Laura Ng

Weight Loss Tips for Overweight Vegetarians

Ever thought what causes you to become overweight? This is important because if you know what makes you fat, you can turn it over and effect weight loss on you. Being a vegetarian doesn't automatically make you a slim person. Here I show you the 3 common triggers for weight gain, along with tips to help you get back in shape. Check it out!

I've worked with quite a number of overweight vegetarians and help them lose weight effectively.

The strategy is actually easy to execute: Do you know what causes you to become overweight? If you know the causes, then all you need to do is just reverse the causes and you'll lose weight automatically.

So, let's go identify what exactly triggers your weight gain and turn you into an overweight vegetarian. Then from there, we'll apply the right "medicine" to cure your fat problem, and lose weight the easy vegetarian way.

1. Sweetened Vegetarian Food

Do you know how harmful it is to your health when your sweetened food contains lots of refined sugar?

Your body will need to use up 27 key nutrients (calcium, magnesium, potassium, vitamin B1, B2 etc) just to digest this little white devil. These 27 nutrients are actually meant to keep your metabolism functioning properly so as to help you maintain your weight. That's why those who include lots of high-sugar food in their vegetarian diet tend to have their midsection grown unstoppably.

Tip: If you do crave sweet stuff, take vegetarian foods that are added with unrefined sweetener like stevia nectar or agave nectar. Not only they're natural, but also contain health-beneficial minerals. Refined sugar gives you nothing but calories. Stevia is preferred because it is very sweet but yet carries zero calories.Agave holds 56 calories per tablespoon, so eat in moderation.

2. Lack of Vegetables

I've seen overweight vegetarians eating fruits, nuts and seeds and other whole grain foods, except vegetables. They don't eat vegetable probably because they don't like its almost bland taste and fibrous texture. No doubt these vegetarians may lose weight initially, but they soon reach a weight loss plateau for not getting a full spectrum of nutrients in their vegetarian diet plans.

Tip: If you feel vegetable is too bland for your liking or you simply don't like its appearance, then make smoothie with vegetables blended with fruits in a 2:3 (veggies to fruits) ratio. You'll find it easier to absorb the supernutrients from vegetables for weight loss this way.

3. Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP)

TVP is helpful in transitioning to a full vegetarian. However, ingesting too much can increase your total caloric intake because most TVP foods are infused with simple sugar, sodium and bad saturated fat.

Tip: As mentioned above, reduce your TVP intake. But take one step at a time because stopping TVP altogether cold turkey can cause a craving rebound which will make you start eating even more. Add a tablespoon of virgin coconut oil to your vegetarian meals with TVP as coconut oil is a fat-burning saturated fat that will help burn up the bad saturated fat in the TVP.

Article Tags: Weight Loss, Loss Tips, Overweight Vegetarians

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR