I'm a 29 year old female, height is 5'3.5' (haha the half inch is important when you're short), 11 stone and 6 pounds and looking to lose weight and get my weight down to 9 stone-9.7 stone.
I actually was in this same position 4 years ago, lost the weight on WW but had to stop going to meetings and ever since my weight slowly grew until about six months ago when I reached 12.4 pounds. I've felt miserable around food and wanted to stop focusing on weight and just look at how to eat in a way that didn't result in guilt. In doing so I actually became vegan and its given me a more positive relationship with food. Being Vegan has helped me but it's a bit confusing because theres a lot of debate on how many carbs to protein to fat vegans 'should' eat, to lose weight that is.
I hope I can meet others trying to lose weight here and support one another
Written by
echoground
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
You need to follow LessToLose , as she is a vegan and a super slimmer, having lost almost 9st!! She will be a perfect mentor!
Take a look at the Pinned posts section to the right of your screen (bottom if you're using a mobile), read the Welcome Newbie thread first and move through to the challenges, where we hope you'll find at least one that will appeal to you
Move down to the Topics, to find a variety of threads, collated into specific topics for ease of access and we ask that you also 'file' your own threads, so that others won't miss your important news
Have a look at the NHS 12 week plan, as many people have had success with it. Don't forget to take your starting measurements and a 'before' picture, as they can be very motivating on days that the scales refuse to co-operate
We run daily weigh-in's and you would be very welcome to join any, bar Monday and Tuesday, which are unfortunately full. The threads can always be found in the Events section, to the right of the home page, bottom on a mobile.
We've found that to get the best out of this community, we need to be active on the forum, as it's where we exchange information, get motivation and inspiration and make friends. We hope that you'll join us here, regularly, too
It's only left for me to wish you well on your journey
Hi Echoground I'm not vegan but I use to be vegetarian, not that is where my source of information comes from. I would make sure your getting plenty of fruit and veg and in particular also pulses, they will give you protein, quorn is good too I think that quorn is vegan?? anyhow why not follow the NHS 12 week diet or go to the bmi calculator on NHS fill in info and find out how many calories you can consume, actually I can proabably work it out for you, hang on..........okay so the lower range to upper range in calories is 1520-1954, and bmi is 28.3 which means you are overweight - a healthy bmi is 25 and your recommended weight range is: 7st 6lb to 10st 2 lb. This is based on someone with low activity levels, I would actually go to the bmi calculator yourself to fill in the details as I may get it wrong - but this is a rough guide. Try below for yourself, it is fun to do now and again as it shows your progress - getting closer and closer to that 25!
Hi JacksonPollock, thanks for your input! I'm pretty fond of veg, fruit and pulses. Unfortunately Quorn isn't vegan, it usually has egg or egg whites in it. There are a couple of Vegan Quorn products but none in the shops in my area so i've never tried them. I do quite like tofu and have it a couple of times a week.
I've been tracking on the app LifeSum as well as my protein/carbs/fats these past two weeks and generally my protein and fats are in the decent range, its mainly the carbs that are sometimes a little high but I've been trying to eat wholegrain if I'm eating a starch.
I thankfully don't have much of a sweet tooth since going vegan, probably because of the extra fruit in my diet but I LOVE salty snacks like popcorn and pretzels.
I've only begun counting in the the last two weeks but I've been aiming for a 1518 calorie diet (sometimes a few more and sometimes a few less). I got that number 1518 by it being recommended by the app.
Thanks for taking the time to calculate my bmi, I am aware I'm overweight and tried that handy calculator on the nhs site today, it recommends I aim for 9 stone as a goal because that would place me in the middle of the bmi range for healthy but I'll feel happier once I've hit 25.
I think I'm going to round up to 1700 calories daily just to be on the save side since I have a pretty high fibre content in my diet and I don't want to accidentally not eat enough (which has been my mistake often in the past). I also have IBS which has been improved so much by going vegan (dairy was not my friend) but sometimes it still acts up.
Hi there. I was wondering if you had heard of Sunbites wholegrain popcorn. It says they are suitable for vegetarians, not sure about vegans though. They are only 60 cals and taste delicious. Good luck with your weight loss journey
I haven't actually! A quick google says the ingredients are just 'Popped Corn, Sugar, Rapeseed Oil, Salt' so it should be vegan. I make it on the hob in a saucepan but its awful for me I know, I should get a air popper but I like the idea of these Sunbites because its portion controlled!
Okay echogound it sounds like you have things under control, the only thing I would say is, you have to be happy by what you do other wise when you change your diet around so much you will end up back doing the same negative things that got you here in the first place!
Yeah I agree, I think its good I focused on just enjoying the vegan transition and trying new food/combos the last 6 months before trying to calorie count and lose weight.
Oh I should mention I got my blood work done a couple of months after going vegan with my GP and my blood work came back very positive, previously I've been low in iron and needed tablets but I guess I'm absorbing better because it came back in a healthy range.
The only thing I can say is don't see it as a diet but as a lifestyle, keep eating healthy forever not just until you lose the weight.
Jim tom I agree. I never said I became vegan to lose weight. I was in a rut and decided I wanted to view food in a positive way, not focused on my weight and see the bigger picture and lose my guilt, which eventually lead me to veganism.
I felt guilty towards food because I could see the harm I was doing to my body. I viewed my habits it as being bad for health (a couple of my family members have been told their bowel cancer comes from meat and I lost my grandmother to the disease already).
But to be honest knowing it was bad for my health didn't change me. It wasn't until I connected the effect I was having on animals that made me wake up.
I went vegan the day a friend shared a disturbing video of baby chicks on facebook. I spent the rest of the day watching documentaries and debates on veganism. I never realised how brutal it was and was wrapped up in my own life and never really thought before about what was on my plate in terms like life and death.
I didn't plan to go into this amount of detail in my first post because I didn't want to alienate others who might not share my views.
But I want to be clear, I'm not someone on a plant based diet, I'm vegan first for the animals so I would sooner remain a overweight junk food vegan than wave a magic wand and be slim but still consuming animal by products.
I just want to add I don't judge others for their choices, hell, I consumed animals most wouldn't dare before going vegan (for example deer/horse while i was in Japan long story sorry).
I have slowly been going off meat and dairy for a while now but it isn't choice I have just been going off it. My family have a history of bowel cancer also and I do think it might be diet related.
I know about consuming animals I have also tried strange meats and I have also seen the video with the chicks in which made me freeze when I saw it, saw other horrible vids too.
It was honestly easy but I think it helped that the day, I saw that video I drove right in watched 'the vegan makers':
Cowspiracy, Earthlings and Forks Over Knives. Watched level headed debates I could find online. I honestly wanted to see if there was any decent reasoning to the other side but I couldn't find any. That was it cold turkey. I stopped seeing food as a personal choice, if that makes sense. After 3 months my cheese cravings fell away.
My partner is from a farming family and had been encouraging me to consider having a small home farm (chickens, a pig etc) some day over the last two years. He brought me to petting farms which made me enjoy animals, I never really had much contact with animals before. I think having that experience made me also see the animals as alive and feeling. I went back to the Edinburgh city farm a week or so after going vegan and had to leave because I found it too upsetting. The baby piglets were recently separated from their mum and all the pigs and piglets were screaming because some were soon to be sent to slaughter.
Thankfully my partner has been so supportive and I would say 50% of his meals are vegan and his dinner is always vegan and he's made that choice.
You ate right there isn't any reason to the other side, none at all. Seeing the animals does have an effect on me, I'm out on the road a lot and see the lorries with cattle and pigs etc in them, this may sound silly but when I see them I think of the nazi holocaust.
That idea of comparing it the holocaust is what a lot of outraged and out spoken vegans would say. Its considered part of the reason why in Israel veganism is growing so rapidly.
Its increasingly easy to be vegan, even in the last six months, I've seen vegan alternatives arrive in the likes is sainburys and tesco. Even chain restaurants have menus with new options.
Honestly it's not hard to be vegan, the first few weeks are the trickiest, having to check labels etc.
I have noticed it more and more even online I see a lot of vegans these days. I have two friends that I don't see often who are now vegans. I must get in touch with them.
There's a very interesting book called 'eternal treblinka' that discusses comparisons with the holocaust. For example some senior nazis were interested in animal breeding and how these techniques might be applied to humans.
My sister is a vegetarian and lost weight and maintains a her slim 9 stone figure she is 5ft 3inches.
She eats in moderation good fats, olive oil, rape seed oil, butter. Avocado and Nuts. All vegetables and fruits. Eggs. Seeds and Oats. Wholegrain everything. Pules and Beans.
She carefully portion controls and never overeats. She also weighs everyday. She threw away all her bigger sizes.
You'll soon find with the support here you will lose the weight you want to and keep it off forever.
Thank you for the encouragement and the story of your sister's journey to a healthier weight!
I definitely plan to throw my bigger clothes away as soon as I don't fit them anymore, I always say by not doing that the last time I lost weight, it made the weight gain easier to dismiss!
Welcome echoground, it's great to see another vegan here
I've been vegan for about two years now, like you I have IBS and this was why I went vegan but I started losing weight as a nice side effect even though I wasn't trying.
I've gone down the high carb route and aim for about 80% calories from carbs, 10% fat and 10% protein. (Needless to say no refined sugar, white rice, bread or pasta etc)
The only issue I've had is that eating out becomes much much harder, but maybe that's no bad thing, almost all my meals are now cooked from scratch, and it took a bit of experimentation to successfully fry onions without oil
Now that I'm explicitly trying to lose weight, I've started calorie counting most of my meals.
Oh its great to hear from a fellow IBS vegan! I'm impressed you manage that breakdown! I guess years of seeing carbs as the devil means i'm still scared of them a small bit.
These last two weeks of tracking I've been aiming for 40% carbs, 25% protein and 35% fat! I'm usual over on carbs and short on protein and fat. I still get in at least 45 grams of protein every day and I'm on track to hit 62 grams today for example.
I used to eat out a lot pre vegan but since then I've grown to love cooking at home so eating out is mostly disappointing these days haha.
I would love to hear what type of dishes you make!
'Carbs' is such a wide ranging term, from white sugar, which probably is the devil through to lovely fruit and vegetables and the good ones often get an unfair press cos of the bad ones.
I'm not a very good cook, and I don't have much time, so my cooking tends to be quite utilitarian.
Most of what I cook is either a kind of stew or a piliaf with a definite Indian bias as I took some Indian cookery classes last year which provided a lot of inspiration.
So tonight I had a stew with garlic, onions, peppers, chlllis, courgettes (I have some!), sweet potatoes and berlotti beans with caraway seeds, turmeric and paprika flavouring.
For a quick pilaff I might just boil up some rice (or lentils or buckwheat) with frozen veggies and some spices.
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
long story sorry). 
Will I ever lose weight again?! :(
How can I lose weight?
Live healthy and lose weight
Can not lose weight
how to lose weight efectivegly and how to avoid fad diets
