If you want to feel more confident in your own skin by revealing a leaner, more sculpted physique, you might be surprised to learn that weight loss likely isn’t your answer.
You read that correctly.
What you actually want to do is lose body fat - not body weight.
That being said, body fat certainly does contribute to your overall body weight, which means your body weight will decrease as you become a leaner and fitter version of yourself. The two are, of course, inextricably linked in that sense.
But, lean muscle mass also contributes to your body weight, which is why it’s important to distinguish which kind of weight you want to be losing.
Imagine stumbling onto a magical fitness lamp that grants you one simple wish. Without thinking twice, you begin rubbing the lamp excitedly and blurt out the following: “I wish to lose 30 pounds!”
And, just as promised, you lose 20 pounds instantaneously.
But there’s a problem.
As soon as you turn the corner to catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror, you shudder to find that you’re carrying just as much fat on your frame as you always have.
Feeling tricked, you rush back to the genie inside the lamp for an explanation.
“What did you do to me? I wished to lose 20 pounds and yet I still have as much fat as I always have! In fact, I look even less fit than I did before. What happened?”
And the lamp responds, “I granted your wish, but I fear that even you did not know what you truly wished for. What you wanted was fat loss, but what you asked for was weight loss.”
Frustrated still, you realize exactly what happened.
Instead of helping you lose 20 pounds of unwanted body fat, this hypothetical genie took away 20 pounds of lean muscle mass.
The point here is to realize that the combination of fat loss and lean muscle mass retention is the golden standard for true body recomposition.
After all, most people would rather reshape their bodies completely than simply deflate themselves into a smaller yet equally squishy version of themselves.
This is the importance of distinguishing between weight loss and fat loss.
So now that we’ve hooked you with the idea of vegan weight loss, we’re going to transition into a consideration of vegan fat loss under the assumption that moving toward a leaner, more chiseled physique is what 99% of the population is longing for in context of their fitness endeavors.
Unfortunately, when it comes to fat loss, there are no magic lamps or mischievous genies to grant you instantaneous success.
But, there are some proven methods to help you build sustainable habits that can start moving you toward living a leaner life.
In this article, we’re going to outline our five best tips for how to lose body fat as a vegan.
top 5 tips to lose fat as a vegan
Fat Loss Tip 1: Use vegetables to maximize your food volume.
I’ve personally been intuitively eating for pretty much all of the past three years.
The main thing my intuitive eating journey has reinforced for me is that calories and protein are the two most important variables when it comes to determining your body composition.
Your caloric intake relative to your caloric expenditure determines your body weight, and your protein intake (in tandem with your resistance training protocol) determines how much lean muscle mass and strength you have.
Carbohydrates and dietary fats are important, but they can vary greatly based on dietary preferences.
When it comes to fat loss, there are two main nutritional habits I focus on above all else.
Firstly, I base every meal around a plant-based protein source. And secondly, I always fill my plate with a healthful array of vegetables.
High-protein dieting helps maintain lean muscle mass, and a colorful variety of vegetables adds plenty of nutrients and overall volume to your meal to keep you feeling satiated while maintaining a caloric deficit.
So, if you are struggling to lose fat because you feel hungry all of the time, vegetables are your answer!
Here are two examples of how I break up my meals:
Tofu Stir Fry
Protein: I always make tofu the high-protein feature of my stir frys.
Vegetables: I like to complement my tofu with zucchini noodles, broccoli, bell peppers, and kale in most cases, but the list of potential combinations here is essentially endless.
Flavor: I enjoy low-calorie sauces such as soy sauce or Bragg’s liquid aminos (or coconut aminos) and seasonings like grated ginger and garlic.
Air-Fried Teriyaki Tofu with Cauliflower Rice and a Salad
Protein: As you may have noticed by now, I’m a huge fan of air-fried tofu.
Veggies: Cauliflower rice can be a sneaky vegan fat loss hack here because it adds a ton of volume for very few calories while maintaining a comparable texture to rice. You can also add a mixed greens salad with balsamic vinegar for dressing. I personally avoid oil-based dressings to save calories.
Flavor: I simply marinate the tofu cubes in teriyaki sauce for a few hours leading up to air-frying them for my preferred taste.
If you’re curious for more ideas, I highly recommend you view our list of the best vegan foods for fat loss.
Fat Loss Tip 2: Eat simple meals and prepare them in bulk.
When it comes to fat loss, nutritional consistency is the most important factor for sustainable success.
The simpler your meals can be, the more likely you will be able to consume them habitually.
Truth be told, I like to eat the same thing every day because I find that to be the easiest nutrition approach for me personally.
You certainly don’t have to do that, but I choose to because it brings me simple, easy, and predictable fat loss results.
During my 31-day shred, I ate blueberry protein oatmeal for breakfast, a tofu stir fry for lunch, and another meal of blueberry protein oatmeal for dinner.
Clearly, I really love oatmeal, but there are plenty of other recipes that you can try!
I also threw in plant protein pancakes and edamame pasta a few times to change things up.
All of these can be prepared in 15 minutes or less, and they are all packed with protein and micronutrients without unnecessary calories.
And, although I decided to make my meals fresh to enjoy periodic breaks throughout the day, meal prepping in bulk is also an incredible way to make your fat loss endeavor simple and sustainable.
Preparing most of your meals in one of two larger “prep sessions” per week can save you a lot of time and make it extremely convenient to enjoy a meal that fits your goals in a pinch.
For example, it tends to work well for many people to set aside a few hours on a Sunday afternoon to prepare a host of meals for Monday through Wednesday.
Some of the most common choices tend to be overnight oats, high-protein dishes featuring tofu, edamame, whole grains, and vegetables, and chilis.
Then, you can simply repeat that same process on Wednesday evening with a slightly different menu of meals for the second half of your week.
And this typically works like a charm.
So, if you’ve found it difficult in the past to put together nutritious meals in the midst of a busy work week, I highly recommend giving a twice-weekly meal prep effort a try.
Fat Loss Tip 3: Avoid hidden calories.
First of all, what are hidden calories?
Essentially hidden calories are any non-obvious calories that get added to meals that might be difficult to detect.
Generally speaking, these calories are accompanied by very little volume. And unfortunately, these foods are typically added without much thought.
They’re found in things like oil, creamer in your coffee, that small handful of nuts or seeds on your salad.
As a side note, I would highly recommend that you limit your intake of nuts and seeds if you have a fat loss goal. They are absolutely packed with calories, and this actually goes for all high-fat foods including whole plant foods like avocados and coconut products.
Restaurants can be especially dangerous for well-intentioned vegan fat loss dieters.
Although you can certainly go out to eat, be very cautious of added oil, and do your best to maintain a good idea of how many calories you are eating.
Additionally, don’t be afraid to put in a request for things like steamed vegetables to be prepared without oil. When asked gently, such questions typically warrant a gracious response.
If you eat out regularly, however, you will need to incorporate these habits unless you want to struggle immensely in your fat loss journey.
Fat Loss Tip 4: Intermittent fasting can be helpful for fat loss.
To be clear, intermittent fasting does not burn fat faster than traditional dieting.
There’s actually a slight fat loss boost to eating all of your calories earlier in the day instead of later in the day because your body burns more calories from food (known as the thermic effect of food) in the morning.
This is because your body’s circadian rhythm naturally peaks in the late morning hours.
Most people who practice intermittent fasting push their calories back to later in the day, so if anything, eating the same number of calories in a condensed window of time toward the end of the day burns less fat than eating some or all of those calories earlier on.
Fortunately, the difference is only on the order of 50-100 calories, but the point stands. Intermittent fasting does not burn fat faster.
However, intermittent fasting can make it easier to maintain dietary compliance when following a fat loss plan.
Take me for example. I’m naturally a very hungry person, so I tend to experience even greater levels of hunger when I am dieting to lose fat.
Although this doesn’t happen to everyone and there are lots of ways to minimize hunger, hunger typically becomes more pronounced the leaner you get.
Here’s how I personally manipulate my meal timing for optimal fat loss outcomes while minimizing hunger.
I eat an apple and drink a protein shake in the morning before my resistance training workout. Carbohydrates give you the energy you need to push yourself through an intense workout, and consuming protein within a few hours of training is a good idea if you want to build as much lean muscle mass as possible.
Then I wait as long as I can comfortably wait to eat breakfast, which I generally eat between 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM most days.
Then I eat lunch between 4:00 PM and 6:00 PM and dinner between 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM because I like going to bed feeling full.
I’ve also tried combining my lunch and dinner into one very large meal around 6 PM and that has proven to work fairly well too, but I sometimes start to feel hungry in the late afternoon, which makes three meals a day the more sustainable approach for me.
With a bit of trial and error, you can easily figure out which structure works best for you based on your schedule and perceived hunger levels throughout the day.
Fat Loss Tip 5: Commit to a step goal.
In a study conducted at the Endocrine Research Unit at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, men and women were fed 1,000 calories per day in excess of their Total Daily Energy Expenditure for eight weeks.
Given their caloric surplus, the subjects all gained weight, but the interesting part is how much their weight gain differed.
None of the subjects were allowed to exercise, yet the subjects gained varying amounts of weight ranging from 0.8 to 9.3 pounds (0.4 to 4.2 kilograms).
Through careful analysis, the researchers concluded the significant weight gain differences were due to changes in non-exercise activity thermogenesis, otherwise known as NEAT (which is essentially any activity that isn’t structured exercise like walking, tapping your feet, or using your hands while speaking).
Incredibly, subjects increased their NEAT by up to 692 calories per day, which only left about 300 calories per day to be stored as body fat.
These significant increases in NEAT, as the researchers noted, “could be accounted for by an increase in strolling-equivalent activity by about 15 min/hour during waking hours.”
In other words, you can burn an extra 700 calories per day just by getting up and walking around for 15 minutes every hour that you are awake.
And thus, we arrive at perhaps the most practical strategy to break through fat loss plateaus: consciously choose to increase your non-exercise activity.
I like to recommend setting a goal of walking 10,000 steps per day.
Ten thousand steps are the equivalent to about five miles for most people, which should burn an extra 500 calories or so per day (when compared to a sedentary lifestyle).
Although it may not seem like much, that can result in an additional pound of fat loss per week!
Here are a few ideas to stay as active as possible throughout the day:
Choose the stairs instead of the elevator.
Park in the back of the parking lot even if there are available parking spots in the front.
Take a mid-day walk break to enjoy the outdoors and refresh your mind.
Summary
Maximizing your food volume by eating plenty of vegetables when trying to lose fat as a vegan is crucial.
Keep your meals as simple as possible and consider preparing them in one or two larger sessions per week to save time.
Avoid hidden calories in foods like oils, nuts, and seeds.
Don’t be afraid to utilize intermittent fasting strategies if they suit your lifestyle.
Set a step goal and make a commitment to achieving it on a daily basis. Although 10,000 steps per day can be a nice, round number to strive for, you can always start lower and build your way up to more aggressive goals as needed.
Thanks for reading!
If you’re interesting in learning more about vegan fat loss and how to develop sustainable vegan nutrition habits, I invite you to check out our completely customized, one-on-one coaching program.
