Vegetarian Weight Loss: How to Lose Weight for Vegetarians
1. For many of us, the question of "how to lose weight for
vegetarians" may sound unusual because we would never
expect a vegetarian diet to get people fat. There's no high
calorie fried chicken, no cholesterol clogging greasy bacon
and no fatty meat in a vegetarian diet. So how can a
vegetarian get fat? To be honest, that was what I thought
too. Until one day, I saw what I believed is a typical Indian
vegetarian diet at lunchtime.
2. The gentleman sat next to me. On his lunch tray are the
following dishes:
9. One thing that hit me was how carbohydrate dense the
lunch was! Not only was it packed with carbohydrates, it
was packed with high glycemic carbohydrates - the type
that will send you straight to snooze Ville shortly after
lunch.
10. Oh, by the way, I haven't even added the can of soda he
was drinking.
11. Out of curiosity, I calculated an approximate energy
composition of his lunch (excluding Coke) and it was at
least 900 calories and 160gm of carbohydrates. (Source:
Health promotion board website).
12. Now, that's not a lot. Not for someone who works out
regularly and needs the calories to replenish his energy
stores and to repair and grow his muscles. But for a desk
jockey, a continued diet like such will grow nothing but
your belly and butt.
13. If you are vegetarian and are struggling to find the
quickest way to lose weight, below are 3 useful tips which
can help you to get slim. If nothing else, it will prevent
your belly from expanding any further.
15. All foods have a glycemic index. The glycemic index, to put
it simply, is a measure of the blood sugar response in your
body in relation to the food you eat. The higher the
glycemic index, the greater the response of blood sugar in
your body. When we consume food with a high glycemic
index, it sends a rush of sugar into our bodies. Because we
cannot have excessive sugar floating in our bodies, insulin
is produced to store away the excessive sugar. This
excessive sugar often ends up getting stored in our belly.
16. But when you consume low glycemic food, it does not
trigger a high blood sugar response and as a result, there
won't be a need for insulin to come in a store the
excessive blood sugar. Remember, an excess of anything,
whether calories or carbohydrates, all end up getting
stored as fat. So as a general rule, avoid all white
carbohydrates such as white rice, white potatoes, white
bread and table sugar.
17. If you are looking for the fastest way to lose weight, this is
it. Follow your diet based on the glycemic index and you'll
never need to count calories or carbohydrates again.
19. Getting sufficient protein is one of the biggest challenges
of vegetarians, especially vegans. If your current weight
loss plan is anything decent, there will be an exercise
component and an emphasis to build muscle to aid fat
loss. In order to build muscles, you need to ensure that
you consume sufficient protein in every meal.
20. For vegetarians, make sure you include eggs and milk into
your diet. Eggs are one of the cleanest and cheapest
sources of protein you can find. One large hardboiled egg
contains about 6-7 grams of good quality protein.
21. Plant sources also contain protein but unlike the animal
sources, they are mostly incomplete protein. Incomplete
protein means they do not have all of the eight essential
amino acids. But don't fret. You can also get complete
protein from plant sources by pairing up complementary
plant proteins.
22. You can get complete protein by pairing up the following
sources:
34. Something seemingly insignificant like dipping
sauces, gravy or condiments can make a big difference in
your daily calorie intake. A completely clean vegetarian
meal can be easily made unhealthy by the introduction of
the sauces and condiments. A vegetarian diet is typically
low in calories. So watch out for those sauces, gravy and
condiments which can add a significant amount of
calories, sodium and sugar into your diet. Don't believe it?
Take a look at the ingredients in your ketchup bottle or
mayonnaise bottle. There is an unexpectedly big amount
of sodium, sugar and high fructose corn syrup.
35. Weight loss for vegetarians doesn't have to be difficult.
Although the food you eat may differ from a non-
vegetarian but the principles of weight loss remains the
same.
36. I hope the tips above have helped you to gain a deeper
understanding of how you can have easy loss weight for
vegetarians.
