Marie Claire

I was asked by Marie Claire on whether going vegan is a suitable approach for weight loss...

Firstly, it is important to understand that simply omitting animal foods from your diet and adopting a vegan label does not necessarily equate to weight loss.
Yes, in some cases going vegan MAY (key emphasis on the “may” here) result in weight loss if your diet was previously high in sugars and saturated fat foods, to which you may now be eating more plant-foods which are of course much lower in calories and full of fibre to help promote fullness and ward against overeating.

BUT... in reality weight loss can be achieved through monitoring how many daily calories you are consuming versus how many calories you are expending through physical activity, and achieving a consistent negative energy balance over a period of weeks or months.

Plus vegan foods can still include chips, confectionary, chocolate, burgers and a variety of other processed vegan alternatives that can be particularly energy-dense.

Don’t feel like you have to jump on the bandwagon with things as a result of media hype or celebrity endorsement, if you are looking to lose weight, you don’t necessarily need to go vegan just to achieve results. Fair enough if you have other valid reasons for going plant-based (i.e ethical or environmental), but if it’s solely weight loss, there are other means of achieving this.

Read the Marie Claire article here or for my comments in full on this subject click here.