Weight loss on a vegan diet

Hi guys!

Noticed something strange which I thought I’d share. I’ve been injured for the last month so haven’t been exercising (normally train 3 times a week). Since I stopped i’ve done no exercise and have been eating vegan junk food for the last month including chips, crisps, burgers, cakes, muffins (alongside my normal curry and salads etc). But much more than my average on the junk food.

I weighed myself a few days ago and my weight has dropped from 53.7kg(1st dec) to 53.1kg(1st jan). How is it that I can lose weight eating junk food and not exercising? I was expecting to balloon!

Don’t worry though, I am not starving myself. I eat what I want, when I want, and love eating food! Just thought i’d share the madness of it all! I think my body must work differently from normal people. Very weird weight loss!

I think i’ve just lost muscle mass and put in a bit of fat leading to a net weight loss. What do you think?

[benwl]

The relationship between diet and metabolism is complicated especially over the short term like this - and unless you are on a metabolic ward in hospital where everything is precisely monitored you may never know for certain.

Maybe you are actually eating fewer calories now than your metabolic rate without the exercise pressure, maybe you were actually having more calories than you think before, maybe your metabolism speeded up a bit due to the injury, or it's water loss or muscle loss as you said or some combination of the above.

To be honest I wouldnt worry too much as long as the trend is in the right direction. I remember when I first got interested in healthy eating and I was weighing myself everyday and counting calories and the short term relationship between them was all over place so after I while I stopped looking at that level of detail.

[BadHare]

Perhaps it's lack of nutrition rather than lack of calories?

I'm eating less than my usual number of the latter, but gained weight as I've been eating more starchy food & fewer food sourced micronutrients than usual.

[Hidden]

I would say it's because you have lost muscle as I have found this before. I exercise regularly and I find when I stop for a while I can sometimes lose weight.

I am reading a book at the moment, Dr Michael Mosley's Clever Guts Diet and you may find your answer in there as some of us have something in our bodies that can make us lean without even trying, unfortunately I cannot remember what that was without grabbing the book and having a look.

[Hidden]

Hi there, I wouldn't worry about a dip of 0.6Kg many things affect our weight and the most common for fluctuations is water retention, the saltier the food we eat the more water our body wants so this can affect it.

I have fit bit scales that gives my weight and body fat percentage and my weight varies by over 1Kg but looking at it as a graph it flat lines.

I'm sorry that you've injured yourself and hope that you recover soon as exercise makes us feel good.

Jerry 😊

Here's a link you may find interesting:

thefitnessfocus.com/health-...

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Thanks for your reply but I’m honestly not worried about my weight. I generally eat healthily and my vitals are fine. My post was just putting it out there that my body is strange as i lose weight when eating junk where most people would gain weight. 😅

Btw great food posts! You should put them on instagram or pinterest! Thanks for the link too!

[benwl in reply to Hidden]

Weight loss and gain is mostly a matter of calories in and out rather than specific foods.

If you eat 3000 calories of junk for a month when your body is only using 2000 you'll put on weight. Conversely if you eat 1000 calories of junk you'll lose weight. It's the calories rather than the content that make the difference.

Of course junk food is often high in calories so it's easy for people to take in more than they intend but it's still the total calories that has the biggest effect.

I doubt that your body is that different from anyone else's, all that's happened is that your energy balance shifted.

[Penel in reply to benwl]

The human body is biochemically highly complex. Calories from different foods have different effects on the body, so what you eat is as important as how much you eat.

healthline.com/nutrition/6-...

[benwl in reply to Penel]

I absolutely agree, to be healthy the source of the calories is incrediblly important.

However for weight loss and gain in isolation the energy balance remains the most important factor. The numbers in my example were chosen deliberatly to emphasize this and I'd stand by them. If someones using 2000 calories and they consume 1000 over a reasonable time period they will lose weight regardless of the source of those calories, and I've not seen any reputable scientific study that shows otherwise.

Where it gets more nuanced would be if someone consumes say 2100 calories and they burn 2000. In that case the source of the calories and individual differences might tip it either way. For example there is some evidence that a small excess in carbohydrates can result in higher body temperature rather than weight gain.

[Hidden]

Hey thanks for the compliment, As long as you are comfortable with your body thats half the battle.

My weight has dropped by just over 1Kg since Christmas and my favourite exercise is off roading on my MTB and we haven't had the weather, so I've feel that I've been less active and lost weight too...so you're right things often seem irrational 🤔

Jerry 😊

[andyswarbs]

If you have gone into junk mode then perhaps because you have moved towards high-fat low-carbs (and my carbs I mean good carbs). In which case your body may have gone into ketosis. If so then typically you will lose weight from loss of water, which is exactly why many people lose weight in the early days on a keto diet.