“Shape” Magazine Tells Why Vegetarians Gain Weight
Written by Vegetarian Star on May 12th, 2011 in Food & Drink, Nutrition-Health-Fitness.
You’ve just made the switch to a vegetarian diet, thinking those tofu burgers and sweet potato fries will slim your figure in time for bathing suit season. But two months later, you’re starting to look like the vegan blimp!
While on average, vegetarians and vegans have less issues with obesity than meat-eaters, eating veg may actually cause you to gain weight if not done properly.
Shape magazine has shared some tips for what you’re doing wrong if it’s hard to bend over and tie the laces on your leather-free shoes.
As you might have guessed, eating too many processed foods, vegan junk food and vegan sweets is a major cause of weight gain. After all, calories are calories and a double chocolate peanut butter fudge strawberry drizzle cupcake cookie made without butter and eggs is probably still not 50 calories.
And vegetarians who go on the “cheese sandwich” diet would be better off spreading a tablespoon of nut butter on that bread.
“Ounce for ounce, cheddar cheese packs four times the calories and nine times the fat of skinless chicken breast,” writes Cynthia Sass, a registered dietitian. “That’s why vegetarians who live on grilled cheese, cheese pizza and mac and cheese often gain weight going veggie (in addition to all those refined carbs, yikes!).”
The solution to this is to get more lean protein from completely plant-based sources like beans and tofu.
More tips at Shape.
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May 14th, 2011 at 4:03 pm
I gained so much weight after going vegetarian, just because I didn’t know anything about healthy eating and substituted meat with cheese, mayo and other dairy or fried foods. It wasn’t until I went vegan, that I lost a significant amount of weight. But even now, I still struggle with my figure. I hear the response ‘you look really healthy’ a lot. Which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the tone lol
A lot of times it has to do with physical activity and genes too.
I do prove though that you can be vegan and not a stick hahaha