drnorm wrote:I certainly appreciate all of your responses; however, no one seems to have solutions only more reading and commentary on why women have this problem of not losing weight. I have been asking what works! There must be women who have been able to solve this issue with losing weight. I certainly appreciate eating better and keeping healthy; but, it sure would be nice to lose weight as well. Does anyone have a solution other than recommend more reading or providing reasons?
Valerie
Hi Valerie,
There are definitely solutions! Finding the one(s) that work for you, and that you can live with, might require some reading so that you understand the principles. Then you might have to play around with adjusting the types and amounts of on-plan food you are eating, until you start losing weight at a rate that makes you happy. I don't recall seeing you mention your current weight, but if you are close to a normal, healthy BMI already, it may take more adjustments to get the last few pounds off. Don't compare yourself with your husband. I can tell you that my husband and I are both around the same height -- about 5' 4" -- and currently both around the same weight. He eats more and exercises less than I do, and still loses faster. It's not a race, and we will both end up at our healthiest weights eventually.
The approach that has been the most effective for me has been to follow Jeff Novick's principles of calorie density:
Principles of Caloric Density by Jeff Novick
- Hunger & Satiety
Whenever hungry, eat until you are comfortably full. Don't starve and don't stuff yourself.
- Sequence Your Meals.
Start all meals with a salad, soup and/or fruit
- Don't Drink Your Calories
Avoid liquid calories. Eat/chew your calories, don't drink or liquify them. Liquids have little if any satiety so they do not fill you up as much as solid foods of equal calories.
- Dilution is the Solution: Dilute Out High Calorie Dense Foods/Meals
Dilute the calorie density of your meals by filling 1/2 your plate (by visual volume) with intact whole grains, starchy vegetables and/or legumes and the other half with vegetables and/or fruit.
- Be Aware of the Impact of Vegetables vs Fat/Oil
Vegetables are the lowest in calorie density while fat and oil are the highest. Therefore, adding vegetables to any dish will always lower the overall calorie density of a meal while adding fat and oil will always raise the overall calorie density of a meal
- Limit High Calorie Dense Foods
Limit (or avoid) foods that are higher in calorie density (dried fruit, high fat plant foods, processed whole grains, etc). If you use them, incorporate them into meals that are made up of low calorie dense foods and think of them as a condiment to the meal. For example, add a few slices of avocado added to a large salad, or a few walnuts or raisins added in a bowl of oatmeal and fruit.
Jeff also recommends these steps to fine-tune calorie density:
- Salt: For many people, salt seems to act as an appetite stimulant. So, the less you salt your food, the less people tend to eat.
- Variety: For many people, having a variety of foods available at each meal also seems to encourage over consumption. Therefore, the less variety at a meal, the less food consumed.
- Raw Foods: Foods you can eat raw tend to be lower in calorie density and may not digest as efficiently as cooking helps the digestion process.
- Sequencing: Eat the lowest calorie dense foods first. This fills you up so you eat less of the higher calorie dense foods.
- Avoid (or strictly limit):
- all higher fat, calorie dense plant foods, nuts, seeds, oils, avocados,
tofu, etc.
- all refined processed grains & starches that are higher in calorie density
(breads, bagels, crackers, cookies, dry cereal, tortilla's etc & anything
made from ground up flour) even if they are whole grain.
-all concentrated sugars/sweeteners (sugar, brown sugar, agave, honey,
molasses, date sugar, etc) even if they are natural and organic
- all dried fruits.
If you follow the principles of calorie density and make the necessary adjustments as needed, you will lose weight in a healthy way at a healthy rate.
I also want to share with you two checklists of reasons why you may not be losing weight on a plant-based diet. If any of these apply to you (as they did to me!), you will get much better results once you address the culprits.
As VeggieSue mentioned, I did an experiment in the first 3 months of this year where I took the calorie density approach as far as I could, while still keeping my meals starch-based and satisfying. Although I did not set out to consume a set number of calories, I found that by following the principles, my daily intake hovered around 1200. Now that the experiment is over, I am no longer tracking calories (tracking and counting is not recommended, or necessary on this plan). However, I am still keeping a food diary to help me maintain an awareness of what I am eating and how it affects my progress. You can find the link in my signature at the bottom of this post if you'd like to see pictures of what my low calorie-density meals look like. There are many other ways of designing calorie-dilute meals, if you don't care for salads and steamed veggies (I happen to like both). You could make soups or stews with lots of veggies, for example.
I hope that you find something in the responses you've received to inspire you and give you hope. You really can eat a lot of delicious food on this plan and still lose as much weight as you need to.
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Not Losing Weight on a Plant-Based (Vegan) Diet? Here's Why (Excerpt) by Lindsay Nixon (Happy Herbivore)
Over the years, I've found the same dozen or so culprits (most of which are "food," but some are behaviors) that cause my clients to gain weight or slow their weight loss. In just about every instance, once the "culprits" were removed, the scale started moving again.
1. Oil. If you're not oil-free, that's your culprit. Even if you think you're oil-free, make sure you really are 100%. You'd be surprised how often oil sneaks into foods. Even foods that you expect to be oil-free like mustard, vegetable broth or hot sauce, can have oil. Check all your condiments. Check all your breads, crackers, etc. Anything that you didn't make yourself, check. Oil can even sneak into non-dairy milk.
2. "Vegan" Foods. Most vegan substitutes (i.e., faux meats, faux cheese) are junky and not healthy (and most contain oil). Make sure you're not eating vegan convenience foods if you're trying to lose weight. Just because something is "vegan" doesn't mean it's healthy. Oreos, Ritz crackers, French fries, Daiya cheese, Coconut Bliss ice cream — all vegan, but they won't help you lose weight. Also be weary of some non-dairy milks, as many contain oil. Also try to buy unsweetened "milks" if you can, and steer clear of flavored milks like chocolate soy milk. That's a candy bar in a glass.
3. High-Fat Plant Foods. Don't get me wrong, I love avocado and guacamole from time to time, but if you're eating high fat plant foods regularly, this is your likely culprit. As Dr. McDougall says, "The fat you eat is the fat you wear." If you're trying to lose weight, limit tofu, tempeh, avocado, nuts, seeds, coconut milk, coconut, nut butters (i.e., almond butter and peanut butter), chocolate, and olives. These foods should be used sparingly, as a condiment (i.e., sprinkle a few seeds on a salad) or a treat. I went on an avocado bender a few summers ago and was shocked how fast the weight crept back on.
4. Caloric Density. The bulk of your meals should be made from foods lower in caloric density that are satiating. Main food staples should be grains and starches, vegetables (particularly green vegetables), beans and fruit. (P.S.:This what we follow on the meal plans, reboot and cleanse.)
5. Salt. While I follow the advice of Dr. McDougall, who says a little salt is okay to make things palatable; salt can sneak into a lot of plant foods and then you're consuming too much. For example, canned beans and vegetable broth can have unruly amounts of salt. According to Jeff Novick, MS RD, salt should be a 1:1 ratio with calories in a prepackaged food. For example, if something contains 100 calories per serving, there should be no more than 100 mg of sodium per serving. Lastly, if you must salt your food, add salt AFTER you finish. Do not add salt during cooking.
6. Drinking calories. Chewing is a very important part of digestion and helps slow you down. I can slurp down a 500-calorie drink and be ready for more, but I can't chew 500 calories worth of foods that fast. Chances are, I'd be stuffed afterward if I could even make it through all those foods. Drinking calories doesn't provide the same satiety as chewed whole foods. Use your teeth like nature intended
7. Alcohol. I'm not saying to never have a drink, but cut back on drinking as much as possible if you're trying to lose weight. (Remember, try not to drink your calories). A glass of wine here and there isn't the problem, it's the 3 glasses of wine or the wine nearly every night. I find wine and cocktails are the biggest culprit after oil and added fats (like nuts or avocado) with my clients.
8. Eating Out. Even if you're ordering a vegan meal, most restaurants overload their food with salt, sugar and oil. If you're trying to lose weight, be diligent about ordering healthy, oil-free fare such as steamed vegetables and rice or a salad with fresh lemon juice (instead of dressing). If the food comes out shiny and oily, send it back. If you want to be "social," why not host a dinner party or potluck instead?
9. Fiber-Broken Foods. First, make sure the bread, pasta and crackers you buy are 100% whole-wheat (or gluten-free) and oil free. Second, don't base your diet around these foods. You want to go for whole grains like brown rice and quinoa or whole-wheat couscous over the more processed version. Carbs don't make you fat, but the more whole, the better. If you do decide to eat pasta, make sure it's a lot of vegetables with some pasta.
10. Dried fruits. First, you want to make sure your dried fruit is just dried fruit — no added oil or sugar. Second, as with the high-fat plant foods, you want to limit dried fruits. A few raisins sprinkled in your oatmeal is fine, but don't eat handfuls of raisins or dehydrated apples as a snack. Eat apples and grapes instead. Dried fruits are very calorically dense and not very satiating. Eat the "fresh" version instead, using dried fruits as a condiment only.
11. Coffee. Caffeine use is your business, but if you must drink coffee, drink it black. Sugar and creamer (even vegan creamers) can turn a latte into a hot, drinkable candy bar. I'm often shocked by the amount of calories and fat in coffee drinks at Starbucks. Even if you skip the fancy drink, "homemade" can get you if you're not careful. If you put just 1 tablespoon of sugar in your coffee each morning you'll have consumed nearly 23 additional cups of sugar in one year. That's a lot of sugar and a lot of calories!
12. Mindless eating. I could write 10 blog posts on this topic. The short of it: Start keeping a journal to really see how much you eat in a day or use a phone app such as My Fitness Pal or Livestrong Daily Plate. If you work in an office, you might be surprised how often you dip your hand into the candy jar. If you're the cook at home, you'll be surprised how much you eat "tasting" your food while it's cooking. I'm terrible at nibbling while cooking. A lot of foods sneak in each day that we don't think about and that can be a huge culprit. Also, never leave food on the table. Leave it in the kitchen so you have to get up if you want seconds and always put your snacks in a bowl — don't eat out of the bag or you'll mindlessly munch.
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Stuck in a Rut? (Excerpt) by Natala (Engine 2)
You have been going strong for a while with your plant-strong life, but all of a sudden you aren’t losing weight, or maybe your cholesterol numbers are not where you’d like them, or your blood sugar has started creeping up. What do you do?
First things first, remember that eating a plant-strong diet is complete in every way, you don’t need to worry about if you are getting enough nutrients, enough protein or enough fat, you are, so you can stop worrying about that.
Sometimes we let things sneak in, without even realizing that we have. Here are some of the top culprits of being stuck in a rut:
1. You’ve added oil. This one can slide right in. It starts with more spray oil, or maybe a little bit in a few recipes. Maybe you have added vegan junk food like vegan cheese, sour cream, mayo, or butter. When you eat out you aren’t requesting ”NO OIL”. You might not check all of the food that you purchase to make sure it has no oil. We had an E2-er write to us recently, she had this to say:
“I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong! So I did what you said, checked all my packaged food. Well, wouldn’t ya know, there was oil in my whole grain bread, my whole grain crackers and get this; MY WHOLE GRAIN BROWN RICE! I purchased a pre-made brown rice, and just assumed it had no oil, well low and behold, it had 2 different kinds of oils!” – Janice
2. Salt. Salt magically works its way into a lot of plant-strong meals. You start to not pay attention to the “1 to 1″ label reading rule, or maybe you start adding salt into your cooking as you are preparing a meal. Go check your labels! Salt should be a 1 to 1 ratio, meaning if there are 100 calories per serving there should only be 100 mg of sodium (or less) of salt per serving. In addition, make sure that any salt you add is AFTER you finish preparing your meal.
3. High fat plant-foods. Don’t get us wrong, we love a few slices of avocado from time to time, but if high fat plant-foods have become a staple rather than a treat, you might run into a rut. Tofu, avocado, tempeh, nuts, seeds and nut butter should all be condiments/treats. The largest portion of your meal should consist of foods lower in caloric density. Make sure your plate is first filled with whole grains/starches, vegetables, beans and fruit. After that, you can sprinkle a FEW nuts or seeds, add a few cubes of tofu, a couple of slices of tempeh, 1/4 of an avocado. You also want to watch dressings, even oil free dressing can be packed with calories and fat if they rely on too many high fat plant-foods. If you’d like, cut out the high fat plant-foods for a while to see how you do. You will not miss any nutrients and you will get all of the fat you need, so long as you are eating enough (just like protein, if you are eating enough, you are getting enough)
4. You are drinking your calories. It seems logical that the more you cram in a glass in the way of plant-strong foods, the better, right? Not really. We now know that chewing is a very important part of digestion, and we should not skip it if we don’t have to. (Of course if you have a medical condition which prohibits you from chewing, you will need to adjust accordingly). Chewing food does all sorts of wonderful things. When we drink food, we bypass salivary digestion all together, and often get a big hit of calories and often sugar (from fruit). In addition, think about all of that food you stick in your fancy machines, could you eat it in one sitting? If not, you should not try to drink it in one sitting either. Instead of drinking your calories, chew them. It will help with your overall health and it will also help keep you feel full and satisfied longer.
As a nice summer treat? Sure, go ahead and have a plant-strong milkshake with some frozen fruit and non-dairy milk. But as a meal? You are better off chewing all of that food you are sticking in your blenders.
*There is a lot more research on blending vs. chewing and we could go into a lot more detail. However, we like to keep things simple around here, give it a try for yourself and see how you do. We have heard from a lot of you who stopped drinking calories and had really amazing results after the fact. So give it a try. It will be okay, we promise.
5. You are eating out more and not asking for plant-strong meals. We have fallen into this trap a few times. We are out with friends, we see the ‘vegan’ menu item, we order it, and it comes out and it’s glistening with shiny, fatty, artery clogging oil. Instead of skipping it, or re-ordering, we eat it and later pay for it. Be sure to have an eating out plan. Know how to order when you are out to eat, call ahead and ask if they can meet your crazy plant-strong request.
Recently we heard from E2-er, John about his Chipolte habit: ” I started grabbing Chipolte everyday for lunch. One day, a co-worker asked if my veggie bowl was really plant-strong. So I checked. I found out that they put oil in the brown rice, lots of oil and salt in the veggies and even the beans! The pinto beans also have bacon fat in them! The guac has added oil and salt. The chips are full of fat and salt. The salsa has lots of salt. Soon my “healthy” Chipolte meal was a fat and salt bomb! Now I bring my own lunch, brown rice, vegetables, salsa and beans, but all oil free, no salt added, it is much better!” – John
6. You are eating a lot of bread, pretzels and crackers. Even whole grain breads, pretzels and crackers can be a lot more calorically dense than you might expect. They are also very easy to over-snack on. Try going with out them for a little while. Have your homemade veggie burgers on a bed of greens instead of a whole grain bun. You can have a couple more burgers instead of the buns, and it will fill you up more!
7. You are eating chocolate. We love chocolate. That is why we can’t have it around. It is a treat that we have for special occasions. If there is dark chocolate around, we will eat it, it’s that simple.
8. You are eating a lot of dried fruit/dates. A sprinkle of raisins on your oatmeal is just fine, however eating a lot of dried fruit is going to put you in a rut. Dried fruit is very calorically dense, so you need to watch how much you are including. Also, a lot of dried fruit has added oil/sugar, so you’ll want to watch that. Dates fall into this category as well. Dates are delicious, but make sure you are keeping it to 1 or 2, and not eating them by the handful, or using excess amount of date syrup/paste.
9. You are putting non-dairy creamer/sugar in your morning coffee. Of course, we’ll first encourage you to start cutting back/cutting out the caffeine. If you feel the need to drink caffeine we’d encourage you to look at your diet and lifestyle and see why you feel the need to use caffeine. All of that aside, many people will dump soy creamer and sugar into their morning hot drinks, and it can add up. We also hear from people who have made Starbucks a habit, even the non-dairy drinks at Starbucks are going to set you over the top in calories and sugar. Don’t forget, coffee with non dairy creamer/sugar has excess calories. We looked up a popular Starbucks non dairy drink and it had over 400 calories!
10. You are drinking too much. A glass of wine every so often is okay. However, when you start drinking a glass a night, you might want to consider cutting it out, except for special occasions. (not just wine, any alcoholic drink). It is not required for alcohol manufacturers to include nutrition facts on their labels. Many people drink without thinking of the calories they are consuming. Beer ranges from 100-200 calories for a glass and wine ranges from 100-150 calories for a small glass. To give you an idea of where that falls, regular coke has 136 calories per serving. If you feel the need to drink every night, we would encourage you to start evaluating your relationship with alcohol. If you need help, please reach out and ask.
