Going Vegetarian for Weight Loss by Laura Ng

Are you looking to going vegetarian for weight loss? Becoming a vegetarian may not guarantee you'll lose weight, unless you have these 2 key elements in place - a vegetarian weight loss diet and a set of fat-burning workouts.

What makes up a successful vegetarian meal plan for weight loss? Firstly, you should include as much whole foods as possible in your vegetarian weight loss diet. Whole foods contain multiple natural vitamins, minerals, fiber, complex-carbohydrate, protein and various other vital nutrients your body needs to survive and run properly. Failure to absorb full spectrum of nutrients can result in slow metabolism, which in turn can easily "help" you store excess calories as fat. I'm sure you don't want to gain more weight.

On top of that, you should consume your vegetarian weight loss meals 5 times a day. The more meals you eat, the more fat you'll lose. But each meal size will be smaller than what you normally eat. Take this as a guide - breakfast, lunch or dinner should make you feel only 70% full, and you'll insert one snack each in between them to form 5 meals a day. Each snack should give you a 30 - 40% satiety level.

Eating one big meal to last the entire morning or afternoon will add burden to your digestive system, causing metabolic disorder over time. You need a proper active metabolism to burn fat and control your weight. Hence, 5 meals a day is thus far the most effective way for vegetarian weight loss.

Also, as it takes your stomach about 10 - 20 minutes to inform your brain of your satiety level, so take your time to eat your meals. Don't you feel stuffed almost every time after you finish your meal? That's because you've eaten way too fast before your stomach tells your brain to stop eating. My advice is, use at least 30 minutes to finish off your food. Your body will thank you, and your weight will reduce as a result.

As important as eating the right type of vegetarian weight loss diet and applying the aforesaid tips for healthy weight loss, don't forget to drink sufficient water to hydrate your body. A well-hydrated body, together with a proper vegetarian weight loss diet will have its metabolism running optimally to burn fat.

But to keep your body metabolically active throughout the day to lose more fat, you need to exercise. Exercise not only improves your overall fitness level, but also helps you build more lean muscle mass that is said to burn 20 times more fat than a less active person with normal muscle mass.

The whole idea in these healthy vegetarian weight loss tips is to maintain your metabolism at an active rate under normal conditions, so that your body will help you lose the unwanted fat and automatically make necessary adjustment to help you stay in shape.

In fact, I suggest that you dispel the thought of going vegetarian for weight loss, but rather, going vegetarian for both weight loss and health for long term. Doing so not only enhances your overall well-being, but also helps to minimize the effects of global warming on this planet. You save not just yourself, but the entire population living on this planet as well. Killing two birds with one stone by just going vegetarian, how cool is that? Think about it.