Will you lose weight as a vegetarian?

If you read weight loss advice in diet books, magazines, or on the Internet, you might conclude that a vegetarian diet is a guaranteed way to lose weight. Although surveys show that vegetarians tend to weigh less than meat-eaters, you may not experience sustained weight loss by turning vegetarian.

A recent study compared the eating habits of people before and after they began eating vegetarian. After following a self-selected vegetarian diet for six months, the calorie consumption of these people dropped by almost 200 calories per day.

Their weight did not change, but people seemed to be leaner. There were reductions in their waist and hip measurements, as well as their skinfold measure of body fat stores.

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