If you HAD to, how difficult would it be to give up meat for the rest of your life? (loin, peanut butter)

[EugeneOnegin]

I lift heavy weights 3 times a week and I play basketball a lot as well. It would be very difficult to get sufficient protein without meat/fish, particularly without consuming far more carbohydrates and/or fats than I need. Sometimes I'll come home from a workout and I don't have any meat/fish thawed or cooked and I just pig out on whatever I have. Peanut butter, cheese, fruit, whole grain bread, yogurt, vegetables, olives, almonds, etc. I can eat easily eat 1,000+ calories of those foods and my hunger for carbohydrates and fat will be completely satiated, but my hunger for protein isn't.

Getting enough from protein from plant sources (and dairy and eggs if you're vegetarian) when you don't have much muscle mass and don't lift heavy weights is one thing. But when you get home from deadlifting and squating heavy weights 5-10% of calories from protein just flat out does not cut it.

[wideworld]

Did read all the posts - are we counting fish or no? I could easily survive off cottage cheese, tofu, eggs, and fish for "protein."

[Lovely95]

I, unintentionally, didn't eat any meat today. I can go a long time without eating meat and it doesn't really cross my mind, but I have nothing against it. So I said take it or leave it.

[stan4]

I thought I needed meat. Like crazy for it.

But now I know it's like whatever.

[stan4]

Originally Posted by EugeneOnegin

I lift heavy weights 3 times a week and I play basketball a lot as well. It would be very difficult to get sufficient protein without meat/fish, particularly without consuming far more carbohydrates and/or fats than I need. Sometimes I'll come home from a workout and I don't have any meat/fish thawed or cooked and I just pig out on whatever I have. Peanut butter, cheese, fruit, whole grain bread, yogurt, vegetables, olives, almonds, etc. I can eat easily eat 1,000+ calories of those foods and my hunger for carbohydrates and fat will be completely satiated, but my hunger for protein isn't.

Getting enough from protein from plant sources (and dairy and eggs if you're vegetarian) when you don't have much muscle mass and don't lift heavy weights is one thing. But when you get home from deadlifting and squating heavy weights 5-10% of calories from protein just flat out does not cut it.

Ha!

Please Google vegan triathletes and vegan bodybuilders...oh, I am sure you are much more of an elite athlete than Arian Foster, big man.

[Cavacava]

I did 4 days with no meat recently. I think I could become accustomed to this diet. I do like meat, but as long as I have veggies and carbs' I am fine.

[UNC4Me]

I don't eat a lot of meat, but I'm not giving up what I do eat. No reason to do so.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by phonelady61

I have a medical condition that i cannot swallow meat and it has always appeared as a knot in the back of my throat (how I first noticed the condition ) . So now as a result of having this condition I cannot swallow any kind of meat and sometimes other foods give me a fit as well but I deal with it day in and day out . Apparently this condition is hereditary .

How interesting! What's the name of the condition?

And, yes, how one reacts to meat or the lack thereof can be genetic. Those who easily thrive on a vegetarian diet (like my late lifelong best friend did) sometimes simply can't understand that there are those who, due to a different genetic make-up, don't thrive on that kind of diet and DO thrive on one containing meat, either a little or a lot, depending. Fortunately, she was not one of "those" vegetarians and the fact that I lean towards the high meat protein diet side of the Bell curve and she the other was never an issue for us - we had much more interesting things to discuss than that!

[AnonChick]

I'd miss it, but I've lived without it before, I could do it again. I'm not -much- of a meateater now out of 21 meals weekly (3 times per day of meals), I'd say I have maybe 5 meals with meat in them.

I might have bacon maybe - once every three months. But I would totally miss not having it, if I could never have it again.

[ABQ2015]

I love carbs, beans, dairy, etc. so would not be that difficult. But I'd end up replacing my taste for meat with those types of foods rather than fruits and vegetables and would probably gain a lot of weight.