Vegetarians/vegans what do you generally eat per day?

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As a vegetarian/vegan or any "sub type" what do you usually eat in a day, and how much calories would you say you consume?

I'm highly interested in these sort of diets/lifestyles. The thought of converting from my heavy meat eating ways onto a healthier way of living has crossed my mind many times. The only problem that I've had is finding a varied amount of good tasting foods that apply to these sort of diets and lifestyles.

Last edited by Pondering on 28 Mar 2011, 10:14 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Even if you eat meat, non-meat foods should still constitute the bulk of your diet. You may just want to look into eliminating red meat and fatty meats. When I was a vegetarian, I can't claim that my diet was exactly healthy. I had a thing for pickle and cheese casadillas, and stove top stuffing at the time, and I would eat the latter for weeks on end. There are various types of healthy diets with various emphasis though. Body builders and strength trainers tend to "eat clean". This means eating a low fat diet with a little more protein, and fewer carbs than a standard USDA diet. A typical dinner on such a diet might be a serving of boneless, skinless chicken breast, seasoned to taste, a baked potato a topping of cottage cheese, low fat sour cream, or even low fat, unsweetened yogurt...sometimes margarine but not a lot, and two servings of green vegetables, seasoned to taste. The chicken might be replaced by a serving of baked salmon or canned tuna, the potato might be replaced by rice...usually whole grain or brown.

Lunch might be low fat type sandwich from Subway. Caloric intake depends on the person and their goals. You will have to figure out your basal metabolic rate. To maintain an ideal weight, women might need as little as 1500 calories a day while men might need as many as 2500 calories a day.

I'm mostly vegan. Most of what I eat is in the grains, veg, and fruit groups. I started out almost 15 years ago by eliminating red meat, then pork, poultry, then fish. Milk was last, and actually wasn't that hard to give up because I'd always had issues with my sinuses that finally went away.

I have to keep very close watch on what I eat over a week, because it just isn't realistic for me to get every food group in every day. I take multivitamins, flax oil capsules for Omega 3, extra folic acid (because I'm anemic), and extra B12. I've started adding protein powder to smoothies recently. It's a lot of work, but except for the anemia (hereditary) I am very healthy. I get one or two minor colds per year, and I've managed to keep my weight within healthy range after having kids. (I don't do much exercise beyond walking and dancing.)

One way to start would be to get a good cookbook. Preferably one that emphasizes low sugar and preservatives. Use lots of fresh herbs and spices to enhance flavors. Six small meals per day, rather than 3 helps me to keep track of portion sizes. Every once in a great while, I crave fish or cheese, and I'll eat it as a treat. Working well so far.

Good luck!

I did vegetarian for a while, but vegetarian doesn't necessarily correlate with healthy (though, of course, it can). Now the only meat I eat is chicken or fish. I also eat eggs, tofu, beans, and nuts as a source of protein. (But no dairy.) If you like Asian cuisine (and I don't mean American-Asian like General Tso's), you can find a good variety of tasty and healthy dishes. If not, you might look into the Mediterranean diet, which doesn't include much meat but does include lots of fresh vegetables and whole grains. Simply cutting out all processed foods will make your diet a lot healthier.

I personally usually only manage 2 meals per day. For breakfast, I'll stir-fry some combination of potato and veggies with either eggs or tofu, or I'll make fried rice with leftover rice. Then for dinner, chicken, fish, or tofu in a curry or stir-fry over rice or rice noodles, or just one of those proteins with fresh vegetables.

If you want any sample recipes of the things I mentioned, just ask. I'm a little obsessed with food.

I have no clue on the number of calories.

I'm looking for some ideas for good and healthy food to eat as a vegetarian/vegan. Perhaps, I will not stop eating meat completely, but I definitely do want to have the bulk of my diet to involve far less meat and way too fatty foods.

I am at a loss for finding things that are pleasurable yet nutritional. Of coarse, fruit is good. vegetables are "okay" but some times "meh".. Often times to make a vegetable taste good it involves adding butter or a bunch of oil. Although, I mention that I wish to take those fatty sort of foods out, I also would like to hear about the not so nutritional foods vegetarians and vegans enjoy. At least it would be better than a steak or cheeseburger.

I ask the number of calories to eat because I can do anywhere from 1600-3000 without any problems, just differences in weight.

Last edited by Pondering on 28 Mar 2011, 11:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Thanks for the replies Chronos, Georgie, and Zen! I do have all of those supplements you mentioned Georgia. I never really got into the habit of taking them though, even though I should. It's great to know that a vegan takes these and they help, I've heard of vitamin deficiencies happening a lot in vegan/vegetarian diets so it is nice to know about this! May I ask what kind of grains you eat? I'm pretty new to eating grains when not in bread. That's awesome that you very rarely get colds! I get them a lot, due to stress, my diet, and who knows what else. Do you have any cook books to recommend me?

Hi Zen. I know vegetarian doesn't exactly mean healthy. I've seen obese vegetarians and a lot of unhealthy vegetarian foods. For example, those fake burgers (moonstar) or something like that.. They scare me, because if you look at the ingredients, there is like 30 chemicals in them! What healthy asian dishes are you speaking of? I haven't tried many legit Asian meals but am always open to trying new things! I haven't done much research on the Mediterranean diet, but I will. I hear Christopher Walkin does that diet, he seems pretty healthy to me :-I. I would love to hear your recipes! I'm quite obsessed with food myself, except I'm obsessed with meat related meals. I usually make a chicken stir fry, but a vegetable version would probably be a lot better under most circumstances, especially if it's tasty!. What is your favorite brand of Tofu? Do you know of any Tofu that can be bought in regular grocery stores, as opposed to health stores? There aren't many health stores around here unfortunately. All of what you said sounds good to me! I would love to hear all the sample recipes you feel comfortable typing.

Glad that's helpful!

http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Sourcebook- ... 956&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Voluptuous-Vegan- ... 020&sr=1-1


These are two of my favorites. The Vegan Sourcebook has lots info about nutrition and the meat industry. (no pictures) There are some basic recipes in the back.

The Voluptuous Vegan introduces lots of unusual spices and other ingredients. I use this one the most, and it's gotten me used to other flavors besides "salty." There are really good dessert recipies like cakes and ice cream that use no refined sugar. (sugar taxes your immune system)

Grains that I like are brown rice, wild rice, quinoa, barley and oats. I try to control my wheat intake by buying the denser German-style breads. (the fluffy American breads are gross unless it's a local bakery)

I think if you go for a colorful and varied plate, you can't go wrong. Experimenting keeps things from getting monotonous. I had vegetarian friends in college before I was veg myself. They didn't cook much beyond macaroni and popcorn, so they were great test subjects.

Pretty easy things to try:
-Lasagna (tofu,zucchini, fresh basil, homemade marinara sauce)
-Lentil soup (lentils, potato, carrots, fresh herbs, veg broth)
-Chili (red, white, pink beans, green and yellow peppers, fresh cilantro and basil)

Fresh ingredients is key!

I can't recall the brand of the tofu I get, but I get it at my regular supermarket in the produce section. They have 2 different brands there, but I buy the cheaper one because it's just as good and it's organic, if I recall correctly.

I'll just start with some links since I have to get to work and I'm procrastinating.

These are my favorite Thai curries which I make a lot. You can just use tofu as the protein for either of them, and I get all the ingredients at a regular supermarket (except the kaffir lime leaves, which I just leave out). You could use vegetable broth and soy sauce instead of fish sauce if you want to keep it vegetarian.

Thai red curry
Thai green curry

Check out the rest of the recipes on that site as well. There are lots of good ones.

And this is my favorite way to make tofu by itself (that is, not in a curry). I usually make the tofu but not the edamame. Last night I made the tofu and had it over rice noodles and veggies.

Spicy tofu and edamame beans

I do end up eating a lot of vegan dishes simply because I have to avoid dairy. I used to follow a couple vegan blogs until I got overwhelmed.

http://veganeveryday.blogspot.com/
http://vegandad.blogspot.com/

@Georgia
The Voluptuous Vegan sounds interesting! I will have to look for it. I'm a spice lover.
And I made eggplant lasagna a couple weeks ago, using tofu instead of ricotta. Next time I will add more spices, but overall it was very good.

Okay, time to actually do some work.

All this talk of vegetarian food is making me drool. I personally try to follow Ayurveda as much as I can. As someone mentioned previously, it can be difficult getting in all the food groups every day but by the end of the week I can. Plus things like Spirulina are great!

I have also noticed that if I am not excercising it does not matter WHAT I am eating, I will not feel well at all. Whereas if I am excercising regularly my body digests everything better and I can enjoy those not so goods foods more.

I'm really a poor example-
I eat very little, usually less than 500 calories a day.
Now that I'm on weight loss medication,
I eat even less because I can't keep anything down.

If I wasn't of an obese body type I'd eat....
vegan burritos...pizza...sammiches...cereal....crackers and hummus...roasted potatoes with garlic...pasta....
that's pretty much what I fantasize about all the time.
That's what my ex (a vegan and fantastic "food artist") would always have for us, to tempt me.
Right now, I'll eat two small oranges and try to choke down as much water per day as I can.

Oh, I'm a vegan of five years, for ethical reasons.

Thanks again for the reply. I recently had quinoa, it's great! What kinds of German Style bread can I buy? I've never heard of that before. I agree most of the grocery store breads are not that good.

I like the lentil soup idea. Soups are good for you right? I haven't had a soup in ages and I doubt most resteraunt soups are even a little good for people, which is sadly most of my experience with soups.

Thanks for the reply Zen. Can you tell me what the name of the grocery store you get your tofu at? That is if you don't mind revealing that sort of personal info.

I've never had "curry" before. Until looking at those recipes you posted, I really wasn't sure what curry was 0_o. Those recipes do sound good though and the pics are making me hungry, so I think that's a good sign! Thanks for all of the recipes and those sites.. I'm going to have lots of new foods to try later on once I get some money! This is perfect, I think like you, I'll be over doing vegetarian/vegan meals too haha.. I've been looking for something different with variety lately and this is all great to have as an option.

Hi Bethie. All of those things sounds great to me too. I'm watching my weight at the moment myself, so I go through times where I'm daydreaming, or fantasizing about foods like that. It's torture! I wish I could just work out for hours and hours a day so I could eat whatever I want whenever I want! I can't even imagine how it would feel to have to consume less than 500 calories and on top of that take a weight loss pill. Do you feel healthier since doing this? It seems like it would be hard to get a healthy amount of nutrients by eating so little, but if you are feeling good I am happy for you. I hope you reach your weight loss goals and end up healthier.

It's Giant Eagle, but I think it's a local chain, so I have no idea if you'll have them wherever you are. I would be surprised if any decent-sized supermarket didn't have it though.

There are Indian curries too, which are different from Thai curries, but still delicious. I might make one of those for dinner today.

Bethie, 500 calories really doesn't sound healthy to me. Do you at least take vitamins? I certainly don't know it all by any means, but I've heard girls talk about how they did that and then regreted it later because their body thought they were starving and therefore slowed down their metabolism, making it even harder to lose weight.

Edit:
http://www.weightloss-hq.biz/special-re ... olism.html

Ah, alright. Yes, I don't think we have a "Giant Eagle" where I live. I'll have to check out some other grocery stores around town. It's definitely not in the one by my house, and it's a rather large and popular place to shop. If all my searching fails, I guess I can just go to costco. They have everything.. and who doesn't love free samples

Whenever I hear about curry, except for this instance, it almost always involves talk of traditional Indian food. Indian food can be really SPICY from what I hear, but I'm not so keen on information regarding traditional food of the Indians. I think I will stick with what you gave me in your previous post for now, don't want it to get over my head. Plus, I would be researching information on food all day and night! I'm finding it hard not to look at all of the recipes on those sites you gave me as it is>_<



That struck me as unhealthy as well. I do not want to put all eyes on you, but was just putting my concern out there. I read a post of yours in a different thread about your weight loss pills making you feel bad, and I thought that does not seem right. But it is your body and you probably know it better than I. I will say this: if something feels like it's giving you a heart attack it is probably not a good idea to take it very often.

Hi KemoreJ. I got curious and did a wikipedia search on "Ayurveda", did some brief reading and thought I'd say that's interesting. If you have the time, feel free to explain what following Ayurveda means to you. Spirulina really is great. I found out about this when I bought a bag of it for some feeder animals to eat, in order to maximize their health benefits when eaten. It was labeled a "gutload" but little did I know it was great for human beings too! Not only did I see an increase in the animal's coloring, I also saw them increase in size, and energy.