Does Veganism aid weightloss?

cobblers88

I've been vegan for about a year, and, although I didn't become vegan for these reason, I had heard that veganism caused weightloss..
I didn't experiance this myself, my weight remained the same, however, I was eating a LOT of food.
Now that I'm controlling my calorieintake I am losing nearly double what I 'should' be. I've set my calorie goal to lose 2lbs a week, but instead lose 3, 4, even 5 pounds a week.
Do you think this could be a benefit of having a low fat, vegan, diet?
Has anyone experianced similar things as a vegan? Or the opposite?

MrsODriscoll

Hi! I mostly eat vegan but have been struggling to lose any weight. I think that any diet can be unhealthy if you eat enough of the wrong things - chips, bread etc can all be vegan - but if you follow a low fat vegan diet then you can't get much healthier. That's what I'm trying to do now and am hoping for a good loss on the scales tomorrow :-)

neanderthin

On a calorie for calorie basis, no. But, depending on the the macro split and whether a person exercises can have an effect on muscle catabolism, especially if it's a high carb diet in the absence of weight bearing exercise....Basically more overall weight is lost on a high carb diet without exercise, but a higher degree of muscle loss is generally why, which is not what we want. And generally speaking most vegan diets rely on a high carb, low protein and fat. I have a couple of vegan friends that buck that trend and consume a fairly high protein diet and weight train, and in that regard, on a calorie for calorie basis, there isn't any difference. It's funny, people fall for all types of dietary advice, when in reality there isn't much difference as far as weight loss is concerned. Compliance is key, which again is why so many people fail in pretty much all diets.

PDXyogini

I've been vegan for several years and have seen both great ups and downs with weight loss. What it comes down to, of course, is calories. When I'm not mindful about just how many bakery items I've had (I live in Portland, we have several all vegan bakeries) or orders of fries in a week, combined with not being mindful about making time to exercise at least 20-30 minutes a day... well, the weight goes back on.

That said, when I am mindful and add exercise in daily, the weight comes off pretty easily. I sometimes struggle at finding the balance of the modes between "too many sweets/too little exercise" and "very restrictive about sweets".

I ultimately went vegan for two reasons, 1) Ahmisa (non-harming) and 2) Cholesterol (mine used to be 290). While the second reason is very important to me as I come from a family where the women have all had heart problems, the first reason is what really nourishes me spiritually as both a yogini (I both practice and teach yoga) and a Buddhist.

Check out the Fat Free Vegan blog (http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/) -- she's got some great recipes and is just a lovely person. Many of her recipes are tagged as "Eat-to-Live" and are suitable for folks following Dr. Joel Fuhrman's diet plan (http://www.drfuhrman.com/). We generally follow this same plan to help maintain and lose weight. The Engine 2 Diet (http://engine2diet.com/) plan is also a vegan plan that a lot of people have success with.

Also check out the movie, "Forks Over Knives". It is a great documentary that looks at the way a very healthful, vegan diet can reverse many chronic diseases. It includes people like T. Colin Campbell, who wrote 'The China Study', and Caldwell B. Esselstyn, MD, who has 20+ years of studying the reversal of advanced heart disease with a vegan diet.

Sidesteal

Now that I'm controlling my calorieintake

This is the only pertinent information as to whether or not any eating philosophy will cause weight loss.