6 Ways To Cut Carbs On A Vegan Diet - Written By Vegan (2024)

Are you a vegan or vegan-curious who tries to lose some weight but with no success? Although a vegan diet helps to live a healthier lifestyle and eat better, it doesn’t necessarily lead to a weight loss. In this article, I will tell you how you can cut your carb intake on a vegan diet, improve your eating habits, find the right low-carb subsitutes and keep your optimal weight forever on a vegan diet.

Does a vegan diet work for a weight loss?

More and more people choose to go vegan. They do it for different reasons. A lot of people choose to eat plant-based because they want to lose weight. Surely, a vegan diet can be a good idea to follow if you have a few extra kilos. However, like with any other diet, you have to plan it properly and watch what you eat.

A lot of people expect to lose weight soon or immediately after they start their vegan journey. The truth is that eating vegan doesn’t necessarily mean to eat healthier, eat less processed food or fewer carbs. Unfortunately.

A vegan diet is generally believed that is healthier than an omnivorous diet for several reasons. Vegans avoid all the meat, dairy, eggs, and any other animal products and that’s why they consume less saturated fat and less cholesterol.

Vegans tend to eat more fresh products, such as fruit and vegetables, and whole foods. Therefore they incline to have lower blood pressure and blood glucose, reduced risk of heart attack and other cardiovascular diseases than meat-eaters. In some cases, a vegan diet help treat diabetes as well.

Is a low-carb vegan diet possible?

Having said all the above, what the heck are you supposed to eat? How do you plan your meals to cut your carbs and make sure that you get enough other nutrients you need? The answer is more complex than you might think!

Following a low-carb vegan diet is easy if you know what foods to look at. With a knowledge of the number of specific nutrients that are required for a healthy thriving on a plant-based diet.

As a vegan diet consists of a lot of grains and legumes, it might seem that vegans consume foods high in carbs. On the other hand, a vegan diet is fairly low in fats. Thus, it may appear that a vegan diet can’t supply the number of calories needed to optimize the right body weight.

Shortly said, that is not true. A well planned and well balanced vegan diet will benefit you in many ways and you will be able to meet your weight goal. You just need to know how to cut your carbs!

This guide will help you swap high-carb meals for their low-carb substitutes:

So, how do you control your carbs intake?

Cutting your carbs in 6 easy ways

Here you will read a list of ways how to easily cut carbs on a vegan diet and include more low-carbs foods.

1. Eat more low-carb and fewer high-carb foods

This step is easy if you know what foods are high in carbs and therefore what foods you should eat less for losing weight.

Generally, a plant-based diet is quite rich in carbs because it includes a lot of legumes, grains, and starchy vegetables. All these foods can be eaten in smaller amounts while you still meet all your nutrient needs.

For a successful weight loss, pay attention to how much of these high-carb foods you consume and think about any recipe in which you can replace them with foods with fewer carbs.

If you are not sure which vegan foods are low-carbs, download this super handy vegan low-carb cheat sheet:

This might include replacing starchy vegetables (potatoes, corn, sweet or white potatoes, pumpkin, butternut squash) with non-starchy vegetables (broccoli, tomatoes, leafy greens, garlic, red or green bell peppers) any time it’s possible.

The same thing goes for legumes and grains that are plentiful in a vegan diet. Instead of rice as a side dish, cauliflower rice or have a salad (zoodles instead of noodles or pasta). Instead of legumes try to incorporate more nuts and seeds. Regular bread or buns can be replaced with whole grain bread or pastry or skip it altogether.

2. Count your carbs

How much is too much? If you know your weight loss goal, then you work out pretty quickly how many carbs you are allowed to include in your diet. Of course, this number varies from a person to a person, depending on your body type and exercise you do.

Usually, for a weight loss, you should eat somewhat between 20g and 100g of carbs per day. If you want to lose weight quickly, then your daily carb intake should fluctuate between 20-50g per day. This would also be considered a keto vegan diet.

However, if you don’t exercise excessively and your fitness level is rather moderate, then you should eat between 50-100g carbs per day. This should lead to a neutral and sustainable weight loss.

if you are a very active person, then you should increase your carb intake to 100-150g per day. This amount is easy to reach on a vegan diet if you count your carbs regularly and carefully.

3. Eat high-quality protein foods

Following a low-carb vegan diet, you should make protein a center of your focus. Receiving especially protein from high-quality plant-based sources helps you reach your weight loss goals faster and easier.

Getting all 9 essential amino acids that are crucial for your body to function can be a bit tricky on a low-carb vegan diet. That’s because many foods rich in protein also contain a lot of carbs. These are foods you want to reduce in your diet but not omit at all.

Needless to say, getting enough protein and stay low-carbs is perfectly manageable with the right meal planning and combination of different plant-based protein sources. It’s a common misconception that vegans don’t get enough protein.

in fact, a lot of vegans and vegetarians eat more protein than they need. On average, they consume 70g of protein than recommended daily intake. You should aim for 1.2-1.7g protein for 1kg of your body weight. More is better than less in this case.

A good source of plant-based and low-carb protein are some fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, nut butters, beans, and soy products, such as tofu, tempeh or soybeans.

4. Get your healthy fats

It might sound like a contradiction and intimidating but you need to include healthy fats in your diet. They are important because they supply most of the calories and energy on a low-carb vegan diet.

What are vegan healthy fats? They usually come from nuts and seeds, nut butters, cocoa butter, coconut milk, avocados, tahini, and different types of natural oils, such as coconut oil, macadamia oil or avocado oil.

Download your cheat sheet of vegan healthy fat sources:

Healthy fats are those that occur naturally in food and they are not processed. Thus vegetable oil or olive oil shouldn’t be used often for cooking because it’s saturated fat.

5. Receive all necessary nutrients with nutrient-dense foods

Like in any other diet, a low-carb vegan diet has to meet all the nutrients necessary for a healthy functioning body and mind. The good news is that almost all nutrients you easily get from your food. You may need to supply vitamin B12 that sometimes causes a little problem on a plant-based diet.

A lot of food you consume on a low-carb vegan diet already contains protein that easily covers your daily needs. Then you only have to pay attention to other nutrients that should come from all different varieties of plant-based foods.

The whole secret to match all your nutrient needs lies in the right choice of food matching. For example, sprinkle 1 tablespoon sesame or hemp seeds over your salad or tofu or add it to your marinade.

Add 1 tablespoon tahini or nut butter to your morning porridge or cut fruits, particularly berries. It’s very delicious yet nutritious!

Aim to add a source of healthy fats and a source of other nutrients to each of your meals. Always prefer eating whole foods because they contain more nutrients than processed foods that are high in saturated fats.

6. Include fibre

Including enough fibre from low-carb plant-based sources is a massive help how to cut carbs on a vegan diet and reach your desired weight.

Fibre improves your digestion and makes you feel fuller for longer. If you suffer from irregular bowel movements, increase your intake of fibre.

Add a little bit of psyllium husk to coconut or almond yoghurt or dissolve it in a cup of plant-based milk. Include more bananas, apples, apricots, and kidney beans in your cooking or snacking to increase a fibre intake.

Cut your carbs, lose weight easily!

Cutting carbs is easy if you start thinking about your food as a whole and you plan your meals properly.

Always aim to get enough protein and other necessary nutrients from your foods rather than from supplements. Include fibre for better digestion and healthy fat as an energy source.

Count your carb intake and soon you will see the results you want! A vegan diet is a long-term solution that will help you reduce body fat and be slim forever!