I wasn't treating vegan as a slimming plan I was just...being Vegan. I didn't really expect to lose or gian more weight just from being Vegan. I know it's possible to have a healthy, balanced Vegan diet but I wasn't able to work that out at the time, there weren't enough healthy dairy-free foods available to me. Maybe someday!

I tried it for a few months too, just for kicks I guess. Ultimately decided it was vastly more trouble than it's worth, and ultimately less healthy if various things such as fish are excluded as well.

You don't really need milk or cheese at all, but they're nice. Excluding all red meat from your diet is a extremely good idea in my opinion, and something I adhere to most of the time. While you don't really need chicken or turkey I find they're such a nice source of protien and I do enjoy them ever so much...I can't imagine a diet that would benefit in any way from excluding fish, you could just eat fish (instead of other meats, not just fish) and probably be healthier.