If your weight loss attempts on the Mediterranean diet have stopped, you may find it simpler to lose those extra pounds by being vegan and eliminating all animal products rather than continuing to consume lean fowl and fish.
People who followed a low-fat vegan diet for 16 weeks lost an average of 6.0 kilos (13.2 pounds), according to research published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition in February 2021. However, when the same persons followed a Mediterranean diet for the same period, they did not normally lose weight.
“Because the Mediterranean diet is frequently promoted for weight loss, it was surprising to see that participants experienced very small changes — if any at all — in their weight on this diet,” says the study’s senior author, Hana Kahleova, MD, PhD, director of clinical research at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, DC.
Which Diet Produced Better Health and Weight Results: The Mediterranean Diet or the Vegan Diet?
The researchers studied the outcomes of both diets in 62 people who were overweight but did not have a history of diabetes for the study. Nobody was advised to limit or monitor calories, and no one was asked to adjust their usual exercise or medicine routines.
For the first 16 weeks of the trial, half of the individuals followed a low-fat vegan diet. Their diet was high in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes (such as beans, peas, and lentils) but low in animal products. The other half of the trial participants began with a Mediterranean diet, which contained everything in a vegan diet but also permitted dairy, fish, and chicken while reducing saturated fats, red and processed meats, and sugar. Following the first 16-week phase, everyone returned to their previous eating patterns for one month. Then they swapped diets for 16 weeks to follow the diet they had not done previously.
Participants on the vegan diet consumed around 500 fewer calories per day than they did in their typical eating habits. However, when they followed the Mediterranean diet, their calorie consumption did not decrease appreciably.
And the vegan diet did more than only assist individuals in losing weight. They also shed more fat mass — 3.6 kilograms (7.9 pounds) vs 0.2 kilos (0.4 pounds) on the Mediterranean diet.
Cholesterol levels improved with the vegan diet but remained virtually constant with the Mediterranean diet. The vegan diet resulted in an average reduction in total cholesterol of 0.187 grams per liter and a decrease in “bad” LDL cholesterol of 0.153 grams per liter.
While both diets helped decrease blood pressure, the Mediterranean diet had a stronger impact, according to the research. The vegan diet was linked to a 3.2 mmHg (millimeters of mercury) drop in systolic blood pressure without any medication adjustments, compared to 6.0 mmHg for the Mediterranean diet.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, both cholesterol and blood pressure levels influence the risk of heart disease.
One disadvantage of the research is that food consumption was self-reported and tested only at baseline and in the last week of each diet phase, so the data may not accurately reflect how participants ate. People also lost more weight during the first 16 weeks of a diet, regardless of whatever plan they began with.
Previous research indicates that a vegan diet may aid in weight loss.
The weight reduction results obtained with the vegan diet in this research are comparable to those obtained by adults with obesity in a study published in JAMA Network Open in November 2020. In this research, participants dropped an average of 5.9 kilos after 16 weeks on a vegan diet (13 pounds).
In addition, previous research published in Diabetes Care revealed that a vegan diet may be more successful for weight reduction than conventional diets. This research looked at the body mass index (BMI) and eating habits of over 22,000 men and 38,000 women.
Vegans had the lowest average BMI — 23.6 — well within the normal or healthy weight range of 18 to 24.9. The other diet groups all had average BMIs in the overweight range of 25 to 29.9: vegetarians who ate dairy and eggs had a BMI of 25.7, vegetarians who ate fish had a BMI of 26.3, and nonvegetarians had a BMI of 28.8.
A vegan diet is not always superior to a well-followed Mediterranean diet.
The most significant downside of a vegan diet is that it may be very restricted and unsustainable. This may be especially true for persons who are used to a Western-style, meat-and-potatoes approach to meals, according to J. David Spence, MD, head of stroke prevention and atherosclerosis research at Western University’s Robarts Research Institute in London, Ontario.
“I believe it would be very hopeless to persuade omnivorous North Americans to eat a vegan diet in the long run,” says Dr. Spence, who was not involved in the present research.
People hoping for modest, consistent weight reduction — and a diet that helps keep those pounds off — may benefit from a Mediterranean diet, according to Spence. They will obtain the greatest outcomes from this diet if they concentrate on avoiding red and processed meats, as well as other harmful fats, which participants in the present research did not perform well with.
In reality, the research participants do not seem to have followed the Mediterranean diet optimally, according to Spence. According to Spence, those on the Mediterranean diet acquired a lot of cholesterol and saturated fat (presumably from eggs and red meat) in the trial, which added additional calories to their diet and slowed weight reduction and other health advantages.
A well-planned Mediterranean diet has been linked to some health benefits.
Other scientific research shows that when followed correctly, the Mediterranean diet may result in long-term weight reduction. For example, research published in the American Journal of Medicine in April 2016 examined five clinical trials of the Mediterranean diet and found that patients who followed it for at least a year lost up to 10 kg (22 pounds). Another study, published in the journal Nutrition and Diabetes in April 2018, discovered that people whose eating habits were most similar to a Mediterranean diet gained less weight, had a lower risk of becoming overweight or obese, and accumulated less fat around their midsection than people whose food choices were less similar to a Mediterranean diet.
“I believe that a better version of the Mediterranean diet is the best diet for most people; vegan maybe even better for the very tiny number of patients who would undertake it,” Spence adds.
Furthermore, weight reduction is just one aspect of total health, and a Mediterranean diet has been related to many health benefits. When followed healthily, this eating pattern, for example, may help prevent health disorders such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and some malignancies, according to a report published in Nutrients in August 2019.
Here’s How to Begin a Vegan Diet for Weight Loss.
Dr. Kahleova suggests that if you want to lose weight quickly on a vegan diet, you should jump straight in like the participants in the research.
“A complete immersion is a fantastic technique to notice benefits rapidly,” Kahleova explains. She suggests the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine’s intensive three-week kick-start diet.
If this sounds too overwhelming, Vandana Sheth, RDN, CDCES, a private nutrition practitioner in Los Angeles and the author of My Indian Table: Quick & Tasty Vegetarian Recipes, says you can still benefit from gradually and incrementally shifting your diet toward a more plant-based eating pattern without completely giving up all animal products.
“Food is a highly personal experience, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution,” adds Sheth, who was not involved in the current research.
“We can urge individuals to eat more plant-based meals to improve their health,” Sheth says. “The Mediterranean diet is more accessible while yet providing several health advantages.”
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