Vegetarian for 7 years and STUCK. HELP!

Alright. So I have been vegetarian for 7 years and within those I was vegan for 3. I am curently 5'3" 176lbs. I just lost 20 lbs pretty effortlessly working out 6 days a week and watching what I eat. I never counted calories until about three weeks ago. I joined this web site more for to forums because I have a great calore database/weight tracker on my phone but now that I seem to be using it I have hit a plateau. And I need HELP!

Before I started my weight loss I would eat a lot of pastas in huge portions with a lot of oils and you know the really crappy foods. I have completely changed my eating habits and feel amazing but I can't seem to hit my daily calorie intake of 1700 and I feel like maybe I should do something more. Like MORE salad dressing on my salads (i dont use a lot) or cheese in them. Or two servings of nuts at a time. Or a portioned pasta. I guess I am just confused about calorie counting.

a) Does it matter where my calories come from if I eat what I need in a day?

b) I do intense workouts consisting of spinning classes and weight lifting classes along with other cardio on my off days. Do I need to replenish the calories I burn durring class?

I just feel like it was so much easier when I wasn't  AS worried about counting calories and just eating better. I am afraid I have put my body into this "starvation mode" and not even noticing because I feel just fine.

a) Does it matter where my calories come from if I eat what I need in a day?

As long as you are meeting your nutritional requirements and not overdoing it on saturated fats, sugars, etc. I would say, I guess not.  However if you are having trouble meeting your calorie requirement, I question whether you are really meeting all of your nutritional needs.  This is a struggle for me as well.  If I tried to add fatty foods such as oils or cheese to just meet my calorie requirement, I would never meet my nutritional requirement (I am supposed to eat 1600 calories/day).

b) I do intense workouts consisting of spinning classes and weight lifting classes along with other cardio on my off days. Do I need to replenish the calories I burn durring class?

No - as long as you are meeting your 1700 for the day.

If you are having trouble meeting your calorie requirements, try adding in some more calorie dense foods such as nuts, nut butters, avocadoes, beans, etc.  I am not a big fan of cheese since it's basically a nutritionally empty food, but it does have a lot of calories, so if you are desparate it would work.   Pastas and grains aren't bad in moderation.  Just get whole grain/ whole wheat instead of white/enriched.

My opinion (am studying nutrition at college so my opinion's based on that):

a) Does it matter where my calories come from if I eat what I need in a day?


Yes, it does. First of all, most people are deficient in at least one nutrient. Most people are deficient in a range of vitamins/minerals... but surprisingly, macronutrient deficiency is not uncommon either. It's easier than we think to not get our daily requirements of fats, protein & carbs.

I could eat nothing but chocolate bars and stick to my calorie limit. I could eat nothing but fats and stick to my calorie limit, same goes with carbs or protein. What we need to understand is that all these nutrients have different qualities and different effects on the body. You could meet your calorie requirements, but be starving for fat, or starving for protein, or starving for carbs. We can still be wasting even if we eat enough calories. For example, a disease called Kwashiorkor disease is common in Africa... everyone has seen it. The children are wasting away... they have tiny skinny arms and legs and giant swollen bellies. The funny thing is, is that a lot of these children actually eat enough calories in a day... but they get hardly any protein. That's the main factor in their disease. Extreme atkins style diets are another example... it's high fat & high protein, but very low carb. Peoples bodies become starving for carbs, which leads to a wide range of illnesses. People often become flabby on low carb diets, even though they lose weight. It's all about muscle wastage... and restrictive or unbalanced diets are what causes wasting of muscle mass. That's definitely what you don't want!

So if you're not eating a balanced diet, you are not going to lose weight effectively (or the right kind of weight) or improve the state of your body, even if you eat the right amount of calories.

b) I do intense workouts consisting of spinning classes and weight lifting classes along with other cardio on my off days. Do I need to replenish the calories I burn durring class?

It depends on how many calories you're burning during these classes.

What's important is that you keep your deficit in a healthy range. If it's just a regular day for you with no really intense exercises, 1700 calories would most likely be enough. But when you're doing these calorie burning classes, you might be left with a huge deficit. If you have a huge deficit, you're going to lose too much too quickly, and go into the old starvation mode. So just calculate how many calories you're eating, how many calories you're burning. A 1000 calorie deficit is considered the absolute maximum for healthy weight loss, but I personally aim for about 400 - 500 calorie deficit for the whole day. Any calorie deficit will lead to weight loss, but the amount just controls how fast that weight loss will be.