Quote Originally Posted by Susan Otcenas View Post
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... )
This is such a great point. We try to eat a lot of vegetables and home cooked meals but I have several vegan friends who rely on meat/cheese substitutes and while those don't have the cholesterol and saturated fat that the real things do they still aren't what I would call healthy. I don't know what your meals are like now and if a plant-based diet would drastically change that or if you already eat a variety of veggies. Someone else mentioned checking out cookbooks from the library and I agree with that. There's one called Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. It's all whole food based with lots of whole grains, legumes, and veggies. It also has the nutritional information on all the recipes.