Not eating enough?

Question

I'm a newish vegetarian and I find myself so hungry all the time. I've been incorporating veggies high in protein and fiber as often as possible,but it seems like it's not enough! Does anyone else have this issue? What else can I do to keep myself full?

Marliese · Answer

Hey! What di you eat exactly? If you just eat veggies, then you'll be hungry all the time. Try to eat some nuts and dried fruits.
When you go veggi, normally you have to eat more than meat-eaters because meat is a small foid with lots of calories and to eat the same amount of calories in veggies, you just need more.

allhypenoheart · Answer

almost every meal or every other has beans. i'm still eating dairy too.

Star the magic vegan · Answer

This is because your stomach acids and your body's acid response is currently conditioned for meat eating. It takes time for your body's metabolism and get use to a vegetarian diet. Meat is heavy duty stuff to digest. You have trained your stomach to devour meat at certain hours of the day. Now that you are not serving yourself meat, your acidic response to food is to over react. This prolongs hunger in you. 

You might have to have meat broth a few times before you can quit. It is more important that in the long term that you quit eating meat, and you have to literally train your body to have a functioning metabolism for a new plant based diet. Some people can become vegan in one day. Others spend three months eating broth twice a day, then once a day, then every other day, then twice a week, then once a week and all the while increasing cottage cheese, yogurt and eggs. They then spend one year getting off eggs and egg products, and another year getting off milk and milk products.

Oats86 · Answer

I find broccoli to be very filling.  I love a good stir fry with broccoli, peppers, onions, and brown rice.  You can add other vegetables to it as well like carrots, sugar snap pea, etc..

Cabbage or kale based salads are also filling.

Then there is always a good bowl of oat meal with fruit and nuts!

You can also try eating more often.  Snacks are good!

ForestNymph · Answer

Add walnuts or peanut/almond butter to your oatmeal in the morning. Make sure you use whole grain or steel cut oatmeal instead of "quick cook" or "instant"

Try tofu. I honestly don't understand why people don't like it, I can eat cold extra firm tofu in a salad...just make sure it's extra firm if you're going to eat it plain or in a cold dish, I usually only get softer consistencies if I'm making a dip or other recipe. I really think it's the texture of softer tofu that might put people off. Braised tofu or flavored tofu sticks are a convenient way to try this if you don't know how to cook it yet.

Eat things like pumpkin or sunflower seeds as snacks. You can eat it alone or combine with dried or fresh fruit.

Make sure you're eating whole grain bread, whole grain pasta, and rice instead of white bread or white pasta.

ForestNymph · Answer

It might be the portion sizes of your beans too....I've found that a lot of meat eaters treat beans as side dish, or even as a condiment ...I can eat an entire can of beans with my dinner, and if I go to a place like Taco Bell I ask for double beans on my burrito. I've encountered athletes and big men who claim they eat up to two whole cans of beans with their dinner, combined with a grain, vegetables and dressings.

Artpanda · Answer

Add starches and grain like potatoes and whole grain bread or tortillas. You need more calories/carbs to keep up with your life and veggies are made to burn which will leave you hungry. Being  green leaf only would require us to eat 25lbs of kale (as an example) to fulfill a 2,000 calorie diet every day just to keep up with our lives. it's like the panda that eats 40lbs of bamboo a day just to live because they burn through it so fast.

Hope this helps!

Mountainmystic · Answer

ForestNymph--Oh yeah! Tofu, whole grains, steel cut oatmeal, beans, vegetables, fruits, taters, pumpkin seeds--thats what I eat. 

Artpanda--Very good info. I eat like you describe. I like the info. on the panda. That makes sense. Without the carbs, panda has to eat bamboo all day.

Happy to read what you all contributed. It's nice to know there are other people eating similarly.

betterMonica · Answer

Make snacks with nuts.

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