New Vegan - Fat Gained, Muscle lost ?

[Peter]

Hi everyone.

I'm Pete, 26. I've been vegan for about 7-8 months now but I'm slightly concerned about my weight.
Before I was vegan I found it virtually impossible to put on weight or get fat. I've weighed about 10st 8 for as long as I can remember, BMI Is good. Since I've gone vegan I've put on a considerable amount of fat around my belly but my weigh has actually gone down a few lbs!?

I wasn't very active before, exercising once a week or so and thats not changed. I think I'm eating ok.. I try to avoid frozen vegan junk food like burgers etc but I do have soy based mince and linda mccartney a once or twice a week. Maybe some oreos here and there. But apart from that its pretty much good.

The only conclusion I can think of is that I've lost muscle while putting on fat - how else would I have gotten fatter but weigh less? I also feel light I've maybe lost some strength and have less energy...that might just be in my head though.

Had ablood test last week. All good. Any thoughts??

Thanks

 

[Gail Robins]

There are other more into fitness and nutrients that me, but my first thought is how much starch are you eating? That's a common mistake I see many people make. Try cutting out grains for a while and see what happens.

 

[Damo]

What are you eating? I eat a lot of pasta/rice/bread and I've noticed I'm putting on a little weight...

Maybe you have just loss muscle mass?

I've removed your other thread, try not to double post here.

 

[earthlingtommy]

"Calorie density" is what I apply to what I eat, the only exceptions I make with the more dense foods are nuts and seeds. Fat isn't always fattening, in fact there are credible studies on high fat (plant fat) diets helping to not only make people lose weight but specifically fat instead of muscle. I have a fairly low body fat percentage and my fat intake is about 30% of my calories daily.

There are also studies done on the effect of eating fat (again plant fat, obviously) and carbs within 4 hours of each other and apparently that not being a good idea as far as putting on body fat goes. As Damo has pointed out about his slight weight gain possibly related to pasta and bread, I would say definitely that's the case. Not in themselves unhealthy foods but those are two very calorie dense foods despite the low fat content. I see pasta as food for athletes, super concentrated carbs.

 

[Sally]

Make sure you are drinking enough. I lost weight when I gave up dairy and became vegan instead of vegetarian. Then I stopped losing and realised I was eating a lot of hummus. So now I'm on porridge every day for breakfast, a big bowlful, and I have started losing weight again. I don't get so hungry so eat less bread. I have a big meal in the evening of vegetables and rice or potatoes and feel great. There is a lot of water in what I'm eating now and I think that helps.