Chapter 7- Following a Low-Carb Diet for Vegetarians
If you are a vegetarian, the possibility to follow a low-carb diet exists for you as well. Although you need to make some additional accommodations to make sure that you are getting the proper nutrition, you can still do it.
To follow a successful low carb vegetarian diet, you would need to ensure three simple steps: cut the carbs, add fat, and boost the protein intake.
We already know that cutting the carbs means taking out all simple carbs from your diet, first of all. Therefore anything white must be crossed off the list; no sugars, white flour foods, and processed food. Adding fat can also be easily done by using coconut oil, tofu spreads, soy yogurts, etc. which can be ideal for vegetarians or even vegans.
Keep in mind that when you cut carbs, you need to add fat to your diet to make up for the lost calories, therefore don’t worry if you eat more fat than carbs, that’s the whole point of it! Adding proteins, which is the next step, will burn off the extra fat calories, although they are healthy fat.
It’s extremely important that you get enough protein. For people who eat meat and fish, it’s not really an issue. Vegetarian diets though have a small limitation on protein, which is why we have to find other substitutes. For most people, 60 to 80 grams of protein per day is a necessity. If you work out on top of it and need want to add even more muscle, one gram per kilogram of your current weight is ideal.
The thing with vegetarian protein though is that all protein other than fish and meat contain carbs, even in the tiniest amounts. Which is why you have to choose your proteins very carefully and keep a good eye out for they carb percentage.
So what exactly could you eat (vegetarian/vegan options)?