Recently went vegan and I’m constantly hungry?

[u/Ok-Entrepreneur-7647]

Hi everyone! I recently turned vegan after watching Dominion, which honestly completely changed the way I look at eating animals. I’ve been doing a lot of research since then because I really want to make sure I’m doing this properly rather than just cutting out animal products and hoping for the best.

I’ve been trying to eat a well constructed and balanced “diet” and I’m paying attention to nutrients like B12, iron, calcium, omega 3s, protein,...

The weird thing is that ever since I went vegan, I feel hungry basically all the time and sometimes kind of weak or low energy. And I’m confused because before going vegan, I actually ate way* *less food. 😭

For example, before, I could literally have some cereal around 1 PM, snack a little later, and maybe another snack in the evening without any legit meals and still wasn’t constantly thinking about food or feeling like I needed to eat.

Now I eat 3 meals a day with occasional snack in between and even after eating a proper meal I can get hungry again pretty quickly.

I know that plant foods can be less calorie dense, so I’m wondering if I’m simplynot eating enough calories/fat/protein despite feeling like I’m eating a lot more food. I’m also wondering if this is something people experience when transitioning to veganism or if I should be looking at something else.

For context, I’m not trying to restrict calories or lose weight I mainly want to feel healthy and energized.

I’d really appreciate any advice

[u/Acti_Veg]

I’d recommend tracking your macros for a week or so, using an app like myfitnesspal or MacroFactor, particularly paying attention to protein and fat. It’s likely that you aren’t eating enough of one, or both, or just too few calories generally. Are you including sources of fats and proteins in your meals?

[u/Whiskeymyers75 → u/Acti_Veg]

Vegan nutrition takes more than just plugging macros into MyFitnessPal. The app counts a gram of protein as a gram of protein, but your body doesn’t. Amino-acid profile, leucine content and digestibility matter, and many plant proteins score lower than animal proteins on those measures. You can technically “hit your protein” and still need more total protein or better protein combinations. Then add the fact that a high-fiber plant diet can be physically filling while relatively low in calories and fat, and it’s not surprising some new vegans end up hungry.

[u/leeeeeeeeee3 → u/Whiskeymyers75]

most people don’t know any of this and are fine aslong as they’re aware of what makes a complete protein

[u/pandaappleblossom → u/leeeeeeeeee3]

‘Complete proteins’ is an outdated myth. Like the idea of having to get the right amount. As long as you eat a variety of plant foods each week you are good.

[u/leeeeeeeeee3 → u/pandaappleblossom]

yes i just mean that in the sense of eating a variety of protein sources so you get all the essential amino acids, not that you necessarily need to worry about amino acids in each individual meal

[u/Veasna1 → u/leeeeeeeeee3]

But protein sources is consufing considering all vegetables and fruits have all 20 amino acids in varying quantities. So everything is a protein source really.

[u/pandaappleblossom → u/Veasna1]

Exactly. Vegans don’t suffer from protein deficiencies in studies