Lose calories, lose weight - go vegan

You thought overeating can cause you to gain weight but the fact is eating animal-based foods is the main reason for weight gain.

Hear this from Dr Terry Shintain, a Hawaiian doctor who is devoted to helping obese adults slim down and lead healthier lives. He said hunger is one of the three basic needs of your body, besides air and water. When you are hungry, you must satisfy your hunger and eat. That's absolutely nothing wrong with this fact.

However, to maintain your weight, you only need to eat foods that deliver 2,000 to 2,500 calories per day. Any calories above this range will probably cause weight gain.

So do animal foods satisfy your hunger, without piling on the excess calories? No!

Animal foods are so rich in calories but lack in bulk that you probably have to eat a lot of them to feel satisfied. By then, you would have exceeded your daily calorie limit. If you overeat at every meal and does not expend the excess calories, the end result will be weight gain.

Then you start to panic and turn to desperate measures like skipping meals, popping diets pills or going to weight-loss centers to lose weight. However, you can't sustain with these so-called weight loss programs since you are so used to high-fat animal-based foods. You simply cannot overcome the feelings of deprivation. Certain weight loss pills may cause side effects which could be pretty awkward for you. Wouldn't that add onto your misery .

Eventually you give up because no one can endure these feelings for long. And the vicious cycle continues.

Now, vegan diet offers a better solution to weight loss since most plant-based foods are low in calories but high in fiber and other nutrients.

Fiber is the culprit in reducing hunger and improves satiety. It helps to move food through the digestive system faster, thereby reducing the energy absorption.

Consider this : for 2,500 calories, you need to eat 9.4lbs of apples compared to only 2.1lbs chicken. Can you imagine eating 9.4lbs of apples to feel satisfied? You probably feel full after 2 apples and that's not even half of 2,500 calories.

That's why plant foods allow you to eat as much as you like-without consuming extra calories.

Vegans obtain 55-65% of their calories from unrefined carbohydrates. These complex carbohydrates actually speed up your metabolic rate even while resting, It also enhance the release of seratonin (a chemical in the brain which affects emotion, behaviour and thought) which helps to suppress further cravings.

You can find out more about the calories of each food so that you will have an idea of your calories count.

The whole idea is to eat the widest possible variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans and to eat when you're hungry, stop when you're full.

Ultimately, you still need to strike a balance of body, mind and spirit in order to lead a healthy lifestyle. The choice is yours.