Does Becoming A Vegetarian Help You Lose Weight?

Most vegetarians in the United States adopt one of four diets. Vegan diets exclude all animal products, which presents nutritional challenges for many vegan consumers. Lacto-vegetarians consume dairy products but eliminate meat, fish, eggs and poultry. Lacto-ovo-vegetarians eat eggs and dairy but exclude other animal sources. Flexitarians consume mostly vegetarian foods but occasionally include animal protein sources. Current and potential vegetarians have speculated on the weight loss benefits of vegetarianism.

Food Choice and Preparation

Healthy food choices are key to weight loss with a vegetarian diet. Include lots of protein-packed foods, but limit high-fat proteins such as peanut butter and fatty cheese. Consuming large quantities of high-fat foods adds unnecessary calories to your diet. Limit foods with questionable nutritional value, such as flavored coffee drinks. Change your meal preparation methods as well. For example, create a tasty grilled vegetable dish instead of a creamy, calorie-rich casserole.

Portion Control

Identifying healthy vegetarian foods, and preparing those foods to provide your body with optimum nutrition, helps you formulate a successful weight loss strategy. Implement your plan by using low-calorie vegetables or fruits as appetizers or snacks. These convenient finger foods may help satisfy your hunger and reduce your urge to enlarge your portions during meals. This helps you circumvent a weight gain problem that results from eating too much healthy vegetarian food.

Essential Nutrients

Your vegetarian diet may not provide all the nutrients your body needs, and that deficiency may affect your weight loss results. Nutrients such as calcium, iron, zinc, and vitamins B-12 and D are normally found in animal-based diets but are often missing from vegetarian food plans. Obtaining valuable nutrients via foods, instead of supplements, means you get nutritional benefits from the foods as well.

Documentation

A vegetarian diet has been shown to result in lower average subject weights, states an April 2006 scientific paper published in "Nutrition Reviews." The report, compiled from results of 87 existing studies, was prepared by two professionals from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Report data showed that, on average, vegetarians weighed 3 percent to 20 percent less than meat eaters. The vegetarians' results had little to do with calorie-counting or exercise but rather related to the types of foods the subjects ate. Vegetarians were also less prone to serious health conditions common to overweight or obese populations.