Philosophical Vegan Forum

So, just the fact that my diet does not contain any junk, meat or dairy got me this far. I lost about 12kg and have a "healthy" BMI of 22.5 (179 cm 72kg). However, I still have quite a bit of excess fat. Not only is this unhealthy, I also want to look healthy in order to be able to convince people veganism is not a terrible idea. I've been trying to lose some more weight, since I can lose another 12 kg and still not be underweight, but I just can't get below the 72kg. My diet is healthier than anyone I know, so I strongly doubt that would be the problem. The only possible problems I can think of is that I eat quite a lot of nuts (mostly almonds) and bread (whole grain). I am not convinced either of those cause weight gain, though.

In terms of exercise I play volleyball roughly 4 hours a week, walk/cycle about 30 minutes a day, skate 1 hour and do strength exercise once a week. I'd like to do more and actually exercise daily, but I already have sore/tired legs as is. I also don't really know what kind of exercise I should be doing; e.g. what the right balance is between strength and cardio.

I've already decided to try to limit the time I spend sitting. We have a high table in our kitchen, I'll start using that for what I can do on my laptop, such as browsing the forum. I'm also replacing bread with oats or vegetables when I don't have to go to school. I have the opportunity to play volleyball for two more hours a week, so I'll start doing that too.

Do you guys have any more advice for me?

Sounds like you're doing a lot of right things. I would just add more strength training, especially if you are trying to convince people (although there are also health benefits to strength exercises). In my experience, people's #1 misconception is: vegans are weak and can't build muscle because of lack of protein. To crush this myth we must lift heavy things to put on lean mass :]

A pull-up bar is great to have for this. You can also do heavy compound lifts with a barbell, like deadlift, squat and bench press.
Just don't start out with too much weight or you'll end up injured and/or demotivated

More beans, I'd say.
Almonds have a lot of Omega 6, so I'd make sure those are in proportion to good Omega 3 sources.

Whole grains are good; using oats instead of bread is a good exchange too. More vegetables are always good.

Like knot said, more strength training would be a good idea. Pull ups are probably the best/easiest thing to do.

Wait, is it excess fat or loose skin? If it's loose skin, it'll go away on it's own but will take some time. As for excess fat, do what brimstone said. Make sure you have all necessary parts of a 'healthy' vegan diet. (I use healthy very loseley because there are so many other healthy vegan diets out there).

You could definitely up your cardio. I love volleyball but I wouldn't consider it great for cardio (especially if it's 6 person team volleyball). If you are really motivated you should do some HIIT.

I disagree that pull-ups are easy, especially if you are a bit overweight. You would probably have to work up your back and biceps strength before you can do pull-ups. I read somewhere that more than 50% of all men cannot do one pull-up.

Jebus wrote: I disagree that pull-ups are easy, especially if you are a bit overweight. You would probably have to work up your back and biceps strength before you can do pull-ups. I read somewhere that more than 50% of all men cannot do one pull-up.

Oh, yes, I can see that. That's a depressing statistic.

You can start by using a chair, stepping up on it, and hanging from a bar for as long as you can then slowly lowering yourself. It's a pretty good way to start building the needed strength until you can do one pull-up, then go from there.

brimstoneSalad wrote:

Jebus wrote: I disagree that pull-ups are easy, especially if you are a bit overweight. You would probably have to work up your back and biceps strength before you can do pull-ups. I read somewhere that more than 50% of all men cannot do one pull-up.

Oh, yes, I can see that. That's a depressing statistic.

You can start by using a chair, stepping up on it, and hanging from a bar for as long as you can then slowly lowering yourself. It's a pretty good way to start building the needed strength until you can do one pull-up, then go from there.

I started by doing inverted body weight rows, which is like a pull-up from a lying position. That's rather easy, and by now I can do five pull-ups.