Today I want to share something I’ve been wanting to write for a long time: a habit-based perspective on why people stick with veganism—or don’t.
It’s easy to see stories about ex-vegans and wonder: “Is this real? Why would someone step away after giving it a sincere shot?”
But the numbers suggest it’s not rare. A 2025 VRG/YouGov poll found 4% of U.S. adults are currently vegetarian (including vegan), while 5% say they previously maintained vegetarianism for three-plus years but no longer do.
And in a major U.S. study often cited by Faunalytics (Humane Research Council, 2014), the authors concluded there are more than five times as many former vegetarians/vegans as current—“put differently, 84% abandon the diet.”
If veganism were only about beliefs, information would be enough. But veganism is lived through daily defaults—food, social life, convenience, identity.
In other words: it’s a habit system.
As a habit coach, I’m convinced that a big part of why people leave veganism has a lot to do with how habit change actually works in real life.
From a behavior standpoint, avoiding animal products isn’t fundamentally different from other habit shifts like exercising consistently, quitting alcohol, or changing how you eat when you’re stressed.
It’s not one decision; it’s a repeating system of choices across groceries, restaurants, family events, travel, holidays, cravings, time pressure, and social dynamics.
As advocates, it’s easy (and understandable) to treat veganism as a category of its own: a moral obligation. But plenty of moral and identity-based commitments still require behavioral support to be lived day after day.
Think of religious fasting, abstaining from specific foods, or other community-bound practices—many people value them deeply, yet still lapse when the environment, support system, or routines don’t match the commitment.
So a useful question for advocates to ask is:
“What made this change hard to execute consistently—and what support would make it easier to keep?”
The answer differs from person to person.
Gretchen Rubin came up with an excellent framework for why people build (or not build) certain habits.
The Four Habit Tendencies divides people into 4 groups (in order of prevalence):
Obligers: follow external expectations (what others want them to do) and struggle with internal expectations (what they want for themselves).
Questioners: follow internal expectations (doing what makes sense to them), reject external expectations (doing things others want that don’t make sense to them).
Upholders: follow internal and external expectations.
Rebels: reject internal and external expectations.
You can take the quiz to find your habit tendency here. (While this quiz is great, it puts you on their email list.) If you don’t want to enter your email address, you can use this page instead.
I relied on the Four Habit Tendencies framework a lot when I did daily, text-based habit coaching with people a few years ago. During my time as a habit coach, I helped hundreds of people from six continents create better habits, so I got the chance to field-test this framework in different contexts.
While the habit changes I helped people with were mostly in other areas (productivity, sleeping, etc.), I would rely on these same principles if someone wanted my help to become vegan.
Essentially, depending on their habit type, different people need different strategies to stick with a habit change.
Let’s look at two habit tendencies: Obligers and Questioners. The first one is by far the biggest tendency. It is also, in some ways, the easiest to work with as a habit coach (as long as Obligers have external support for their goals, they tend to thrive).
I’m contrasting this with the second-biggest tendency, Questioners, so you can see how they differ from each other.
Because Upholders and Rebels are rarer, it makes sense to first focus on how to best help Obligers and Questioners stick with new vegan habit choices.
Obligers react to external expectations and do exceptionally well with external accountability.
However, they struggle with internal expectations—and not just when it comes to veganism. Obligers have a hard time saying no to others and putting themselves first. They might want to take time to meditate or workout but will struggle following through on their internal desires if this conflicts with someone else needing their help.
An Obliger who wants to be vegan and lives with other vegans will have a much easier time. In contrast, a vegan Obliger who lives in an environment that's hostile to vegans—or where loved ones demand meat-based meals—will struggle more than other types.
One reason Obligers may struggle is that veganism often lacks built-in outer expectations—and when family, roommates, or workplace culture pushes the other way, the default accountability system is working against them.
Some ex-vegans are probably Obligers who struggled with a lack of support, and who would have remained vegan in an environment where veganism was the default.
(This might also be why Obligers often have an easier time with religious food restrictions than with veganism: Depending on their situation, there's a lot of external expectation by other members of their religion to avoid certain foods.)
In sharp contrast to Obligers, Questioners (the second-largest group) need to have an internal reason to stick with a habit change.
I'm a Questioner and became a vegetarian as a young child, even when everybody around me still ate meat. Similarly, I became a vegan in 2012, after becoming internally convinced it was the right thing to do. It has been relatively easy for me to stick with veganism, even in the face of opposition. As an Obliger, I probably would have struggled a lot more with this.
Questioners can't be externally convinced to develop a certain habit—they have to come to their own conclusions. No amount of cajoling from friends, partners, or activists will make veganism stick unless the reasons for becoming vegan make sense to them.
Of course, Questioners may also change position as new research or arguments emerge. Or, they might simply talk themselves out of a certain position that they don’t want to stick with for whatever reason.
(This is one way in which Questioners become ex-vegans… they simply don’t want to do it and then look for reasons to justify that. As a teenager, I had a brief period when I ate some meat, and it was because I thought I needed to eat meat. It wasn’t the lack of external support, it was an internal conviction that drove that change.)
Lasting change is a habit thing, not a willpower thing—and different strategies work for different people. Here are 5 takeaways from that insight:
To find new solutions, it can be helpful to look at veganism through a habit-only lens. When we do that, it often becomes easier to identify problems people encounter and solutions that might work for them.
Different approaches work for different people. Instead of a one-size-fits-all, we need strategies that speak to each type. Obligers do well with accountability, such as group check-ins, public pledges, or reminders from a friend. Questioners want a deep, nuanced why so it’s important to offer clear info, up-to-date science, and solid ethical arguments.
Obligers benefit from ongoing support. Obligers, the largest habit group, thrive when they have external accountability, and probably do well during a vegan challenge that includes this type of support. To stay vegan after a challenge, Obligers benefit from ongoing external support.
Learning about habit building can make animal advocates more effective. This applies both to their own workflow where being aware of habit tendencies can make them more productive, and to their public outreach.
Reducing matters, too. Even ex-vegans tend to eat less meat than people who’ve never tried. The “all-or-nothing” mindset isn’t supported by reality.
If you want custom strategies for yourself or your group, please reach out. You can leave me a comment with questions below, contact me through my website, or schedule a time to talk with me here.
I’m happy to consult, brainstorm, or just geek out with you. Let’s make compassionate change stick for the long run!
Warmly,
Louise
P.S.: Regardless of what habit type you are, we all benefit from community. I’m starting a series of free, monthly community gatherings for people who identify as old souls and care about their purpose.
If being part of a spiritual, vegan-friendly community speaks to you, you can register for the free monthly events here. Our first event will have a special June Solstice flavor! 🌻
Join the Old Soul's Purpose Circle
AI disclosure: A part of this article was re-written/edited by AI. I wrote the initial draft of this article and spent hours on different versions before it was ready to be published.
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