it, if you don't want to. But it will make a world of difference.

 

+1... brown rice and beans is one of the cheapest meals you can imagine, even if you get organic. Add a little steamed broccoli and half an avocado and you have a great nutritious meal. Eat it twice (or even three times!) a day and you've got two meals covered for about $5.

 

But I agree with Nathan that you're losing weight because you're not eating nearly enough. And the soy cheese and clif bars and other processed items make your meals more expensive than they need to be.

[Alejandro The Vegan]

Thanks for the feedback guys. And you know what? half of the problem is that I don't really know much about food. I know more than what the average person would know, I mean just being vegan you sort of have to make your self more aware. But I don't know enough to make the correct choices of the ideal foods and portions. I will start by looking into some of the powder stuff you suggested and maybe picking up a book or something. anything you guys recommend? Keep in mind that I'm also going at this alone and picking up whatever I read here and there.

[Duncan_Idaho]

Hrm, your diet doesn't look bad.

I. Diet. Is the rice enough? Make sure you are loaded with complex carbs.

The protein shake immediately after training is very important. Maybe the rice protein works. Experiment with powders. It is good that you are combine rice protein with the soy in your diet. Soy has all the essential aminos. I'd recommend a protein shake before you go to bed too. That's to make sure you don't go into a catabolic state during the night. Careful not to ruin your sleep though:)

Maybe take some soy protein after training and keep the rice protein for the night.

 

II. Training

 

Make sure you train like an animal too. If you lift heavier, sooner or later you'll grow bigger.

[Zack]

Ditch the Ultimate Meal, waste of money.

 

That and follow the advice of everyone up there ^^^

[Fallen_Horse]

Ultimate Meal is nice, but for cutting back spending, that should be the first thing to go. Replace it with a protein shake.

 

Now for the foods:

 

BEANS

TOFU/TEMPEH/SEITAN

Hummus

Some brown rice and wheat bread

NUTS (peanuts are cheap)

SEEDS

Avocados

[pazios2002]

NUTS (peanuts are cheap)

 

I thought they were never a pea nor a nut.

[Fallen_Horse]

NUTS (peanuts are cheap)

 

I thought they were never a pea nor a nut.

Semantics semantics!

[Marcina]

NUTS (peanuts are cheap)

 

I thought they were never a pea nor a nut.

 

 

Just like Grape Nuts. I open the box. No grapes. No nuts. Who's the advertising genius who came up with that one?

[Alejandro The Vegan]

i really appreciate everyone coming to my aid! I will look into some of the recommendations you guys have made. I also got a call from Giacomo!

[Fallen_Horse]

Stay strong man! It takes some time to get used to the big change...

[Liberacion-Igualdad]

Hey Alejandro!

 

Similar thing happened to me. I was a vegetarian for about 6 months before going vegan. I lost around 10 lbs while being a vegetarian, and then 10 lbs more when vegan. I felt healthy and energetic, but I was getting skinny, no doubt.

 

Gladly, dropping veganism isn’t an option for me, so I did my homework and began to gain weight. Now I’m just 2-3 lbs. lighter than when I was an omnivore!

I would suggest you to get/read the book Becoming Vegan. It has great info, not only on the academic side of nutrition, but also chapters on specific issues (such as gaining weight), with practical advices.

 

I began to work out consistently about 7 weeks ago, and in the last month I didn’t gain any weight. I lurked around this forum and realized my problem was caloric intake. So I began to eat high-caloric foods more often (avocados, nuts, olives, etc.) and have, on average, 2 smoothies per day between regular meals. I gained 2 lbs in about a week.

 

I’m a college-student. Most of us don’t have too much money, yet I’ve been able to eat mostly organic and gain weight with the same money many of my friends reach the end of the month bankrupt! Just spend your money wisely. Compare prices, get rid of expensive processed foods, don’t spend money on unworthy stuff (cigarettes, alcohol and the like), etc.

 

Hope some of this helps.

 

Best,

 

Samuel.

[Trev]

Yeah, Alejandro, hang in there, man! I went from 155 to 134 during the first four months I was vegan (I'm 5'8) and I was 135ish for most of the last 2.5 years. I was stronger, and way more fit. Recently I started gaining muscle again and am up to 144-146 lbs. I just added some more resistance training and started training Brazilian Jiu-jitsu (was just kickboxing before that) and my weight came up. I've been eating more calories too.

 

Try eating more bananas - cheap calories. I eat tons of bananas, spinach, brown rice and some tempeh among other things. The advice in this thread is all solid - you'll get to where you want to be.

[Alejandro The Vegan]

Is good to hear so many stories similar to mine. I have to admit. I know very little about proper calorie intake. I honestly want to stay vegan. And this only encourages me more. thanks a lot. and I appreciate any more stories. thanks!

[tuc]

And I read some of your guys' blogs and post about how much you eat, and It sounds like in order to put on some weight people are spending 20 to 40 dollars a day.

I spend maybe 5-10 euros per day for food. That's 6-13 USD and don't even get me started with the ridiculous food price we have here in Finland (it's about twice as expensive as in the U.S.). Start making proper meals yourself, like full grain pasta with ridiculous amounts of oil, beans, onions, textured soy products and such. You'll get 2000 kcal for 2 dollars. Anyone can afford it.

[oselifer]

I never understood the calorie theory...If someone is not hungry to eat 4000cals why should he eat that much?

Why hunger isn't enough to inform us how much food we need?

 

Do you think bears count calories when they want to bulk for the winter?

 

And how almost every non vegan in our society is fat?Fat people i know do not consume so many calories...

They usually take maximum 2500..And they only have one main meal...

Why do they gain weight?

[MaryStella]

Some other costs tips I have are buy your vegetables from a farmer directly at farmers markets or at the stands they have at their farms. Way better quality and costs. better for the environment to. Same goes for fruit get them from orchards or farmers market. the buy in bulk theory works here to. If you've bought too much for you to consume before the produce will go bad you can always freeze most of it. You would be amazed how much money you save this way. Also buy foods that are cheap like dry lentils, split peas, I know other have mentioned beans and rice. If you have a slow cooker you can set them to cook in there all day and then portion and freeze/refrigerate whatever your not going to eat and then you can reheat and eat those as needed without the long cook time that dry foods tend to need for cooking. you can do it on the stove too I just like the slow cooker because you don't actually have to be home watching it and you can get one for relatively cheap if you don't have one. You save so much money over buying cans of beans etc. I am so glad you posted this because non-vegans ask me all the time if it is very expensive to be vegan. they think that it is because of the prices they see at some heath food stores and I don't really feel like it is. My largest expense is on protein powder like vega not food for sure. Just some thoughts I had, hope they help. I agree with everyone that posted before me you can totally do this.

[chrisjs]

Lots of good comments so far. Ditto on dropping The Ultimate Meal. It's incredibly expensive. I'd caution against the protein shakes at all. For your situation, they should be totally supplementary, you don't want to consider them a meal.

 

Try adding in 2+ servings of oatmeal, hummus is dense and cheap (especially if you make it yourself), more avocados (they should be cheap in CA!), more peanut butter, more tofu, more rice. Basically eat more of the cheap and calorie dense stuff you already eat.

 

This won't cost $30 per day, dropping out the expensive stuff (Ultimate Meal and tempeh) and increasing all the cheaper stuff will definitely help.

[Marcina]

I never understood the calorie theory...If someone is not hungry to eat 4000cals why should he eat that much?

Why hunger isn't enough to inform us how much food we need?

 

Do you think bears count calories when they want to bulk for the winter?

 

And how almost every non vegan in our society is fat?Fat people i know do not consume so many calories...

They usually take maximum 2500..And they only have one main meal...

Why do they gain weight?

 

Only eating one meal slows down the metabolism because the body will try to conserve energy. These same people are probably tired all the time and use that as an excuse not to exercise. It also depends what that 2500 calories comes from.

Eating 2500 calories of whole foods isn't the same as eating 2500 calories of fast food/processed stuff.

[Zack]

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/meal-frequency-and-energy-balance-research-review.html

[cubby2112]

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/meal-frequency-and-energy-balance-research-review.html

 

+1

Good article.