My brand new cookbook is out on Amazon! It’s called “30-Minute Plant-Based Recipes” and it’s perfect for busy vegans. Grab it now!
Hi guys, since launching the 6-Week Body Transformation program in January this year, I’ve gotten many questions from you on the topic of vegan weight loss.
All of the fitness-related questions were answered by Mika, a personal trainer who helps people live healthier lifestyles.
1. I’m working out and eating healthy, but my weight won’t budge.
There a few factors that can cause this. Here are the main two. Eating healthy is always the right thing to do, however, it is not enough when it comes to losing weight on a scale.
A very simple ratio to lose weight is “calories in” vs “calories out”. It is really that simple. First, it is important to identify your maintenance calorie intake. In order to determine your calorie maintenance, you will need to track everything you eat (as you normally eat on a daily basis) and plug it into the fitness pal app. The app is free and for the best results, you will need to plug every single item that you consume.
Track everything you eat for one week. Weigh yourself at the beginning of the week and then at the end of the week (preferably in the morning upon waking up).
The next steps will depend on what you see on the scale. Here are different scenarios:
a) You lost a pound or more. This means that you’re where you need to be in terms of calorie intake. Keep eating the same number of calories a day for example 2,000.
b) You weigh the same. This means you are at your calorie maintenance and now you will need to adjust it. By adjustment, I mean subtracting about 200 to 300 calories a day and repeating the process of weighting and tracking what you eat for one more week. I guarantee you will see the weight dropping.
c) You gained weight. This means you are at a caloric surplus and you will need to decrease the daily calorie intake by 400-500cal.
Another factor from stopping you from losing weight is muscle gain. If you are working out in the gym and lift weights 4-5 days a week, you gain muscle.
Contrary to what you may have heard, muscle doesn’t weigh more than fat. A pound of muscle is equivalent to a pound of fat in terms of weight.
If you gain muscle and lose fat (taking in consideration lifting and cardio) your body takes a different shape. A pound of muscle doesn’t weigh more than a pound of fat, a pound is a pound. However, a muscle is much denser than fat and occupies way less space, which means your body shapes in a different way.
That is why it is very important to take pictures of your fitness journey weekly as your weight might stay the same or fluctuate minimally, but your body can look drastically different.
2. I’d like to lose weight on a vegan diet but I’m afraid if I start eating less I won’t get all the nutrients.
As Mika has mentioned above, in order to lose weight, you will have to be at a calorie deficit. But that doesn’t mean you will need to sacrifice nutrition!
What you will need to do is to create a thoughtful, strategic meal plan that you can follow. I’d be very careful and not simply cut the snacks out of your life or try to eat fewer fruits.
Living a plant-based lifestyle can be a challenge and layering weight loss on top can seem very complicated at first.
The best thing to do is to follow the Vegan Plate Formula once you’ve determined what your daily caloric intake should be. Here’s the link to the original post I wrote.
3. I hate doing cardio and most workout programs require cardio to lose weight.
If you hate cardio, you don’t have to do cardio. However, as I mentioned in the previous question, there is absolutely no way around CALORIES IN (calories that you consume) VS. CALORIES OUT (calories that you burn).
There is absolutely no need to do cardio if you are in a caloric deficit. For example, if your caloric maintenance is at 2000cal and you ate only 1700cal per day during the week, you will lose weight.
The cardio is a tool that allows the process to work faster and to allow you to consume more food.
Taking the above example, if your caloric maintenance is 2000cal, you ate 1700, and then ran on the treadmill and burnt 300. Now you are not on a 300cal deficit (2000-1700) but on a 600cal deficit (2000-1700-300=1400).
You can certainly leave it at that and lose weight way faster or enjoy another lean meal that is about 300-400 calories.
Doing cardio comes down to personal preference but it has to be coordinated with nutrition, otherwise, it simply won’t work.
4. What is the best exercise routine for weight loss? i.e. cardio and weights, HIIT and yoga, etc.
The best exercise for a weight loss is putting a fork down when hitting your daily calorie intake, which must be on a deficit of your maintenance. Nutrition won’t get you fit or strong though. So, exercise is a very important piece of the puzzle.
Here are the best exercise routines to lose weight faster:
1️) Weights. Lifting weights is important because it maximizes the muscle gain (by muscle gain I mean lean muscle tissue not even near Arnold-style, or Sylvester Stallone-style muscle).
The only problem with solely lifting weights is that it doesn’t burn many calories at all! This is especially true with small muscle groups when you burn about 300 to 400 calories in an hour doing your best.
2️) HIIT is great, however, I wouldn’t recommend HIIT program daily. It must be included in your exercise plan once or twice a week depending on the intensity. It is hard to recover for the body from an intense HIIT workout rather than LIIS.
There is a myth that HIIT burns calories post-workout up to 24 hours, that is not necessarily true. We are talking about maybe 40 extra calories on a high heart rate for about 10-15min post-workout. You are not losing calories after 6 hours after you complete a HIIT session sitting on a couch. It doesn’t work like that. (Sorry went a little crazy here lol)
3️) Yoga is the same as lifting, it doesn’t burn many calories at ALL! Doesn’t matter how much you sweat in a particular pose, yoga doesn’t burn as many calories as simple cardio.
What about HOT yoga? You lose a bunch of water weight and once you hydrate and eat carbs your weight will be back within 42hrs.
5. Are there supplements I can take to speed up weight loss?
Save your money, eat enough protein, keep the caloric deficit and you are on the right path. I would only suggest vitamins. That’s about it.
6. How do I control my hunger so that I don’t binge on high-calorie foods?
You simply have to eat more with less. What that means is you must consume less calorie-dense foods.
Minimize the food that contains more calories in a small portion because it won’t fill up your stomach.
Let’s say you want to eat a salad for lunch. Instead of having a small bowl with tons of unhealthy oils, add more spinach, more cucumbers, tomatoes, onions to make the bowl huge so you will chew it for longer.
Another example is rice. Instead of eating half of the cup of cooked white rice (which can be 120-150cal) eat cauliflower rice which contains only about 10-20cal for the same portion. It means that you can have more of it and be full.
7. How do I handle my cravings for certain foods like sweets?
I would suggest drinking sugar-free soda, low sugar protein bars, fresh fruits, and smoothies.
8. I’ve been exercising for months, why am I gaining weight?
You are simply eating more than you burn. Let’s say your caloric maintenance is a 2000cal per day and you eat 2500cal. Later you burn 300 at the gym…you are still on a 200 caloric surplus and you will gain weight. In order to lose weight properly, food will have to be measured and tracked.
My brand new cookbook is out on Amazon! It’s called “30-Minute Plant-Based Recipes” and it’s perfect for busy vegans. Grab it now!
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