There’s no doubt that cleaning up your diet using fruits and vegetables is a win/win combination for regaining health and losing some unwanted pounds. But have you considered switching to an all vegetarian diet to help lose weight? Carbohydrates, fats and sugars cause weight gain. . .but there’s a lesser known culprit in most diets that also causes weight gain.
Protein and How it Works
The source of most protein in most people’s diets is meat. When we eat too much protein our body converts what we don’t need into fat. Therefore, by eating a vegetarian diet you are drastically reducing your protein intake. But be careful–completely eliminating protein from your diet will cause your body’s metabolism to slow down and that is also counter productive. When your body’s metabolism slows down, it causes you to store fat.
Other Sources of Protein
Beans and whole grains are both excellent sources of protein. Of course you’ll have to watch your portion sizes. I have found that there was an excellent blog written on portion sizes right here at families.com! If you follow sensible portions you can make sure that you’re getting exactly what you need and nothing that you don’t need!
Satiation
One reason that people have found a vegetarian diet successful is that it is satisfying. It’s not about eating less but rather eating healthier. The sugars in fruits are less likely to be stored as fat because they are more complex than refined sugar. Vegetables and nuts are also excellent ways to boost your metabolism. And of course fruits, vegetables, and nuts don’t have as many calories as other foods.
So while you’re dieting the vegetarian way, you don’t necessarily need to watch ‘how much’ you’re eating. Rather, you need to watch ‘what’ you’re eating. For some people having diet guidelines like vegetarianism is helpful in their weight loss struggle.
However, even if you’re not going to do a vegetarian diet, adding more plant products to your diet is never a bad way to go!
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