This is not a diet I'm touting or anything but rather a lifestyle change.  I went from being 32% body fat down to 13.5% in 6 months or less.  (with exercise)

1st of all I'm not a pure Vegan and I don't do it for political reasons, but there is nothing wrong with people who do choose to be that way.  I still love meat and hamburgers and I eat meat or junk about once a week.  I also love T-Bone steak and baby back ribs mmmm.  Most meat however, is now just a junk food. 

2nd My choice is strictly based on the fact that the North American diet is WAY too high in fat.  I am sure you are already aware of this, but the subject is a bit more serious than most people think.  While there are other ways to accomplish the same thing I'm doing (cutting out carbs for example), cutting out fat has proven to be the most healthy in the long run. Carbless diets such as Atkins have actually proven to be detrimental over long periods. There is no point in going on a temporary diet; you'll just get fat as soon as you quit.

If you'd like to learn more, feel free to read on.  If this is more than enough information, hit your back key.  I feel like sharing.  *GRIN*

Even being a pure Vegan doesn't save you from the fact that our food is just too fatty.  The average American eats a whopping 85 grams of fat per day (Dr. Mirkin).  Some people take in more than that and sorry, but Vegan's may not eat meat, but most still eat foods that include soybeans, vegetable oils, nuts and seeds (all high in fat).  Meat however is still the WORST offender.  A 3oz piece of beef, broiled has approx 11-20g of fat in it and 250cal. Part of that is also saturated (bad fat). And who the heck only eats 3oz?

Ok so no duh.  We eat a lot of fat, most people are aware of this.  But get this:

First of all, fat has the most calories per gram, in fact it has 9cal/gm where as Carbs and protiens only have 4cal/gm. Out of the three fat is also easily transformed by the body into body fat. Carbs and protiens require that your body expend calories in order to turn them into fat.

Second if you are the average american eating 85 grams of fat per day that = 765 calories out of a 2000 calorie/day regime.  In order not to go past that (and thus gain weight) one would have to eat tiny portions of the rest of your food groups to not go over the 1800-2500 limit.  Starving oneself is obviously a bad idea for many reasons, besides the fact you won't do it for very long. 

But if you take in more calories than you burn off, it doesn't matter where the calories come from, it all gets store as F_A_T. 

So in order to eat a healthy diet, I was told by Dr. Mirkin that the average person should be eating NO MORE than 20 grams of fat per day, eating foods high in fiber, low in calories (fruits, veggies, beans and whole grains) so that you feel full  AND getting exercise.  We learned really quick that exercise without diet and diet without exercise DOES slow the process down to a crawl.   If you are athletic, you can raise this up to 30 or 40 grams and also increase your calorie and protein intake.

(Technical Jargon)
This recommendation is even less than what the American Heart Association recommends and for good reason.  The AHA's diet is ineffective because it only recommends moderate fat reduction.  They recommend that you reduce your average intake of fat from 37% to 30% of what you normally get.  And then they suggest if that doesn't help you (and according to Dr. Gabe Mirkin, it almost never does) their Step II diet recommends that reduce it down to 25%.  It is still not enough.  Mirkin says that according to the Journal of Family Practice, the Journal of American Medical Association and the British Medical Journal that reducing fat intake that little doesn't even lower cholesterol.  In fact the AHA suggests that if their Step II diet doesn't work, go to step 3, down to 20% of your daily intake.  And well, according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, THAT won't work either.  These percentages are simply not enough.  (Thank you to Dr. Gabe Mirkin and his book Fat Free Flavor Full and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1992 vol. 55 pp. 385-394)

The frustrating part is that fat makes up a HUGE part of North American food.  It makes food taste good.  We tend to over-eat because it tastes good.  Fat has far more calories (9/gm) than any other group, and like I said, it is easily converted by the body into body fat.  

Sadly you will find fat in almost EVERY kind of on the shelf food.  It is difficult to get around.  Just look at some of the labels in  your cupboard -- calories matter but TOTAL FAT is often worse.  It is in most ready made meals or simple dairy food and other things that we buy every day.  And meat of course is still the worst offender.  I love my steaks and eating beef stroganoff, but damn check out the side of a box some day.  It's not fair, but it is true. 

Sadly, many Physicians still recommend the American Heart Association diets because they don't think that people will put up with the severe fat restriction.  But the truth is you can, without starving.

I recently decided that after being out of the martial arts for a while and gaining about 15lbs, it was time to stop.   My goal was to get to 14% body fat and stay there, permanently.   I had already lost most of it, but I wanted to be in better shape than that.

So my mom pointed me in the right direction.  As someone who has been on fad diets before she knows they don't work.  She recommended to me Dr. Mirkin. I learned that the common myth of eating only chicken and pastas doesn't work.  High protein - low carb diets like Atkins don't work as effectively either, and are incredibly dangerous.  Most high protein foods aren't high in fiber, so they don't feel filling, and on top of it, they are usually too high in fat and calories to be worth it.   You can still loose weight on these fad diets but they put you at risk and once you quit, you will gain back the weight.  

So Mirkin's Life Style is no fad.  No starve yourself, calorie counting or anything of the sort.  Just a 2000 calorie diet, helped by the fat restriction.  You can eat as much high fiber food as you want, and some zero fat low fiber foods.  You can also have other foods as long as you don't go over 20 grams of fat a day.  Then once a week on this "diet" you are allowed to eat what ever you want, so if its steak you crave or potato chips, then dig in (within reason of course =D)  

There are also new foods coming out every day that are fat free that you can use to add variety.  Things like no fat butter, no fat dressings, no fat potato chips, no fat hot dogs, no fat cheese, no fat lunch meat, hell, no fat HAMBURGERS!  So at least this way you don't feel like you are deprived of all your old favorite foods.  However, these foods must still be taken in moderation, as they are low in fiber, and higher in calories.  (You'll want to eat more to get full, and thus take in more calories than you should)  But at least you have them at all!

I could go on and on about this "diet" (and I use that term loosely) but it would take too long and I'd probably just have to plagiarize his book.  Like I said, I don't starve myself (that would be stupid) and I work out at the gym 3 times a week.  I highly recommend it.

Update: Within 3 weeks I lost 10lbs of body fat.  I went from a 32% body fat to a 20%.  2 weeks later I lost another 10lbs.  A month after that, I lost 8 more pounds.  I went from 135 down to 107!!!!!  I am now at 13.5% body fat!!!!  It was so easy :) 

Gabe's book full of fat free recipes that taste good and are easy to make ARE AWESOME!!  I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and beans, as well as a lot of Seafood.  I still miss a lot of my junk foods but I have made up for it and once a week I eat a meal of whatever I want!!!!   I don't feel deprived of my favorite foods at all.  (A whilte back I had Chilies baby back ribs and a week later I ate wings) I plan on doing this for the rest of my life, since it is so easy to follow.  I think if most people realized how easy this is, they would probably do it too.

So anyway, I'm not going to bore you -- but if you'd like to find out more info on this make sure to read his books:

The Good food Book (newest with updated and more recipes)

20/30 Fat & Fiber Diet Plan (over 100 recipes and a huge listing of favorite food calorie/fat content)

Fat Free Flavor Full (with 275 recipes included)

Listen to his radio show (from 4-7pm Eastern time Monday - Friday)

And visit his Dr. Mirkin Website for more recipes, archived radio shows and health information