Tag Archives: Weight loss

Hair loss after starting a plant-based diet

Hair loss or hair shedding is often reported several months after transitioning to a whole food plant-based (WFPB) diet. The medical term for the condition is telogen effluvium, a temporary scalp disorder characterized by increased shedding of hair resulting from the premature conversion of hair follicles from the growing (anagen) phase to the resting (telogen) phase. In the normal scalp hair cycle about 85% of your hair is in the growing phase (for up to 4 years each follicle). At the end of its growing phase the follicle enters the resting phase for approximately 4 months after which the hair sheds and a new 4-year cycle of growth begins. A “trigger event” can cause a larger than usual number of hair follicles to stop growing and enter the resting phase, which you will only notice as the daily hair shedding increases 3-4 months later. Regrowth of hair usually begins once the hair is shed but at the rate of 1cm per month it can take many months to show and up to a year to return to normal. Telogen effluvium is a self-limiting condition that can be triggered by illness, emotional stress, drug therapies, rapid weight loss, nutrient deficiencies or hormonal changes. It should be differentiated from other conditions such as alopecia areata, an autoimmune condition that most often causes distinct bald patches, and androgenetic alopecia, the gradual, testosterone driven hair loss that most often affects males.

Changing to a WFPB diet often involves a significant and unintended reduction in energy intake due to the lower energy density of whole plant foods, which can result in a period of rapid weight loss, i.e. a “triggering event” for hair loss. Although this weight loss is often welcome, not everyone needs to lose weight and it’s not sustainable in the long term. We put a lot of effort into educating WFPB newcomers on how to source adequate calories from high carbohydrate starchy whole plant foods (see our Energy Density page).

Hair shedding may also be triggered by a rapid reduction in estrogen, a hormone that has a positive effect on scalp hair growth. The standard Australian diet (SAD) causes unnaturally high levels of estrogen (a factor in many women’s health problems). Transition to WFPB brings estrogen (and other growth hormones like IGF-1 and insulin) back down to normal levels (improving many women’s health problems). The hair follicles initially go into a withdrawal state, resulting in increased hair shedding, but gradually adapt to the reduced (normal) hormone levels and hair growth returns to normal.

Medical investigation should be considered when hair shedding is severe, prolonged or not explained by recent lifestyle changes or stress. Potential causes include thyroid hormone deficiency, any chronic disease and nutrient deficiency, particularly iron and zinc. Please note that serum zinc is not a reliable indicator of zinc status and that most people’s results are often just above or just below the bottom of the reference range. Of course many health professionals will point the finger at a plant-based diet as causing nutrient deficiencies, but if you are eating a diet of mostly whole plant foods then deficiency is unlikely to be the cause.

If you have been losing hair at an unusual rate a few months into your dietary change then you can be reassured by the fact that baldness and hair thinning does not seem to be a characteristic of women who have followed a WFPB lifestyle for many years, in fact many report their hair has never been healthier.

References:

Page created 11 June 2018
Page last updated 12 June 2018

Maximum weight loss strategies

While most people will reach a healthy weight by simply adopting a low-fat whole foods plant-based diet, some may need additional strategies to achieve their weight loss goal. These strategies may be particularly helpful to those whose weight has plateaued after an initial period of weight loss.

Tips for maximum weight loss

  1. Eat enough moderate calorie density food to avoid becoming too hungry.
  2. Keep WFPB ‘fast food’ in the refrigerator and carry snacks when away from home.
  3. Aim for 100% adherence during the first 3-4 weeks.
  4. Don’t drink your calories as juices or smoothies.
  5. The food you have at home is the food you will eat – restock your kitchen.
  6. Upskill in food label reading.
  7. Limit or avoid whole plant foods that are high in fat – nuts, avocados, soy products.
  8. Limit or avoid dried and baked foods with low moisture contents (i.e. bread, cakes – even if whole grain).
  9. Dilute your ‘starches’ – whole grains, starchy vegetables and legumes – by adding more non-starchy vegetables to your plate, but don’t go higher than half the plate.
  10. Sequence your meal by eating low calorie density food first. Start the meal with salad or soup. Eat a piece of fruit before considering the cake.
  11. Remember that this plan is about eating more low calorie density food not smaller portions.

NB The less a food is processed the better it is for weight loss.

McDougall’s maximum weight loss plan

Dr John McDougall has a maximum weight loss (MWL) program designed to assist people to speed up their rate of weight loss. It is not suggested that you aim to eat this way all the time – it might be something you try for 3 or 4 weeks before returning to the regular WFPB program.

Basic principles include the regular McDougall guidelines:

  • Base your diet around starches
  • Avoid all meats, poultry and fish
  • Avoid all dairy products, eggs and oils

Also avoid:

  • Nuts, seeds, avocados, olives, and soybean products
  • All dried fruit and fruit juices
  • All flour products such as breads, baked products with flours/nuts/sugar syrups

There is a further tweak you can try for a short period of time to really give your weight loss a kick-start, known as “Mary’s Mini McDougall Diet”. It is based on the principle to make your diet as simple as possible for a short period of time to help you re-set your taste buds. You can choose one starch, e.g. potatoes, to form the centrepiece of your diet and eat this for every meal with the addition of a few other vegetables of your choosing.

Resources:

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Page last updated 15 February 2016

How to maintain or gain weight

Some people have high energy requirements, and getting enough calories may be a challenge. Some of the “risk factors” for having high energy needs are: endurance sports, male gender, high muscle bulk and high resting metabolic rate. It is not difficult to plan a whole foods plant based diet to meet these needs.

Even for those with average energy needs there may be difficulties getting enough calories. Gastro-intestinal disease, gastric banding, chronic medical conditions, cancer and recovery from prolonged illness may all present challenges for eating enough plant based food.

We refute the common belief that Australian meal sizes are too large: they are small and too energy dense. Western meals are smaller than those in cultures that eat a more plant-based low-oil diet. When it comes to vegetables and whole starchy foods most Australians are seriously under-nourished.

This culture of small energy dense meals creates some problems for “high energy needs” plant eaters. After a lifetime of energy dense meals, some people find it difficult to retrain their stomach to stretch enough to eat a large meal without discomfort. The common habit of only eating one substantial meal a day will not work with minimally processed whole plant foods: a full day’s allowance of whole plant foods will not fit into a normal stomach. This is normal for herbivores. See Humans are Herbivores page. Restaurants usually do not understand energy density and serve up inadequate portions to vegans – containing little starch and very few calories (Asian restaurants are most likely to understand “a lot of rice”). Large meals can even offend some people.

Strategies for getting more calories

  1. Eat larger portions* of starchy foods – e.g. rice, oats, whole grain pasta and legumes.
  2. Eat more for breakfast and lunch. Don’t leave most of your food intake for the evening.
  3. Have between meal snacks, e.g fruit and dried fruits such as dates and figs; small amounts of nuts; baked potatoes.
  4. Schedule your meals. Eat or begin cooking before you are hungry.
  5. Add calorie boosters to meals: e.g. dried fruits to porridge or nuts and avocados to salads.
  6. Many athletes have a small snack before morning training.

    Click here for Jenny’s sister’s whole grain fruit cake recipe

  7. Drink some non-dairy smoothies in addition to your main meals (i.e. not as a meal replacement).
  8. Dried baked goods are your friend for weight gain as they are more calorie dense than intact whole grains and whole grain pastas. Make whole grain cakes, slices, cookies or energy bars with dried fruit. Find a good wholemeal bread in your region (in Victoria find stockists for Irrewarra sourdough wholewheat bread).
  9. Be familiar with the calorie density chart and eat more foods from the 100-300 calories per 100g range

* What is a large portion?
The following are examples for an average sized male (weights are dry weights):

  • Morning porridge: 140g (dry weight) rolled oats, 40g dried fruit. Served with fresh fruit
  • Lunch: 150g (dry weight) of pasta. Served with soup or vegetables
  • Dinner: up to 200g (dry weight) cooked brown rice or pasta (up to 500g cooked weight). Served with vegetables and beans

We recommend you purchase kitchen scales. Aside from getting some idea of your portion size, they are very useful for getting the proportion of water and rice/oats just right.

See also:

Resources

Return to Weight Management page

Weight Management

The Weight Management section of our website includes pages covering Energy Density, Food Addiction, Satiety and Low-Fat diets. This incorporates much of the material we present in the weight management section of our one-day seminars or in our 4-part webinar series. Click here to see upcoming seminars and webinars.

A whole foods, plant-based diet will enable you to lose weight and keep it off without portion control. It’s first and foremost a health-supporting diet so you will feel yourself getting healthier as you lose weight, unlike Atkins-Paleo style low carb diets which have many side effects and are dangerous to health in the long term. No special products are required – it’s food-based and you can buy everything you need from your local supermarket and fresh produce store. Going plant strong is not difficult or expensive.Going Plant Strong

Energy density is the key concept for understanding how the type of food we eat determines our body weight. It’s also the key to managing your weight – whether your goal is weight loss, keeping weight off or avoiding weight loss. Check out our simple calorie density chart – it may surprise you to see that some of the carbohydrate-rich foods for which we have a natural affinity are moderately low in calorie density. You can use the principal of energy density to build meals which are full-sized and satisfying yet modest in calorie content. And you won’t have to worry about nutritional deficiencies because whole plant foods have a higher overall nutrient density than animal-derived foods or processed plant foods. People who adopt a plant-based diet for weight loss often express joy and relief at breaking free of portion control, often after years of unsuccessful dieting. Energy Density

Two-thirds of Australians are overweight or obese. This is not the result of a design flaw in the human body, lack of willpower or declining physical activity. The problem is that we eat the wrong type of food for our species. Calling ourselves omnivores does not change the fact that our anatomy and physiology suggest that humans are herbivores. Modern processed foods and animal products provide a hyper-concentrated source of calories that goes beyond the operating range of our weight-regulating physiology. The failure of our appetite and satiety regulating mechanisms to fully compensate for the richness of this food results in systematic overeating and gradual weight gain.
Appetite and Satiety

Eating food is pleasurable. We have dopamine-based brain reward systems that are designed to respond to high calorie food and other experiences that improved the chances of survival and reproduction for our hunter-gatherer ancestors. But modern foods like cheese and processed foods are ‘hyper-palatable’, leading to a temporary state of enhanced pleasure followed by addiction. Moderation keeps you trapped in this state. Once you break free from addictive hyper-palatable food, you will find it easier to resist comfort eating.
Food addiction

There is a lot of debate about low carb vs low fat diets. We prefer to think in terms of food rather than nutrients – i.e. a diet based on whole grains, legumes, vegetables and fruits. In nutrient terms this is a high carbohydrate, moderate protein, very low fat diet. There is a physiological basis for the saying, ‘the fat you eat is the fat you wear’, but the best evidence for this approach is the real world observation that people who eat low fat, plant-based diets are always leaner. Low-fat diets for weight loss

Our tips for maximum weight loss will help those who are still having difficulty losing weight even after changing to a whole foods plant-based diet.  We also give advice on how not to lose weight for those who are at or below their goal weight.

Resources

Books:

General weight loss:

Calorie density and the ‘Pleasure Trap’:

When weight loss has stalled:

Food composition tables:

Peer-reviewed articles:

Success stories

Page created 26 January 2013
Page last updated 30 April 2018