Whether you're trying to lose weight, maintain a healthy weight, or just try to eat and live better, a plant-based diet can help you achieve your goals.
A Physicians Committee study tested a plant-based diet on a group of 64 women. At the start of the study, all 64 women were moderately or severely overweight.
Participants followed two simple rules: They set aside all animal products and kept oils to a minimum.
They lost about 450 grams per week, without calorie counting or exercise and after two years continued to maintain their weight loss.
Plant-based diets can help you lose weight and keep it off because they are packed with fiber, which helps fill you up, without adding extra calories.
Aim to eat around 40 grams of fiber per a day, which will be easy if you incorporate more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and beans into your diet.
By skipping meat, cheese, and eggs and limiting oils, you’re also removing a significant amount of fat from your diet.
This helps keep the kilo's off, because 1 gram of fat—from beef, fish, or oil—has 9 calories compared to 1 gram of carbohydrate —from potatoes, bread, or beans— which has only 4 calories, that's fewer than half of the calories found in 1 gram of animal fat.
Susan Levin, MS, RD, CSSD, Director of Nutrition Education, Physicians Committee