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Do vegans burn more calories?
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Vegans are stereotypically skinny. But according to Neal Barnard, MD and his research team, it may not be because their diets are nutritionally skimpy. Vegan bodies may just learn to burn calories faster.
Dr. Barnard, who’s the president of the Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and a professor at George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, noticed that in one of his studies, after transitioning a group of individuals with chronic weight problems onto an entirely plant-based diet that was low in oils, their metabolic rates (or how fast their body turned fuel into energy) seriously soared.
“We found that not only did their calorie-burning speed jump up after a meal—but that extra burn was significantly higher than it had been when the study started,” Dr. Barnard writes in his book, The 21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart.
Dr. Neal Barnard
To find out why this had happened, Dr. Barnard peeked inside some muscle cells and came up with this theory:
Insulin escorts sugar and protein from your bloodstream into your cells, where calorie-burning mitochondria metabolize (or burn) fat.
But in people with high-fat, meaty diets, tiny fat droplets crowd the cell and inhibit the insulin’s ability to shoot the nutrients in. It’s like the 6 train during rush hour: the commuters are fat droplets, and you, the insulin, are just trying to fit inside the car so that you can get to work.
What does this have to do with burning calories?
“You want to get sugar out of your blood and into your cells,” says Susan Levin, MS, RD, the director of nutrition education at PCRM. “The less fat there is, the faster this process happens.”
If the sugar can’t get into the cells, your body can’t convert it into energy fast enough, and it starts storing it. This is what happens if a cheeseburger is your go-to snack.
Vegans eat mostly plants, grains, and legumes, which are just generally way lower in fat than animal products. So, their cells are clear of metabolism-slowing fat globules. A vegan’s mitochondria burn fat at the speed of the Acela train.
So is it worth changing your diet (rather than your personal trainer)? It will certainly be less painful than upping your burpee reps. “You could pretty comfortably assume that if you change from a high-fat diet to a low-fat diet full of plant-based whole-foods, right away your cells are going to be able to function better,” says Levin.
And high-functioning cells equal a humming metabolism; your cells will be burning broccoli at lightning speeds. —Lisa Elaine Held
What do you think? Would you consider going vegan to rev your metabolism (rather than adding burpees or intervals)?
When I transitioned to a vegan diet 2 years ago I lost 10 pounds with out even trying. I no longer count calories, and my muscles have that long, lean look I have always wanted. My energy is up, I am running faster, and (contrary to what people often assume) my workouts seem easier and more effective. Although I didn’t make the change for health reasons, it is hard to ignore the benefits. Thanks for educating me on some of the science of what is helping me feel so great.
[...] • Do vegans burn more calories? (Well + Good) [...]
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It is true. After becoming vegan the fat on my body just started meting right off. Even after 2 triathlons and a 200 mile relay race I still had love handles and felt sluggish. I’m 33 and I feel beeter than I did as a child and my body is like whoah! We are also helping the everyday cruelty by voting with our forks.
I have NOT found that to be true in my own experience, though I have been vegan most of my life at this point (and nearly ALL my ADULT life).
I find that being well-informed makes all the difference in Vegan eating – I eat a Live whole food, Plant-based diet…I avoid SOY, Gluten, CORN, DAIRY, Canola oil, any processed foods or refined sugars…I prepare my own foods & I feel so much better than I’ve felt in years. I suffered with IBS for years until I finally realized a reaction to wheat was my wakeup call to the allergy causing it.
In addition, dairy is packed with hormones which for us women, can upset our own hormonal balance – I no longer have acne or scarring by removing it from my diet.
I find there is so much mis-information out there about what is considered “healthy Vegan food” which has caused a lot of problems. Soy was promoted for so long but I know I’m sensitive to it & have done enough research to figure out how it is not beneficial unless in fermented form such as MISO…otherwise, the enzyme inhibitors create all sorts of problems like we see with the thyroid.
Please, if you are serious about good health, do your own research – don’t trust all you read, hear, or think you know!
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I am approaching my second year of being vegan and I agree. I have more energy.
Being vegan (abstaining from animal products) is great but you still need to take responsibility for your nutrition and eat plenty of vegetables, fruits, legumes and/or nuts and drink plenty of water, etc. Fortunately, being vegan makes it easy and fun.
The concept makes sense to me. The slower burning a calorie is the more tired you feel from eating it the less active you are the less overall calories you burn.
The fat theory is an interesting one, but it’s just a theory. I would believe the theory to an extent – enough to suggest a diet should be at least mostly vegetable based – but the article doesn’t present any evidence with the theory so I’m skeptical of it’s implications.
Avocados, olive oil, nuts, peanuts, potatoes… Really low in calories…
I actually gained weight when I became vegan…my theory is that your body goes to it’s ideal weight when it is being fed a plant based diet.
[...] You probably already know that going vegan can have some impressive health benefits. Cutting meat, dairy and fish seems to help people lose weight and lower cholesterol. So what’s the secret behind slim, healthy vegan bodies? Well + Good NYC examines whether or not vegans burn more calories. [...]
I totally agree, since going plant based I eat way more and am able to maintain my lowest weight yet. Same with my husband who has lost over 50lbs since going plant based and that is only 7 months ago! I use to restrict my diet and exercise like a mad women. Not now, I focus more now on toning my body and nourishing it, listening to what it needs. Somedays it craves whole grains other days beans and others kale! I just listen to it and follow it! I have so much more energy and weigh less than my teenage daughter!
I was vegan for most of my adult life. Then I discovered Paleo, and adopted a grass fed all organic Paleo diet. More like a vegan diet with a little bit of healthy organic grass fed meat, butter and eggs. I got this from reading the bulletproofexec.com website. I have not gained weight, instead have more muscle mass and more energy. I’m conscientious about organic and grass fed only. Also, no dairy or gluten, and since having gone gluten free, no migraines either – YAY!! I don’t count calories, instead, find that I need the protein (do green smoothies with protein powder daily) and helps with my energy level (I’m hypo thyroid). Any suggestions or comments? I’m open to other people’s thoughts. thanks!!
Natala,I was one of those people that thghout I would never be a Vegan, and then I had a heart attack when I was 40. My wife found your blog, and we started to read up on going plant based and being Vegan. My heart disease went away, and I will now be around for my children. My children will not have to get the disease that almost killed me. Now we eat things like tofu. Sure, I get shit for it, but I also know that all of those people will one day have to make a decision between getting over themselves and learning for themselves and changing what they eat. Again, thank you for all you wrote this year.Mike T.
I have to make sure I eat mostly plants and not a lot of carbs as a vegetarian. I will gain weight in the mid section with a diet that replaces the heavy foods like meat with more simple carbs to fill in the gap. When I first went totally vegetarian I ate a lot of rice. Nowadays I eat more green vegs (like I mean a lot…) and more beans, and for carbs usually a potato or maybe a whole grain organic tortilla. Fruit and nuts seem good in moderation.
hey everyone…. just read all the comments above and it’s impressive the results everyone has when becoming vegan or vegetarian. MY QUESTIONS HERE ARE FOR DR. BARNARD. Y
1. You mention in your study that the metabolic rate after a meal was much higher when a plant based meal was consumed. Was the overall BMR higher as well?
2. Were your study groups on physical activity regimen as well? Did you compare body compositions as well?? BMR can be increased after going on ANY DIET and just a little bit of physical activity by starting to gain some muscle. We all know muscle helps you increase your BMR.
3. Did you publish your results in a peer reviewed journal so we can have a look at the full details of your study, or is all this information only in your book mentioned in this article??
If anyone else knows these answers, please don’t hesitate to answer back!!
@LondonerAlejandra- Please read Dr. Barnard’s book “Turn off the Fat Genes: The Revolutionary Guide to Losing Weight”. He goes into great detail about how the metabolism works.