6 months vegan,, questions..questions

dominover

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  1. Vegetarian
I've always had trouble with insulin resistance and weight gain. I was eating animal proteins then.

I've now given them up and don't eat any saturated fats or dairy either.

Even so, I'm not losing a pound.. I'm still quiet insulin resistant and have massive hormone imbalances as well.

What I want to know is this...
Should I be cutting back on starch initially to balance my hormones.. Just until my body completely adjusts?

Give that I exercise regularly I should have lost 10-20 kg's by now but I'm not.. I eat beans, chick peas, small amounts of rice and occasionally potatos.. Greens, and all vegetables.. Fruits such as apples. Sometimes almonds..

Should I be doing something different initially to stem the problems caused by years of animal protein consumption?

How long does it take?
 
Hello dominover :)

First things first, it's really excellent that you are making such a positive change for your health!

You might want to check out a YouTuber called Joe Best. A word of caution, when he is talking about diabetes and health his videos are really helpful, but he is also prone to commenting a lot on 'vegan YouTube dramas' so I recommend you avoid these and just follow his health-related playlists.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpdbW6RBVyMckFJpfNsUUV4i8FUqjY3P2
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpdbW6RBVyMewoxyFNfArZ-SYFxVDz1oT
https://www.youtube.com/user/bestchallengestube/videos

I have not heard about starch interfering with hormones, but if you really want the quickest way to combat that issue along with your insulin you might consider going 'Raw 'Til Four'. The premise is that you eat raw foods until 4PM, and after that time you can eat cooked foods. You could even try going fully-raw.

You might need to accept that your metabolism has been damaged. It is great that you are exercising - keep going! You will eventually notice a change but, depending on how long you were living an unhealthy lifestyle, you might not be seeing dramatic results overnight. Your body might be trying to recover from years of bad decisions. The foods that you list are all healthy choices. You might consider tracking just how much you are eating every day with a site like www.cronometer.com

I hope this information helps. Let us know if there's anything else we can do for you here at the forum.
 
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Hi Domino

I am no doctor but I can give some basic "Bro-science" advice based on my experience.

But first I would like to ask a couple of questions regarding re-balancing your hormones:
  1. How many meals do you have a day
  2. How much do you eat in each meal?
  3. What type of food is it? e.g. is it canned? microwave? fresh? dried?
  4. How many times a week do you exersize and how long is the duration per session?
  5. Do you do cardio or do you lift weights?
I hope I don't sound too nosey! There are various factors that will determine what is actually happening with your body.

If you want to know how long it will take to lose the weight - use this weight loss calculator as good guidelines:

https://www.fitwatch.com/calculator/weight-loss-target-date

If you are indeed as sincere about this as I believe you are - by measuring out your food according to the calories the calculator suggests and doing the right exercises will almost certainly get you to your goals :)

p.s. if anyone knows of a better calculator for weight loss please post...

Lastly - please take a look at this video:


A young lady tells you about her own journey of losing 20kg in 6 months, and I am sure this will be very useful to you.
 
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Hi, thanks for the reply.

  1. How many meals do you have a day
I eat 3 or 4 times a day though overall I have recently come to the conclusion that I don't eat enough. I once noticed that
if I eat 5 or 6 small meals a day I can lose weight but I'm constantly hungry and don't seem to have enough energy. Maybe I'm not eating enough?.

  1. How much do you eat in each meal?
I eat around 400 calories per meal. Sometimes a little more.
  1. What type of food is it? e.g. is it canned? microwave? fresh? dried?
Never eat canned or fried foods. I eat beans, split peas, potato's, loads of greens like kale and silverbeat. Lettuce.
Fruit: banana's, lemons (drink squeezed), apples)). Occasionally I eat some pasta but not often. Maybe once every couple of months. Nuts: raw peanuts, almonds.
I don't drink alcohol or smoke.

  1. How many times a week do you exersize and how long is the duration per session?
I do 5 8km runs a week. Each run takes me about 47 minutes. Straight after the run I do pushups (around 50) and then situps (around 50) while my heart rate is up (around 6 minutes).
  1. Do you do cardio or do you lift weights?
I do cardio mainly.. I did lift weights but I started to accumulate allot of chest fat and became really stressed so had to stop. I can't get a doctor to listen to me. The chest fat issue started after a very strong bout of stress at a previous job some years ago. Since then my body and mindset have changed.

I suspect that my hormones are imbalanced but it could have been accumulated fat in my liver from stress which has made me very insulin resistant and thus thrown out my hormones. High levels of cortisol can do this.

Anyway, I have chosen to go vegan because I truly believe it is very healthy and will hopefully bring me back to a younger me over time.
 
Wow... you seem very active..! Have you had your hormones checked by a doctor by the way?

There is also the fact that while you are doing all this exercise, you are building muscle at the same time... and muscle weighs more than fat. So the scales will not be a good guide for your fat loss.

You said that you put on more fat in your chest area when lifting weights - I think its quite likely it was actually muscle you put on, but it gave the look of more fat due to the size increase. (until the fat will inevitably melt away with more diet + workout, and you will be like a butterfly transformed from a caterpillar ;) )

Compound exercises like squats, deadlift, pullups, bench press will most certainly boost your testosterone... I would definitely hit those maybe 3 times a week, and the rest can be cardio? Try it out for a bit

You are definitely going about it the right way :) Keep at it!

Re: energy issues - vitamin B12 is something vegans do not get with our diet, and supplementing with this should help your energy a lot if you do not already take it

Good luck, you can do it for sure :)
 
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