I ate like sookie sue for over 10 years with no trouble cycling or doing triathlon. Her caution about WHAT you sub in for meat is very important. If by "plant based" you switch to fruits and veggies, then GREAT! But it's VERY easy to fall into the trap of eating lots of starchy breads, cereals, grains, potatoes, etc, all of which are just fine on a vegetarian and oftentimes even on a vegan diet. That will not aid in weight loss (ask me how I know this... )

Please don't take this next statement the wrong way, but in general, I find that diets with "I can't eat x" type of restrictiveness issues are not the way to go. Eliminating major food groups just tends to make you focus on the negatives, and often end up making you want them more. It's better to learn how to properly portion control on a eating plan of INclusiveness. Of course, many of us have trigger foods (for me it's salty nuts) that are sometimes best excluded from our households for a short period of time to avoid temptation, but in general, I think we should learn about how, why and what we CAN eat to have a healthy "diet" (by which I mean healthy way of eating).