The Flexitarian Diet – Definition And Its Basics
The flexitarian diet makes a big promise to those who dare to try it: healthy and easy weight loss if you are ready to give up meat almost completely. The author of this diet, Dawn Jackson Blatner, started from the insight that eating a diet based mainly on plants makes it easier to cut down on calories.
Studies show that vegetarians tend to weigh less than meat eaters from a statistical point of view. Moreover, women who are vegetarian or flexitarian have lower BMI than those who eat meat on regular basis.
It’s worth mentioning here that not all vegetarian diets are alike. You still need to count your calories, no matter where you take the most of them from. Actually you can get overweight by eating a diet very rich in potatoes and beans, even if you don’t touch meat or fats.
In the flexitarian diet, you can gradually cut down on meat and replace it with plant-based foods. The author of this diet defines a flexitarian as being someone who has two meatless days per week. This means they consume about 26 ounces of meat per week. People who manage to give up meat for 3 to 4 days a week can be considered advanced flexitarians, while experts would go for 5 or more days a week without meat.
Switching from a normal diet to a flexitarian one is much easier than going vegetarian or vegan suddenly. It allows you to take baby steps and give your body and your brain the time to get used to these changes. However, you should avoid eating packaged foods or meals, in favor of home cooking. This means you always need to have a fresh supply of foods in your kitchen and to enjoy cooking most of all. If you hate it, it might be very challenging for you to become a flexitarian.
In order to be effective, this diet must be combined with at least 30 minutes of exercising a day, for as many days a week as you can. The 30 minute exercise plan is perfect for weight control and maintenance, but if you want to lose weight, you might need to increase it to 90 minutes per day most of the time.
The flexitarian diet is suitable for all those who want to slim down or control their weight by their own, without joining weight loss programs. It is a flexible diet, thus being easier to abide to when compared to all those extremely restrictive and frustrating fad diets out there. Vegans and vegetarians won’t have any problem in following this kind of diet. People who enjoy cooking are also going to have an easy time in preparing healthy and tasty means that would help them slim down with barely any efforts. By making the shift to a flexitarian diet, you can lose weight while maintaining a good level of energy and an excellent health. This diet is very good for heart health, as it can keep cholesterol and blood pressure in check.