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The Biggest Mistake New Vegans Make (And How to Avoid Face-Planting into a Pile of Sadness)

  • Writer: Emanuele Bortolotto
    Emanuele Bortolotto
  • Jul 26
  • 7 min read

Updated: Sep 7


It’s 10PM on a Saturday night here in Konala, Helsinki. A time when, I am told, people with flourishing social lives are often out, engaging in joyful human connection. I, however, am home, illuminated by the glow of my laptop, contemplating the many spectacular ways a person can fail at something. Like me at having a social life for example.


This stunning lack of a social life gives me a lot of time to think, and tonight, I'm thinking about the noble, and often disastrous, attempt to go vegan.

As an investigator of human endeavors, I’m fascinated by the phenomenon of the “ex-vegan.” These are the people who tried, they really did, but after a few weeks or months, they crashed and burned, returning to their old ways with a tale of woe. They often report feeling tired, hungry, and generally miserable. Their stories serve as a cautionary tale for anyone considering the switch.

This got me thinking. There must be a common thread, a recurring, catastrophic error that derails these well-intentioned journeys. So, I decided to launch a full-scale investigation, a post-mortem of failed vegan attempts, to identify the single, undisputed champion of all rookie errors. What’s the biggest mistake new vegans make?


The Lineup: Investigating the Top Suspects


After combing through countless forums, studies, and tearful testimonials, I have identified six primary suspects. Each one is a notorious dream-killer, a powerful saboteur of the plant-based path. I decided to put each of them under the interrogation lamp to determine which one is truly the biggest, baddest mistake of them all.

The suspects are:

  1. The Junk Food Swap: The belief that "vegan" is a synonym for "healthy."

  2. The Calorie Void: The mistake of accidentally starving yourself with vegetables.

  3. The B12 Blackout: The dangerous act of ignoring the one mandatory supplement.

  4. The Protein Panic (or Lack Thereof): The failure to intentionally build a high-protein plate.

  5. The Social Grenade: The transformation into a preachy, insufferable ambassador for the cause.

  6. The Purity Spiral: The anxiety-fueled quest to be the "perfect" vegan from day one.

Let the interrogation begin. 🕵️‍♂️


Suspect #1: The Junk Food Swap


This is perhaps the most seductive and common mistake of the 21st century. A new vegan walks into a supermarket and is greeted by a dazzling array of plant-based convenience foods. There are vegan burgers that "bleed," vegan chicken nuggets, vegan pizzas, vegan ice cream, vegan cheese that almost melts. It’s a golden age of vegan junk food. ✨

The mistake is to believe you can simply do a one-for-one swap and achieve the promised health benefits of a vegan diet. The new vegan clears their fridge of beef burgers and chicken nuggets and replaces them with their ultra-processed vegan counterparts. They think they've made a healthy choice.

But as my previous investigations have shown, this is a dangerous illusion. A diet built on these products is often still a diet high in sodium, refined carbohydrates, unhealthy fats, and a long list of industrial ingredients. It lacks the fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that are the entire point of eating more plants. The result? The person doesn't feel any better. In fact, they might even feel more sluggish. They might gain weight. After a month, they throw their hands up and declare, "I tried veganism, and it just made me feel terrible!" This suspect is a master of disguise, cloaking itself in the virtuous halo of the "vegan" label. A very strong contender.


Suspect #2: The Calorie Void


This suspect is the opposite of the Junk Food Swapper, but just as dangerous. This is the person who takes the "eat your vegetables" advice very, very literally. They go vegan and suddenly their plate is a giant, beautiful, but ultimately empty, mountain of salad. 🥗

The mistake here is a failure to understand calorie density. Plant foods, particularly non-starchy vegetables and fruits, are very high in volume and water but very low in calories. A stomach full of 500 calories of spinach and cucumber is a physical impossibility. A stomach full of 500 calories of chicken or cheese is a common occurrence.

When a new vegan removes the calorie-dense animal products from their diet and replaces them with nothing but low-calorie vegetables, they inadvertently put themselves into a massive calorie deficit. They feel physically full after meals, but their body is not getting enough raw energy to function.

The result? The number one complaint of failed vegans: fatigue. They feel weak, tired, and perpetually hungry. Their brain feels foggy. They conclude that a vegan diet is lacking some magical, life-giving essence that can only be found in meat. In reality, what they are lacking is calories. Just raw, boring, essential energy. This suspect is responsible for countless people concluding that veganism is a path to weakness, making it a very strong contender for the biggest mistake of all.


Suspect #3: The B12 Blackout


This suspect is the silent killer. It doesn't cause immediate, dramatic symptoms like the others. It’s a slow, creeping threat that can have devastating long-term consequences. This is the mistake of not taking a Vitamin B12 supplement.

As I’ve stated in nearly every health-related investigation I’ve conducted, there are no reliable, unfortified plant-based sources of Vitamin B12. It is produced by microorganisms. In our sanitized modern world, the only way to guarantee you are getting enough on a vegan diet is to take a supplement or consume heavily fortified foods.

A new vegan, especially one focused on "natural" and "whole" foods, might see supplementation as unnatural and unnecessary. This is a catastrophic error. A long-term B12 deficiency can lead to irreversible nerve damage, chronic fatigue, and serious neurological problems. While the other mistakes on this list might make you quit being vegan, this is the one mistake that can cause you lasting harm. For this reason, it is a truly formidable suspect.


Suspect #4: The Social Grenade 💣


This mistake is of a different nature. It’s not about nutrition; it’s about human dynamics. This is the new vegan who, fresh from watching a shocking documentary, becomes an insufferable, judgmental preacher overnight. They see themselves as a newly enlightened being, and they see it as their sacred duty to inform everyone they know—friends, family, their postal worker—that their food choices are morally bankrupt.

They become the person who ruins dinner parties, who posts graphic images on their family’s Facebook page, and who scrutinizes their friends' plates with an air of quiet disappointment. There's an old proverb here in Finland, 'Kell' onni on, se onnen kätkeköön,' which means, 'He who has happiness, should hide it.' It's a culture that values a certain modesty and frowns upon loud, boastful displays. The preachy new vegan does the exact opposite, and the social consequences are... predictable.

The result is that they alienate everyone. Their friends stop inviting them out. Their family dreads their visits. Their veganism becomes a source of constant conflict and social isolation. Eventually, the social cost becomes too high. They get tired of being the angry, lonely person in the room, and they quit, concluding that veganism is a socially impossible lifestyle.


Questions from the Internet



Questions from the Internet: "Why do I feel so tired as a new vegan?"


This is the most common question I came across in my research, the universal cry for help from the struggling new vegan. As we've seen from our investigation, the number one suspect behind this fatigue is Suspect #2: The Calorie Void. You are almost certainly not eating enough food. Plant foods are less calorie-dense, so you need to eat a larger volume of them. My advice is to start tracking your calorie intake for a few days to see how much you're actually eating. The answer will likely shock you. Make sure you are adding calorie-dense foods like nuts, seeds, avocado, and tahini to your meals. If your calories are definitely sufficient, the next suspect to investigate is an iron deficiency.


Questions from the Internet: "Is it normal to gain weight as a new vegan?"


Yes, this is surprisingly common, and it’s a direct result of falling for Suspect #1: The Junk Food Swap. If you replace meat and dairy with an army of highly processed, high-calorie vegan burgers, cheeses, and ice creams, you can easily end up consuming more calories than you did before. The "vegan" label on a packet of cookies does not magically remove the sugar and fat. Weight gain or loss is always a matter of calories in versus calories out, and vegan junk food can be incredibly calorie-dense.


Internal Link Break!


The pressure to be a "perfect" vegan from day one, avoiding all mistakes, can lead to a lot of anxiety and self-doubt. If you're finding yourself worried that one little slip-up makes you a fraud, don't worry, it's a common phenomenon. I've investigated it in detail here: [The Vegan Imposter Syndrome: Are You 'Vegan Enough' For the Internet?]


The Conclusion: And the Biggest Mistake Is…


So, after a thorough interrogation of all six suspects, what is the single biggest mistake a new vegan can make? While the B12 Blackout is the most dangerous and the Social Grenade is the most annoying, my investigation concludes that there is a two-way tie for the title of "Biggest Mistake."

The winners, or rather, the losers, are The Junk Food Swap and The Calorie Void.

Why these two? Because they are the primary drivers of the most common reason people quit veganism: "I just didn't feel good." They are the mistakes that cause the immediate, tangible, negative physical feedback. They lead to the fatigue, the brain fog, the weight gain, and the general feeling of misery that convinces a person that a vegan diet is unhealthy and unsustainable.

But my investigation revealed something even deeper. Both of these mistakes are symptoms of a larger, single failure: A Failure to Plan.


That is the true, ultimate mistake. A person falls into the Junk Food Swap because they haven't planned what to cook. They fall into the Calorie Void because they haven't planned how to properly replace the calories they've removed. A failure to plan is a plan to fail.

The good news? This is also the easiest mistake to fix. The solution is not to have more willpower; it's to have more knowledge and a better strategy. Learn a few simple, whole-food recipes. Understand the basics of nutrition. And you can easily avoid every single one of these pitfalls.

The best way to start your plan is to know the easiest way in. For a guide to the different paths you can take into the vegan world, check out my investigation: [What’s the Easiest Way to Start Eating Vegan?]


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