Not losing weight from vegan diet. tips?

Hi @kaup, I am T2 with no medication, diet controlled only so I can't comment on controlling your T1 as I see from an earlier post you are on insulin. I will tag a few well know T1's who may be able to help @Mel dCP and @Juicyj and @Robinredbreast

I am vegetarian not vegan, and use a low carb healthy fats to control my blood glucose levels. I have to ensure I eat plenty of fats to stop me loosing to much weight. From the list you have provided above there is a lot of high carbohydrate foods listed, I would avoid these, whereas a T1 needs to adjust their insulin to account for the amount of carbohydrate in the food.
For me (as a diet controlled T2) eating a low carb diet results in weight loss. I do not eat bread, potoates, rice, beans, lentils, pulses, bananas, apples or buckwheat as for me these are all too high in carbohydrate.
I eat lots of leafy green vegetables, salad leaves, cucumber, bell peppers, eggs, mushrooms and cheese. Depending on which country you are in these may not be readily available.
the dietdoctor website has some very good ideas for vegetarian and vegan meals, as I aid above, I am T2 diabetic so cannot offer any thoughts on control for a T1. Hopefully @Mel dCP and @Juicyj and @Robinredbreast can help

I don't know much about T1, but there are A LOT of very high carb foods in your list, so I'm not surprised you wouldn't lose weight eating them. Might it be worth looking at Dr. Bernstein's dietary recommendations?

Are you having to inject more insulin than before on this vegan diet? If so, this could be the reason why you aren't losing weight.

The more carbs we eat the more insulin we need, and high levels of insulin can lead to weight gain. Yours is a very carb heavy diet.

Hi @kaup, The following is from my reading and experience, not as professional advice or opinion.
Being vegan I assume you have been given advice to take vitamin B12 supplements as such diets do not contain Vitamin b12.
As others have said your diet contains lots of carbs. Have you seen a dietitian to help you perhaps modify this list?
As a help to understanding your diet and about carbs, I commend to you the site: mendosa.com and the headings about Glycaemic Index (GI) and Glycaemic load (GL). Then please look at Glycaemic Values.
Ideally for diabetics, the recommendation given is to choose foods that have GI < 55 and GL < 10.
Now, if you look up items like buckwheat, carrots etc you can see how much eating these foods are likely to influence your BSLs. You will also note that a meal of oats with milk (with the same number of grams of carb as oats soaked in say. water) has a lower GI than the oats/water combo. Fat in the milk slows the passage of food out of the stomach into the small intestine where absorption takes place. Slower time to reach absorption site = longer for BSL to rise and possibly less height of rise and better match to the insulin you are prescribed (see the other thread you have started for more on this, what short-acting insulin are you taking? etc).
The Glycaemic Values chart can help you find some possible alternatives to any high GI/GL foods you may be currently eating. Of course you need to consult your health team to obtain their advice before making changes as it is not only the type of food but its quantity that is relevant.

How are your sugar levels following this diet?

I am not sure why you thought this would be a healthy option for you? It's high carb low fat. As others have said more carbs usually require more insulin and insulin is a fat promoting hormone. It it's not working you could try the exact polar opposite -low carb high fat and see if that works, though of course your insulin requirements will need adjusting. I suspect somewhere between these two extremes is the right balance for you, but it might take a bit of experimenting to get to the diet that suits you.

You could be gaining muscle with the exercise and since muscle is heavier than fat you could actually be leaner but heavier.

zand said:

You could be gaining muscle with the exercise and since muscle is heavier than fat you could actually be leaner but heavier.

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Given that Kaup's exercise is running and walking, it is not likely that s/he is growing his/her muscles significantly. For that heavy resistance training is necessary, and the muscle gains take a long while to appear.

Alexandra100 said:

Given that Kaup's exercise is running and walking, it is not likely that s/he is growing his/her muscles significantly. For that heavy resistance training is necessary, and the muscle gains take a long while to appear.

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Yes I agree that's usually said to be the case. However in my son's case running has noticeably increased his leg muscles particularly, so much so that wellingtons no longer fit around his calves. He has never done heavy resistance training, unless you count running with a little too much body fat.

I have posted this question already...and not received any response. I am a vegetarian and am following a strict high protein low carb diet in order to lose weight. For some reason this is not happening even though I am being monitored by a nutritionist. My question is....is the protein in meat processed by the body differently than proteins in other protein sources, and is this the reason I am not losing weight?

kaup said:

Hey,


I went from low carb diet (rice, potato, bread, chicken) to a vegan diet 2 months ago. Mostly because i want to get better blood sugar controls and lose weight. I have Diabetes 1.

But i’m not losing weight. Any advice on why? I’m exercising each day, 1+ hour walk or run.


My vegan diet consists of the following ingredients (mixed in different ways)


brown rice

buckwheet

red and white beans

lenses

bananas

avocado

apples

bananas

carrots

paprika

celeriac

olives

coconut oil

radishes

broccoli

tomatoes

leafy lettuce

100% whole meat bread

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I am very confused by your diet. I am a vegetarian and follow a high protein, low carb diet. How can bread, potato and rice be low carb? Where is your healthy protein? Nuts etc. Try strawberries and raspberries instead of bananas. Vegan cheese? Maybe you need advice !

There are lot's of vegan cheeses around these days, my vegan friends use them, not vegan myself.

I bought my Vegan granddaughter a Vegan cheese making kit for Christmas. She said it was her best ever present.

Vegan diets are by nature quite high in carbs otherwise they would be eating next to nothing.

I’d highly recommend joining the “vegan keto made simple” group on Facebook for ideas. It’s doable, but difficult and can be quite expensive.

kaup said:

My vegan diet consists of the following ingredients (mixed in different ways)...

....100% whole meat bread

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Is that really allowed on a vegan diet?!

SylviaJ said:

I have posted this question already...and not received any response. I am a vegetarian and am following a strict high protein low carb diet in order to lose weight. For some reason this is not happening even though I am being monitored by a nutritionist. My question is....is the protein in meat processed by the body differently than proteins in other protein sources, and is this the reason I am not losing weight?

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Hi @SylviaJ sorry your query hasnt had many replies, sometimes new posts get missed, please do repost a question if that happens again.
I dont know if you are T1 or T2, I can only offer my own experience (diet controlled - never been on diabetic mediation), how much protein are you eating? It might be too much, have you tried cutting it down and seeing if that helps with weight loss?
Have you tried weighing, measuring and counting every scrap of carbohydrate you are consuming in food and drinks?
Are you eating to your meter? I test every new food a few times before i can safely assume it wont raise my BG levels. It can be a little more difficult as a low carb veggie, but not impossible. I eat eggs, tofu, avocado, cream and cheese with lots of low carb veggies. I have to ensure I keep my fat intake high enough to not loose weight. Eating tubs of clotted cream with a few berries!

Diet doctor website has some great veggie recipes.

SylviaJ said:

I have posted this question already...and not received any response. I am a vegetarian and am following a strict high protein low carb diet in order to lose weight. For some reason this is not happening even though I am being monitored by a nutritionist. My question is....is the protein in meat processed by the body differently than proteins in other protein sources, and is this the reason I am not losing weight?

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What exactly are you eating?
How "Low" is your low carb diet?
Are you vegetarian for heath or moral reasons?]
This would all be fairly useful info to have before we can make any tweaks. If you are happy to share of course.

SylviaJ said:

I have posted this question already...and not received any response. I am a vegetarian and am following a strict high protein low carb diet in order to lose weight. For some reason this is not happening even though I am being monitored by a nutritionist. My question is....is the protein in meat processed by the body differently than proteins in other protein sources, and is this the reason I am not losing weight?

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The question you posted was on your profile page rather than in the forum itself so it will only have been seen by people who clicked on your profile page.

Diakat said:

There are lot's of vegan cheeses around these days, my vegan friends use them, not vegan myself.

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Many of the non dairy cheeses you can buy are quite high carb because of the ingredients used to make them - I find I have to examine the nutitional data quite closely as I have come across non dairy cheeses like this one with 20g carbs per 100g - have also seen ones with a higher carb count
https://www.ocado.com/webshop/produ...a-Slices/397379011?from=shop&tags=20002|40326

bulkbiker said:

What exactly are you eating?
How "Low" is your low carb diet?
Are you vegetarian for heath or moral reasons?]
This would all be fairly useful info to have before we can make any tweaks. If you are happy to share of course.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your interest in my post. I am getting desperate to know why I am not losing weight. What I eat is written down and checked by a nutritionist. I eat eggs, cheese, salad, avocado, berries, all green veg, Greek yoghurt with seeds and nuts mainly. I am a vegetarian for moral reasons. I am trying to increase my egg intake to two a day. I drink a little milk, but as I don’t drink tea, coffee or alcohol I get a bit fed up with orange squash. Any thoughts much appreciated.