Vegetarian but overweight - why?

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Vegetarian but overweight - why?

By Anai Rhoads Anai Rhoads is a Human Rights journalist originally from Athens, Greece. Her work has been featured on several web based newspapers and media outlets, which include ZMagazine, MP Watch and Media Monitors. She is currently the Editor-in-Chief for AnaiRhoads.org. A dedicated vegan since 2000, she is an advocate of activities which promote animal rights. Anai currently resides on the east coast with her husband and their daughter. This is an archived Q&A. The following information might not be up-to-date.

Question: Dear Anai, I am 21 years old and have been a vegetarian for 10 years. I love this way of living and wouldn't change it for anything. However, for the last years I've been slowly gaining weight although I've been eating very healthy, and today I guess you could say that I am a little bit overweight. My metabolism is obviously very slow, and people have been telling me that it is because I started very young as a vegetarian. I don't want to believe that but I do feel like I'm being cheated on because I really don't eat much fat. Do you have any suggestions? Gratefully yours, Hrafnhildur

Answer: Hi Hrafnhildur! Thank you for writing to my section!

Those who said your diet as a child was the culprit were wrong. The truth is, the older we get - the slower our metabolism gets. But this does not mean that should just accept this as we get older.

Examine your current diet:

    * Are you eating too many carbohydrates? Fat does not make you fat, carbohydrates make you fat. Limit your intake of breads, crackers, biscuits, pasta, rice, etc. See if this makes a different weight-wise.

    * Have a sweet tooth? Are you a sweet lover or reach for fat free products? These products are loaded with sugar to compensate for the lack of fat content in the food. Avoid any soft drinks, even juice drinks for 2 weeks.

    * How often do you exercise? One of the best things you can do for yourself is exercise. It improves your immune system, circulation and strengthens your heart (a muscle). Be sure to remember to check your progress with clothes you wish to fit into - and not the scale. Muscle weighs more than fat, so when we tip-toe on the scale and see a 3 lb weight gain - we become discouraged. In order to help you acknowledge that you are making progress, avoid the scale altogether. And as the old saying goes "a watched pot never boils". Be sure to check with your doctor before beginning any exercise regimen.

    * What is the average weight in your family? This could be just hereditary. Look at the one person you most fit with regards to body type and get out the photo album. Did they gain weight too around your age?

Finally, I would suggest a medical examination. An annual check-up is very important. This enables your doctor to catch something before it gets out of control. One issue you should consider is your thyroid. A simple blood test will tell you if you have anything to be concerned about. Also, search for a qualified nutritionist. Make sure to mention you are a vegetarian, so that they may cater your meals accordingly.

Anai Rhoads
23 March 2003

[danleep]

Very good, Anai...I couldn't have said it better.  Just a point in fact...being a vegetarian in itself means NOTHING!  A person can have a diet of beer and potato chips and still be 'vegetarian', but it would be a terrible diet.  Dietary intake is extremely important for all of us and although I am not a 'dietition' by education, I am a dietition by practice and can difinitively say that the more we use refined, processed foods, the less healthy we are/will become.  The consumption of any animal product worsens any situation.  The more we move to consuming fresh, ripe fruit...even to making whole meals of same, the better off we are.  Those who contradict these premises, while trying to do right, are simply wrong and have never given such a diet a reasonable chance to prove itself.  Personal health care is controllable and provable.  Sometimes one must transition slowly to reduce some of the physical trauma sometimes associated with change, but the result is provably worth while.  Don't think for an instant that diet doesn't affect our lives (health).  Wishing all well...     

[Nonoshvian]

Potatochips and beer is a perfectly tasty diet. I lived off of it for the last three months of boarding school, as they had no vegan meals.

[tugboat]

Potatochips and beer is a perfectly tasty diet. I lived off of it for the last three months of boarding school, as they had no vegan meals.

lol

[lcatennessee]

I disagree that "carbs make you fat."  Excess calories make you fat, and the real issue is balancing your intake with your output.  Pure and simple - calories in must equal calories out in order to maintain a particular weight.  If you take in more calories than you expend in a day, you will gain weight, and vice versa - if you want to lose weight you must expend more calories in a day than you take in.  That's the bottom line with regard to weight regardless of the source of those calories (vegan or omnivore, beer and chips or more healthy fare, carbs or fat).   So what they say is true - eat less and exercise more.

Now good nutrition is another matter altogether.  Source of calories is important when you look at the overall healthiness of your diet and that's where the issues of vegetarianism and eating whole, unprocessed foods become important.  If you don't eat a balanced diet, you won't look and feel as good, and will be more vulnerable to sickness and disease. 

Source of calories is also important to your feeling of satisfaction from eating, and that in turn is important to controlling your intake of calories.  If you don't feel satisfied, you are more likely to overeat or binge on unhealthy snacks.  So don't rule out carbs and sweets - just make sure you are incorporating them into a wisely balanced diet.

[rainbow brenda]

If you want a more professional review of this subject, Dr John McDougall (drmcdougall.com) just wrote an article about this and has written extensively on this topic. He is somehwat famous for the phrase "the fat you eat is the fat you wear."

In no way do carbs make you fat. This has been disproven many times over in high qualtiy studies. The only thing that makes you fat is fat.

I lost a huge amount of weight, and am no longer overweight, on the McDougall Plan, which is very high carb. You can eat as much as you want! It is amazing. I wish more people knew that you could eat a low fat vegan diet with all the whole food carbohydrates you want including white rice and potatoes and still lose weight.

Both my partner and I were amazed that we lost 2-3 pounds a week stuffing our faces on carbs, pasta, bean, rice, grains, vegetables, and  fruit, until our BMI's were in the normal range.

The Okinawans ate up to 95% purple sweet potatoes and Okinawan rice, which I believe is a purple black color. And they are the healthiest and longest lived people ever documented. 

Also the book The China Study really disproves a lot of the mythology around vegan diets. It is a must read for anyone seriously wanting to prevent disease and live a long and healthy life. Again that study shows carbohydrates in fact have formed the basis of the diet for the healthiest people. The book also recommends low fat foods. And mostly it recommends staying clear of animal based foods and eating a plant based diet. (thechinastudy.com)

People who follow this diet have virtually no disease and that is what is the most important.

 

[CrazyTreeHugger]

Their are good carbs and bad carbs. The ones with the most fiber and nutrients are obviously good. The condensed, overly-processed, fiberless foods like donuts, frosting, candy bars and potato chips take longer to pass through the digestive system.

Although, I guess you could eat just about anything you wanted and keep a healthy weight if you were a naturally active person.

[ProverbsWoman]

One major factor I learned most recently was how much muscle can affect you....here's my stats:

I weigh 185 lbs and I'm 5'5" (pretty tubby, eh?)
According to my BMI, I should weigh 145

According to this, I'm 40 pounds overweight.  YIPES!!!!!

I recently went to the YMCA to get my total body fat tested.  A female can have up to 30% body fat and be considered 'healthy' and not overweight.  I'm sitting at 33% body fat.

According to this, I'm about 5 pounds overweight.  Huh?

Yeah...technically I'm only about 5 pounds overweight.  I have 35 pounds of muscle that the BMI chart doesn't take into account.  I wear a size 12 and on my way to a size 10 jeans.  I wear a size 8 when I'm about 165...lol.  According to the body fat test, I'd almost be anorexic if I got down to 145.

Don't go by BMI!  ESPECIALLY if you're a muscular person.  The YMCA checked my body fat for free and advised what my range should be...check with your local Y!

-Michelle
-Another Newbie

[riversong]

If you want a more professional review of this subject, Dr John McDougall (drmcdougall.com) just wrote an article about this and has written extensively on this topic. He is somehwat famous for the phrase "the fat you eat is the fat you wear."

In no way do carbs make you fat. This has been disproven many times over in high qualtiy studies. The only thing that makes you fat is fat.

I lost a huge amount of weight, and am no longer overweight, on the McDougall Plan, which is very high carb. You can eat as much as you want! It is amazing. I wish more people knew that you could eat a low fat vegan diet with all the whole food carbohydrates you want including white rice and potatoes and still lose weight.

Both my partner and I were amazed that we lost 2-3 pounds a week stuffing our faces on carbs, pasta, bean, rice, grains, vegetables, and  fruit, until our BMI's were in the normal range.

The Okinawans ate up to 95% purple sweet potatoes and Okinawan rice, which I believe is a purple black color. And they are the healthiest and longest lived people ever documented. 

Also the book The China Study really disproves a lot of the mythology around vegan diets. It is a must read for anyone seriously wanting to prevent disease and live a long and healthy life. Again that study shows carbohydrates in fact have formed the basis of the diet for the healthiest people. The book also recommends low fat foods. And mostly it recommends staying clear of animal based foods and eating a plant based diet. (thechinastudy.com)

People who follow this diet have virtually no disease and that is what is the most important.

 

I'm so glad to see this response!  Fat is what makes people fat along with all the over processed, salted, altered, engineered, etc... food that is pushed on us every day.  Stay away from refined flours and sugars and cut out as much fat as you can stand and you can eat all the carbs you want.  Of course it's easier said than done and it's something I'm still working on.  Everyone should read The China Study and the McDougall Plan!

RS

[LIsa614]

I was glad to see so many other people jump on the "carbs make you fat" comment.  No one food or food type makes you fat.  Eating more calories than you burn is what makes you fat.  Of course, fruits and vegetables, cooked in a healthy way (ie not deep-fried) will have fewer calories than overly processed food.  However, if you eat 3000 calories worth of healthy vegetables and only burn 2000 calories doing exercise or any other activity, you will gain weight.

[ekochic]

I agree with lcatennessee: excess calories make you fat.  This whole debate about whether fats or carbs make you fat is pretty silly to me- I'm a cell biologist studying to take my MCAT right now for med school and just covered the chapter on digestion... let me share!  Put simply- everything breaks down into their original building blocks through a process called digestion. 

The enzymatic breakdown of carbs/starch/sugar starts in your mouth (ever redipped a spoon that was in your mouth back into a yogurt container and waited a day-- notice it was all watery and broken down?) and continues through your stomach and, for the most part, ends in your small intestine.  They are all broken down into simple sugars (monosaccharides) which diffuse into your bloodstream as those sugars or glucose.  Eventually they are all converted to glucose.   

Proteins are broken down starting in your stomach.  They are broken down to polypedtide fragments and then eventially into individual amino acids (which is how they enter the blood)! 

Fats/lipids are broken down in the small intestine with the help of bile!  Bile is like soap- it's wate-rsoluble on one end and water-insoluble on the other... this forms a "micelle" or bubble around the fat, allowing it to be emulsified (soluble in water).  Fat is then broken down into glycerol and fatty acids.  They enter the bloodstream as small fatty acids or, if too big, are packaged with proteins and then enter bloodstream.

Once in the blood- it's all taken to your liver.  This is why it doesn't really matter what you eat: it's all INTERCONVERTED depending on your body's needs.  Glycogen is the storage of glucose, and happens in your liver, but fats and amino acids can be converted and stored this way as well.  Because glycogen is also stored in skeletal muscles, long distance runners (anyone run a marathon?) carb up the night before (or many days before) leading to an increase in glycogen storage in muscle tissues.  It's then readily converted to glucose when the cells have used up all the glucose in the blood.  Long-term storage is when fat cells take up fatty acids, turning them into triacylglycerides.  ALL fat, carbs, and proteins can be converted and stored as fat.

Long story short- it's silly to think that food remains in the same state once in your body.  There is so much repackaging that in the end it's almost all the same.  Some things take longer than others to break down... but don't think that carbs turn into fat so they're bad or fat stays as fat because it's bad.  If there's too much of any of it (ie, EXCESS CALORIES) in your blood, your body starts storing it.  But yes, fat is very high-calorie and yes, fat cells more readily take-up fat that is digested than repackaging glucose.

Hope that demystifies most of the talk by everyone...

[kiwi4]

I am applying to the original post.  I really feel you Hrafnhildur! haha, no but seriously I understand the struggle.  I have been veg for quite a few years now and initially I had lost some weight but I am still very overweight.  I have done it all when it comes to diets, exercises, etc.  With everything I have been though I have came to realize the main reason why I am overweight...it's because I love food!!  It doesn't matter if it's healthy food, raw food, junk food or whatever!  I love food and I eat to much of it.  My biggest obstacle is portion control.  Recently what has been helping me is an idea a got from a friend.  It's called batch cooking.  On a Sunday, you cook a good size healthy meal that is probably about 5-6 servings.  Buy some tupperware or gladware and use that to proportion your food for the week.  I find myself more inclined to eat it because I spent so much time to make it and it's already portioned for a single full serving.  So yeah, try it.  I am and so far it's working.

[keital]

My method for maintaining the same weight is fairly simple: I eat three healthy meals a day and that's it. I almost always avoid snacks and when I eat, I make sure I only eat until I am no longer hungry instead of going to the point of being "full." I also make sure I eat 2/3 of my meals at home so that I know what is going into my food. I need to work on being more active, but I do take a walk every day :x

[Logityler]

They also go for BMI alone without correcting for body fat percentage. What theyre probably seeing is some people who do a good weight training workout throwing the averages off for the "overweight" group.

BMI by itself is too limited for a study like this.

[shimmeringlight]

Replying to original post -

Your answer is probably very simple. However often the simple is the most elusive.

Recommendations -

1. Hydration with Water. Often we are thirsty for water and our mind mistakens this for food hunger. Drinking enough water is very underrated. If the body doesn't have enough water, it will crave food and extract the needed water from the food. The average sedentary woman should drink at least 10 glasses per day. A woman who works out or drinks alcohol daily should try to drink 20 glasses per day. Also  recommend supplementing water intake with tea. Drinking tea throughout the day supplements and enhances your hydration regimen.

2. Eat direct from the Earth. Cut out refined salts, sugars, flours, etc. Cut out processed foods. Your palate will change. Cravings will disappear. This doesn't mean you're on a diet. Diets = bad. You simply go direct to the earth for your food. For instance if you want a cookie, make it from scratch or purchase one made from scratch from good, non processed, natural, whole ingredients. For instance pure sukanet sweetener, oat bran/rice flour, sea salt, natural oils, banana as egg substitute, etc.

3. Run or Walk Daily. Cardio exercise in some form offers many exceptional benefits. Remember to increase water intake as you increase your exercise. The body needs to replace that water.

4. Intuitive Eating. Listen to your body's voice. Do not eat simply because it's mealtime. Eat healthy, fresh, of the earth foods when your body is ready to eat. Take your time. Drink water with every meal. Embrace the moment and relax.

Hope this post is helpful to many people.