Diets can be difficult for anyone, vegans included. People immediately assume that if you are vegan, weight loss isn’t a problem or it isn’t one of your concerns, but let me tell you, a difficult diet can affect anyone. While diets can be as easy or as difficult as you want them to be, truth of the matter is it depends on who you are and how your lifestyle will be affected, let’s not forget the degree of difficulty of the diet itself, but truth of the matter is, it doesn’t matter if you are on a vegan lifestyle or a regular diet, mistakes can be made. In fact I’ve written this article for that very reason, let’s look at some of the more common mistakes that vegan people make as they are trying to get some weight loss going.

Just because it’s vegan, it’s good for you – Let’s not start this shall we? Not all foods are created equal and even though it is vegan, does not mean it is good for weight loss. Make sure you avoid this common mistake as it is a big one! Just because a food item is vegan, doesn’t mean you can go to town on it, technically a rather popular cookie brand with chocolate cookies on both side and a middle white sweet center is vegan friendly doesn’t mean that eating that for your primary diet will assure weight loss, no matter how often you twist, lick and dunk it, just eating cookies for a whole day won’t be good for you. So the sooner you avoid this mistake the better.

Going processed – As soon as you start a vegan diet, you feel as though all vegan products will help you with your weight loss, the idea of not having animal by products in whatever you are consuming gives you a feeling of relaxation. Well this is a bad idea altogether. The fact that you are thinking that just because it’s vegan it can’t be too bad for you (see my point above once more), really opens up the doors for processed foods. If you are focusing on weight loss, never ever go with processed foods. Stick with the healthy, fresh items and you’ll be doing pretty well in the weight loss category as long as you don’t go nuts on the carbs.

Stick to the healthy ones no matter how tempting unhealthy foods are especially after workout.

Forgetting the exercise – A diet, regardless if it is a vegan, all vegetable, no carb diet, can only do so much. A healthy body and proper weight loss needs exercise period. There are no two ways about this, just because you started eating healthier it doesn’t mean you can forget going to the gym or hitting the open road. As a vegan, it is great that you are helping your body cleanse itself and really help the environment, but that does not stop you from getting the proper exercise that you direly need. No matter how good a diet your weight loss plans have, without getting a good sweat on, you’re going to hit a rather hard and tough wall, so make sure you plan this out properly.

Eating too many healthy fats – While healthy fats are great, they can help maintain your cholesterol and pretty much help with weight loss in the long run. However in our ever-increasing need to increase the intake of the good fats, we tend to ignore everything else that comes along with consuming the food. Once more we tend to think that just because it is vegan friendly, we can consume as much as we want, plus with healthy fats, it’s good for us right? Well yes and no, true healthy fats will help you with weight loss, however if you eat more, you will also get more calories, it does come with the food that you’re eating and your body can only take so much. So if you end up eating too much, you’ll not only lose your way to weight loss, you’ll even gain more if you keep at it, regardless if the food is vegan friendly or not.

Skipping out on the protein – Well this isn’t just a problem for a vegan who is aiming for weight loss, this could be a lot of people’s problems. Protein is a very basic building block for the body and everybody needs it in order to really grow and be healthy. People tend to think that just because you are vegan that you won’t get enough protein, but we know for a fact that there are a lot of sources of protein other than animal meat such as legumes, seeds, chickpeas and so much more. Now as someone looking for some weight loss, they tend to avoid the food items mentioned, but you shouldn’t overdo it. Research has shown with proper consumption of protein and regular exercise, the results have shown an increase in weight loss. For vegan or non-vegan people, the consumption of protein is important even during weight loss, so make sure you get enough of it in your diet.

Getting bored with your food – Okay, so being a vegan limits you by a little since you can’t have animal by products, with a diet on as well for weight loss, it scratches off a few more items off your list. While there are a ton of things that you can actually cook up, people tend to feel constricted during a diet and eventually get bored with their food, which then makes it easier to cheat on. Quite frankly you’ll have to look for the solution for this weight loss challenge. As a vegan the options as mentioned before aren’t few at all, if you know what you’re doing in the kitchen or you know a good restaurant that has very specific meals with counted calories, you are in the home stretch already. The culinary world is an adventure waiting to be uncovered, it just needs a little willpower to get through it, even on a diet, the options are crazy broad, you just have to know where to look.

Nope. Salad isn’t your ONLY option!

Being vegan is a trend – Well some people think this, and it isn’t right at all. The vegan diet can be tough but it is a lifestyle choice, not necessarily just a diet or a fad that you can give up as soon as you hit your goals. While most of the time becoming a vegan to get a step up with weight loss is a sound idea, I hope that the cleansing feeling will get you hooked on it and you choose to follow through with that lifestyle. It’s more than something that you do at a whim and it’s something that has a lasting affect on not only to ourselves, but on everyone else as well. It’s something you should really consider and think about.

And there you have it, some of the most common mistakes of vegan people during a weight loss extravaganza. Make sure to take these into account if you are trying to shed off some of that unwanted waistline, but in the end all that really matters is how you feel and do. The mistakes above can either make or break your weight loss goals as a vegan. Stay healthy!