The Effects of Different Reducetarian Splits

What is a Reducetarian Split?

• A Reducetarian is someone who is “committed to eating less meat and dairy and fewer eggs — following their own hearts and individual motivations”
• A Reducetarian Split is organizing when you eat meat or not.
  • It is repurposing the idea of a workout split, which is a method of organizing your physical activity into separate days or sessions, focusing on specific muscle groups, body regions, or exercises. For example you might do Push-Pull-Legs or Upper-Lower.
  • The analogy isn’t perfect, but I think it is fun to say and a useful concept to have.
  • I chose the word split because I don’t really like the word diet to explain my food choices.
• Splits include, but are not limited to: Weekday Vegetarian, Vegan Before 6 (VB6), Meatless Mondays, Vegan at Home
• I don’t think that a split is necessary in order to be a Reducetarian because anyone who is trying to reduce their meat consumption is a Reducetarian. However, I think that a split can help you make decisions and build up momentum and habits.
  • Splits to me can gamify the idea of being Reducetarian, which I think is an underrated way to exploit human psychology to keep us engaged and motivated to eat less meat.

Does it matter what split I do?

Yes and no. Yes in the sense that there are differences between each split, but no in that any reduction is worth doing and being celebrated.

The most obvious effect of your split choice is that it directly affects your Reduction Factor of meat consumption.

• VB6 = 66% reduction (only dinner is meat)
• Weekday Vegetarian = 71% reduction (only weekends are meat)
• Meatless Mondays = 14% reduction (non-Mondays are meat)

Splits and the way that they are organized can make it easier or harder to follow.

• Meatless Mondays for instance is a very easy way to get started, whereas jumping to be fully Vegan or even Vegetarian can be quite difficult.
• I celebrate my one year anniversary of being a Reducetarian on January 9th, 2025. I think that my “success” in sticking to it for a year is definitely mostly due to my split (Vegan at Home).
  • It is easiest to control what I eat at home because I am the one buying things at the grocery store and preparing the food.
  • Additionally, I am privileged to have a Trader Joe’s near me which has a good selection of vegan items and even the Harris Teeter near me has a decent amount of plant-based options.
• Something to consider when choosing a split is when you will be sharing a meal with someone else that you are not making. This could be going out to eat at a restaurant or eating at someone else’s house.
  • Time-based splits like VB6 make it so that if you want to have lunch with your friend that you have to find some place that has some good plant-based options.
    • This is not the end of the world by any means, but it does introduce extra friction that can make it harder to stick to your split.
• Splits vary in “cheat days” / “escape hatches”.
  • Eating plant-based is the goal (usually), and then meat-eating “cheat days” are a way of ameliorating cravings or some other desired effect.
    • Denied desires can lead to deepening.
  • Not all cheat days have to be observed, but it is the fact that they are there that provides some psychological freedom.
    • Some people might want to take coast off the momentum of eating plant-based to not take advantage of their meat days.
  • If you celebrate Christmas and have a big Christmas lunch with your family and it conflicts with your split you can always make an exception, but it is worth thinking if that will lead to a slippery slope of granting yourself other exclusions.
    • It is also a good opportunity to question the role of meat in so many holiday food traditions and to try to push your family to try something new.

I think that splits also influence your food choices in interesting ways.

• Since I can always eat something non-vegan if I’m not at home, I seemingly tend to buy more items that are naturally vegan.
  • I find since that I am still a meat eater and sensitive to texture/taste, I tend to be more picky about plant-based meat substitutes.
• VB6 is probably a lot of meal prepping since many people eat the same breakfast everyday and you likely aren’t eating lunch at your house, meaning that it makes more sense to make all these meals ahead of time.
• Meals do affect food choices (eggs seen mostly as a breakfast food, for example) so Weekday Vegetarians may have a larger variety of foods tried as compared to VB6.

As Reducetarians, we should want people to pick the split that suits them the most as to prevent recidivism.

• We should encourage and reward people trying new splits that may have a higher reduction factor, but also have grace for people who find that they cannot stick to certain splits.
• There should be more research done into recidivism.
  • Humane Research Council Survey on Vegetarian Recidivism
  • Do 84% Of Vegans And Vegetarians Really Go Back To Eating Meat?