Why is it that I lose weight when I don't eat meat?

Question

I'm thinking about becoming a long-term vegetarian. Any thoughts?

Answer 1

Becoming a vegetarian means committing to thinking carefully about what you eat. Too many vegetarians (in fact, almost every young vegetarian I know) eats way too much bread, potatoes, rice and cheese. You NEED to vary your diet so that you get all the vitamins and nutrients your body needs to be healthy. I'm a college student, but I have my own kitchen and cook my own foods. Here's a typical day in my vegetarian life:

Breakfast - Wheat- and gluten-free granola with natural (unsweetened) fat-free yogurt and green tea
Snack - more green tea
Lunch - HUGE salad with different types of lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, bean sprouts, toasted nuts, raisins and a tiny bit of non-creamy dressing
Snack - two Ryvita crackers with natural peanut butter and herbal tea
Dinner - brown rice pasta (no wheat) with homemade spicy garlic-broccoli sauce (boil the hell out of broccoli, mush it up, saute some garlic and chili pepper flakes, mix everything together and use a hand blender to make it smooth) and sparkling water
Evening - chamomile tea

or (a more simple version with all the tea cut out!)

Breakfast - two eggs scrambled with fresh herbs
Lunch - homemade soup with vegetable stock, brown lentils, spinach, lemon juice, rosemary and feta cheese
Snack - rice crackers with homemade hummous
Dinner - steamed vegetables with tofu

I try to eat good food whenever possible, so that when it's NOT possible to eat well it doesn't matter if I'm stuck having a slice of pizza or a bowl of pasta with cream sauce!

Answer 2

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Answer 3

You're losing weight because you're cutting back on the calories.
Most meat is protein and fat.

Protein and Carbs have about 4 Calories per gram
Fat has 9 Calories per gram.

Whatever you're eating in the place of meat probably has less fat so you're eating less calories.

In terms of long-term vegetarianism, you probably need to take a multi-vitamin to cover you mineral and vitamin needs.

Answer 4

It takes a great deal of time for the enzymes in our bodies to break down and digest the meat properly, so my guess is we retain the weight longer. And as far as vegetarianism goes, just be careful you get the the right vitamins and nutrients in your diet, because just eating anything that isn't meat is not the way to be a healthy vegetarian. Eat well, but wisely !

Answer 5

Meat has alot of fat that most vegetarian foods don't have. If you like chinese food there is alot of vegetarian chinese restaurants out there that actually taste better than non-vegetarian restaurants. Most of them make their dishes like how they would make with with meat but with tofu-meat (fake meat).

Answer 6

don't forget your proteins and other important stuff meat gives ya it's because meats have more fats which have to be burned off slowly via excercise-veggies and fruits are good for vitamins but not for fats, proteins, and few have carbs like potatoes. basically nothing to burn

Answer 7

YOu can eat meat and not get fat. You were probably eating fatty meat so once you stopped you lost weight. Eat boneless skinless chicken breat, tuna, fish, hamburger meat that doesnt exceed a low percentage of fat and you can stay slim and eat things you like.

Answer 8

Without adequate protein in your diet, your body is going Catabolic. Basically, you are using up your own muscle mass instead. This is bad all the way around, because it means you kept bodyfat and lost muscle in the process. Make sure you eat enough protein! It's very important!!

Answer 9

Because meat is full of fat, and veggie and vegetarian "meats" are not full of fat. That marbeling in steaks is fat.

If you are thinking about becoming a vegetarian I suggest that you check out this site: www.veggie123.com. It has great info on vegetarian nutrition and different forms of vegetarianism.

Good luck

Answer 10

u loose weight because meat has all that excess fat in it that our bodies don't need.

you should defintley become long-term vegetarian. now, i could go on about facts but i'll just give you some links: