Vegetarian or vegan?

[bigbadboss101]

Is anyone here vegetarian or vegan? How has it improved your health?
Has anyone tried it and went back to normal eating? Personally I believe in eating a balanced diet, not low this or that. 40-40-20 split or something close to that.

[lint]

macros have nothing to do with being a vegetarian...

[Unknown303]

I eat meat.

[BananaFob]

Lol trying to convince your wife to eat meat??

[flipstah]

Vegetarians are eccentric.

Vegans are ratchet.

[prodigydud]

I was eating vegetarian for about six months. I can't say if I'm any healthier, but I believe that I would have been a lot heavier/fatter if I just ate normally with all meats.

Having said that, I've since converted to a flexitarian diet, where I mainly stick to vegetarian meals during the weekdays, and optionally eat meat on the weekends.

I find that if you say that you're eating vegetarian, people give you that weird judgemental look, but if you just eat healthy which may or may not include meat, then people leave it be.

I also find eating flexitarian useful in the event you're out with the guys. Just shut up and eat the damn wings for the one night, then back to eating vegetarian. :D

[Ven]

Originally posted by prodigydud
I was eating vegetarian for about six months. I can't say if I'm any healthier, but I believe that I would have been a lot heavier/fatter if I just ate normally with all meats.

Having said that, I've since converted to a flexitarian diet, where I mainly stick to vegetarian meals during the weekdays, and optionally eat meat on the weekends.

I find that if you say that you're eating vegetarian, people give you that weird judgemental look, but if you just eat healthy which may or may not include meat, then people leave it be.

I also find eating flexitarian useful in the event you're out with the guys. Just shut up and eat the damn wings for the one night, then back to eating vegetarian. :D

Healthy flexitarian is the way to go for mind and body. I think you're on the right track. There was a period of my life where I was required to be hyper fit and preform in order to keep a factory ride sponsorship for a bike company. I had never felt so good in all my life though I felt some edge just wasn't there, no matter what I did. On a whim I decided to ditch all meat and get my protein from plant based sources. Difficult diet! But it's what put me over the edge to that plateau I was looking for.

The biggest difference was I always felt rested. I never got tired, and the training and school schedule I used to dread didn't affect me any more. I could do my two hour morning ride, then a full day of classes, then a down town group ride, then two hours of anaerobic, home at 10pm, in bed at 11, up a 5am to do it again. I'd always wake up feeling like I slept 10 incredible hours. Attention was better, training better, learning better.

But the diet is not sustainable IMHO, it can make food unpleasant and no matter your will power if you don't enjoy your eats you'll cheat. Which affects you psychologically and then other things begin to suffer. I made it 6 months on this diet before I started to reintroduce fish and chicken. I still avoided pork and red meats. Seemed to be the best trade off. If we are meant to eat just a plant diet we wouldn't have incisors.

[heavyfuel]

Meatiterean. But you have to commit to it lol

[bigbadboss101]

Macros do have something to do with vegan-ism or being vegetarian. To get protein while not eating meat or eggs one would need to eat lot of lentils. To get protein out of such diet the food also contain a lot of carb. I find that yes people in the category can get protein but their macros always end up having a lot of carbs than protein. Granted eating veggies, fruits is good and as long as carb is not from refined foods then health wise thats a good thing. With that said I don't thing such diet contains enough protein for body tissue repair.

I don't know in terms of hormone balance such live style is good too. I have heard some people have bad cramps (women). Some find it hard to lose weight. The vegan athletes are slim because their training is strenuous. I have been to meet ups where everyone are but no means slim.

I like feed back from people who adapted this lifestyle and saw their health (bp, cholestrol, other diseases) improve greatly. Also if some people who went away from such habits because they had issues with it.

[theken]

I believe the healthiest eating is food that has no manufacturing steps to be produced other than cut or picked. So meat, Vegetables, and fruit. If you don't eat anything else you will have a fine happy healthy life. IMO.