Vegetarian Weight Loss Meal Plan by Laura Ng

Setting up a vegetarian weight loss meal plan is not simply about what to eat in a day. You should create the meal plan according to how heavy you are and how long you need to achieve your weight loss goal.

For example, you're only 10 pounds overweight, so you should develop a 3-week vegetarian weight loss meal plan to help you achieve that 10-pound loss healthily over 3 weeks. If you're overweight by 40 pounds, then you probably need at least a 12-week (90-day) meal plan for healthy vegetarian weight loss.

You can speed up your fat loss with a shorter vegetarian weight loss meal plan, but not advisable. Why? If you're overweight by 40 pounds or more, and if you lose weight too rapidly, your skin may not retract in pace to the rate of your weight loss, and you could end up having loose, saggy skin, which happens to quite a number of obese vegetarians and non-vegetarians post rapid weight loss.

Rapid weight loss can lead to heart problem, impact your kidney and deteriorate your overall bodily functions. That's the worst you can get. On top of that, you may need to spend thousands of dollars going under the knife to get those loose skin removed. It'll take you months to recover from the painful post-operation. Hence, I suggest that you fix a vegetarian weight loss meal plan in a healthy manner.

Let me show you a sample vegetarian weight loss meal plan so you'll know roughly what yours should look like, and create one for your specific needs.

Your vegetarian weight loss meal plan should contain 5 meals a day - breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner. Your snack should fit nicely in between your main meals. For example, you take your breakfast at 7 A.M. and you know your lunch is going to be at 12 P.M., your snack should go somewhere at 9:30 A.M.

Also, each of your main meals should render you 70% fullness while the snack should give you a 30 - 40% satiety level only. Your main meals should contain about 40 - 60% of fiber (soluble + insoluble). To be exact, you need to plan about 30 - 35 grams of fiber intake per day in your vegetarian weight loss meal plan. As for your snack, any natural foods like mixed nuts and grains, or mixed fruits will do the trick.

Such arrangement of vegetarian weight loss meal plan carries these benefits:

1. Fiber provides the bulk to keep you full over longer period of time. Fiber also slows down digestion so that you won't crave for supper or additional snack after dinner and the meal will last you till the following morning.

2. Your won't spike your insulin level and your blood flow to aid in your digestion won't appear to be in large amount, resulting in less oxygen reaching your brain, causing you to feel sleepy after lunch. That's what happens to most people who eat a hefty lunch.

3. The snacks will boost your metabolism to burn more fat.

The whole idea of an effective vegetarian weight loss meal plan is you should never starve yourself and eat too full. These can trigger a metabolic disorder, causing more fat gain than fat loss. Coupling with appropriate water intake, quality sleep and a regular exercise, only then can you reap the most of your vegetarian weight loss.