Vegetarian diets are almost twice as effective as other diets when it comes to losing weight. How do we know? Because Science Daily reports on a study overseen by the Physicians Committee on Responsible Medicine that assigned 74 people with type 2 diabetes to either a vegetarian diet or a conventional anti-diabetic diet. Those who ate the vegetarian diet (grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, and nuts, with animal products limited to a maximum of one serving of low-fat yogurt each day) got about 60 percent of their calories came from carbohydrates, 15 percent from protein, and 25 percent from fat. It consisted of grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, and nuts, with animal products limited to a maximum of one serving of low-fat yogurt each day. A typical meal plan might look like this: a breakfast of cooked millet, plums, and almonds; a soup made with lentils, cabbage, and carrots at lunchtime; marinated tofu, bean sprouts, and brown rice for dinner; and snacks of hummus with carrot sticks. The conventional dieters got about 50 percent of the calories  from carbohydrates, 20 percent from protein, and no more than 30 percent from fat (with a limit of 7 percent saturated fat). A typical meal plan looked like this: a breakfast of peanut butter raisin oatmeal; a wrap with tuna and cucumber for lunch; brown rice with honey lemon chicken and vegetables at dinner time; and snacks of carrot and celery sticks with a low-fat dairy dip, or low-fat plain yogurt.
The bottom line: While both groups ate the same amount of calories, after six weeks, the average weight loss in the plant-based vegetarian diet group was 13.7 pounds, nearly twice the 7.1 pounds average weight loss of the conventional diet group.