Alright, so I became vegan about 8 or nine months ago. I was raised vegetarian. (not sure why I mentioned that, but whatever...hehe).

Well, I've always been skinny. I'm 5'9" and weighed 130 last time I checked, which was about 6 months ago. I'm sure I weigh less than this now. Anyway, lately, and I mean in the last 5 months I would say, my weight has been fluctuating a lot. And I mean I keep losing weight. Just today my mom mentioned again how it looks like I've lost weight. The times she had mentioned it before, I didn't take it to be a big thing because it wasn't noticable to me. But she said this to me as I was putting on my favorite pair of pants, and when I had them on, I noticed they were significantly loser. They're a size five.

I'm not crazy about my weight. Honestly, as far as gaining weight, I don't much care if I gain a few pounds - goodness knows I could probably stand to. But I do get worried when it becomes noticable that I'm losing weight, considering the fact that I'm already kind of under weight for my height & stuff.

Thing is, this never seemed to be a problem before, when I was a vegetarian. Do any of you think this could possibly be from losing fats in my diet from being vegan? I should probably know more on this, but does cheese and other dairy products have fat that I could not be getting now that I am vegan? I won't go back to being vegetarian just for this reason, but I'm just wondering if being vegan could possibly be a contributing factor.

I've always eaten two meals a day, and I continue to since I've become vegan. So I don't think it's a matter of not eating enough. Perhaps I'm not getting all the right nutrients?

Anyway, I'd like to hear what you have to say on this. Waddaya think??

Peace Love & Respect
~Liv~

There is a chance that you are comsuming less calories and more fiber then you did as a vegetarian. Cheese and dairy products are high in calories and fat with no fiber.

As for whether you are deficient in some nutrients I would judge by your general health, rather then your weight. If your finger nails are brittle or you have no energy those are good signs you are lacking something.

You might only need to add another meal or snack. 2 meals a day as a vegan, especially if you are eating a lot of whole foods (which you should be), makes it harder to get enough calories. Look at how many calories are in a piece of cheese (lots). Compare that to a plain baked Potatoe or most vegetables.

It would help if you posted what you eat in a normal day.

It does sound like you've reduced the amount of calories you consume since going vegan. The best thing to do is eat more until you eat enough to sustain a healthy weight. Eat lots of fats like Vegetable oils, nut butters. If you just eat more in general that should be enough.

Also I think you'll need to start eating more than two meals a day. Vegans tend to eat food that moves through us much faster. So you need to replenish it quickly as well. Try eating a minimum of three meals, ideally more. If you can eat more smaller meals, that is better than few large meals.

Are you eating any nut butters and other vegan foods that are high in calories? If not, this might help you out.

You should probably weigh yourself again to know where you stand (no stupid jokes: "on the scale...") You shouldn't let your BMI drop below 19 (or even 20 if you have a large frame). 5'9" and 130 lbs. doesn't sound bad at all, so if you're in that vicinity, you're probably fine. If your overall energy level, vitality, immune-system health, emotional health, etc. are all good, then this is another indicator that things are OK. :pibo:

If you need more fat in your diet, eat nut butters, nuts, avocado, oils, etc, etc. It's pretty hard not to get enough fat if you eat plentiful amounts of these and other vegan-friendly foods.

On the other hand, TWO meals a day?! Three is the bare minimum. You need to eat 5-6 times a day, with a few snacks.

You didn't say what sex you are, or whether you have a small medium or large frame. At 130 pounds, if you are male with a small frame, you are a bit underweight. Female and small frame, you are at the bottom end of the range of normalcy.

" Do any of you think this could possibly be from losing fats in my diet from being vegan? I should probably know more on this, but does cheese and other dairy products have fat that I could not be getting now that I am vegan?"

Well of course, if you dropped cheese and other dairy, most of which are high in fat, and didn't substitute something else high in fat, or didn't up your intake of either carbohydrates or proteins (they can get converted to fat) to make up for the reduction in fat, you will be getting less calories than you got before. Whether the reduction in fat is "because you are vegan" or simply because you reduced your intake of fat, is not an answerable question. I couldn't tell you if you are eating enough as a vegan, to maintain your weight, unless I stalked you before you became vegan and continued to stalk you after you went vegan, and saw what you ate.

Did you have other fats in your diet besides dairy fat? Did you increase them to make up for the decrease in dairy fat, or add new fats? If not, you are going to lose weight. But your weight loss wouldn't be the result of your going vegan; it would be the result of going vegan improperly.

I don't know where you live, but where I live, I consider it almost a must, if one is to drop dairy products, to eat a lot of almonds, sesame seeds, and flax seeds -- the staple oil seeds -- as well as a variety of other oil seeds, such as sunflower, poppy, coconut, squash and pumpkin seeds, filberts, walnuts, pecans, brazil nuts, and macadamia nuts. Avocado and olives are good oil-fruits. Plus you might want to add cold-pressed oils to things like salads, soups, and stews. These seeds are pretty much a must.

However I recommend staying away from fried and sauteed foods. I recommend staying away from industrially hydrogenated oils -- shortening, margerine.

You need to make sure you get the dietarily essential fatty acids, with the omega 3 fatty acids being the key ones. Omega 3 sources are flax seed, flax seed oil, walnuts, and walnut oil. Oddly, walnuts are high in omega 3 fatty acids, while pecans are not.

On the other hand, TWO meals a day?! Three is the bare minimum. You need to eat 5-6 times a day, with a few snacks.

This is a bit controversial. It's true that meal plans prepared by establishment nutritionists seem to use the 3-meal / 2 snack format, but I have done quite well for years on a 2.5 meal per day diet (my lunch is very tiny - just a piece of fruit or two; breakfast and dinner are the biggies; NO SNACKING). For me, anyway, consuming food 5 times a day would make it very hard to control my weight. In any case, after a nice big meal, there is no way that I would feel physically hungry after only 2 or 3 hours, so an afternoon or evening snack would be hedonism or habit more than dictated by physical need. :cool:

Thank you all very much for your help. It's much appreciated.

A few of you mentioned something I figured, that I should eat more nuts and legumes. Although I do usually get plenty "buttery" fats in my diet, that's one thing I know. I do eat a few avacados a week (because they're delicious!! heh) and today I got some almonds, but intend to go and get some other nuts etc. this weekend.

I posted about this at my blog, and for two days kept a record of what I eat. Two of you mentioned needing to know what I eat, so here is a run-down of that.
Oh, but before that, about the two meal thing: It's a spiritual thing for me (as well as being vegan is), but I do realize it may not be good for my health, so will reconsider this. It's honestly never been a problem though. Like I mentioned, I was raised vegetarian and have been eating two meals for a very long time and it has never seemed to be a problem as far as weight or general health goes. You guys could be right though. I will look into this. Thanks.
On to the diet thing (note that this is copied from my blog):

~~~~~
Alright, so What I Ate Today #1:

Breakfast:

A cup of tea (green)
I don't eat breakfast - it makes me sick. I only eat it if I must (like if I have exams or something like that)
Lunch:

A sandwich.
This sandwich is really good!! I made it up on my own cause we were low on sandwich stuff one day. Here's how it goes:
Sprouted bread
Hummus & Annie's Natural Goddess salad dressing (not too much, just a bit) as spread instead of the normal mustard & mayonaise or whatever.
Lettus
Tofurky sandwich meat (THE best)
Tomato
Avacado
That's it. It's simple, but yummalicous. Don't put too much hummus either. It will overpower everything else. Today we didn't have tomato or avacado, and I just made it with lettus and meat, but it was still very yummy.
Apple juice
A cup o' tea (chai)
Dinner:

Spaggetti (how d'ya spell it?!) w/ this really good veggie sausage stuff. mmm! flavorful!
Salad
Garlic bread
Cup o' tea (english breakfast. why I drank english breakfast at night before bed - I do not know. I just know it will be hard to get to sleep tonight. grr! silly me.)

~~~~~
What I Ate Today #2-



Breakfast:

Cup o' tea (English Breakfast. (I don't know why I'm listing the kind of tea I have, but maybe I'll discover that later. It's just something I did naturally without thinking, and now I'm wondering, "who cares?" Actually, if I wanted to really get to a point about it, who really cares about any of this? Oh yeah... I do. Heh.))
Peice of toast with "butter" spread on it. (Had testing today, had to have something in me tummy.)
Lunch:

Bowl of left-over spaghetti from last night. Yumm!
Cuppa (green. all I have right now is green and english breakfast...)
Bottle of water
Snack:

Pita bread w. hummus
Dinner:

Some rice recepie my mom made up tonight. It was really good. In it twas:
All kind of different veggies
Vegetarian "steak" strips
Green beans
Yeah, so that's it. Here's what I'm noticing so far - NO FRUIT! I need fruit. That goes on my shopping list along with the nuts I wasn't able to pick up today. *writes that down*

~~~~~

Thank you all again for your help.
Peace.
~Liv~

I don't think you're eating enough hunny. You should be eating 3 meals a day and 2 snacks. If your weight continues to drop after that (well if your lose a whole lot more), I think you should to see a doctor. Go get you thyriods checked. Your thyroid glands regulate your metabolism. So depending on what problem is with them, you can gain or loss weight. I hope you can find the problem. Take care hunny. :)


Monika

righeousbabe, you're black? Hey hun. Haha.

I asked because of your signature. :)

righeousbabe, you're black? Hey hun. Haha.

I asked because of your signature. :)

Heheh. No, I am not black. I'm actully half Mexican, then aside from that I'm mostly Irish & Greek (weird mix, I know). Many people assume I'm black (even when they meet me in person!) because of the dreadlock thing.
Wanna know what's weird? I even had someone ask me if I was BORN with my hair like this before. Silly people. Ropes of hair growing out of one's head sounds painful, actually... heheh. :)

Thanks for the advice too. Like I said, I may consider adding a meal. Or eating six small meals like I've heard many times is a really good idea. If I can just get my weight up to 130 or so, and maintain that healthily, I think I'd be good. It's not so much that I keep losing and losing, but it keeps fluctuating: lose for a while, gain real quick, lose for a while, gain real quick. That can't be good, right?

Thanks again!

maybe you could add some type of energy bar like a clif or a luna. also, they say the closer you eat to bedtime the more calories you store as fat so you could eat something fairly energy dense like peanut butter toast or something right before bed. i'm sure lots of people would envy your problem but i understand how you might not like it. having a healthy looking, feminine figure is important to me.

oh one more thing. you could try my favorite meal which is a salad with romaine and herb salad, some veggie chicken strips (added hot), croutons and goddess dressing. this is soooooo amazingly good :) and calorically dense.

good luck!

Yeah righteousbage, it can be not good for you when your weight fluctuats like that. Mine us to do that. I use to be on those fad diets all the time when I was young. It caused me to have glastones.

Hey, I'm black. I want locs too. I don't have a prem. I'm natural. I'm gonna grow me some locs one day. I call them locs because ain't nothin' dread about them. Haha. Take care ok. God bless.

I lost a stone (14lbs) in 3 weeks when I went vegan... I actually did what a couple of guys on here suggested I ate seed bars which provided a lot of energy. I haven't put any of the weight back on, but I do feel healthier.

You could try eating vegan cheese (if you don't already) or including vegan margarine (if you don't already).

You could also go and visit a nutritionist, as they might be able to help you :)

peace and love amy-jane xx