Here’s an interesting thing: even though I can’t say I’ve really made any special effort to lose weight over the seven years that I’ve been vegan, I have lost a lot. Most of it very slowly over 5 years of not even exercising or eating well, and the last chunk of it very swiftly while working out and gradually improving our diet. I think it was about a year ago or so that I decided I was actively going to try to lose body fat for better muscle definition – I work so hard for them and it annoyed me that I couldn’t see most of them. So I tried calorie restriction to a supposed ideal 1800 for my size, basically reducing my portion sizes but still eating the same things. And I did lose some weight, but I also felt weak and had headaches all of the time, and since the point was to show off muscles that were going to disappear if I didn’t have the stamina to work out like I had been it seemed wise to abandon that course.
I tried doing more cardio regularly, and strangely that didn’t do much for me either except bore me to tears. I like running, but only at night, and apparently that’s not safe according to some people I know…In any case, I could not get past a certain weight that I’ve been stuck at for almost a year, despite working out insanely hard and eating all whole foods and not too much. Over the 5 weeks or so that we adopted this policy of cutting out almost all starchy, low-nutrient food and eating huge salads with everything and more vegetables, I’ve lost 6 lbs somehow. I’m probably eating more than I was before that! According to our body fat scale that gives percentage of fat, pounds of water weight, and pounds of muscle, I’ve lost all fat, and I’m certainly not any weaker, as the chest/back workout I did today will attest.
