I'm no longer vegetarian and I can NOT stop craving meat. Help me.
October 11, 2013 7:14 PM   Subscribe

I was a happy and successful vegetarian for over 15 years and I recently gave it up. I slowly began introducing fish and chicken into my diet over the last year or so, and only recently have I begun eating red meat again. And now I can't stop.

All I want all the time is red meat, and when I have some I feel full and entirely satiated (I feel like I imagine Popeye feels with spinach, theme song and all), but soon I want more. And if I go a few days without any red meat I feel weak and irritable. I'm trying to pace myself and I'm seeking protein from other sources but this is getting to be a little overwhelming.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is this normal meat-eating/protein craving behavior that I just forgot about? I gave it up pretty easily 15 years ago. Is this my body making up for 15 years of inadequate protein? Will these cravings ever level off? What can I do to quiet them down in the meantime? Can I just give in and eat five cheeseburgers a day (which is what I seriously want to do) and be ok?

If it helps, I am 31 years old, 6'0" tall, 200 lbs, exercise regularly (running about 3-4 miles every other day) and am overall pretty healthy.

Thanks for your help!
posted by Hey Dean Yeager! to Health & Fitness (21 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Are you eating enough in general? Getting enough fat and carbs?
posted by Specklet at 7:17 PM on October 11, 2013


If there's a problem here, it must be an ethical problem? Meat is a complete food, and kind of programmed in to be satisfying.

So, source your meat from ethical suppliers. I.e., humanely raised and humanely slaughtered. Don't want to get into the ethics particularly; for those who want to contend, cf. Peter Singer to start.
posted by bricoleur at 7:21 PM on October 11, 2013


Sounds like me all my life.

As with any diet change (and this one is pretty major), you can expect different cravings. It's like you just discovered chocolate. Your body says "Woah, what is that, I want more of that!" Go ahead an indulge yourself within reason. Hell, with 15 years burger free, indulge a little more. It'll work itself out in a few months and then you'll just think of it as "food" instead of "omg pancakes and syrup dipped in nutella and rolled in sugar yum yum".
posted by sanka at 7:23 PM on October 11, 2013


Mr. BlahLaLa is an almost-vegan, who reverted to hardcore carnivore about ten years ago. For a solid year he ate absurd amounts of meat, as much as he could get, as often as he could get it, essentially. And then one day he just stopped, and tells me he has zero craving for it.
posted by BlahLaLa at 7:24 PM on October 11, 2013


I always feel like eating meat, and I've never been a vegetarian. A meal without egg, dairy, or meat is rarely satisfying for me.
posted by pravit at 7:33 PM on October 11, 2013


My partner experienced this for a while after he returned to eating red meat and became completely obsessed with cheeseburgers. I don't remember how long it lasted but it did level off. He still enjoys red meat but no more or less than any other meat. It's certainly possible your body is going through a craving phase that will pass.
posted by Stacey at 7:37 PM on October 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


Can you have your doc run a general CBC? IANAD, but just for fun, they could see if you're a bit anemic or something.
posted by dovesandstones at 7:49 PM on October 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


How long has this feeling persisted?
posted by HMSSM at 7:55 PM on October 11, 2013


I was a veg in grad school (some ethics, mostly poverty). After I went back to meat, I went ALL the way back. Beef ribs, giant ribeye steaks, burgers. It eventually leveled off, but I'm thinking that it took a good year or so.
posted by 26.2 at 8:01 PM on October 11, 2013


I grew up vegetarian, was an omnivore from college until about five years after, and now I'm a vegetarian again. I do not experience this. I have an intense craving for a really rare steak maybe once a week, but it goes away.

I have, however, had intense broccoli cravings, to the extent that I would go to bed worrying about where and when I was going to get more if I ate up what we had. I just ate as much broccoli as I wanted and it eventually went away.

I wouldn't worry unless the red meat was causing a problem somehow. Sometimes your body just wants weird things.
posted by blnkfrnk at 8:09 PM on October 11, 2013


This reminds me of the summer where all I wanted to do was eat egg rolls 24-7. Even when I was in the midst of already eating egg rolls. I ate egg rolls from a gas station in Montana, for fuck's sake, because I was stuck on family vacation and had no egg rolls. (Do not do this.)

Eventually the craving insanity went away, though they're still one of my top favorite foods. I would tell you to just freaking eat all the cheeseburgers you want right now (well, throw in some veg on the side) and work that craving out. I doubt you'll go more than a few months craving red meat this badly--eventually you will burn out on this stuff. Just go with it now.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:25 PM on October 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


I've experienced (am still experiencing) this. I'm the same age as you, vegetarian for over 20 years, then seafood was my gateway drug about three years ago. A year later I went all in and started eating everything. For the year or so I binged hardcore on any and all meat that came anywhere near me. Craved and indulged in burgers or bloody, rare steaks multiple times per week. Ate things that even lifelong carnivores raised their eyebrows at. I rapidly gained a bit of weight which had never been a problem for me before since I was taking in so many more calories so easily. I've definitely leveled off a bit and don't feel obsessed with needing to eat ALL THE MEAT but I still feel like I might still be daydreaming about burgers more than the average person. I do have a much harder time feeling satiated by a meal that doesn't include meat as a protein now but I don't feel like I would rather have all meat and no vegetables like I did during that first year. I didn't make any efforts to quiet the cravings during the worst of it. I just kind of went with it and the phase seems to have mostly passed, though the cravings I have now are much more intense than any food craving I had experienced during my vegetarian years.
posted by Wendy at 8:31 PM on October 11, 2013


I was a vegetarian for 11 years and returned to the meat-eating world through Fogo de Chao. I could not get enough of red meat for a long time, and it's still my favorite. Curiously I also loved pork products though they'd made me gag before I was a vegetarian.

I would just roll with it.
posted by Anonymous at 8:35 PM on October 11, 2013


Are you actually craving meat, or are you possibly craving the salt and other seasonings that meat is typically cooked with?

Sometimes when I get intense cravings for meat I can satisfy them by licking salt or soy sauce.
posted by Jacqueline at 8:38 PM on October 11, 2013


Are you craving only meat, or do fatty high protein foods scratch that itch? Because I'm guessing poached eggs, peanutbutter, and other high-satiety foods might be just the thing.
posted by zippy at 9:45 PM on October 11, 2013


Response by poster: What are you eating for breakfast?

Cereal and fruit for the most part. I will give breakfast-time meat a try and see if that helps.

How long has this feeling persisted?

About a week and half now it's been especially strong, but I've been eating red meat pretty regularly for a few months now.

I wouldn't worry unless the red meat was causing a problem somehow.

I was more concerned of the sudden influx of ALL that meat I'm eating would be bad for my heart, etc. I'm trying very hard to not eat red meat every day but I've had red meat sometimes four or five days in a row. But currently, no problems to speak of.

Are you actually craving meat?

Yes, it's just the meat. The spices/salt seem pretty secondary. And eggs, peanut butter, etc. were regular staples for me during my time being vegetarian. I still eat them regularly but they don't satisfy like they used to.
posted by Hey Dean Yeager! at 10:27 PM on October 11, 2013


I was vegetarian for several years in my teens/20s, and experienced the same near-obsessive cravings when I went back to eating meat, right down to the desire to eat five cheeseburgers a day. At one point I even started waking up in the middle of the night from dreams of eating raw meat. I seem to recall the whole obsessive craving thing tapered off within a few months. (FWIW, I eventually lost my taste for red meat entirely, and now pretty much only eat fish.)
posted by scody at 10:55 PM on October 11, 2013


When I ate meat, I wanted it with every meal. A meal without meat felt unsatisfying and incomplete. I haven't eaten meat in years and maybe I don't feel that way because it's not an option. I don't know. Now I feel the same way about a meal without any beans or nuts or something with protein in it. I imagine meat just has more protein packed into than other stuff, which is why you want it over anything else.
posted by AppleTurnover at 11:26 PM on October 11, 2013


I did this too - pescatarian for 20 years, then I had orthopedic surgery and boom I practically drooled into my husband's beef stew. I started out on beef broth and now eat all kinds of beef (but still no poultry, lamb or pork), and I also drink the juices from the roast or steak, which I know people think is gross, and I eat the fat.

It's been two years since my first operation, and I still love beef.

Go figure.
posted by mgrrl at 1:13 AM on October 12, 2013 [1 favorite]


I once craved pickles. I ate pickles in quantity. I'm talking, I bought several jars at a time and finished them within a week—including drinking the juice. Then, the craving went away. I had no ill effects (except that I still drink pickle juice from time to time). I've had something similar happen with greens (collards, kale, spinach, and so on).

When my body wants something like this, I generally go with it unless there's an obvious reason not to do so.
posted by sonic meat machine at 7:21 AM on October 12, 2013 [1 favorite]


I was a vegetarian for 15 years. Then I got anemic. The kind that send you to the Hemotoligist-Oncologist. After a shit ton of tests the doctor said, "I don't know what to tell you. Eat meat". So I do. A lot. Often. I'm STILL anemic, but not constantly exhausted all the time.

My point. Eat meat. You may need it!
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 6:31 PM on October 12, 2013 [1 favorite]


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