I've been a vegitarien for like 4 weeks now... and i've lost 15 pounds. I'm tall and very thin, my docter said I was too thin, and now I've lost 15 pounds... I was already underweight, and now I'm like SUPER UNDERWIGHT! I'm afraid I'll keep losing weight... my family just yelled at me to stop this and start eating meat again. I dont want to! But I'm afraid that I'll keep losign weight! What to do?!


HELP!!!

What do you usual eat in a day? You probably just need more calorically dense foods: nuts, beans, avocado, vegetable oils, eggs, bread, etc.

Have you been eating less or less nutritious foods? Could you post a sample day or a sample couple of days of food and maybe we could get a better idea of what your diet is like.

Your problem is definitely calories. Being vegetarian doesn't mean you have to eat low calorie foods. I'm assuming you are eating milk and eggs still. You should eat a few tablespoons of peanut butter every day at least if you are experiencing weight loss - some thick fruit shakes with lots of soy protein. Try a sandwich with avocado and mayonaise with tomato and cheese on toast as a snack. and still eat your normal meals. Its not normal to lose weight that fast on the introduction of a well balanced vegetarian diet, especially if you do not need to lose weight.

Okay a normal day:
Breakfast- Waffels and a peach
snack- maybe a peice of fruit or something
Lunch: a sandwitch, penut butter and jelly this last week and chips
snack: if I need one something like tomatos. (I eat them like apples)
Dinner: vegi chili and crackers

What should I add?

Okay a normal day:
Breakfast- Waffels and a peach
snack- maybe a peice of fruit or something
Lunch: a sandwitch, penut butter and jelly this last week and chips
snack: if I need one something like tomatos. (I eat them like apples)
Dinner: vegi chili and crackers

What should I add?

YOu need to add some protein. Are you ovo-lacto or vegan? Try eating a handful of nuts with your morning snack, or a minimally processed cereal bar. For lunch, a sandwich and some chips are not enough. Add a fruit, or a side salad, or some carrots and hummus, perhaps some string cheese or cottage cheese if you are not vegan. Your second snack - how about you cut up the tomato and drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil and red wine vinegar on it, to add calories and beneficial fats, or add a handful of sugar snap peas or edamame beans drizzled with ranch dressing? For dinner, put your chili over a baked potato, rice, or tator tots, not crackers. Put some regular or soy cheese on top of it. You should add some vegetables to this meal plan. Perhaps some broccoli would go nicely on the side with chili.

Soy or dairy milk with cereal is a great late night snack and a good shot of protein and calcium.

muesli w/milk or soymilk is always good anytime of day as breakfast or a snack and it's quite 'dense', you can get a lot of cals in a bowl of that stuff, add some extra by sprinkling some nuts on top for extra cals, protein and good fat. If you're actually going to try to gain some weight at this point which it sounds like would be a good idea, think 3 meals and 3 snacks regardless of hunger (I've recently had to gain a lot of weight - think I'm gonna have to gain a bit more but I've been having a rest!) and for a snack I'm talking a full sandwich or a big smoothie and a bag of nuts, not just an apple. Try to pair things up, so if you have a banana then slice it lengthways and sandwich it back together with peanut butter, the same goes for apples. Have a side salad with your evening meal and put some avocado and olives on there, pour on some dressing (I love just olive oil and lemon juice with some pepper) maybe sprinkle on some croutons. Don't steam veggies when you could stir fry them, or if you do steam then drizzle with oil or butter afterwards. Apple and cheese is lovely if you eat cheese. Make up a dessert for the evening, there's some great veg*n recipes out there, just google it. But 3 meals and 3 snacks, don't miss them!!

Cheese, pasta and bread! Millions of people would love to be in your position, enjoy it while you can!

I'd say you could definitely use more calories. Oatmeal and peanut butter are two great, calorie dense foods that can help you out there. Any nuts are also a great source of protein and calories.

You're not eating enough calories. Eat you some bread, nuts, pasta. If you eat dairy, you could have you some yogurt. Eat peanut butter, and other stuff so that you can get some protein. Protein fills you up too. Your problem is really that you're not eating enough food in a day. So your calories are lessened and you loss weight.


Monika

I agree eat more calories.

Start Keeping a journal of everything you eat in a given day.....review it and see where you can improve your diet....after a week or 2, see your doctor and show him/her...they will be able to give you advice on nutrition. Start taking a multi vitamin!

i know how you feel. read my post in wabbit's want to gain weight thread..

before i lost weight i never ate much, even when i was omni. i often had only 2 meals a day and just lots of junkfood in between :no:
anyway instead of just a pb&j sandwich for lunch at work i now have the sandwich, a fruit cup, a pudding cup, and a chocolate soymilk (you can get them in juiceboxes now!)
breakfast is still a small meal for me, usually just toast or a bagel, i just can't eat a lot first thing in the morning but i never ever skip it. and i use lots of earth balance for some extra calories and fat.
you definately need more protein, and you should try to get it earlier in the day, at lunch or an early supper/snack


i agree with the food journal, i did this when i first started trying to gain, it was a challenge, like "let's see how many calories i can add to my meals today, and oh i need 10 more grams of protein what can i have" and just keep adding on to your meals. i'd keep a running total of calories and protein eaten in a day. don't forget calories from condiments and stuff like oil and margarine... any food that you can add oil, margarine, or some kind of dressing to, do so. don't buy anything "light" or "low fat"
soy yogurt :yes: great snack, i'll get a big tub of it and eat 1/3 of it per sitting, which ends up being a fair bit of calories and protein. but it's not heavy so you can eat that much without feeling overstuffed or anything.

anywho my goal per day is usually 1800-2000 calories and 80-100 grams of protein. my weight goal is 115 and my height is 5'5", not sure how tall you are but might be pretty close to what you need depending on how active you are.

It depends on how active you are. I am newbie as well, And i have noticed that i've lost a lot of weight in the first place. It is great, but I still eat a lot you need soy soy and more soy it is very important. And don't forget to take your multvitamun and such.

Soy or dairy milk with cereal is a great late night snack and a good shot of protein and calcium.

word. up.
if you just get some raisin bran and have a cup and a half and then pour in some soy milk and if you're really feeling ambitious, sprinkle on some toasted wheatgerm, you can get in and around 20 grams of protein in one (fairly big) bowl of cereal. plus you're getting iron and such.

for protein i highly recommend toasted wheatgerm, comes where i live in a glass jar. 1/2 a cup contains 16.5 grams of protein. ofcourse you wouldn't need a whole half cup if you were just sprinkling it in cereal or in yogourt but it adds a few grams i whatever you put it in. and if you really want protein you can use it as a cereal in itself. but it has to be the toasted kind, which actually tastes good, untoasted is mainly used in baking and will taste horrible in a yogourt or whatever.