A Low-Fat Vegan Diet May Help People Lose Weight Without…

A Low-Fat Vegan Diet May Help People Lose Weight Without Counting Calories Weight loss advice has long centered on calorie restriction and smaller portions. A new randomized trial published in JAMA Network Open points to a different mechanism entirely, changing what's on the plate rather than how much of it there is. Researchers conducted a 16 week randomized clinical trial involving adults with overweight. Participants were assigned either to an ad libitum low fat vegan diet centered on fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes, or to a control group that continued eating as usual. Neither group was given a calorie target or told to limit their intake in any way. Researchers tracked each participant's dietary energy density, calculated as total daily calorie intake divided by the total weight of food consumed. This allowed them to see whether people were eating less food overall, or simply eating food that delivered fewer calories per bite. The total weight of food consumed did not change significantly in either group, participants following the vegan diet continued eating roughly the same amount of food by weight as b