Philosophical Vegan Forum

hey folks i've eaten meat my whole life at every meal for 21 years. I have a somewhat extensive knowledge of nutrition and calorie expenditure etc. so it is clear to me that I can theoretically eat a balanced vegan diet. I went vegan + eggs (they're vegan to me it's just chicken period) for 2 weeks and my digestion was generally much better (have been having intermittent mild issues with digestion for the past year). I'm trying to resume such a vegan diet again. The problem is I am very active (kickboxing, jiu jitsu, wrestling most days) and I have what appears to be a fast metabolism and a high BMR. I'm 6'4 175 lbs so I'm quite thin already and losing weight is not an option. I suspect that the only reason meat was my saving grace was because of the high amount of fat and thus calories (which I need to maintain healthy weight).

So what do you recommend as a vegan fat/calorie source so I can not turn into a spooky scary skeleton? I tried just making up for the missing meat fat from my diet with more carbs (easy to get vegan) but it feels like that messes with my blood sugar/insulin if I had to guess. Just makes me feel bad.

If you want more fat, nuts and seeds are probably your best bet. Walnuts, flax seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, almonds and hazelnuts are all great. They're also a pretty good source of protein and have a lot of health benefits in general.

When you say high carb, what does that mean? Is it mostly vegetables and legumes, or mostly fruits and grains? There's big differences between these food groups. Especially if you're really muscular, you'll want to eat mostly legumes and vegetables.

Jazi wrote:I'm 6'4 175 lbs so I'm quite thin already and losing weight is not an option. I suspect that the only reason meat was my saving grace was because of the high amount of fat and thus calories (which I need to maintain healthy weight).

So what do you recommend as a vegan fat/calorie source so I can not turn into a spooky scary skeleton? I tried just making up for the missing meat fat from my diet with more carbs (easy to get vegan) but it feels like that messes with my blood sugar/insulin if I had to guess. Just makes me feel bad.

Houmous is an excellent way to get lots of healthy fat/calories down you It has zero risk of spiking your blood sugar levels because it has an extremely low glycemic index. I usually eat it with salad to get some fibre down me at the same time.

You can try a vegan fat shake like the one on this page (just ctrl f it)
http://www.nomeatathlete.com/gain-weight-vegan/

I would also wonder what you were eating for extra carbs. I've only felt bad from sugar and heavily refined carbs. Try whole food carbs if you haven't.

You can also try things like halvah or what I used to do was grind peanuts and raisins together. I stopped that after a while because I think the extra fat was making me feel sluggish and giving me brain fog. Now I try to keep my fat intake at about %20.