Even if you’re not a life-long vegan or not committed to a vegan lifestyle per se, you can benefit from a low fat vegan diet if you’re trying to lose weight. A diet free from meat and dairy is in any case good for health and may be far less calorie dense. So a low fat, plant based diet can get you to drop the pounds, get fitter and healthier too. According to some experts just three weeks of maintaining a low fat vegan diet can have a beneficial impact on excess weight.
General guidelines
Low fat vegan is, as the term describes, vegan foods – no meat, poultry or dairy, homey or any other animal based foods – that are also low in fat. The idea is to keep your intake as close to oil free as possible and to pick healthy foods that are not high in calories but are still high in terms of nutrition.
The idea is to concentrate on including healthy, whole and natural foods in the diet – plenty of fruit and vegetables and whole grains should be included. Cut out sweets and oils from the diet as far as possible; particularly processed or refined fats and sugars.
Dos and don’ts of a low fat vegan diet
Don’t assume that something is low fat or even healthy just because it is labeled “vegan”. It could still be loaded with processed fats and sugars and could be very high calorie nutrition food. So don’t opt for the packaged goods such as cookies and breads, dressings and even non dairy milk.
A lot of fat is sneaked into a lot of foods so be careful about the fat content of everything you eat. So cut out the vegan desserts, sauces, fries, non dairy cheeses and sauces because they could be quite high in calories.
Also beware of some natural foods that can be quite high in fats too – take avocados for instance – each fruit contains hundreds of calories and about 23% of it consists of fats. Concentrate on leafy greens, root veggies, legumes, beans and so on instead.
To the extent possible, cook all or most of what you eat – and try to broil, steam, poach, grill and bake your food. The way that you cook and your cooking medium is of course very important too. You can find a number of excellent low fat, vegan recipes around the net that will help you with your weight loss goal.