Dieters who go vegetarian not only lose weight more effectively than those on a low-calorie diet, but also improve their metabolism by reducing muscle fat, a new study shows. For the study, seventy-four patients with type 2 diabetes were randomly assigned to follow either a vegetarian diet or a conventional anti-diabetic diet. The vegetarian diet consisted of vegetables, grains, legumes, fruits and nuts, with animal products limited to a maximum of one serving of low-fat yogurt per day; the conventional dieters followed the official recommendations of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD). Both diets were limited to 500 kilocalories per day compared to an isocaloric intake for each individual.
The vegetarian diet was found to be almost twice as effective in reducing body weight, resulting in an average loss of 6.2 kg compared to 3.2 kg for conventional diets. Both diets produced a similar reduction in subcutaneous fat.
