We stopped eating meat last July (except on very special occasions, Christmas for example) and the whole household has been steadily losing weight, approx 10% off everyone.

We’re eating plenty of good food, always cooked from scratch, but we’re still losing weight. We were by means fatties to start with (me 77kg 5ft 10in, wife 57kg 5ft 5in, niece 65kg 5ft 8in), but we now all need belts to hold our trousers up! I guess our weights should level off at some point but when?

So, to the STW Veggie hive, did you all drop weight, whats your diet and sources of protein?

quorn will give you a source of protein. as for loosing weight, your healthy BMI weight is 58.5kg – 79.3kg

I wish I had that problem. Been veggie 24 years or so. Losing weight is more or less always desired.
I think you’ll hit a plateau when you get more used to things.

Someone predictable will be along in a minute to tell you to eat a bacon sandwich.

I’ve been veggie since 1989 – when I bought my first mountain bike. The two are slightly connected as I think I was just having an early mid-life crisis. My weight has been stable all that time, give or take a couple of kilos.
I’ve never worried about protein specifically. I did some research and found that the average western meat-eater gets too much protein, so I figured getting a bit less wouldn’t be a problem, and that has proved to be the case. I still eat cheese and eggs (have my own hens), and recently I started to worry I was eating too much fat so I’ve tried to replace some of the cheese in my diet with other protein-rich foods – pulses (particularly lentils because they are so easy), nuts, seeds. Still eating the eggs – many of them in the form of cake.

Quorn is the devil’s food.

Find alternate sources of protein if that’s what you feel you’re lacking.

Find alternate sources of protein if that’s what you feel you’re lacking.

You’ll find that protein will find you no need to go looking for it. If you looked at all the dietary deficiencies in the western world I reckon lack of protein would be at the bottom of the list.

And yes you can find that when you eat a proper diet you find yourself attaining a proper weight. 🙂

Quorn is the devil’s food.

Find alternate sources of protein if that’s what you feel you’re lacking.

Try some vegan cheese, then you will truly know the devil.

Dr Stabiliser prescribes 2 cheese and onion pasties, to be taken with meals.

Quorn is the devil’s food

Because you don’t like the taste or the people that make it?

Its the people that its made from that concerns me most.

It’s only a matter of time before this thread degenerates into defensive omnivore bingo….

But in the meantime, before they notice and the idiotic questions start, I find I don’t need to worry specifically about where my protein is coming from. I just eat normally. I eat a lot of soya mince, in the form of chilli/bolognese etc, and your usual lazy veggie things veggie sausages etc but that’s about it for soya products. Not sure where the rest comes from but it’s coming from somewhere so not sure it’s worth worrying about unless you’re feeling unwell.

Can we have a control group.

I volunteer to give up all non meat based foodstuffs and see what happens.

Because you don’t like the taste or the people that make it?

It’s because on the 3 occasions I’ve tried it I’ve been violently sick afterwards.

I often add a scoop of pea protein to soups if I feel the need, but most of the time I don’t worry about it.

onewheelgood – Member
I still eat cheese and eggs (have my own hens)

You can get cheese from your Chickens? Good effort!
🙂

I reckon your weight will level off when your body finds its equilibrium between what you’re eating and the amount of physical activity you do. You don’t sound underweight (no way am I commenting on your female family members!) so don’t be surprised if you lose more.

I lost a bit of weight when I stopped eating meat, but since then I’ve probably drunk less, exercised more and made other lifestyle changes over a fairly long period of time so wouldn’t attribute too much weight loss to being vegetarian. Depends where you’re starting from.

I don’t like pretend-meat products like Quorn, always suspect these things are full of salt. In our house we cook everything from scratch (takes up a lot of time, but reckon it’s worth it) and eat plenty of eggs, dairy, whole grain carbs, spinach, brassicas, tomatoes, stuff like that. Once you get into the swing of cooking using just carbs, vegetables and some dairy it just becomes what you do. For instance, bolognese sauce in our house means olive oil, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, mushrooms, herbs and spinach, cooked in a pot, attacked with a hand held blender.

Eat a bacon sandwich.

Circumstances forced me into it; Er’indoors is lactose intolerant so in order to show a bit of solidarity we stopped having any dairy in the house.

I then watched a few documentaries and stopped eating meat also.

I don’t call myself a vegetarian because once in a while I will cheat, usually in a restaurant or when I get sick of mushroom curry.

But the weight has also fallen off, which I attribute to the lack of calorie dense foods.

See it as a blessing.

I’ve been varying degrees of vegetarian my whole life, and I did notice me and my brothers always ate a lot more than other kids. We were pretty active, but I suspect that the lower energy density of veg (a lot less oily/fatty things in veg, and fat has 2x energy density of protein or carbs) means you have to get used to eating more.

Wouldn’t worry about it, but feel free to eat more.

I’m an inch taller and 5kg lighter so you don’t need to worry too much 🙂

I’ve been meat-light since the new year. I’ve lost 2kg, but I gained a couple of kg during December so that would probably always have come off in January anyway.

So far, I’m not missing meat at all and have been enjoying experimenting with new recipes.

I wish I had that problem.

Plus one. Chips are vegetarian in general 🙁

Dunno about the Quorn hatage. I heard about 1 in 150,000 had a bad reaction to it. Tastes good and in moderation (as with everything) don’t see a problem.
I tend to rotate around a few options (Quorn, tofu, soy mince, pulses) through the week, there is a surfeit of choice out there.

Try not to rely too heavily on Soya, plenty of other options that are less likely to mess with your hormones and have enough protein.

You can get cheese from your Chickens?

only with a cockerel; Cock cheese.

I mostly get protein from beans (used as rice/pasta) substitue) and Dahl.

As mentioned, many people overeat protein – they also undereat fibre

Dahl

FiICOC

That’s dinner sorted! MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Try not to rely too heavily on Soya, plenty of other options that are less likely to mess with your hormones and have enough protein.

Try not to rely too heavily on tabloid, lifestyle or conspiracy theory websites. They’ve all been scientifically proven to turn your brain into strawberry blancmange. FACT.

Your RDA of protein is not actually that much(0.8g per kg) and would be less againif the meat producers didn’t have a (protein) finger in the RDA pie.

@Cougar

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/soybean-fertility-hormone-isoflavones-genistein/

There is some controversy as to details, yes, however I was under the impression that this was pretty well known.

I said “not too heavily”, though, not “errrmageerd male lactation”.

‘losing weight’. Just eat more and move less. Try pasta. A great natural 🙄 source of energy and some protein.

Protein is unlikely to be your problem unless it’s some weird broccoli-based veggie diet you’ve adopted. You don’t need to each much protein for homeostasis. If you think you are lacking protein then monitor your diet using one of the various apps that are around and see what turns up.

+1 on making sure you don’t overdo the soya! It’s not a conspiracy theory – there’s been quite a bit of research done on this.

Protein:

Why hasn’t anyone mentioned “nutritional yeast“?

I’ve been told NY is allowed.