Weight loss schemes have been around since Twiggy appeared in the 1960s and women immediately wanted to be as rail-thin as she was. Unfortunately, a lot of diets are just that, schemes to get women to do silly things like only drink organic lemon water with cayenne pepper for a week. Yes, you’ll lose weight doing so but once the week is over you’ll celebrate with pizza and ice cream while your body hoards the calories it was missing all week and turns them into fat.
Fortunately for anyone reading here hoping to lose weight on a pescatarian diet, this diet is not a scheme. In fact, pescatarian weight loss really comes from embracing a pescatarian lifestyle, not from starving yourself for a week. Now that I’ve used the word “pescatarian” three times in a single paragraph, you’re probably wondering what it means. A pescatarian diet is a vegetarian diet which includes fish and it’s something I challenged myself to do about a month ago.
I Hate Fish
Well, this diet isn’t for you. Instead of eating red meat or poultry, pescatarians eat healthier fish proteins or vegetarian substitutes like tofu. What’s more, fish is richer in iron than other meats which helps people with iron deficiencies or those who constantly feel sluggish. Without feeling sluggish you’ll be able to exercise more which is a definite must when trying to lose weight.
By adopting a pescatarian lifestyle, you’ll switch from fatty red meats to lean fish meat. That lack of fatty food will reduce your calories without you even noticing it. Fish meats also provide boosts of omega-3 and vitamin D, both of which help your body to shed pounds.
Fewer Options
The pescatarian food movement is huge right now. Because of its popularity, entire websites have sprung up which provide recipes and support for people looking to lose weight by cutting out red meat and poultry.
With your only meat option being fish, meal planning becomes simple. There’s no debate over whether to have sausages or chicken thighs or hamburgers. No, instead you’ll eat salmon for dinner. Or cod. Or something vegetarian. As a beginner, I found the ready-made recipes on pescatarian food websites comforting. There’s no more paradox of choice when I have someone telling me to eat. What’s even better is that the recipes are formulated to be around 1200 calories a day, just the right amount for someone looking to lose weight.
The Science is Behind Pescatarians
Studies have shown that vegetarians and pescatarians have lower obesity levels, lower mortality, better health vitals and lower levels of cancer and diabetes. In fact, further studies have shown that pescatarians have even lower weight than vegetarians since vegetarians have such a low omega-3 consumption rate which can cause weight fluctuations. Pescatarians, with their intake of fish, get all the omega-3s they need, and then some.
As for me, I’ve only been living a pescatarian lifestyle for a month. In that time I’ve lost around 4 pounds which is a steady and comfortable weight loss. I replaced a lot of my meats with other proteins like tofu, rather than swap everything out for fish. Originally I thought the hardest part would be to give up red meat. I love steak with melted butter and a side of potatoes! Buy, honestly? The worst part was eggs and cream. Every morning since college I’ve made myself a plate of bacon and eggs for breakfast and had a cup of coffee with cream.
During my pescatarian challenge I thought that I would be able to have smoothies or something for breakfast. This lasted about two days before I decided to sneak eggs back into my diet. There’s no hard and fast rule about dairy and eggs on a pescatarian diet but those two days of black coffee and smoothies made the decision really easy for me – red meat and poultry can go but don’t mess with my eggs and cream!
