How many here are former vegans or former vegetarians?

(Nigam Shah) #61

I know it isn’t the question, but I’ve been a lacto-ovo vegetarian my whole life. Thriving on keto - not only can it be done, but it can be great.

#62

I never ate much meat (I love the taste of good meat but I hate eating it too often) and I’ve been an ovo-lacto vegetarian for 8 years (to avoid eating chicken every Sunday. Salmon or fatty pork once in every month would have been way better). I eat meat a few times a year nowadays. I always was pretty healthy (but I feel way better with less carbs), I almost never supplemented anything but I ate a lot and very much animal products. I need magnesium now as I eat too little of it on low-carb. When I started keto, I wanted to avoid “too much” protein (now I know it’s fine but I still plan to eat adequate protein and not much more) and I had to skip meat to do so. Not like my rare meat consumption matters much. My vegetarian keto is pretty easy, it helps that I really love eggs and my other food items.

I always did high-fat and had low-carb years before keto (<80g) so the jump wasn’t so great. I mostly just had to drastically lower my veggie intake, it was hard sometimes (getting full with veggie dishes as I did before was impossible) but doable with my somewhat generous net carb limit. I cook for someone on a quite different diet, that can be tricky too as I want the same main dishes most of the time.

Frequent meat eating is way more boring than eating several eggs every day and I have my plants and some dairy too so I feel zero temptation to eat more meat. I stay like this. Meat is a very rare treat but it’s hard to find meat that is good enough for me and I just don’t bother when I have my other tasty food and all my reasons to become a vegetarian are still there. While being a vegetarian, many animals were killed because of my food, some tasty pork or salmon once in the blue moon doesn’t make such a difference. Animal cruelty bothers me more, it affect taste too so I’m careful with my sources, more than when I was a much more ignorant vegetarian.

(PJ) #63

I was a vegetarian for probably six months in my early 20s. That’s all it took to render me emotionally unstable, depressed, give me acne, and so on. But I was terrible at it and I ate a lot of cheese which is probably the only reason I survived. Grains destroy me, I just didn’t know that was true for another 25 years alas, and I mostly lived on grains, since I didn’t really LIKE veggies! I would have smoothies I thought were healthy that were gigantic fruit and sugar bombs, OMG. I thought corn and potatoes were healthy. It’s amazing I survived it. It made me significantly fatter in a short time, on top of everything else.

But I expect if someone does it “properly” it’s ok. :roll_eyes:

I’m in another forum for about 15 years now. The number of women who are 300+ pounds who used to be vegetarian or vegan is a pretty high percentage. That factoid alone could almost put the public off it if they knew. :rofl:

#64

I love your post. So well explained.

(Jack Bennett) #65

I was a vegan for 2.5 years or so. At the time, I felt like it was the best possible thing I could do for health and longevity. I was into green smoothies and raw juices and stuff like that. Those foods were fun to eat and tasted good.

The trouble for me was that being vegan just wasn’t sustainable. I was always hungry even though I was constantly eating high calorie foods like cashews. I didn’t have the motivation to do it “for the animals” like some people do, so my motivation was constantly dragging because I was hungry.

Maybe if I had approached things from a protein leverage and/or high-fat angle it might have worked better. (However, I did get quite a bit of fat from nuts.) I was well-informed about nutrition and was supplementing anyway with B12 and other vitamins and minerals that were low in vegan foods. But I could never find a vegan protein powder that tasted any good.

(Bunny) #66

I personally don’t think there is anything wrong with the vegetarian or vegetarian ketogenic diet as you can get B-12 from vegetables if the soil composition is right and from wheat germ, wild rice and other sources ect. but it may not be as practical and saturated fats from plant oils?

The only question is are they doing it right? (standard vegetarian diet)

One of the reasons eating bread works better for a ketogenic diet than for a vegetarian diet is because carbohydrates are their (standard vegetarian diet) primary source of nutrition.

With any diet everything is dependent on the amount of butyrate (BHB) your getting whether it be from an external source (grass fed butter & gelatin) or internal source (resistant starch to feed the butyrate producing gut bacteria). Resistant starch not fiber prevents colon cancers. If you already have colon cancer resistant starch may feed it? That’s why iodine balance is so important!

#67

I was never vegan, thankfully. I found Freelee about a year before I discovered keto and considered it for a while, even though I hated fruit at the time and loved cheese and processed meat. Now I consider myself anti-vegan. I don’t think plants are here for us to consume in large amounts everyday, and I certainly don’t think one should subsist on only plants. I don’t think you can be vegan and be healthy in the long run and even vegetarianism is a stretch unless you’re eating a lot of high quality eggs and dairy everyday. I think animal foods are best for optimal health, especially pasture raised animal foods, and I’ve heard they’re significantly better for the environment as well, but I haven’t read extensively on that part so I’m not sure how true it is.

If I eat a pound of ground beef, I’m so satisfied and it’s so obvious to myself that I’m satisfied that I can’t/ don’t even want to eat dessert. If I eat a mostly plant-based meal, I want to eat dessert and I’m hungry 1 hour later, if that, and I feel bloated all day. I know the satiety thing is something a lot of other people experience on keto, and I think a big part of that is that many of us include more animal foods on keto. Not that upping your fat (even plant based fat) and lowering your carbs doesn’t make a difference, as well.

(Jane Srygley) #68

I’m a wannabe vegan and was a vegetarian for years. When I met my partner in 2008, I was a vegetarian and weighed 281 lbs. I decided when we went on vacation that following Spring to try seafood (I don’t remember why) and then decided to add poultry and beef back in. I lost 20 lbs without even trying. I ate a lot of grains and cheese as a vegetarian.

I care a lot about animals. I won’t eat pork because I have read that pigs are very intelligent animals, moreso than dogs in some cases even, so I refuse… plus the gestation crates used in factory farming are unimaginably cruel. I also won’t eat veal or lamb cuz they’re babies… AND I take sustainability into account with seafood. I also buy organic and “humanely raised” whenever possible.

I would rather not eat any animals but I can’t seem to make that work, unfortunately. I hope that SOMEDAY I’ll be able to transition to vegan keto… but that day is certainly not today.

(Bob M) #69

I was not vegetarian or vegan, but ate a very low fat diet for many years. I tried to keep my fat content to less than 10% by calories. Normal day was hot cereal (oats, Maltomeal), pasta for lunch, brown rice and beans for dinner, rice cakes for snacks.

Looking back, I was always hungry, had wild mood swings, had depression, had excess anger, etc. All of that gone. After almost 6 years LC/keto, I now eat almost no plants.

#70

Another ex-vegetarian in the club. It lasted for almost 10 years. I used to eat dairy and eggs, though (I can’t live without eggs :egg:). The only thing I excluded from my diet was meat - any kind of meat. Always hungry, as the others also mentioned above :smiley: I was also heavier than what I am today. At some point I was wondering how come I keep my calories so low, eat so “healthy” and it is still so difficult for me to lose weight… A few years ago I stopped being vegetarian but to be honest, I do not remember why. There was not any special reason apparently. :slight_smile:

(Sheri Knauer) #71

I was a vegetarian for about 1.5 years (I think) back in the early 90’s. I read a book called “Old McDonalds factory farm” and it shocked me into becoming vegetarian. I eventually gave into my craving for meat. I do believe I still ate fish and eggs.

(Jane) #72

I was mostly vegetarian in college but not from an ethical standpoint. Just couldn’t afford meat. But if someone bought it for me I would enjoy it.

#73

I guess this is a good question for a shy lurker to jump in. I divide meat into 2 camps: 1) meat cuts like steak or roast, something that looks like it’s from an animal, and 2) ground up meats that are made into other things like hamburger and lunch meats, that kind of thing.

I was a vegetarian for 8 years because I really don’t like the first kind of meat. And I stopped being a vegetarian because I missed the second type of meat. Pretty simple really.

(Cynthia Anderson) #74

I wish my daughter would vegan better. She’s a pastatarian.

#75

Oh my. I thought I knew myself…
Now I am on the 2nd day of my carnivore trial (after some time when I ate more meat and less vegetables than ever, not like it’s hard to do, I always ate little meat and tons of vegetables) and it probably solves most of my problems with eating. I still don’t eat much meat but mostly because I can’t get enough from proper sources right now (and I need my eggs so not much room is left), meat doesn’t bore me anymore just like my burning desire towards vegetables disappeared.
I need extreme low carb, it seems, at least for losing fat and some addictions… Carbs make me hungry and I eat sweets for nearly every meal as well, that’s no good. Plant food is fine and dandy - as long as it has close to zero carb. It’s tricky and I probably wouldn’t get my nutrients with extreme low-carb without meat. I won’t try that.
I plan to do almost carnivore most of the time in the near future. My main food is eggs. Almost carnivore because I can handle some plants just not much. And chocolate :smiley: I surely will want it ocassionally, I don’t even know how could I eat enough without such tricks. My hunger and appetite is closely correlated with my carb intake. The more carbs I eat, the more calories I eat. Just below my ketosis carb limit is maintenance for my borderline overweight body. More and less carbs means almost inevitable overeating and fat loss, respectively, there are other factors but their role is little or I just can’t significantly change them longer term (like, exercise). My normal keto is too carby for me, it turned out but lowering my carbs automatically solve my problems, no struggle, willpower or anything else special is needed. I tried hard (for me, at least) on keto, in vain. I can’t outmaneuver too much carbs, no matter if I am fat-adapted and in ketosis, with determination and these are all very powerful. But carbs mess with me in more than one way.
(It was surreal at a relative not long ago. I ate lots of fatty meat, got satiated but there was cake. I have an impressive dessert stomach so I ate cake, not little but not very much like in my past. It made me hungry so I needed a lot of more fatty protein to get satiated again and the cake had many calories too. Carbs always made me hungrier but it was still very strange.)

For a different person, vegetarian keto (or low-carb or even high-carb) might work just fine. I can easily maintain my weight on vegetarian low-carb myself but I need to lose and I love to be nicely satiated and free from temptation all the time while doing so. I probably could do it on a low-carb vegetarian diet if my body was bigger, more muscular or if I was more active. But I am not like that.

#76

CONGRATULATIONS!

(Windmill Tilter) #77

I was a vegetarian for a few months in 2017. I was following the “Eat to Live” diet from Dr. Furman. It was a great improvement over the SAD diet I had been eating. I felt great.

The only reason I switched to keto was that it made extended fasting easier. I thought Dr. Fung made a compelling argument.

That said, I think “whole food” vegetarianism like that proposed by Furman is a reasonably healthy way to eat. I have no quarrel with vegetarians or even vegans. Anything is better than SAD.

(Brian) #78

I have heard numerous people say that they felt great when they went vegan. I’ve also heard people say that they felt great when going on a water fast. I’m not so certain they’re as distantly unrelated as the initial statements suggest.

Eventually, the body needs what it needs. I’m of the opinion that different genetic qualities of the individual may dictate how able the individual is to adapt to the things missing in whatever diet they’re consuming. Some may do well on a vegan diet for many years while others will crash rather quickly. One size doesn’t fit all.

FWIW, for quite a few years, I wanted to be one of the ones who did very well with being vegan and I made huge efforts at education and discipline. Despite all of that, I crashed. And for me, that happened to be a “religious defeat” as well. I’m a former SDA so this was very personal in ways that many may not appreciate. (Free from that for about a year now!)

(Laurie) #79

Hope you’re not dissing my home state.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #80

No. Not now nor ever interested in vegetarian nor vegan. Didn’t even think much about it until the last few years. Now I think even less of it.