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There are both healthy and moral reasons for going vegetarian. An issue that is constantly raised is whether you will lose weight if you make the lifestyle change. The answer is highly dependent on what you actually eat. What is a vegetarian? It is a person who does not eat meat. It is a simple as that. A vegetarian, however, will eat other animal food products like milk, cheese and so on. If a person decides to forgo these products as well, then they are considered a vegan. There are various stages between the two classifications as well, but those are beyond the scope of this article. So, can you lose weight if you go vegetarian? In general, the answer is yes. As with anything, however, it depends on what you are eating. The food industry in the United States and many first world countries are great at producing cheap food. The problem is nearly all of this food is processed to the point that most of the inherent nutrition has been stripped out and calories are packed in. This leads to weight gain. Technically, a vegetarian could sit around all day eating Twinkies, chips, and what have you. Since they would not be eating meat, they would be a vegetarian – just not a thin one. There is a term for this in the vegetarian world. People who do this are known as “Junkaterians” with all that name implies! Ah, but what if you eat healthy? Let’s say you stick to veggies, fruit, beans, legumes and whole grains. If you do this, you are going to run a calorie deficit on most days. This simply means you will expend more calories than you take in. Why? Well, most of the food you eat will be high nutrient, low fat and calorie dense. You could steam an entire bag of frozen veggies and eat it while only taking on maybe 300 calories and no fat at all. Even if you did this five times a day, you would only take in 1,500 calories which is much less than the 2,000 to 2,500 you would expend with a normal lifestyle. Will you lose weight if you give up meat? Yes, so long as you don’t become a junkaterian. Thomas Ajava writes for HugAVegetarianDay.com - where you can learn more about health reasons to become a vegetarian.
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