A vegetarian diet promotes fat burning and leads to weight loss … Study confirms

A study conducted by Physicians for Responsible Medicine revealed that a vegetarian diet increases the rate of fat burning after meals, leads to weight loss and improves risk factors for heart problems in overweight people, according to an experiment published in the Journal. of the American Medical Association JAMA Network Open.

The study randomly assigned the participants – who were overweight and had no history of diabetes – to an intervention or other control group at a 1: 1 ratio for 16 weeks.

Participants in the intervention group ate a low-fat plant-based diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes with no calorie limit.This control group made no changes to the diet, and neither group changed exercise or medication routine.

The researchers used indirect calorimetry to measure how many calories the participants burned after eating a standard meal at the start and end of the study.

The vegetarian group increased post-meal calorie consumption by 18.7% on average after 16 weeks, while the other group’s post-meal calorie consumption did not change significantly.

For years and decades, these findings have been groundbreaking for 160 million Americans who have been overweight and obese for years and decades, said Hannah Kahlova, director of clinical research at the American Physicians’ Committee. “.

In just 16 weeks, participants in the vegetarian group reduced their body weight by an average of 6.4 kg, compared with a negligible change in the control group.

The vegetarian group also saw significant reductions in fat mass and the volume of visceral fat, the dangerous fats found around internal organs.

The researchers also collaborated with researchers at Yale University to monitor intracellular and liver lipids – the fats stored in muscle and liver cells – in a subset of participants using magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Those in the vegetarian group reduced fat in the liver and muscle cells by 34% and 10%, respectively, while the control group underwent no significant changes.Fats stored in these cells were linked to insulin resistance and diabetes. type 2.

“When fat builds up in the liver and muscle cells, it interferes with insulin’s ability to remove glucose from the bloodstream into the cells,” said Dr. Kahliova.

“After only 16 weeks of following a low-fat plant-based diet, the study participants reduced the fat in their cells and reduced their chances of developing type 2 diabetes,” he said.