Became vegetarian and now I am gaining weight!!! read below!!?

Question

I have been trying to lose weight. I eat soo healthy! I eat veggies and salad with oil and vinegar, grapefruit and cottage cheese and walnuts and for some reason I am gaining! Please help if you have any advice!!! I eat 3 meals with 2 snacks, so I can keep up my metabolism, but it's not working!!!! HELP!

I do exercise as well. I go hiking on the weekends, walk a mile 3 days a week, and do wieght lifting a couple times a week as well.

Answer 1

You must eat some protein too, some beans and a multivitamin to fill the gaps too. You have to exercise and eat fruit and i heard that peppers increase metabolism to help burn fat! You may also talk to your doctor, and remember find your happy exercise, it can be swimming, sports, dancing or even just running.

Answer 2

Being vegetarian does not equate to weight loss. There are many chubby "convenience food" vegetarians.

If you're weight training you're probably gaining muscle which weighs more than fat. When I was body building I went up to 120 pounds but still wore a size 2. When I gave up body building I lost weight but gained size. Now I'm 115 and wear a size 4.

What kind of oil do you use on your salad? What kind of vinegar? Not all are created equal. Ditch the cottage cheese. Dairy inhibits your nutrient absorption.

What about grains? Are you eating any grains? Grains provide energy.

It's better to eat 6 small meals a day than three large ones. Your digestion will work better.

Answer 3

Keep in mind that gaining weight doesn't necessarily mean gaining fat. Whenever I start working out, I gain at least 5lbs but it's because muscle weighs more than fat. So I'm still improving my health and toning up my body, but I actually weigh more.

That said, I gained about 5-10 lb (and it wasn't muscle) when I went vegetarian. But I was eating a LOT of cheese. I'd say to lose the oil (on your salad) and go for low-fat cottage cheese. Nuts also have a lot of fat, but a lot of good stuff too.

Answer 4

Vegetarian food is not necessarily low in calories. Veggies are, of course, but dairy products are high in fat/calories, as are nuts and grains, and oil, obviously. Take a good look at your diet and try to figure out how much of the things you eat are really high in calories, then try to reduce these and find different ways to prepare meals.

Also, how do you eat your veggies? Frying them can really add lots of calories, since they soak up the fat. Steaming them is best, or grilling - or eating them raw, of course.

Lots of info on vegetarian food can be found here:
http://vegetarian.about.com/

Also, make sure you get enough exercise - diet changes alone won't lead to *permanent* weight loss.

Answer 5

People seems to believe that cutting meat from the diet means that they will lose weight, forgetting that the largest mammals on the planet are strict vegetarians. Try an exercise routine along with your diet. It's helping me.

Answer 6

eat 2000 calories of food each day and work out like you're doing you'll lose weight, or eat 1500 calories and lose weight faster
make sure you get the good calories, not from junk food

Answer 7

You should definatley make sure that you aren't slowing down your metabolism. Meat has a lot of protein and calories in it, and now you're losing that in your diet. If you eat less calories, then it's obvious that your metabolism is going to have to slow down to give your body energy. Keep it up, let your body adjust, and exercise. Good luck!

Answer 8

Here are a ton of low-fat and fat-free, vegan meals

http://fatfreevegan.com

Good luck

Answer 9

Use Olive oil on your salads. There is no fat in Olive oil until it is cooked. Amazing. This will work for you.

Answer 10

cottage cheese is not healthy