Research

Energy balance

The magnitude of weight loss and HbA1c reduction is greater when vegan diets are compared to habitual (passive) control diets rather than other active dietary interventions.

If you are comparing your vegan diet to your previous eating habits, you will likely see significant weight loss. If you are comparing it to another structured diet (like Mediterranean or ADA), the weight loss may be less pronounced, suggesting the vegan diet itself isn't inherently superior to all other diets, but rather superior to unstructured habitual eating.

GoodQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Subgroup analysis based on comparator diet identified a greater weight loss when vegan diets were compared with habitual diet (mean difference in body weight (cid:1)7.4 kg... p < 0.001) than compared with other dietary interventions (mean difference (cid:1)2.7 kg... p < 0.001).
Anne‐Ditte Termannsen et al. · Obesity Reviews · 2022

Why this rating

Based on subgroup analysis of RCTs.

Source

Effects of vegan diets on cardiometabolic health: A systematic review and meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials

Anne‐Ditte Termannsen et al. · Obesity Reviews · 2022

DOI 10.1111/obr.13462

Meta-analysis · 11 studiesCited 69×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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