Diet without meat, sugar, dairy and flour products, personal story about extreme weight loss

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I have been a vegetarian for eight years. It started when I was 18 years old and had stomach pains, the doctor diagnosed me with pancreatitis. Dry food, wrong diets, food restrictions did their job. Now I will tell about everything in order.

When I was 11 years old, classmates teased me for being overweight. Then I went on a diet and lost a lot of weight. Hungry for six hours, ate small portions and counted calories, which negatively affected the gastrointestinal tract.

I ate mostly buckwheat and boiled chicken with salad. About 16 years old I went to the gym for the first time, learned from the trainers about proper nutrition. I added to my diet 1.5-2 liters of water a day and running. I weighed 51 kg with a height of 167 cm.

Time passed. I’m 18 years old, because of sleep deprivation and stress, weight shifted to 55-56 kg, and in the summer after admission gained a couple more kg. Then again sat on a diet without salt and sugar and lost weight to 54 kg. The only thing is that I had a constant feeling of hunger.

At the same time I was running, practicing yoga, leading an active lifestyle. At that time I was suffering from stomach pains, so I decided to give up chips and fast food forever. The weight stood still, and I began to eat even less, mostly boiled and fresh food.

After a few more months I learned about vegetarianism. I liked the idea of eternal youth of Jared Leto, who looked 25 at 40. I also read Alan Cara’s book “An Easy Way to Lose Weight”, where he talks about the negative impact of meat, processed food and milk on health and appearance. I found confirmation of the writer’s words in yoga and Ayurveda, an ancient Indian system of folk medicine.

As a result, I gave up meat and did not remove milk from my diet. My weight was normal (54-55 kg), I looked great, felt light, but once in three months I wanted chicken meat. I added regular yoga and healthy sleep to my routine: I went to bed at 22:30 and got up at 6:30.

My experiments with nutrition did not end there, I decided to completely eliminate sugar, flour, milk, processed foods and at 70-80% I ate raw vegetable food. In my diet was a lot of fresh juices, vegetables, legumes, soy, raw food sweets (without sugar). I read the composition of each product and when I went to a store or restaurant, I knew what I could and could not eat.

Once a week I organized unloading days on juices and started to look a few years younger. I adhered to this regimen for three years. After that, I started to feel weak and sick, got sick often, slept more and recovered for 10-12 hours. I had only 20-30% of my former energy left.

Once I even fainted on “fasting”, but continued to sit on the diet for about a year. Why I tortured myself like that is a big question for me now. Perhaps I had an eating disorder, such as anorexia nervosa. Although the psychologist did not confirm this diagnosis.

In the race for the perfect body, only common sense helped me to stop. After hearing the story of a blogger who went on a 40-day famine and died of exhaustion, I stopped. Now I realize that everything is good in moderation, and I support such methods of “cleansing” only as a temporary detox, under the supervision of a professional. And extreme methods of weight loss are unacceptable to me.

I have been eating everything for a year and a half, gained weight up to 62 kg and still look great at a height of 167 kg. Took the accompaniment of nutritiologist, passed all the tests, revealed the deficiencies of nutrients in the body, closed them.

I am still at the stage of recovery after these four years of experiments on myself. I wish everyone health, physical and mental, because everything starts with the head and acceptance of yourself.

Doctor’s opinion

nutritionist, gastroenterologist, Candidate of Medical Sciences, Clinical Pharmacologist

Everything is poison – everything is medicine. Improperly selected “healthy” diet can cause harm. Unconscious vegetarianism, which does not involve the recruitment of all essential nutrients, can indeed lead to deficiencies. So can meat-eating that excludes carbohydrates (sugar, flour).

Extremes are not welcome in dietetics. Today, the best option is a diet that is personalized for a certain person, taking into account all his health problems, needs and wishes.

An athlete needs more food than an office worker, and a representative of China is not predisposed to the consumption of dairy products, as, for example, a resident of the Caucasus. Everything is very individual. Listen to your body, to your traditions and consult competent nutritionists and nutritionists.

Who should not consume meat and milk? And what about fasting?

There is no unambiguous answer to this question. In general, meat can and should be consumed by everyone, but for each person the “right” meat is different. For example, horse meat may be characteristic for the inhabitants of Central Asia, and mutton for the inhabitants of mountainous regions. Those who were born and raised in the north, it is quite characteristic to consume walrus meat or fatty fish.

Cow’s milk is a controversial product. It contains growth factors necessary for a child, but unnecessary for an adult. Casein protein often causes allergies and is difficult to digest.

For some regions, the use of goat product is characteristic. It is easier to tolerate because of the shortened chain of casein. There are also special breeds of cows that give milk that is generally well digested. In this matter, everything depends on the individual.

Breaks in eating for six hours can be healing for some people (not for nothing the theory of interval feeding has many followers among doctors), but, for example, in gallbladder disease, you need to eat every two or three hours. Long food pauses prevent the normal production of bile. Starvation is also not recommended for problems in the gastrointestinal tract.