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i already eat healthy as is but want to lose weight. right now i only eat fish and the occasional chicken or buffalo. i’ve tried becoming a vegetarian before but got sick because i didn’t get enough iron intake. please educate me on how to start a healthy vegetarian or vegan diet.
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Get the Vegetarian Starter Kit from –
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
http://www.pcrm.org/health/veginfo/vsk/
Vegetarian diet: Will it help me lose weight?
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vegetarian-diet/AN01580
take iron suppliments. eat spinach because it has more iron in it than meat. as long as you eat all your veggies and fruits and grains, you’ll get the nutrients you need. plus take vitamin b12 and omega 3 supplements because they’re found in meat and fish.
You’re right to be concerned about iron. http://www.mypyramidtracker.gov allows you to enter your daily intake of food and it will analyze it according to all of the important nutrients. When I entered my food intake over a period of days, it turned out that raisins, nuts, lentils, and whole grain bread were allowing me to meet or exceed iron needs.
For me, calcium is more of a challenge, which is why I still haven’t gone completely vegan. Low fat milk and yogurt can still be part of your diet if you are trying to lose weight. Some other good sources of calcium are almonds, kale, broccoli and ground sesame seeds (tahini).
If you are going totally vegan, be sure to take B12 supplements, or just a multivitamin. If you will still be consuming eggs and milk products, you can get B12 from those.
Since you’ll be saving money by not eating meat, don’t be afraid to splurge on nuts like almonds and cashews and nut and seed butters.
Try to buy whole grain breads, bagels, pastas, brown rice.
Also, I would really encourage you to explore mediterranean, indian, mexican and asian vegetarian recipes, since these usually contain combinations that supply more nutrients and complete proteins than just cutting the meat out of a "normal" recipe.
If you’re not able to spend a fortune on groceries, beware of vegetarian recipes that require a long list of exotic or meat/dairy substitutes (soy yogurt, soy meat analogs, egg substitutes, etc.). It is cheaper and sometimes tastier to try ethnic recipes that don’t have meat in the first place. Also, if you are serving non-vegetarian friends, they will probably be open to an Indian or Mexican themed meal than a fake meatloaf or veggie hot dogs.
Vegetarians tend to eat more fibre, so be sure to drink lots of water. Otherwise, you may find yourself becoming bloated, which is demoralizing when you are trying to lose weight. If you’re not used to eating beans and whole grains, you may need to introduce these slowly into your diet over a period of 2-3 weeks.
Good luck!