Does Not Eating Meat Help You Lose Weight?
Does not eating meat help you lose weight?
I take it that you must be desperate to drop a few pounds if you’re seriously thinking about dumping delicious meat in favor of not-so delicious food that isn’t meat for that express purpose.
Well, will doing that work?
According to research, the answer is a resounding yes!
RESEARCH
Published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, a meta-analysis of 15 studies was conducted by researchers in an attempt to find out the difference in body weight changes when people undergo vegetarian and meat-eating diets. Concerning these studies, there were a total of 755 subjects from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Poland, and the United States. Also, the studies that fit the researcher’s criteria ran from as short as four weeks to as long as two years. What the researchers found was that participants who cut meat out of their diets averaged a loss of 10 lbs, which was about double the weight lost by the other intervention group. Even more noteworthy is that the non-meat eaters lost weight without having to monitor their calorie intake or increase the amount they exercised.
In a separate meta-analysis published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, researchers examined 12 randomized controlled trials involving 1151 subjects who followed a vegetarian or non-vegetarian diet for a median length of 18 weeks. Similar to the other study, people on a vegetarian diet experienced greater weight loss than individuals who consumed animal products. Further, those who ate a vegetarian diet that went entirely vegan lost more weight than lacto-ovo-vegetarians who primarily ate plant foods but also included dairy and eggs in their diet.
ANALYSIS
Given the preceding information, the findings are proof that annoying vegans are right when they say that meat is bad, one of the reasons being that it’s responsible for weight gain, right?
Actually, no.
The findings prove no such thing!
The observed weight loss from abandoning meat wasn’t by magic by simply not eating it. No, by not eating meat and not replacing the calories with other food items, the participants consumed fewer calories than their bodies expended, which caused them to enter into a caloric deficit that then resulted in weight loss. With that said, had participants stopped eating meat and replaced the calories with plant-based items, not a damn thing would’ve happened.
As such, because a calorie deficit is what’s needed for weight loss, the same results would’ve occurred had the subjects kept eating meat but lowered their total calorie intake. Foregoing meat just made the task of reducing their calories easier to do and comply with, just like excluding carbs, fat, sugar, and other foods and/or food groups does in many popular diets that people give all the credit to while being oblivious to the fact that what’s really responsible for their success is a fucking calorie deficit.
Glossary: caloric deficit, calories, diet, exercise
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