Sport Any Vegetarians Here?

[Cheiros]

Hey,

I won't list my current diet because I know it's rather horrendous. I need to change it. In any case, here's my stats.

19 year old male
6'1
166 lbs
Bodyfat - unknown

Long story: Over the last year I've gone from about 150 lbs to my present 166. I think most of this is the result of finally stopping growing upwards and my body deciding it wants to grow outwards now. This is something I thought I wanted for most of my teen years but recently getting back into exercising I've found myself to be really unfit in terms of stamina. I seem to be stronger than before but this has been at the expense of tone. I don't want to decrease my weight now but I do want to get fit again, and also build on my strength.

I think the first thing I need to change is my diet. I've read all over this forum that smaller meals more often through the day is better than the standard breakfast, lunch and dinner, so I'm going to try that. But something I've also looked into is becoming a vegetarian.

Short story:I tried this once before but had no idea how to shop for myself. It seemed like so much of my diet was simply being substituted with different forms of soy and I thought to myself so much of the same thing, no matter what it is, can't be good for me. And I was basically living off my parents back then so it was too much trouble for them to buy a whole new set of food for my sake. So I stopped.

I'm self supporting now, though stretching my money to its limits. I do suspect vegetarianism would save me money though. I've had the same people that tell me it's too expensive on other occasions complain about the cost of groceries with meat and their main (and often only example).

A few questions though for anyone who cares to answer:

Is it actually possible to have a vegetarian diet thats healthy, cheaper than the meat eating equivalent (nutritionally) and that has real variety in it?

Is this 5+ small meals idea generally cheaper, more expensive or the same price as the 3 meal option?

I'll post my daily diet if anyones interested when I have my new diet established.

Thanks!

 

[Dallen]

You just have to know where to look.

It sounds like you buy meals rather than make them yourself. This will cost more money in the long run than any other option. Personally, I buy chicken and salmon in bulk supply. I go to sames club, and I spend roughly 25 dollars for the salmon and chicken which lasts me for about two to two one-half weeks. Quite a deal if you ask me.

Eating three meals a day versus eating a small meal every 3-4 hours really have no effect whatsoever. You are probably already eating small meals between main meals but don't really know or notice. Average person probably eats 5-6 meals a day and not notice. It's all about how many calories you get in and how many calories you give out.

I am against counting calories and more into just becoming more active and at the same time eating healthy. I believe people will naturally select healthy food when they give themselves unlimited access to any type of food. If you've been dieting a lot, then it will not come as naturally as someone who hasn't. You say you want to go veg simply because it's going to save you money, but I don't believe you will be able to maintain this with this idea. I think you should look at what you're currently eating, then sub out while still maintaining such a diet. Your body is now hardcoded with the current food type, and in order to change it to eat somethign out, you'll have to slowly sub out food you don't want with food you do want. Simply switching food for something better is not ideal as your body doesn't understand what is going on and you will have craving issues as well as binge eating issues.

 

[Kraken]

I think eliminating ANY major food group is bad. Its all about balance.
Getting proper protein and essential minerals that are only found in meats will be your biggest challenge.

A friend of mine decided she was going to be a vegetarian. After several months of this she became fatigued and went to the doc and she was told she better start eating meat or she was going to be very sick. Of course she may have been doing this all wrong.

Just my opinion.

 

[Chillen]

I support and advocate tracking calories and macro-nutrients--"dependent upon the individual person" which would include their current diet and fitness knowledge, and the individual's level of "personal science".

What is ones "Personal Science"?

It is the LEVEL of personal implentation of diet and fitness into ones way of life that solicates a lifestyle change that applies "enough of the person" to achieve the goal they desire. This includes making difficult decisions and easy applied decisions.

Tracking has a POWERFUL PLACE within ones personal goal quest, IMO.

One can "manipulate past data in the present" based on ready available data and will be able to:

Manipulating the Diet (by having tangible data to work from)

and

Manipulating Fitness Training (by having tangible data to work from)

Which equals (=) KING of personal SUPPLEMENTS.

and allows for "potentially" accurate:

Deficit Diet (calorie manipulations) + (nutrient manipulations) + (exercise change/manipulations) = dealing effectively with tissue loss/gain complications.

Personal history data, IMO, can assist with OPTIMIZiING results, and can arm one with a MIGHTY tool to make adjustments when or if:

A Plateau Develops.

Then this can:

Build a "personal knowledge base" to support ones goal and CAN reduce the potential of failure if applied correctly specific to the person.


Additionally, it can bring in powerful tools that can be used when one tracks their diet and training correctly, and bring forth the power it possesses to:

1. Combat cravings
2. Be allowed to eat more (at intervals) and keep deficits
3. Assist to prevent plateaus, and to pinpoint when plateaus begin and have tools to work with to find a solution within the diet and fitness data.

To name a few.

Manipulating calories Vs. fitness training data can be a powerful tool IF one knows how to use it.

It also can ASSIST in preventing:

I dont know what is happening! I am not losing weight or gaining weight!

or

" THE I DONT KNOW PROBLEM (because of no history of bodily adaption), so I dont know what to do"

Through ARMING YOURSELF WITH THE TOOLS TO COMBAT THIS.

In addition:

When you add in an on-going education IN DIET and in WEIGHT TRAINING........then you can USE this education to CHANGE the diet and/or training to break the plateau with USING YOUR HISTORY



Breif Synopis


Best wishes


Chillen

 

[Typhon]

I was a vegetarian once (well, we all experimented a little in our student days), I lasted about 2 days before I gave up on that terrible deviant path.

The way I see it, if you only eat animals that were born to be farmed then they owe their lives to us carnivores. The least they could do in exchange is turn themselves into a tasty cheeseburger

 

[Typhon]

Oh, and stuff that might be helpfull - eat lots of nuts and seeds, but I'm sure I remember reading somewhere that nuts and seeds contain an incomplete amino acid chain to be used for muscle building so they need to be eaten along with a variety of fruit and veg to supply the missing components

 

[Chillen]

What tpe of vegetarian are you?

What type of vegetarian are you?:

Vegetarians fall into groups defined by the types of animal-derived foods they eat:

Vegans eat only plant-based foods. They don't eat foods from animals, including meat, poultry, fish, milk, eggs and cheese.

Lacto-vegetarians consume milk and milk products along with plant-based foods. They omit eggs as well as meat, fish and poultry.

Lacto-ovo vegetarians eat eggs, milk and milk products, such as cheese and yogurt, in addition to plant-based foods. They omit red meat, fish and poultry.

Flexitarians (semivegetarians) primarily follow a plant-based diet but occasionally eat small amounts of meat, poultry or fish.

Source:

Dependent on the answer will depend on the types of food you can eat for optimal nutrition.


Best wishes to ALL!


Chillen

 

[tjl]

A friend of mine decided she was going to be a vegetarian. After several months of this she became fatigued and went to the doc and she was told she better start eating meat or she was going to be very sick. Of course she may have been doing this all wrong.

I know many vegetarians who are healthy, but many of them grew up in cultural environments where vegetarianism is common, so their normal vegetarian food fulfills nutritional requirements.

Someone used to eating a typical non-vegetarian North American (junk food) diet will probably have a lot of trouble if s/he merely deletes the meat (even if the meat being deleted is not particularly healthy varieties like typical burgers, hot dogs, bacon, etc.) without changing his/her diet in other ways.

Vegans do need to supplement vitamin B12, and female vegetarians need to take care to get sufficient iron (iron from vegetable sources is less well absorbed than iron from meat, but eating vitamin C containing foods (like raw fruits and vegetables) with iron containing vegetarian foods improves iron absorbing).

 

[tjl]

Oh, and stuff that might be helpfull - eat lots of nuts and seeds, but I'm sure I remember reading somewhere that nuts and seeds contain an incomplete amino acid chain to be used for muscle building so they need to be eaten along with a variety of fruit and veg to supply the missing components

Beans (including, but not limited to, soybeans) are relatively high protein vegetarian foods. They are commonly eaten in combination with other foods that provide more of the amino acids that beans are low in (e.g. rice or tortillas + beans, peanut butter + bread). Combining beans with nuts or seeds also improves the protein quality (e.g. hummus made of chickpeas and sesame seeds).

High density protein sources are harder to find among vegetarian foods, so high intensity body building and such may be more difficult.

 

[Cheiros]

Thanks everyone. I particularly like the idea about gradually subbing animal foods out. I've decided to start with pork and lamb (since I don't eat them much anyway) and eat more fruit and veg. I'm also going to cut down on beef, but not completely yet.

Chillen- I think flexitarian works best for me. At other peoples houses I think it would just be easier to accept what they give me. That lacto-ovo one will probably be likely too since the only alternative is to replace all that stuff with one product (soy) and like I said I'm not comfortable with too much of anything.

I do like variety in my diet. That should help me in becoming a vegetarian now that I have the money to shop around. Lack of variety after taking out meat was a big factor in me giving up last time I tried this.

I'm also looking at whey protein, as it has been recommended as the most effective form of protein supplement. Not for vegetarian reasons (just for muscle recovery and development in general) though that would be a bonus. Does anyone know if it qualifies?