Weight loss for vegetarians

[LargeInCharge]

Hello!
I’ve been a vegetarian nearly all my life and I want to lose weight to be healthier (and to look better in my clothes) so I thought I’d create a space where fellow veggies (and vegans too) can share their weight loss journeys, food ideas, recipes and how they are feeling.

I started my journey on Tuesday so this is day 4 for me. My daily calorie limit is 1200.

Weight - 15st 4 (weighed on day 1)
Height - 5’ 9
Goal weight - 10st 7

How I gained weight - not exercising, eating crisps, cake, too many carbs and booze.
Positive changes - trying to be more active, ditched the crisps, cake and booze. Limiting my carbs as much as I can.

No pressure to reveal weight or anything that’s personal to you.

Good luck. 🥗🌽🥦🥬🥕🥒🫑🥑🥭🍅🍑🍓🍌🥥🫐

Those graphs are fantastic! So impressive - and I also love a spreadsheet.

Weigh in and a 1lb loss. It's felt hard going so I will take that. It's been really interesting tracking my food and realising that I don't eat much at meals but my gosh do I pick! I think that's a habit worth breaking for lots of reasons.

I've had a good (rainy) run this morning and when I'm settled I will have some porridge, eggs for lunch with lots of veg and then the BBC good food cauliflower and halloumi rice for dinner. I'll have an afternoon snack and something before bed. Tomorrow will be harder as we are meeting friends for a bbq (weather permitting) - I totally agree that the loss of control is hard.

@KihoBebiluPute that's a good downward trend there. You've done well! How did you get on with the cheese last night? I love the stuff.

@PattyPan I've found planning so important and helpful to my losing weight.

@NotquitewhatImeant well done on going for a run in this gloomy rainy weather, and on the 1lb loss. Good luck with the bbq tomorrow - don't beat yourself up if you slip, start afresh on Monday.

The late lunch of eggs kept me full last night so I had miso soup with a handful of these thrown in tuktukmart.co.uk/products/freshasia-foods-vegetable-dumplings-bok-choy-mushroom-filling-450g plus some frozen green beans. The dumpling were bought at an Asian supermarket a few weeks ago and I've never had them before, they were lovely, and you could taste the 'greenness' of them.

Today's plan:
B - raspberry kerfir drink
L - soup from the freezer - www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/red-lentil-chickpea-chilli-soup with some rye bread topped with boursin
D - tofu & veg thai red curry and rice.

I have decided to up my calories to 1500 on Sat/Sun and 1300 on weekdays. i have naturally been eating a bit more over the weekend and don't want to feel it's 'wrong' to have goen over. I am making a real effort to change my mindset about food - no good/bad food language or feeling guilty/annoyed if I've eaten more one day. All it means is I won't lose or lose as much one week. That's fine.

Have a good day everyone

You are all doing so well - well done everyone. I'm struggling at the moment. I found a tin of biscuits I got at Christmas in my cupboard and noticed that they were about to go out of date so I opened them. I've been eating a few each day but yesterday I ate loads and felt so disappointed in myself. I threw the remainder of them in the bin this morning to stop me eating them! This is my problem, I have no self control. This is why I don't buy biscuits anymore. So I'm trying to eat healthily this weekend to make up for it. This is my food for today:
B - a cup of tea, branflekes with semi-skimmed milk
L - 2 wholegrain crumpets with marmite and reduced fat cheese
D - Butter bean pie (linked to on another thread on here) and a slice of garlic bread vegsoc.org/recipes/gails-butter-bean-pie/
I'll have some pop chips tonight too.

Managed to get my calories up to a decent amount yesterday even if I smashed my first attempt at breakfast on the floor

B: fasted
L: tofu and spinach scramble, salad and Aldi meatballs. 601kcal
D: bunless beyond meat burger with this isn’t bacon and applewood Smokey cheese, salad, avocado and a cheeky side of Mayo 733kcal

S: Tsp marmite and almond butter, blended frozen berries and one square of 85% dark chocolate

Total: 1468 but managed to stay at 50g of carbs! Also did 35 mins of swimming which gave me a higher kcal allowance

Saturdays are free for all days but I will be mindful. So far I’ve had breakfast of a piece of toast topped with avocado, this isn’t bacon and oyster mushrooms

Everyone’s doing well.

Well done @NotquitewhatImeant on your loss and well done @Yourownpersonaljesus for getting rid of the biscuits.

Yesterday was 1121 calories for me. I want my second little pot of ice cream this weekend so hopefully I’ll have enough calories spare.

I finally got on my rowing machine today (after making excuses for a month) and crawled off after 10 minutes 😂 but the plan is to do two more 10 or more minute sessions today to make it up to 30 minutes at least. It’s enjoyable but also knackering at the same time.

B - coffee = 26
L - lentil spinach dhal soup 300g, two boiled eggs and a Pepsi max cherry = 239

Dinner will be baked potatoes (weighed raw) with fage Greek yog and chopped chives so will update later.

Hope everyone is having a pleasant Saturday.

Well I've just had my butter bean pie which was very tasty. The recipe says it serves 6 but it definitely doesn't - I got 3 portions out of it. That's still less than 400 calories though. I added some mixed beans that I had in the fridge and substituted some feta for the cheddar in the recipe - both needed using up. I had a slice of garlic bread and some spinach leaves and watercress with it. I've also had a tangerine and an activia yoghurt today that I didn't put on my list earlier. I did a HIIT workout earlier too. I took the dog to the groomers earlier and had a browse round the shops. I fitted into a size 12 pair of jeans (for the first time ever) so I was very happy.

@LargeInCharge good job on the rowing. I really must add some exercise in next week

@Yourownpersonaljesus getting rid of the biscuits was a good idea. I am sorry to hear you are struggling. Are you eating enough?

@Themadcatparade well done on sticking to carb target.

I have had an early dinner of my thai red curry, I have one portion for the freezer and leftovers for tomorrow's dinner. I cooked up brown rice to go with, it was a little mushy but ok. It's meant to taste a bit nutty? This is the third night this week I am having rice for dinner and it's also planned for tomorrow. I may aim for white rice twice and brown rice twice a week to balance things out.

p.s I stuck to my meal plan and also added a 50g bag of crisps, that all takes me to about 1271 cals for the day. Of course it would, on the day I've chosen to give myself a 1500 cal limit!

Is that the Tideford soup you had for your lunch @LargeInCharge? I had that for my dinner!

B - skipped in favour of a lie in
L - tandoori vegbabs (new in Sainsburys for summer, really nice and only 95kcal each!), brown rice, salad
S - nakd bar
D - soup & brown baguette, strawberries & banana
1150 total

So far today:

B- banana 100cal
L- mini tortilla wrap with quorn chicken & lettuce, carrot sticks with a smidgen of houmous and a bit of squeekybean pastrami 350cal

Just had a 100cal bowl of popcorn so total so far 550cal.

Dinner will be the remaining serving of some curry that I didn't calculate the calories of when I cooked it. I roasted chunks of a couple of aubergines and 3 peppers, sauted a panful of chestnut mushroom and combined the veg with a jar of sharwoods jalfrezi sauce which says it is 77 cals for a quarter of the jar. That made 4 servings so I think even with rice that can't be much more than 400cal but I will make sure I am cautious about any post-dinner sweet thing because I can't quite be sure, and the weather has been too horrible for much in the way of exercise today.

Nice to catch up on all your progress, some inspiring chat, definitely a good idea to limit the self critical talk as far as possible. I was pleased/surprised to resist ice cream and toffee sauce while the rest of the family had it tonight. Defo eat more at weekends but it’s ok. We always do pizza and pudding on a sat night so I tried to just limit amounts. I’m the opposite of the person who spoke about picking, I’m quite good about limiting the snacks but really struggle to limit portions. I’m noticing as I lose that I find myself feeling overfull regularly, did tonight when I didn’t feel I ate loads. So next phase is adjusting my view of normal portion sizes!

B - medium oat latte in costa
L - lentil soup and piece of soda bread
D - couple of slices of Sainsbury’s pizza and a Linda McCartney chicken burger, oat milk options hot choc

@PattyPan

Is that the Tideford soup you had for your lunch *@LargeInCharge*? I had that for my dinner!

B - skipped in favour of a lie in
L - tandoori vegbabs (new in Sainsburys for summer, really nice and only 95kcal each!), brown rice, salad
S - nakd bar
D - soup & brown baguette, strawberries & banana
1150 total

Yes it is the Tideford soup. I usually have half a pot of soup for lunch and I’ve been trying different ones lately. I enjoyed this one. How did you find it?

Thanks @purplegirl13 I’ve still got one more 10 min session to make up the 30 minutes.
What exercise are you planning to do?

Omg I’m aching today. I did 31 mins of rowing in total and did over 6k steps.
My calorie total yesterday was 1077 which included my weekend pot of Haagen Dazs....mango & raspberry this time...200 calories but worth the treat.

@PattyPan I tried to add those vegbabs to my next Sainsburys order but they didn't have them online.

@Undersnatch well done on resisting the ice cream!

@LargeInCharge I only have 2.5kg dumbells but want to do some strengthening exercises. I'm on a first floor flat so no jumping around possible here. I think I've got a Jillian Michaels dvd hidden away that I'll dig out. My core is very weak , so I want to focus on that plus building up some upper body strength.

I went little overboard on snacking last night, once I started I couldn't stop. Crackers on cheese, and when the crackers were finished, it was spoonfuls of boursin. No beating myself up. Today is a new day.

B - npthing
L - halloumi burger and chips (am out for lunch)
D - leftover tofu red thai curry and rice

The cafe I am going to has changed the menu. I had planned on a veggie breakfast, or eggs and avocado on toast, but I will fast this morning and fully enjoy my burger and chips later.

Have a good day everyone. I plan on spending most of this afternoon working on a job application for a role I like to think I'll get an interview for.

Does anyone know if there's an alternative to My Fitness Pal that I can use on my old iPhone (and is free). Just tried to download it but I wasn't able to. I think I need to keep a closer eye on my calories and not just guess.

@LargeInCharge I like it, I’ve had it a few times now. The parsnip one is quite nice too. I’ve got the Glorious carrot & butternut one this week as well which is nice because it has rice in it - I like a soup with bits in.

@Yourownpersonaljesus I use Cronometer (free version) but it’s not as comprehensive as MFP, I’ve had to add a few products myself.

@purplegirl13 I got them on my delivery so I’d say keep an eye out and they might add them for your area, especially as they are new. Good luck with the job application!

Unexpectedly low calorie day today
B - mega lie in
L - bol laksa pot
D - vegbabs, brown rice, salad. Square of green & blacks 85% dark chocolate
Total 800

I was at the allotment for most of the day, took a trek bar as a snack but didn’t get hungry in the end, too busy hacking back weeds as I hadn’t been for ages. I’m hoping the low total plus the allotment workout and cycling there and back will help the scales move more than 100g which seems to be the increments I’ve been losing so far.

Thanks @PattyPan - I'll give it a try.

Today’s total (well yesterday’s now) 1162.

Time for bed and hopefully my aches will be gone by the morning 🤞🏻

I use the fitbit app to count calories. It's quite good. You can scan Barcodes and when I went to nandos they had more or less the full menu on there.

Place marking

I've gone off track slightly. Back on it tomorrow and I'll catch up on posts then

@SuperLoudPoppingAction

I use the fitbit app to count calories. It's quite good. You can scan Barcodes and when I went to nandos they had more or less the full menu on there.

Don't I need a Fitbit for that? Possibly a stupid question!

I can’t help about the Fitbit, I have a Samsung Active 2 watch.

B - coffee, 2 blueberry & vanilla rice cakes, 20g dates - 152 cals
L - pea, coconut & turmeric soup, 2 boiled eggs - 219 cals
D - quorn pieces, sugar snap peas and 1 tbsp sriracha - 177 cals
S - 45g philly with chives, four protein ryvitas, burtons fish & chips snack bag, 2 Pepsi max cherry cans and arla protein on the go - 490 cals

Total - 1038 calories.