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. 🥗🌽🥦🥬🥕🥒🫑🥑🥭🍅🍑🍓🍌🥥🫐

I think I’ll try intermittent fasting too. Can you do a combo of 16:8 and 5:2?

Is easy for me to not eat until 11am or so (lunchtime with my toddler) and then stop after 6pm or so - eg today I ate my first meal at 11.30am as I had a lie in, and then had my dinner at 4.45pm with my toddler. I probably won’t eat again. But when I’m working I might not get lunch until 2pm so this is harder to go without for so long as I get up at 5am on those days.

So I could miss breakfast 4 days a week, but couldn’t miss dinner on my work days! How shall I do it?

Meals today -
Lunch at 11.30am was roasted veg (peas, courgette, broccoli) stirred through with pesto and butter beans - can recommend as it was delicious!
Dinner was a black bean chilli with a small bread roll, followed by a small amount of yogurt and 2 kiwis

It’s so flexible you could mix the two if you wanted. You can start at 10 or 12 hours fast and work your way up or even do a 16 hour one day and 14 the next. I haven’t tried 5:2 so I know very little about it.

Have a look at Dr Jason Fungs videos on YouTube and see what will work for you.

Btw the lunch sounded delicious!

Hello everyone. Agree that your lunch does sound good @LuckyKitty13. Might have to try that - I like butter beans but never really know what to do with them. I'm also considering IF but not sure whether it would work for me. On a weekday I'm up at 5.45 and eat breakfast when I get into work at about 7.30. Then I have a banana at 10 with the kids (I'm a teacher) and my lunch break is at 12. I usually have dinner any time between 6 and 7, depending when I get home from work. The thing is that I look forward to my breakfast so much. I'm not sure if I could wait until 12 to eat after getting up so early. At the weekends and school holidays I have breakfast at about 8.30 before walking the dog and then working out. Does anyone workout having not eaten anything for about 15 hours? Also, what can you drink when you're fasting?
Today's food for me:
B - porridge with a chopped banana, dates and linseeds.
L - a toasted bagel with scrambled eggs,
S - a white chocolate and lemon hot cross bun.
D - roasted gnocchi, carrots, peppers, cougettes. Added garlic, chilli and oregano. This was lovely but I think I'll add cherry tomatoes next time. I also had a pear.
I'll have some snacks later.

Thanks everybody. Well today I’ve had an 18 hour fast without really thinking about it! So I’ll definitely carry on 4 days a week, and then keep to normal on my working days (though will have a have a potential 8-9 gap between breakfast and lunch!)

Does anyone workout having not eaten anything for about 15 hours? Also, what can you drink when you're fasting?

I do most of my steps towards the end of my fast as that’s when you’re more likely to be burning fat, rather than calories consumed recently, because you haven’t consumed any. (Dr Fung explains it better than me)

You can drink water, black unsweetened coffee or tea & herbal sugar free teas.

Thanks @LargeInCharge.

Today I had breakfast - toast and marmite and an apple, then dinner at 4pm - lentil shepherds pie with green veg and a bit of millionaires shortbread !

So I've decided to give intermittent fasting a go. I thought this week would be a good time for me to try it as it's half term. I stopped eating at 5pm yesterday and didn't eat until after 10 this morning. I stopped eating at 6pm today. I must admit I really did want breakfast when I woke up and was constantly thinking of food up until I finally ate something! Here's what I've eaten:
B - weetabix and a chopped banana,
L - a whole tub of humous (it needed using up) with some cherry tomatoes and pepper, an apple and a satsuma.
S - a white chocolate and lemon hot cross bun.
D - avocado and a poached egg on a toasted bagel, a peach yoghurt with some raspberries, some prunes and a light babybel.
I'm going to try to do this until Friday though I'm not sure if I'll manage it.

You can always change the hours to ease yourself in if you find yourself super hungry. @Yourownpersonaljesus
Don’t worry though if it’s not for you, you’re doing really well anyway.

Can I just say for those of us doing intermittent fasting really be aware of your fibre goals and drink enough water. Not wanting to do a tmi but I got prunes and apples today 😂
Never tried prunes in my life but I like most fruits so fingers crossed.

I love prunes @LargeInCharge, I eat them most days. Thanks for tip about fibre and drinking enough water. I managed to last my full 18 hours - it was hard though as I was up early. Today's food:
B - porridge with a chopped banana, honey and linseeds.
L - avocado and a poached egg on a toasted bagel, some prunes.
S - 4 light rich tea biscuits.
D - lentil cottage pie (topped with sweet potato) with peas, a raspberry kefir yoghurt and a satsuma.

I liked the prunes @Yourownpersonaljesus
You food sounds delicious, I’m really craving lentil cottage pie now.

Well done on the 18 hours.

Thanks @LargeInCharge. Glad to hear that you liked the prunes. I'm out for the day tomorrow in London with DD. She wants to show me her uni. We are also going for lunch, going to an art exhibition and to meet some of her uni friends at a swanky members club that one of her friends is a member of! I plan on having a bowl of branflakes at 10 and have chosen a healthy lunch (the nourish and flourish salad) from the Coco di Mama menu, though I have got my eye on the mini biscoff bomboloni for dessert. We'll be home for dinner - pizza and salad. So I should still be able to stick to the IF.

In a precious post I meant to say that I managed my 16 hours - not 18. I did feel like 18 though .

16 hours is still a long slog so that’s great!
I hope you and your dd enjoy the day today, it sounds great. Savour every minute. @Yourownpersonaljesus

I’ve lost 2lbs since the 3rd of February so a pound a week. I’m happy with that to be honest and I did have pizza during that time. I keep thinking afterwards “imagine my weight loss if I didn’t have that pizza”.
It’s just weekends can be such a temptation.

Well done @LargeInCharge - that's great. I had a lovely day thanks. The salad was really good (and less than 300 cals). We then went to Ole & Steen bakery and got a cinnamon social which was amazing. My eating window ended up being about 9 hours as I had dinner later than I usually do. That's fine though, I'll just start eating later tomorrow. Apologies for the mistakes in my last post - I really should read my posts through before posting.

I meant to say that my Green Roasting Tin book arrived today. I'm looking forward to having a good look through it tomorrow.

Sounds like a really lovely day @Yourownpersonaljesus no need to apologise I make typos all the time.

Are you hitting your fibre and protein goals everyday? I’m struggling to fit it all into my calorie allowance and the prunes and apples ( I didn’t have an apple today) take me over my sugar and almost over my carb allowance.
I’ve ordered some raspberries, kale, beetroot & baby salad leaves, little gem lettuce, cauliflower and I already have broccoli. I’m going to try to hit the fibre goals with mostly veg (and raspberries).

Thanks for the well done by the way and I’ll google your new book.

What should my fibre and protein goals be @LargeInCharge? I'm eating approx 2000 cals. Today my fibre was 34g and protein was 64g. yesterday they were 48g and 62g. Does that sound okay? Looks like a lovely selection of fruit and veg you have coming. That reminds me to get some beetroot - I love it.

[quote LargeInCharge]@KihoBebiluPute that is impressive. I lost four stone in just over a year a couple of years ago but put it all back on and a bit more now too. I wish I’d been more careful and aware like you.

@purplegirl13 the halo top is hopefully being delivered soon, along with tofoo tofu, sauces, youghurts and other high protein things.

My daily protein goal is 60g. I used to rely on protein shakes to top it up but now I’m trying with food.[/quote]
Do you mind me asking how you did it? That’s amazing!

Do you use my fitness pal @Yourownpersonaljesus ? If so it’ll tell you how much you need in the nutrients part. The average adult needs 25g of fibre a day and depending on your age, weight etc the protein varies. Mine is 60g according to my fitness pal but it differs to a protein calculator I tried online.
I’ll link it below.

www.calculator.net/protein-calculator.html

Hi @OneSwallow

Oh sorry if that question was for me @OneSwallow I did a very low calorie diet (not very clever and I was very stressed at that time) and although I did lose four stone in just over a year I was losing hair too.
Thankfully it grew back again when I started gaining weight. I gained most of the weight back because I didn’t change my diet I just ate less. So when I was eating full sized meals again, I slowly piled it on.

I’ve been calorie counting and taking care of my diet in a sensible way since last April. Lots of veg and protein.
I was 214lbs back then and I’m 178.6lbs now.

Thanks!

I think it was @LuckyKitty13 that recommended the Green Roasting Tin book. I've just had a good look through it and want to try all of the recipes! DD is making us something from it tonight - can't wait.
No I don't have My Fitness Pal @LargeInCharge - it's not compatible with my ancient iPhone. I have Fitbit instead, which is okay but doesn't have as much on it (DD has MFP).