Exercising and dietry help

[alisonf]

Hello,

Im new to this site and to be honest I only joined to get some advice from people who actually know what they are talking about!

I am vegetarian and one of the girls I work with is vegan. Now I am lucky to be the right weight for my body size and vary rarely step foot in a gym but the girl I work with wants to start losing weight and getting tonned. She attends dance classes several times a week and has now started going to the gym. Recently she has been feeling week and has no energy and all the doctors keep telling her is that she has to eat meat if she wants to go to the gym....

I think this is absolute rubbish but i have no idea what a vegan who is trying to loose weight and tone up should eat to keep healthy. And I was kind of hoping some one would be able to help with this as I really dont think she should change her values just to get in shape....

all help appreciated!:up:

alison

[NDvegan85]

Well, I can say that as a vegan who has run a marathon and done a triathlon that exercising doesn't require eating meat. Without knowing what your friend is eating it's hard to say what she needs to change, but I would say that some likely things are overall calories, iron, B12 and protein.

If she is working out and she wasn't before, she is using more calories than previously. And if she is trying to lose weight, she is probably eating less. Now obviously to lose weight you need to burn more calories than you eat, but you do need to eat enough calories so that you don't feel weak and tired. It's very possible that she just needs to eat more especially if she is becoming more active.

Another thing is iron, and low iron can bring on fatigue. I personally prefer to take a multivitamin with 100% iron and not worry about it, but some good vegan iron sources are pepitas, blackstrap molasses, leafy greens, oatmeal, fortified cereals, kidney beans, raisins, I can't remember what else...but anyway, lots of possibilities. But it's important to note that vegan iron sources generally are not as well absorbed as meat sources, which is why I take a multivitamin with it for back up. Also the multi will cover your bases for lots of trace minerals that you may not get every day.

And on the subject of vitamins, she really needs to be taking a B12 supplement. One symptom of B12 deficiency is being tired. B12 deficiency is really not a good thing, but the body can store B12 for years, so this would be an issue if she has been vegan a long time. She should be using a B12 supp. that is dissolved under the tongue.

Also, adequate protein intake is more important if she is working out. It's pretty easy to meet basic protein requirements if a diet has enough calories and isn't completely junk food, but if she's not eating enough or making poor food choices, this might be an issue.