Why is it so hard to lose weight as a vegan?

Three primary factors may be frustrating your attempts at weight loss even while on a whole foods, plant-based diet: evolutionary hard-wiring, metabolic adaptations, and calorie density.

nutritionfacts.org - Why am I not losing weight on a WFPB diet? - NutritionFacts.org

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Every month seems to bring a trendy new diet or weight loss fad—and yet obesity rates continue to rise, and with it a growing number of diseases and health problems.

Is A Whole Food Plant-based Diet Good For Weight Loss?

The dividing line between weight loss-promoting, health-promoting, and disease-promoting foods may be less plant- versus animal-sourced foods and more whole plant foods versus most everything else. The largest study ever to compare the obesity rates of those eating plant-based diets was published in North America. Meat eaters topped the charts with an average body mass index (BMI) of 28.8—close to being obese . Flexitarians (people who ate meat more on a weekly basis rather than daily) did better at a BMI of 27.3, but were still overweight. With a BMI of 26.3, pesco-vegetarians (people who avoid all meat except fish) did better still.

Even U.S. vegetarians tend to be marginally overweight, coming in at 25.7.

The only dietary group found to be of ideal weight were those eating strictly plant-based (the “vegans”), whose BMI averaged 23.6.

Why Am I Not Losing Weight On A Whole Foods Plant-based Diet?

Three primary factors may be frustrating your attempts at weight loss even while on a whole foods, plant-based diet: evolutionary hard-wiring, metabolic adaptations, and calorie density. Let me break them down for you.

Evolutionary Hard-Wiring

We evolved over millions of years to survive scarcity, and those compensatory survival mechanisms our body uses to defend against weight loss have been hard-wired into us. So, when we start losing weight, we may unconsciously begin to move less as a “behavioral adaptation” to conserve energy. Those can come into play, too, when our metabolism slows down. In fact, every pound of weight loss may reduce our resting metabolic rate by seven calories a day. This may only translate to a few percent differences for most, but it can rapidly snowball for those who achieve massive weight loss. Learn more about this and what you can do about it from my video The Reason Weight Loss Plateaus When You Diet.

Calorie Density

Quite simply, you may be eating entirely plant-based whole foods, but they may be too high on the calorie density scale. Make sure you’ve cut out added fats and oils. Does it matter if you eat or drink your calories? Well, keep in mind that smoothies that can put a lot of nutrients into a glass, but usually calories will come along, too, so eat foods that cause you to spend lots of time chewing. Check out my article How to Lose Weight Eating More Food for more information.

What To Eat, Limit, And Avoid On A WFPB Diet?

What To Eat On a WFPB Diet?

Maximize unprocessed plant foods – closest to how they come in nature. For example, whole grains, beans and legumes, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, as well as herbs and spices.

What To Limit On a WFPB Diet?

Minimize processed plant foods and unprocessed animal foods. For example, bread and steak.

What To Cut Out On a WFPB Diet?

Avoid ultra-processed foods and processed animal foods. For example, cookies, chips, candy, soda, hot dogs, bacon, lunch meat, sausages, and oil.

Check out how I visualize this concept as a traffic light system.

Conclusion

I invite you to watch my recent live presentation, Evidence-Based Weight Loss, where I offer an overview of the key ingredients for weight loss, the topic of my book How Not to Diet.

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Why do vegans put on weight?

"Many vegan alternatives (quinoa, beans, and lentils) actually contain more grams of carbohydrates than they do protein," said Hyman. Consuming more calories than your body can use, whether it comes from carbohydrates, protein, or fat, results in weight gain over time, she suggested.

insider.com - 10 reasons why a vegan diet could be causing you to gain weight - Insider

There are different health benefits linked to a vegan diet — including maintaining a healthy weight.

Some foods on the vegan diet won't help you lose weight automatically.

Other reasons why you might not be losing weight on a vegan diet has to do with health problems. Top editors give you the stories you want — delivered right to your inbox each weekday. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy A vegan diet has been linked to a variety of different health benefits, as the Harvard T.H. Chan School Of Public Health suggests that a well-balanced plant-based diet can help to reduce the risk of heart disease and obesity. But while a steady diet of plant-based foods are thought to keep your body at a healthy weight, experts like registered dietitian Michelle Hyman, MS, RD, CDN, explained that replacing animal proteins with an excessive amounts of carbohydrates, fats, and vegan junk food, may actually result in unwanted weight gain if you aren't careful. So, if you are turning to a vegan diet to lose weight, you may want to reconsider some of your eating habits, especially if you have made no progress at all. To see what could be potentially hindering your vegan weight loss goals, INSIDER spoke more to Hyman and other experts about all the reasons why you may be struggling to lose weight on a vegan eating plan. Below are some things to keep in mind if you are struggling to shed some pounds with a plant-based diet.

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