Hi Everyone,
I’m just curious if my fellow vegetarians eat more carbs than their meat eating counterparts? What are your averages for each meal?
Thanks! Robyn
Though a lot of people at TuD seem to follow a low carb diet…there are a number that eat moderate to “normal” amounts that are also meat eaters.
I had for a few months tried to cut back on carbs…which is definitely more challenging doing so as a vegetarian. I still eat a moderate amount. However the reason I started eating more was because I felt it was affecting my ability to train for long distance running… I felt too sluggish when I was eating more protein and fat
As for average amounts…
Bkfst for me tends to be all or primarily carbs and I have around 40-60 grams (usually more on the weekends when I eat later)
Lunch and Dinner tend to be anywhere from 20-50 grams. The days I don’t have exercise planned I tend to do meals that consist of a protein that’s low carb with 2 lower-carb vegetable side dishes
Daily I try to keep it somewhat balanced around 100ish ± 20 grams…so if bkfst is higher carb then the other meals will be moderate/lower
What about your averages?
I don’t count carbs at all. But I’m probably not relevant because I am/was type 2 diabetic. When I say on this site that I’m type 2 diabetic, I get some amount of prejudice in people’s responses and this seems like a very type 1 focused site so I don’t participate here much because I so often feel persona non grata.
But anyway, I don’t count carbs and never did. I had very high blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, etc. and went high raw vegan and now for the last year all my lab tests have said that everything is in normal, non-diabetic ranges.
If I had to guess, though, I’d say about 60-80% of my calories come from carbs. But they’re vegetables and fruit, not breads.
I agree that limiting carbs is harder for a vegetarian. When a meat or meat-fish eater says "I don't know what to eat that doesn't have a lot of carbs", I'm always kind of bemused. It's a lot easier for them, just eat your meat or fish with vegies or salads, etc. I was vegetarian before my diagnosis and when I was diagnosed I wondered if I'd have to give it up with diabetes. I didn't want to do so, but if my health depended on it, I would have. I'm happy that I didn't have to, though. This year it will be ten years for me as a vegetarian. I can't believe it's been that long; this is my second try as an older person, when I was younger it only lasted a year or two.
Anyway, I keep my carbs under 100 a day. This is as low as I feel I can go and still be a vegetarian and a "foodie". It works for me, but I also have a lot of time to cook, and it's one of my favorite things to do.
I'm a completely devoted vegan and I don't really count carbs. I mean, I don't go psycho on it, but without meat you kinda need all the protein you can get from any source! And many of those have lots of carbs! But the way I always do it is I'll have a veggie burger or veggie hotdog (including bread) and I just eat veggies with it! And being vegan (even though I consume more carbs) my BG levels are actually lower than they were when I wasn't vegan! Weird, huh?!