Veggie burgers and carbs?

I am over a year out from surgery and I have stuck to the high protein and low carb diet.  I would like to possibly go Vegitarian or at least cut my meat intake back.  I am worried about the carbs in the veggie burgers.  I think this would be a easy low calorie low fat food for me.  But the carbs have me worried.  They have 15 - 50 carbs depending on brand or recipe.  What are your thoughts.  Are calories and fat more important that the carbs.  Should I stay away and just keep doing what has been working for me? 

I'm sure others will chime in, but from personal experience, moving into a vegetarian based diet will require a shift in thought process.  Initially, while figuring out a new eating plan (favorite foods, quantity, timing) it may be easier not to focus so much on the carbs............as long as most of the carbs are not refined carbs (highly processed, high sugar foods.)  Your carb numbers are bound to be higher as you will be consuming more fruits and veggies which contain more carbs.  It's a bit of a mind bender after the WLS eating plan and the ultra low carb numbers from that plan.  I also found that I needed to eat a bit more and more frequently because veggies tend to leave the tummy more quickly and I was hungrier. Dense (animal) protein just provides more satiety.

 

I personally have returned to the more traditional WLS eating, although many days I'll eat no animal based proteins.  I have found that since I still want to drop a few pounds, high protein/low carb is still the easiest, most satisfying way to go.

 

Good luck!  I think it's a worthy goal to decrease the amount of animal proteins..........certainly healthy!  It does take getting used to and at least a shift in the way you think about your intake.  Give it some time and play with it a bit. You can always go back to the original eating plan if it doesn't work for you!

Sounds like you going to keep the seafood in your diet?  I would lean that way in the beginning, cut out the meat, and ease into the vegetarian pre-made items.  Be careful with veggie burgers (any premade item), they can be loaded with bread crumbs and fat.  That maybe okay for you but it would be a problem with weight gain for me.  Take it slow, watch the scale, document your food (I know this all sounds boring but necessary when changing the diet).    

I do tend to stick with Fish, poultry and veggies and do my best to stay away from the meat.  I just feel best that way.  Good luck!  

 

Calories are the most important thing but the only reason to worry about fat is that cutting it out is a quick way to manage calories because it's so calorically dense. But, contrary to what a lot in the dieting industry would have you believe, eating fat doesn't make you fat.

OTOH, eating carbs can make you fat because carbs often trigger an insulin response that lowers your metabolism and some kinds of carbs can trigger inappropriate cravings for more carbs that leads to over-eating.

Personally, I think most veggie burgers are a mediocre source of protein. They generally have only 1 g of protein per 1-2 g of carbs and about half the amount of protein as a hamburger. A better source of protein is something like tofu which is almost all protein with minimal carbs and fat.

Hi there,

I am a vegetarian and one year out from surgery.  I have stayed away from the veggie burgers during the loss phase, but now that I am in maintenance, I will be adding one now and then.

Overall though, I have had a lot of trouble finding dense foods as I only eat a couple of kinds of fish.  Other than that, I live on yogurt, cottage cheese, fruit, granola bars,  but none of those things have the same effect as a veggie burger when it comes to feeling satisfied.  If anyone has ideas for low calorie, dense foods that a vegetarian can eat, I would certainly welcome them.

Good luck.

I ate mostly vegetarian for awhile, a few years back. I used a lot of textured vegetable protein (TVP) in recipes that I generally used crumbled hamburg. I looked up the nutritional values and 1/4 cup - I imagine dry - has 12 g protein, 7 carbs, 4 fiber, 0 fat, and 80 calories. I used to make chili, with beans, mock hamburg stroganoff, and a mock meat spaghetti sauce. I did use a little sodium free beef bouillion to flavor, in some recipes, but they can be made without. I used the small to medium size of TVP, as I found the bigger chunks to be spongy. I also used tofu in recipes as well, and some veggie cheeses, though they are high in sodium.