Diet for weight loss

Diet for weight loss on Plant-Based Nutrition

In general, individuals who are on plant-based nutrition tend to consume fewer calories than individuals who consume animal protein since most of their calories are coming from healthier options and fewer calories per weight. Not all plant-based food is healthy; here are a few suggestions to increase your chance of losing weight on plant-based nutrition.

weight loss

Eat More Fruits and Vegetables:

Experts in nutrition all across the world agree that the insufficient consumption of fruits and vegetables contributes to the obesity epidemic and chronic disease related to poor nutrition, especially in our country. Plant-based eating means that you have a large proportion of your meal that comes from plant-based food. To fight weight gain, reach the recommended daily intake of 400 g of fruits and vegetables.

Reduce Your Sodium:

Sodium might be considered a plant-based food but there is a strong warning to decrease our consumption so that we don't exceed the requirements of 2300 mg of sodium consumption daily. That said, it is important to understand that plant-based food doesn't always mean healthy food. According to some research, individuals who eat plant-based nutrition with reducing sodium consumption (2300 mg a day) showed a reduction in blood pressure and increased weight loss.

Reduce Your Sugar:

More consumption increases your weight so cut out sugar to be fit.Sugar is the other plant-based food to beware of. It is recommended to stick to less than 50 g of sugar a day. We challenge you to start looking at the labels of the food you eat daily and identify the amount of sugar intake you get from those foods. Many companies hide the ingredient by using multiple names to describe the sugar added; they use at least 60 names for sugar on labels. By reducing your sugar intake, you increase your chance of losing weight and staying healthy while preventing chronic disease. Reading labels can be difficult, look for the word sugar on the nutrition label, you will be able to identify how many grams of sugar is in the product.

While thousands of research demonstrates the health benefit of consuming vegetables as a way to be healthy, many still refuse to change their nutrition to increase our quality of life. Too many people believe that exercising, medication, and supplements are sufficient to maintain health. Meanwhile, experts in the field of health and wellness say that weight management is 75% nutrition and 25% exercise.

In order to ease yourself to lose weight, try to slowly increase the amount of plant-base food on your grocery list and stop purchasing animal protein and dairy products.

Here are some examples of items that could be on your plant based grocery list:

Fruits	vegetables	vegetables
Apricot Bananas Blackberries Blueberries Cantaloupe Cherries Grapefruit Grapes Honeydew Kiwis Lemons/Limes Nectarines Oranges Peaches Pears Plums Raspberries Strawberries Kiwis Watermelon	Asparagus Avocado Beets Bok Choy Broccoli Brussels sprouts Carrots Cauliflower Celery Corn Cucumbers Eggplant Garlic Green beans	Lettuce/Greens Mushrooms Okra Onions Squash Spinach Tomatoes Sweet Peppers Jalapenos Chillis Potatoes Spinach Squash Zucchini Sweet potatoes

Grains	Legumes and nuts	Herbs and spices	other
Basmati Rice Jasmine Rice Brown Rice White Rice Wild Rice Arborio Rice (Orzo) Farro Quinoa Tabbouleh Couscous Barley Rolled Oat Steel Cut Oat	Chickpeas Pinto Beans Lentils Split Peas Mung beans Red kidney beans Soy beans Black beans White beans Pecans Cashews Peanuts Walnuts Alfalfa Sprouts Carob	Basil Black pepper Bay leaf Cilantro Cinnamon Cumin Curry Garlic Ginger Mint Oregano Paprika Parsley Red pepper Salt Turmeric Vanilla extract	Vegan sour cream Vegan mayonnaise Vegan bread & wraps Whole grain mustard Bran cereals Honey Maple syrup Peanut butter Almond milk Coconut milk Coconut oil Olive oil Hummus Tahini

Plan your meals

One of the most difficult parts about adapting to plant-based eating is to adopt new habits in the kitchen. Instead of having burgers or roasted chicken for dinner, you have to find new ways to cook and bring more plant-based food at your table. If you are going to try the vegan approach, breakfast might be the most difficult to adapt, especially if you are used to eat eggs in the morning.

It is strongly recommended to try new recipes as opposed to try to adapt your old recipes to a plant-based nutrition. For example, a plant-based Mac and Cheese is hard to make. In the regular dish, cheese is the main ingredient and plant-based cheese is far from having the same taste and texture.

Here are a few ideas of meals you can plan for each meal. If you are going for the strict plant-based nutrition, make sure to select items that are vegan-friendly for the bread, wraps, mayonnaise and other condiments.

Breakfast

Breakfast can be difficult when you are used to a bacon and egg type of breakfast. Try to keep fruits, bran cereal and oat, and vegan bread in the house, that way, you will have quick options when you don’t want to think too much about what to make. Here are some breakfast ideas:

- Bran cereals with bananas and plant-base milk.

– Oatmeal in a jar.

- Vegan bread with natural peanut butter and no sugar added jam.

- Fruit salad - Hummus and pita bread.

Lunch

If your usual lunch is deli meat sandwiches, you will be going through a bit of a transition for meal planning. In general, many plant-based options can be quick and made in advance (i.e. salad in a jar). You can make delicious recipes of salads, wraps and soups that you can make for your lunch.

Dinner

In general, dinner is the time when individuals spent more time with friends or families. A plant-based dinner can be a combination of vegetables, grains and legumes. Here are a few examples:

- Veggie Burger with sweet potato fries.

- Vegetable, black beans and rice stir fry.

- Rice and beans with plantains.

- Grain bowls.

- Risotto with roasted vegetables

Conclusion:

I recommend vegan recipes to follow in diet during the weight-loss period. Eat more fresh fruits and green vegetables as it helps you to cut down on calorie intake also cut down sugar.