A vegan diet can help with weight loss, since it offers so many delicious, healthy, and low-calorie choices.
Becoming vegan eliminates many of the most calorically dense and unhealthy foods that people commonly eat: hamburgers, fried chicken, ice cream, and so forth. It’s therefore not surprising that obesity rates among vegans are far lower than among the general population.
Additionally, most unprocessed vegan foods contain substantial amounts of fiber. By contrast, meat, dairy products, and eggs contain no fiber at all. Good evidence shows that dietary fiber can contribute to weight loss.
What’s more, if you’re also trying to improve your health while losing weight, a vegan diet can help on that front too. Type 2 diabetes often goes into remission as a person sheds excess body weight. And since a vegan diet tends to contain much less saturated fat than does a typical omnivorous diet, going vegan can be a great choice for people at risk of heart disease.
Attaining a healthy body weight can even reduce your risk of cancer, since obesity is one of the strongest risk factors for a variety of cancers. And if your vegan diet contains plenty of fruits and vegetables, that may further reduce your cancer risk.
Physical Fitness
Getting into shape and exercising regularly can go a long way toward helping you achieve a healthier body weight. Exercise can help with weight reduction in two ways. First, exercise directly burns calories. Second, simply walking around with a little more muscle will rev up your metabolism, thereby reducing body fat.
Many people mistakenly believe that becoming physically fit entails serious commitment and sacrifice. Nothing could be further from the truth. My vegan fitness guide will introduce you to all sorts of enjoyable ways to become more physically active.
Low-Calorie Vegan Foods
Here are some healthy and delicious vegan foods that contain remarkably few calories:
- Vegetables
- Fruits
- Rice Cakes & Nonfat Rice Crackers
- Salads (use oily dressings sparingly)
- Roasted vegetables
- Oatmeal
- Most soups (but watch for sodium)
- Vegan yogurt
Popular Vegan Weight Loss Books
- Plantifully Lean, by Kiki Nelson
- Easy Low-Cal Vegan Eats, by Jillian Glenn
- Happy Herbivore: Light & Clean, Lindsay S. Nixon
- 21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart, Neil D. Barnard, MD
- Appetite for Reduction, Isa Chandra Moskowitz
Note that no matter what diet you follow, it’s wise to read up on nutrition. Ginny Messina’s vegan nutrition guide offers a short and excellent introduction to the topic.
