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Vegetarian Weight Loss Guide - Proven Vegetarian Weight Loss Plan & Program to Cure Your Overweight / Obesity Problems Once and For All!

Warning: "Side Effects" After Following this Guide - More Energy, Fantastic Health, and Permanent Fat Loss... Even If You Lead a Busy, Hectic Vegetarian Lifestyle!

How to lose weight truly effectively and break through your weight loss plateau... the vegetarian way?

Some overweight vegetarians simply give up their vegetarian lifestyle totally and get into meat-laden (high-protein) diets for weight loss, which admittedly do help them lose weight fast for short term. But their health also suffer as a result. Constipation, headache, bad breath, nausea, potential kidney failure and heart disease... just to name a few. I bet you don't want to suffer all these bad consequences.

"You can have both health and weight loss." - that's what I always say to my fellow overweight vegetarians, even to meat-eaters. I did it, so can you! What's the point of getting the shape at the expense of your health, right?

You don't have to give up your vegetarian lifestyle, nor do you need to sacrifice your health for weight loss, when you have a proper vegetarian weight loss plan in hand. Really.

Here's the fail-proof plan with 5 proven steps (below) that shows you exactly how to keep track of your progress and see you through to your vegetarian weight loss success. Make sure you follow them to the letter. You'll melt and keep off the unwanted fat effectively. And stay fit and healthy for the rest of your life. I promise.

1. How to Kickstart Weight Loss the Right Way

2. Burn Excess Fat, Not Essential!

3. Working with Calories

4. Stepping Up Your Metabolic Power

5. The ONLY Short Cut to Weight Loss Success

As each step is specifically designed to build upon the previous one, I strongly recommend that you go through these 5 steps in sequence, especially if this is your first time here. Skipping any of them or messing up with the sequence for the first time may disrupt the weight loss flow and result in confusion. Bear in mind.

Also, as you'll need to use the tools and revisit the helpful information here to regularly assess your progress and help you accomplish your goals, I suggest that you bookmark this page now for quick, instant access the next time you need.

Are you ready? Here we go.

1. How to Kickstart Weight Loss the Right Way

You're overweight, but how many pounds should you lose? 50? 100?

You can't shed any amount you like or you might run into risk of losing far too much weight below norm and turn into anorexic.

Anorexia is the opposite of obesity which also associates with many health problems like mineral loss, bone loss (osteoporosis), irregular menstruation in women, impotence in men, constipation, deteriorated immune system, dry skin, tooth decay, slow heart rate, fatigue and shrunken bones.

What's more, it can cause your death too. I'm sure you don't want to be dying to be that thin.

Therefore, you must adopt a proper way to find out how much weight you should lose without affecting your health. Simple. Use our Weight Loss Planner below. It gives you a target weight loss to aim based on your height and desired BMI value.

How to use our Weight Loss Planner?

— Select your ethnic group. Then enter your weight and height in any of the 4 combinations: kg / cm, pounds / feet-inches, kg / feet-inches, or pounds / cm. Just bear in mind that you should only enter ONE weight and ONE height to avoid conflicting results.

— Click on [Calculate BMI] button.

— Refer to BMI chart below. Decide on a BMI value you wish to achieve. Then enter your desired BMI value in the respective box and push [Get Desired Weight] button. You'll then obtain the number of kg or pounds to lose in order to hit your desired weight.

BMI Chart

Asian BMI (kg/m²)	International BMI (kg/m²)	Category
< 18.5	< 18.5	Underweight
18.5 - 22.9	18.5 - 24.9	Normal
23 - 27.4	25 - 29.9	Overweight
> 27.5	> 30	Obese

» Achieving Safe & Healthy Weight Loss

Let's say you stand 5-foot-7 (170 cm) tall weighing 180 pounds (81.6 kg). Your BMI shows 28.2 kg/m². Assuming you target 22 kg/m² as your desired BMI, you'll need to lose about 40 pounds (18 kg) of weight.

Now the question is, how long should you take to lose that 40 pounds?

If you lose it at a gradual, safe and healthy pace, you'll probably experience a loss of 0.5 - 4 pounds per week depending on the quality of your caloric intake (we'll talk about that in great details at Working with Calories later). Let's assume you can maintain a healthy 4-pound loss per week on average, you would need about 2.5 months to achieve your desired weight.

Alright, 2.5 months may seem like a decade to you, unlike those calorie restriction crash diets that promise 7 - 15 pounds or more weight loss in a week. But rapid weight loss from these fad diets definitely comes with a price not worth paying for, especially when it concerns your health.

Even if you got "lucky" and lose weight abnormally fast with the help of these fad diets (using their vegetarian diet version), you could very likely face unfavorable side effects experienced by other crash dieters. Believe it or not, lots of fad diets actually make you grow even fatter once you give up on them.

Instead of focusing on those hyped-up weight loss diets and putting your health at risk, I think we should turn our attention to achieving weight loss results in a realistic time frame.

If it takes 2.5 months (10 weeks) to lose 40 pounds, so be it. Both your patience and concern for your health will pay off as you'll get to enjoy both tremendous health and attractive shape eventually. Even better, you can avoid getting loose, saggy skin after weight loss, which most overweight people never foresee this embarrassing after-effect.

So, think twice before diving into any crash diet that might cause serious, irreversible damage to your body, and embarrassing side effect.

An important point to note — losing 40 pounds doesn't mean losing all 40 pounds of fat only or lean body mass only, but a combination of both. You can't get to choose losing either fat or lean body mass because your body doesn't allow that. But you can control the combination with the right weight loss tactics.

What if you've shrunk from size XXL to XL but your bathroom scale didn't move that much?

Hey, that's probably good news for you! Because you could have gained muscle mass.

Look at this diagram comparing two equal volumes of fat and muscle. Obviously, the muscle block looks denser and therefore "weighs" heavier. [mass = density × volume]

Muscle molecules fill up more spaces than that of fat molecules, thus increasing the mass of muscle block despite the same holding volume

So if you lose fat and gain muscle mass at the same time, you may not notice significant weight loss on your bathroom scale especially the first couple of weeks. But you definitely benefit from building on that muscle mass while losing unwanted fat, in terms of overall health and great body shape. Therefore, don't get too uptight over that scale reading!

Other than checking yourself in the mirror consistently for any noticeable signs of muscle definition (oh yes, I do that too), I suggest a more useful tool to monitor your body fat level — Body Fat Calculator in the next section.

2. Burn Excess Fat, Not Essential!

What keeps you warm?

Fat... found under your skin.

Basically, your body stocks up fat as a survival strategy. Hence, it stores fat in places where it can transport easily for use as fuel in times of need. Not only that, fat carries essential fat-soluble nutrients like vitamins A, D, E and K, and beta-carotene that protect you against cancer and other degenerative diseases.

Besides, it acts like a foam cushion to protect your vital organs such as brain, heart, kidneys, liver, spleen and spinal cord against trauma.

As such, you still need to maintain an essential amount of fat to keep your body functioning normally while getting rid of excess fat at the same time.

In men, essential body fat occupies about 2 - 5% while women carry more essential fat at 10 - 13% (found in hips, thighs, butt and breasts) to support their childbearing function.

Sadly, many people do not know much about essential fat. Thanks to the media and fashion industries, our society perceives all fats as evil and over-emphasizes on a fat-free body image. Such ignorance brings health risks as people may unknowingly eliminate their essential body fat needed for overall health and well-being.

» How Much Fat to Burn Without Over-Burning?

To answer that, we need to find out your percent body fat. Once you know your body fat content, you can then determine how much fat you want to remove, without hurting your body.

Sophisticated techniques like dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scanning or hydrostatic (underwater) weighing give closer body fat estimation, provided you can well afford their hefty cost (about $20 - $75 per hydrostatic weighing and around $200 per DXA scanning) and traveling time spent because they're done only in labs, universities and hospitals. That's not the end. You need to measure your body fat on a regular basis so you can keep tabs on your body fat until you achieve your target.

By then, how much would you have spent on those measurement techniques? Thousands.

A more handy way is either get yourself a body fat scale at a one-off price or use our cost-free Body Fat Calculator (together with just a measuring tape) to do your own measurement at home anytime you need.

Whether you use body fat scale or our body fat calculator, make sure you stick to just one technique for consistent tracking over time. Switching between different techniques can result in inaccuracy and confusion.

How to use our Body Fat Calculator?

— For MEN: enter your height (in either cm or feet-inches), weight (in either kg or pounds), neck (taken below your Adam's apple) and waist girth (in cm or inches), in the respective yellow boxes. Reason: men generally accumulate fat around the waist ("apple-shape" body).

— For WOMEN: You must measure and enter your hip girth too. Reason: Fat "loves" to lurk around the hip (giving you a "pear-shape" body).

Reminder: Make sure you enter your neck, waist and hip either ALL in cm or ALL in inches or the calculator won't work.

To measure your neck, waist and hip, simply surround
the tape at the level as shown. For neck girth
measurement, surround the tape at the narrowest point.

Whether you use our body fat calculator to track and monitor your progress over time, these are what you should know.

First of all, what does our body fat calculator tells you about your body fat percentage?

Let's assume you, as a woman, got 27% body fat. According to body fat chart under Women category, you carry 7% extra fat above the 'Fit' level or 13% above the 'Athletic' level.

Next, think about which level you want to achieve. If you want to stay at just the 'Fit' level, you can set 21% body fat as your target, meaning you need to cut 6% of fat mass off your body.

Now, linking back to 1. How to Kickstart Weight Loss the Right Way, let's assume again that with a current weight of 180 pounds, you plan to lose 40 pounds based on your desired BMI value. Remember I mentioned earlier that 40-pound loss consists of both fat loss and lean body mass loss?

Therefore, with a targeted 6% fat cut, you can then aim to remove 10.8 pounds (6% of 180 pounds) of fat together with 29.2 pounds off your lean body mass (i.e. mass of body water, muscle, connective tissues etc) in order to achieve the overall 40 pounds weight loss.

Bear in mind that you must regularly monitor your body fat percentage to ensure it doesn't fall below the upper limit of essential body fat level (5% for men / 13% for women).

To recap, essential fat will protect your body and keep your body functioning properly. You can't afford to burn away the essential fat by accident or mistake. That's why I couldn't stress enough that you must check your body fat level regularly (at least once a week).

Though our body fat calculator can help you save hundreds of dollars at stages where you still got much excess fat to burn, it does bear limitation in providing accurate body fat percentage. In fact, NO body fat measurement techniques can yield exact body fat percentage due to too much variables in a human structure, even the best measurement techniques like hydrostatic (underwater) weighing and DXA scanning provide only close estimation.

But at certain point where your body fat composition (based on our Body Fat Calculator) drops to about 15% (for men) or 23% (for women) which falls within the 'Fit' range, I'd advise you, if it's within your financial means, to check your percent body fat using BOTH DXA and hydrostatic weighing techniques. Doing so will provide a closer estimation of your true body fat level than relying on our body fat calculator (or any body fat scale out there) alone.

Furthermore, the results from both can serve as comparisons to help you better assess your fat loss progress.

3. Working with Calories

Our bodies require energy to function, and energy comes from the food we eat. So, how does a healthy body typically handles the energy (or calories as we often call it) it consumes in order to maintain a healthy body weight?

» Where do Your Calories Go?

Generally, we can sum up the energy balance for a healthy body in an equation like this:

Calories In = Calories Expended + Calories Stored + Calories Excreted

When you consume a certain amount of calories, your body decides how much of these calories are needed immediately to fuel your basic metabolic functions and daily physical activities (calories expended). It then packs away a portion of the calories into energy reserve for future use — as glycogen in your liver and muscles, as proteins in lean body tissues and as fats all over your body (calories stored).

Ok, you may already know the above. How about the fact that calories also get excreted as feces?

Yes, researchers found human stools do contain energy in the form of dead microbes and unabsorbed calories up to 60% depending on your soluble fiber intake.

The concept of associating gut bacteria (aka gut microbes or gut flora) with calories emerges only in recent years. Not only do gut bacteria affect the amount of calories you excreted, they also play a role in the quantity of calories you absorb. Some preliminary researches reveal that each of us holds a different mix of bacteria in our gut which predisposes us to obesity.

That implies, for a same bowl of cereal, some people may extract more calories out of the cereals than others and the effect will add up over time.

I won't go into details about gut bacteria here. Just know this — you don't really absorb all the calories you eat, even though your body manages to break down all the food it consumes.

Surprisingly, some people possess the innate ability to expel excess calories to prevent them from gaining weight. Their bodies did this by burning off the excess as extra heat or induce more physical activities. In other words, their metabolism is always running at full throttle that helps to keep unwanted fat at bay. Thus, they form the group of lean people whom we greatly envy — they never seem to grow fat no matter how much they eat.

The obese seem to lack this ability due to an underlying hormonal or metabolic disorder. Though scientists have not found a real solution to correct whatever disorders that cause obesity, they do agree that eating a healthy, well-balanced nutritious diet does help to fight weight problems.

You'll find out why in the next section.

» What have You been Eating?

Definitely not loads of fruits and whole grain foods, particularly vegetables. I bet you indulge in junk food such as fast food and pre-packaged processed vegetarian food infused with sodium, sugar and saturated fats, thereby pouring in toxins, trans-fat, harmful chemicals and bacteria into your body.

Let me remind you that our bodies aren't designed to cope with junk food (worse if you're still taking in meat-based food as they contain even more toxins and cancer-triggering micro-organisms).

Our ancestors started out eating natural, wholesome food from the natural habitat around them. Over the years, our bodies have evolved remarkably to process these junks in order to survive but not without paying some prices. Insulin resistance, fatty liver, kidney failure, hardened arteries, hormonal imbalance — just to name a few damages due to abusing our bodies with junk food over time.

Obesity is a dire consequence of these damages, or vice versa.

Look, your cells and tissues ultimately call the shots in requiring and expending the energy consumed. So, you should naturally provide them with a steady and reliable supply of nutrients as fuel. Not only quantity is important, quality of nutrients also determines how efficient your cells and tissues metabolize and use the nutrients.

Besides the 3 macronutrients — carbohydrate, protein and fat, your body needs vitamins A, B-family (including B-complex like biotin, choline, folic acid, inositol), C, D, E and K and minerals such as iron, calcium, chromium, manganese, zinc, etc for optimal weight management.

Consuming adequate amount of these nutrients (coupling with drinking sufficient water to hydrate your body for peak metabolism) can strengthen your cells and tissues so they can metabolize your fats and glucose more effectively, which in turn boost your calories burning power.

You can find every single source for every single vitamin and mineral in real, natural foods — vegetables, grains, nuts, fruits, seaweeds and so on. You don't need meat, additives and chemically-processed ingredients at all.

Ever heard of garbage in, garbage out? If you feed your cells with garbage, how can you expect them to run your body in tip-top condition?

Despair not... as you can reverse the damage, once you start eating healthily again. When you gain back your health, you won't need to worry about your weight. Your body will take care of the weight all by itself.

» The Proven Diet that Shrinks Your Size and Keeps You Lean

Kardena Pauza, a well-known name among vegetarians, who used to grow up on S.A.D. (standard american diet) had transformed herself from an obese into a svelte, charming lady after she starts taking her self-prescribed nutrient-dense vegetarian meals (get her meal plans for free).

Then in 2006, she met with a horrendous car accident that torn many of her muscles completely and incapacitated her for an entire year. Instead of growing fatter due to her sedentary lifestyle after accident, she amazed all her friends by staying slender with her proudly-invented diet.

Like most people, I thought that eating a balanced diet of meat and fruits + vegetables will not make me grow sideway because I was "balanced", but it happened otherwise. Fortunately, I switched to wholesome vegetarian diet in time before my weight totally got out of hand. Guess what, my size shrunk all by itself (by the way, I haven't taken up any exercise regimen at that time yet because I was just too lazy for that).

Unlike what other crash dieters do to stay on crash diets that simply make their bodies weak and impair their immune system, what Kardena and I have in common is, we control but didn't drastically restrict our caloric intake. How?

By knowing how much calories we need to fuel our daily activities, we eat adequate good quality calories each day without starving or overeating.

Take me for example, I need roughly 1700 calories daily. This knowledge serves as a guide so I won't overeat or cut back too much on my calories consumption. I control my caloric intake but not reducing to below 1400 calories, which is my minimum threshold.

More importantly, I don't fill up with junk food that feeds me only calories but not nutrients.

Similarly, Kardena recommends 1600 daily calories intake in her meal plans based on the energy needs of an average woman. She also encourages eating nutrient-rich meals that contain about 1600 calories each so that they boost your fat loss, health and vitality.

Both Kardena and I feel contempt for calorie restriction diets because these diets don't furnish adequate nutrition for the body, but instead are designed and promoted by unscrupulous businesses to rip desperate obese people of their money only.

For us, we simply change our eating habits to healthier ones and stick to them long-term. Easy. And we keep off unwanted fat for years. Since then, I've been maintaining my weight at ±1 - 2 pounds consistently.

Countless studies and live evidence show that caloric restriction can only help you lose weight temporarily, but never long-term. If you've ever done that you should know. Otherwise, I wouldn't see you here seeking a permanent solution for your overweight problem.

» What's Wrong with Calorie Restriction Diet?

When you lower your caloric intake, your body will adjust itself to use less energy from the reduced fuel intake so as to save on energy. Consequently, your metabolism slows down and you'll feel sluggish, fatigue, irritable, moody, anxious, forgetful and difficult to concentrate in the short run.

Your condition will aggravate when you continue to eat unhealthily.

As you continue to cut back on caloric consumption, you become apathetic and withdrawn into your own world. And constantly feeling weak and sleepy all day long. Irrational thoughts and behavior start to appear which revolves around food.

Unbelievably as it sounds, your body will also try to store fat for future use (it's your body's survival reaction) when it detects a lack in fuel. The longer you diet, the more fats your body will fight to store fat (which explains why some dieters even after they slim down still bear high body fat content).

Meanwhile, your body will turn to muscle for fuel if your current caloric intake can't supply enough fuel. Lost muscles are difficult to replace.

That's not the worst, my friend. You dislike the hollow hunger gnawing at you all day long till one day you can't take it anymore and decide to call it quits. By then your daily caloric requirement may have dropped to say, 800 calories (dangerously below the minimum threshold of your daily resting caloric requirement)

Two drastic abnormalities happen when you quit the crash diet and get right back to your normal caloric intake of say, 1700 calories per day.

• Because your body had previously gone into semi-starvation mode for quite a while, the moment it "sees" so much energy supply gushing in, it will, spontaneously, push as much calories as possible straight into your fat cells for fear it might go starving again.
  
  Just like a severely dehydrated person in desert who chanced upon a water pool right in front of him. Naturally, he will gulp down as many liters as his stomach can hold. Or he'll try to stock up as much water in whatever containers he has as possible for later use.

• Bingeing started right after you stop starving. (Also known as compulsive overeating, bingeing involves gorging on huge amounts of food without the ability to stop or control eating. It's even more common and frightening than bulimia or anorexia.) Did you realize that the more you starve, the longer and more severe the binges get?
  
  That's because you want to pamper yourself after starving for so long. Yes, starving does make you feel very miserable. So you eat to feed your feelings, rather than your body.
  
  However, after the binges, you'll feel guilty, disgusted and depressed over your stupid act. And you get back on the crash diet next day. Not long after, you break the starvation again. As you can see, it becomes a vicious cycle. Most importantly, the excess calories turn into fats.

Now you understand why those who dropped their caloric restriction diets after weeks grow to become even fatter than before they took up the diets.

Kardena's self-prescribed fat loss veggie diet (get her meal plans for free) won't land you in such predicament. She doesn't recommend chemically-refined vegetarian foods over-laden with sodium, sugar and saturated fat that actually make you fatter. She focuses mostly on fresh, whole and natural foods.

By the way, I'm not forcing you to turn into vegetarian (if you've not gone full vegetarian yet) but truth speaks for itself.

Whether you're still confined in a crazy fad diet (that falsely claims they care about your health which in fact, they only care about your money) or S.A.D (standard American diet), one thing for sure — they carry far too little nutrients for your body to function properly. Result? Your body system goes haywire and your size balloons easily.

For the sake of your precious health, I encourage you to eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seedweeds and other nutrient-rich foods, and not sticking to certain group of foods which might give you these nutrients but not others. Some vegetarians don't take enough vegetables, that's why they grow fat, or they try to lose weight but they got stuck at a plateau.

But if you're still clinging on to some meat consumption albeit not a lot, I suggest that you ditch them immediately because they carry far too much toxins and harmful bacteria for your body to handle. More than 85% of patients who develop cancer and other degenerative diseases are meat-eaters. Even though you may have heard some so-called "specialists" or doctors who claim our bodies can do a good detox job, statistics prove otherwise.

Ok I know, asking you, a die-hard meat-eater, to quit cold turkey on eating meat may pose a challenge comparable to withdrawing from drug addiction. You may take your time to remove meat from your diet. Let yourself and your body accustom to more plant-based foods while reducing meat portions.

You can tell from your body's first reaction that it actually likes what you're doing — feeling lighter and more energized than ever... because these natural, wholesome foods are bursting with nutrients like complex-carbohydrate (complex-carb), fiber and many other essential nutrients that your body needs badly.

Oh, don't forget to quit smoking and drinking if you're doing them. Imagine eating nutritious vegetarian food on one hand, while smoking and drinking on the other hand, how on earth can you expect your body to turn slimmer and healthier? Make sense?

» How Complex-Carb Stops Excess Calories from Piling Up

Before I bring on the goodness of complex-carb, first you need to understand the impact of 2 important hormones on your weight.

In order to lose weight, you need to keep 2 hormones in balance:

1. Glucagon — Fat-releasing hormone important in weight loss.

2. Insulin — Fat-storing hormone that pushes blood glucose to your muscle, liver and fat cells.

Protein intake stimulates glucagons just as carb intake does for insulin. But carb can appear more frightening as it also suppresses glucagon release and deters breaking down of fat molecules.

Most of us face problem with keeping our insulin level (rather than glucagon level) in check because we eat too much simple (refined) carb. When you eat simple carb that breaks down easily, your blood glucose rises rapidly. Sometimes at a level too high for comfort.

Remember the "high" feeling you get after eating a handful of cookies?

High blood glucose in turn triggers large amounts of insulin release from pancreas and holds back glucagon release. Insulin then quickly drives blood glucose to muscles, liver and fat for use or for storage as glycogen or fat, resulting in rapid fall in your blood glucose level below normal.

Your brain is the first to respond since it runs on glucose. Consequently, you'll feel fatigue, irritable, anxious, loss of concentration and hunger for more food, particularly more carbs. Most likely, these symptoms, especially food craving, happens within a short time after you've eaten. If you eat more simple carbs again, the vicious cycle repeats.

As you can see, abusing your insulin day in, day out not only traps your existing fat but also adds more fat to your body as the unused excess calories turn into fat.

Obesity is not the only enemy you'll face.

Over time, some or all of your tissues don't respond well to normal amount of insulin anymore in removing the blood glucose from bloodstream. Rising blood glucose can produce two toxic products — free radicals and AGEs (advanced glycation end-products). Both will attack and wreck your cells and tissues. Hence, your pancreas must secrete even more insulin to deal with the blood glucose at once, before these "assassin duo" inflict more damages.

By then, you may develop adult-onset, or Type 2 diabetes and trigger other health problems like high triglyceride, heart disease, stroke and hypertension. All because of insulin resistance.

Unlike simple-carb, raw complex-carb contains dietary fiber and starches intertwined into an intricate pattern. Thanks to its complexity, your digestive enzymes and small intestine need to use up more calories and time to break down the starches within the fiber, thereby slowing down your digestion process.

You won't feel hungry so soon because it could sustain many hours before your stomach starts rumbling again.

During this period, energy is released for use at a more gradual rate without spiking your blood glucose and release of insulin. So, you enjoy a steady stream of energy over a longer period without experiencing those side effects associated with insulin abuse.

Maintaining a steady flow of blood glucose and normal insulin level also allows glucagon (fat-burning hormone) to share the energy supply load by burning fat. And if you become more active, the fat burning effect becomes more obvious.

That explains why those people who eat complex-carb foods like bran, cereal, oatmeal, brown rice, beans, lentils, green leafy vegetables etc get to burn more calories yet feeling more energized over a longer period than those who ingest simple-carb foods like pastries, sugared drinks, white bread and other refined foods.

Now you know why athletes, especially marathon runners, eat foods loaded with complex-carb to keep them energized throughout the running bout. Not forgetting that these foods also help them trim off their fats and make them so lean and built.

» How Fiber Flushes Excess Calories Down the Toilet

Food rich in fiber (soluble and insoluble) is especially beneficial to losing weight because insoluble fiber will make you feel full easily so you won't overeat. It also sits in your stomach for a longer period so you won't get food craving too fast.

On the other hand, soluble fiber forms a gel along your intestinal walls for fat and other calories to pass through the digestive tract without getting absorbed into the walls and into your bloodstream.

It may seem that soluble fiber plays a more useful role in removing calories off your body. But insoluble fiber helps you clean up your gastrointestinal walls that in turn improve absorption of vital nutrients into your body.

So, eating food rich in fiber, preferably 25 - 30 grams per day proves very helpful in healthy weight loss and efficient nutrient absorption. Hear what Dr. Rex Russell, MD, says in his book What the Bible Says About Healthy Living (in Chapter 10 - Mom Was Right: Eat your Fruits and Veggies) about calorie excretion:

"In 1970, Dr. Dennis Burkett's study at a military base in Africa confirmed the benefits of high-fiber foods such as fruits and vegetables. Native prisoners were compared to a group of soldiers. The natives who were studied ate vegetables, grains and breads they had grown. The military personnel ate processed sugars, white bread, and other refined foods. Both groups ate the same number of calories a day. Fecal material from each of the participants was collected for several days. The caloric content of the fecal material of the military personnel contained 20 percent of the ingested calories. In contrast, the feces of the natives contained 60 percent of the caloric content of what they had eaten."

» How to Get the Most Health Benefits Out of Eating

Now you see that eating the right quality food can induce calorie burning. And eating them the correct way will help your body absorb more of the right nutrients and remove the calories your body doesn't need.

Now, go learn how to make healthy meals instead of eating out or simply eating from prepackaged ("boxed") foods because they can't guarantee the best nutrients for your body.

After all, you can't control the way others prepare the food — amount of salt and sugar added, type of oil used, the number of times they reuse the oil for frying, quality of ingredients, level of hygiene in preparation, etc. Who knows, the cooking processes may have stripped off all the nutrients that leave you nothing but trash.

Preparing your own meals can guarantee the overall quality of the food since you gain total control.

If you need help in preparing nutrient-rich meals for yourself and your loved ones, I highly recommend these easy-to-prepare veggie meal recipes. Or, you can pick up her free 7-day recipes to try out first.

You'll learn the quick and easy way to whip up mouth-watering yet wholesome meals using cheap and common ingredients. That'll definitely help put your health back to normal and keep your body's calorie-burning engine working 24/7 round the clockwork, giving you more energy than you ever experience.

Best, help you attain your most wanted shape you've been longing for years.

» Go Easy on Calorie Counting

Counting calories is what this energy balance equation is all about.

Calories In = Calories Expended + Calories Stored + Calories Excreted

It seems as if we can change one variable without affecting the other. Alas, your body system works much more complicated than a mathematical equation. It isn't interested in achieving energy balance. It cares more about how to distribute energy to your cells and tissues to keep them alive.

In short, your cells and tissues are the ones making decision because they metabolize vitamins, minerals and other nutrients.

Their metabolic capacity greatly depends on whether you're nourishing them with quality nutrients at the right time.

Feed them the right nutrients and they will run on auto-pilot to keep your weight in check i.e. automatically expending and excreting excess calories instead of storing them.

Give them trash and they will run amok, ruining your health and your weight.

Therefore, focus on what you eat, rather than how much you eat.

But most weight loss programs (e.g. Weight Watchers which use Point system) stress a lot about calorie counting because losing weight is all about calories in versus calories out. In fact, these programs require dieters to keep a food log and a calorie reference list, jotting down their daily total calorie consumption and expenditure. By doing so, these programs make dieters think they can control caloric intake and hence, lose weight. As a result, many dieters become paranoid over each morsel of food they put in their mouth.

What a silly idea!

Come on, do you still have time to spare for counting calories at every meal, let alone doing it for life? It will drive you and those around you nuts, if it hasn't done so already. It makes your life boring, frustrating and miserable. You may find yourself growing obsessed with calorie counting.

Oh my, why add more pain to your life? Such negative emotions sure won't help in taking your weight loss to the next level, especially after you know that calorie counting gives only estimates.

Yeah, the estimates range from the calorie reference list from different sources, the same food (e.g. a vegetarian sandwich) served in different restaurants, the servings of each ingredient in one dish to the food portion you eat.

Gosh, the inaccuracy could arise from anywhere and everywhere!

Oh, I don't mean calorie counting doesn't work. Remember I said earlier that I control my daily calorie intake at around 1700? Now, there's a huge difference between accurate number and a rough gauge.

When I embarked on the switch to vegetarian lifestyle, I was indeed mindful of the calories in each meal because this was my learning cycle. After a while, I figured out how to gauge and distribute my daily calorie intake among my meals because I focus more on eating quality, nutrient-dense, unrefined, fiber-rich foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, coconut oil, beans and grains.

I can't help but to repeat this again — calorie counting serves only as a guide to enhance your nutritional knowledge in food so you can eat healthily. Don't let it mess up your life.

In a nutshell, when you're moving in the right direction of healthy weight loss, you don't have to get too obsessed with the calories-in-calories-out theory. Sure, you can check your caloric requirement initially as a head start. And come back to it now and then to assess your calorie needs, but definitely not as part of your daily meal routine.

So, my friend, ease up on calorie counting. Free up more time to learn how to whip up wholesome vegetarian meals. Eat healthily and your body will take care of losing the unwanted fat for you, on autopilot.

» How Much Calories You Need

To give you a rough idea of how much calories you need per day, here I provide a Calorie Intake Calculator for you.

How to use our Calorie Intake Calculator?

* Our Calorie Intake Calculator (CIC) uses Mifflin formula and yields more reliable results than those using Harris-Benedict formula.

— Tell us your gender and age in years.

— Key in your weight in kg OR pounds, and height in cm OR feet-inches. Any combination will do.

— Select your activity level. Choose one that instinctively matches your current usual physical activities.

— Push the button [Calculate BMR & DCN].

* BMR: (basal metabolic rate, aka RMR — resting metabolic rate) defines the rate at which your body uses calories to power its basic metabolic functions. It equates to the amount of energy your body expends when you're lying down doing nothing but remains awake. You need at least this energy level to stay alive and functioning normally.

* DCN: Daily Calorie Needs = BMR + Additional physical activities

* SCI: Safe Calorie Intake. Your minimum daily caloric intake. Try not to reduce below this threshold or you will disrupt your metabolism and brain functions. Remember your brain needs calories to function properly, otherwise the adverse effects like I mentioned earlier will surface.

* SCDL: Safe Daily Calorie Loss. Your maximum calorie loss each day without adverse effects on your health.

Important: When your BMI scores less than 20 kg/m², you'll see SCDL = 0 and SCI = DCN. That's a safety feature I set to stop people from abusing their caloric consumption (which might harm their health) when they have already gotten such a perfect BMI. If you still feel dissatisfied with your figure probably due to loose muscle here and there, and having fats stored at places which you feel they shouldn't be there, then I suggest that you tone up your body with our Free Fat-Burning Workouts.

So, to begin with, assess your current daily calorie intake (you can do an averaging over a week) and compare with your DCN derived from above. Think about what changes you plan to implement in your meals to achieve DCN or SCI.

Be careful of any fad diets that give you short-term rapid weight relief. Losing weight at the expense of your health is definitely a stupid thing to do. I couldn't stress that enough.

As your weight drops and activity level increases, you'll get different BMR and DCN. When either one occurs, I suggest you return here to re-assess your body's caloric condition.

4. Stepping Up Your Metabolic Power

Although eating health-boosting vegetarian diet can gradually shed your excess fat and keep you lean even without exercise, I don't encourage exercise-free lifestyle because maintaining your body at a certain activity level does you more good than just depending on a nutrient-dense diet alone.

Best of all.. ahem... you love to hear this — exercise speeds up your body's metabolism which will burn more of your excessive stored fat in less time.

» What Exercise Eliminates Your Stored Body Fat at a Faster Rate

Doctors encourage you to exercise regularly because it contributes greatly in both fat loss and overall wellness.

You need oxygen to break down fat into fuel for use (i.e. fat oxidation) and exercise is a great way to double, or even triple, your oxygen intake. Simply put, higher oxygen level in your blood leads to more efficient burning of body fat as fuel. Isn't that great?

But the effectiveness of fat oxidation actually varies according to the intensity of your exercise.

In various researches and experiments, researchers discover that when you spend 60 - 120 minutes a day for 5 - 7 days to perform low-intensity steady state (LISS) cardio exercises such as walking, brisk-walking or hiking etc, your body tends to burn more stored fat (i.e. higher fat oxidation) as fuel during exercise.

On the other hand, if you take only 30 - 45 minutes a day, 3 times a week engaging in short burst high-intensity interval training (HIIT) exercises such as strength training, you'll burn greater proportion of stored fat after exercise.

See the difference?

Now, we know cardio exercise can burn fat by moving your body at the same pace the whole time. However, when your body becomes accustomed to the momentum, you will hit a plateau where such long and slow endurance exercises use up your lean body mass instead of fat. As such, to induce more fat burning, you need to work out even longer hours. Once you stop, the burning stops.

But in interval training, your fat burning effect continues to last post-exercise — it speeds up your metabolism which helps you burn more calories throughout the day even though you've completed your training bout hours ago.

A more encouraging outcome over the course of 20-week high-intensity interval strength training show that HIIT generates a whopping 9 times more fat loss than in LISS. Another research shows that HIIT effectively burns up to 50% more body fat than LISS.

Interval training helps to break out of the steady state your body is in, that's why it started to gain popularity ever since its inception into fat loss regimen.

Other than taking half the time yet burn 9 times more fat, interval training will help you maintain your lean body mass. Cardio will melt away your fat as well as your lean body mass, which most people don't like.

For this reason, you rarely see bodybuilders running marathon because they want to (at least) maintain their muscle mass.

For those suffering from rheumatoid arthritis (RA), HIIT may just improve your medical situation.

"My research shows that people who participated in high-intensity exercise, such as sports, jogging or strength training, at least twice a week, improved in daily functioning and mood", says Zuzana de Jong, PhD, rheumatologist and researcher at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

She further clarifies that rapid progression of joint damage was actually caused by more aggressive disease activity, rather than by exercises. "There is a group of patients who have progressive damage, whatever they do", says de Jong.

On top of that, HIIT outperforms LISS in improving the health of those with metabolic syndrome (i.e. obesity, abdominal obesity, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, glucose intolerance and microalbuminuria).

At this point, which one should you go with, cardio or interval training?

Well, it all depends on your preference and how much time you can spare.

If you lead a busy life and want to lose fat FAST using only half the time and effort, then you probably want to go with interval training. Just a word of caution — though HIIT yields quicker fat loss results, it's riskier as you could get injuries pretty easily during the exercise bout.

For that matter, you should learn ONLY from true certified HIIT expert on how to perform interval training at its best effect while at the same time keeping injuries at bay.

Watch these free fat-burning workout videos and see how Craig Ballantyne, renowned Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) shows you the proven techniques to burn body fats effectively using the least amount of time.

5. The ONLY Short Cut to Weight Loss Success

Do you have what it takes to embark on the Short Cut — getting on to eating nutritiously and doing fat-busting interval training?

If you're all set to go, I personally recommend Fat Loss Veggie Diet to you. It comes in 2 editions — standard and deluxe, created by nutrition expert cum personal trainer, Kardena Pauza.

» Vegetarian Weight Loss Meal Plans — Standard Edition

In standard edition, you'll learn how to easily whip up a variety of energy-dense, nutrient-packed, protein-filled and (yes, very important!) tasty meals in 10 to 15 minutes. That will fit into your busy, hectic lifestyle when you can't afford to spend hours in kitchen making palatable healthy food.

Not only you get to cut your time in the kitchen, but also get to prepare these tantalizing meals in advance. And you simply pack them in your lunch box and cooler pack before you go. Bring them anywhere with you.

In fact, it saves you in places where quality vegetarian foods are not so commonly heard, let alone found. No more endurance over hunger or worse, getting desperate and reaching for any unhealthy food in sight.

Cool, isn't it?

Don't worry. The meals won't lose their nutritional benefits even though you prepare the meal the evening before when you follow the simple prep tactics in the recipes.

There you have it, a portable yet healthy meal plan for you on the go.

Altogether, you'll eat 5 tasteful vegan meals per day — breakfast, lunch, dinner plus 2 snacks in between to stimulate your metabolism, feed your muscle and starve your fat.

Well, it seems like a lot of food but the quantity of each meal actually ensures a steady stream of energy supply, while controlling your insulin level and caloric intake automatically without making you hungry so easily.

Once you savor these meals, particularly the rainbow salad, BBQ satay, cauliflower soup, mushroom burger, lentil vegetable soup and broccoli in black bean sauce etc (yummy! I love them!), believe me, it'll totally change your perception that veggie meals taste texture-less, bland and awful.

Actually, some people weren't vegetarians to begin with. They tried the free 7-day veggie meal plans with the intention to just add a few nutritional dishes to their normal meat diet. But after trying out a few delicious veggie dishes, they love it and decided to go full veggie and buy the complete 90-day veggie meal plans.

Best of all, they feel better in health and more vibrant than ever.

You might wonder, "Since the meals taste so delicious, won't I consume even more and gain more weight?"

Oh no, you won't, for the secret lies in the energy-dense, nutrient-rich ingredients which provide energy, satisfy your cravings and nourish your body easily. As they put a stop to your cravings and yo-yo effect on your blood glucose level, you won't feed excess calories into your fat cells.

Oh, speaking of ingredients, you can load up on fresh produce from your nearby grocery stores or supermarkets and health food stores. The best part is, they all come cheap, definitely much cheaper than meat and those chemically-laced vegetarian foods, yet bursting with vitamins, minerals and other nutrients you need.

For people who can't cook well, Kardena included quite a lot of recipes that don't require any cooking at all. How sweet of her!

Although other recipes still ask for stir-frying and sautéing, I'm sure you, or even a kitchen idiot, can manage that effortlessly and you should perform better with a few more practices. After all, you can still eat them half-raw, unlike half-cooked meat which can cause food poisoning.

However, I think first and foremost, you must learn how to slice and cut the foods and how to operate your blender and microwave oven. No sweat, my friend. It just takes a little common sense and practice.

I must admit. Personally, I find a couple of dishes don't look that appealing at finish, albeit they still maintain their flavorful taste. By improving the presentation of foods, it increases your appetite just by looking at them. So, how about sprinkling some colorful ingredients like chopped green, red, orange, yellow bell peppers as garnishes? Parsley, basil leaves or other fresh herbs can also do wonders.

The trick here is to play with colors that both complement and contrast each other. However, use minimal edible garnishes (like a sprig of parsley) because they should serve to complement, not distract from or add excessive calories to, your foods.

Alternatively, cutting the ingredients in different shapes, width and lengths can enhance the food appearance too. I do invest in a few garnishing tools like crinkle cutter, peeler, melon baller etc for such purposes. After that, start your creative juices flowing.

Of course, you can add anything to the dish as you deem fit, but refrain from adding meat or other unhealthily processed ingredients. Yeah, they'll only spoil the dish's nutritional value.

Hey, that's about all you have to do as the standard edition plans it all for you — the exact no-brainer 90-Day Fat Loss Veggie Diet Meal Plans that show you exactly what to eat every day and for every meal, and exactly how to prepare it. It saves you the trouble of figuring it out on your own. Oh, Kardena has calculated the number of calories of each and every meal for you too, so you roughly know how much you're taking in.

Here's a sample of a meal plan just to give you an idea of what you would get:

A simple breakfast prepared with budget-friendly yet nutrient-rich ingredients

Feel free to substitute certain ingredients in place of others to suit your preference.

For example, if the recipe asks for tofu but you don't like tofu, you can replace with tempeh or whole soybeans.

You can even shift the recipes around, for example, swopping the breakfast recipe on day 1 with that of day 3 since the calories in both recipes are very close. You can also reduce the portion size a bit if you feel the fiber-rich meal is too filling for you. That shows how flexible these meal plans are.

Want to get a good feel of these meal plans? Try out the free edition now.

After 90 days, you WILL see a dramatic and positive change not only in your size and shape, but your smoother complexion and the sparkling radiance in your skin when you look in the mirror.

In fact, you should start to notice a flatter tummy in about 1 - 2 weeks after you jumpstart the meal plans.

What if half-way through the meal plans, say 35 days, you already achieve your desired shape and don't need to lose any more weight / fat?

Well, you can continue with the same meal plans, but just add a bit more protein, carb and fat to your diet for at least a week, before increasing your calories again to find your body's correct daily calorie needs (DCN), with the help of our Calorie Intake Calculator. You'll soon learn how to increase your portion size for your regular meal consumption for optimal health benefits, don't worry.

Remember what I said earlier? Your body does possess the natural ability to purge toxins, under normal condition. But if you bring in too much toxins for your body to handle every now and then, over time, they are bound to damage your body's ability to absorb important nutrients and result in losing control over your weight and size.

I can never emphasize enough the importance of rectifying the underlying disorder at cellular level.

Simply put, if you deprive your body cells of vital nutrients over long periods of time, surely some kind of disorder within the body cells will happen. Hence, scientists have proven that the quality, more than quantity, of the calories consumed regulates weight.

Your cells love nutrients from an apple, not sugar and refined flour from a doughnut. That's what I mean when I say, kick-start weight loss by eating healthily.

Now, most recipes in Fat Loss Veggie Diet are specifically designed to furnish your body with core nutrients so that it can cleanse and detoxify effectively. Once your body cells restore their ability to metabolize efficiently, you'll find losing weight and breaking your weight loss plateau a piece of cake.

After eating these veggie meals, will you frequent the toilet every day?

Yes, you'll probably visit 1 - 2 times daily on average to empty your bowel. That's normal because it needs to flush toxins out of your body. Well, I bet you never ever enjoy such "call of nature" benefit with meat-based diet and junky veggie foods that make you constipate some, if not most of the times.

» Vegetarian Weight Loss Meal Plans — Deluxe Edition

If you grab the deluxe edition, you're essentially holding on to an All-In-One Fat Loss Solution!

Frankly, you can lose fat solely with eating the right quality foods. But if you want faster result, exercising becomes an indispensable piece in your weight loss puzzle (as I told you earlier). With this objective in mind, Kardena bundled in 3 more effective and powerful workouts for you.

Other than what you get in the standard edition, Kardena further offers you a fat-busting circuit workout and 6-pack-ab building program to fire up your fat loss progress, and enable you to sculpt your body shape the way you want it to be.

For women, you'll receive an additional female bodysculpting 4-week program to help you sculpt your arms and abs without weights. This will help you develop a lean-but-built body without bulking up.

For men, to bulk up your muscles, you need proteins. There's no need to risk your health by consuming proteins from those highly intoxicated meat. So long as you eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, legumes and grains, you can easily meet your daily needs of about 50 - 70 grams. You'll find out exactly how and where to get sufficient proteins to fuel your muscle in this deluxe edition.

Back to the fat-burning workout. So how much time you need for these workouts to get amazing results?

Just about 30 - 45 mins a day and 3 times a week (Mon, Wed and Fri, or you can plan your own timing to fit into your schedule). Just remember to work out on alternate days so as to let your body rest and recover during the break day. You'll obtain optimal result.

You might cringe at the thought of exercising since you might not have done it for ages, or you simply didn't do any at all before. Not to worry. That's what these workouts are for.

The special workouts included in this edition are carefully designed for people living a sedentary lifestyle, so you'll find it easy to begin with. And as you start to pick up momentum, you'll be thrilled by your endurance to last longer at each workout session without feeling utterly burnout post-exercise.

Enjoy the rush of energy and ride it for all it's worth!

Finally...

So there you have it. If you're looking for a deliciously healthy, protein-packed, budget-friendly and easy-to-prepare vegetarian option, then Fat Loss Veggie Diet is your ONLY solution!

Not forgetting the special time-efficient fat-burning + body-sculpting workouts included in its All-in-One Deluxe Edition.

You might feel skeptical about whether veggie diet can really help you lose fat and gain health due to some untrue things said about vegetarian you heard elsewhere.

Why listen to others and leave your health in their hands? Try out the veggie diet yourself (grab the free meal plans below) and very soon your ever-improving health and great body shape will show the truth! I promise!