Dieting (low carb?) as a vegetarian?!
When I made the switch I lost about 5 lbs, because I cut out so much fast food.
I'm naturally somewhat skinny, but would like to lose some weight.
I do exercise, but not anymore than 30-45 minutes a night, 4-5 (sometimes 6) times a week.
Anyways, I considered going low-carb, but this would be difficult as a vegetarian. Doesn't going low-carb involve eating a lot of meat and cheese? I eat cheese and eggs, but I'm slightly lactose intolerant so cheeses like cream cheese, mozzarella or parmesan upset my stomach. The other problem is that I'm kind of fussy with vegetables. I'm trying to get over this, I really am. I always force them down when they're offered to me, but I still only seem to like: carrots, corn, RAW spinach (okay I could live off spinach salads), tomatoes, mushrooms(sometimes), green peppers, red peppers and probably a few others that aren't coming to mind.
I eat a lot of carbs as it is, maybe I could reduce this number? I already eat everything whole grain/whole wheat, which I guess is a start.
Typical weekday:
Breakfast: 1 piece 12 grain bread toasted with butter, tea with skim milk
Lunch: Apple or Banana, 100 calorie Fibre 1 bar or 100 calorie bag of sun chips
After School Snack: (One or two of these things...) real fruit popsicle/ crackers/ 12 grain bagel (If I didn't eat lunch)/ apple/ some kind of nuts (cashews or pistachios)/ granola bar...
Dinner: Carbs + cheese :/ (grilled cheese + tomato soup or pasta with some kind of cheese or perogies or something like this) OR fake meat + carbs (veggie burger with salad, sometimes fries etc)
(^It's a bad diet as you can see)
How could I go low carb? Are there any other diets you could think of? How can I alter what I eat to lose weight and be healthier?
Answers:
I don't even think you need to go low carb, you simply need to cut out the crap in your diet and start eating a well balanced one. Focus on whole foods that have the most nutrition instead of diet foods like 100 calorie bags with little nutrition.
You need to be eating way more vegetables than you already do.
Eat only whole grains and eliminate your sugars. I would take it easy on the bread, even if it is whole grain and start looking at things like brown rice, quinoa, and other grains.
Fiber 1 bars are full of sugar and processed carbs. Likely the same with the crackers and granola bars. Popsicles are sugar with little else to offer in the way of nutrition.
I would bet that if you started replacing some of your carb heavy meals with some veggie heavy meals you would see a difference.
Add-
Oh and you should be eating legumes as well.
Start experimenting with recipes until you find foods that you like.
Many weight loss specialists will tell you that attitude has a more powerful effect on losing weight than all the other factors. They may be right. The best plan out there won't cut it, if you don't follow it, and that can be a matter of attitude
To go low carb you need to eliminate bread, pasta, rice and all baking and sweets. You can eat all the vegetables you want, but you will need to add legumes to your diet for slow burning carbs that will give you long lasting energy. Lentils, black beans, red beans, and chick peas are your best bet. Once you eliminate the starch you will also eliminate the gas caused by the the beans.
You should cut down on your fruit in take and totally eliminate fruit juices and non-diet soda, most of them have high amounts of sugar, which are unnecessary carbs. Don't drink your calories.
4Hour Body, South Beach Diet
The simple answer to your question is to cut grains out of your diet. No bread, no pasta, no rice, no corn. Expect to eat a lot of beans and quinoa.
Here's the long answer:
Most people make the mistake of thinking low-carb means you eat fewer carbs while sticking to your already low-fat lifestyle at the same time. You don't- you can either eat low carb OR low fat, not both. Usually low-carb means eating calorie rich foods like MEAT. The Paleo Diet or the Primal Diet are good examples (and pretty much the same anyway).
When it comes to nutrition, you need to become an atheist. By that I mean you need to closely examine each food-related belief to see whether it's actually true.
There is so much money and bad science wrapped up in nutrition these days that it's almost impossible to determine the truth. One good place to start that I recommend is the movie Fathead, which you can rent from NetFlix. It talks about why Americans believe what we believe about food.
http://www.fathead-movie.com/
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/