Can You Lose Weight By Going Gluten Free?

The gluten free diet has recently become all the rage due to celebs such as Miley Cyrus. How did she loose all that weight? By eating gluten free… duh. Sure, it is possible to lose weight by going gluten free. But if you actually want to keep that weight off, you have to watch what you eat when on such a diet. You can’t just wake up, say ‘I’m going to stop eating gluten and lose 10 pounds,’ and buy everything that sparks your interest in the gluten free isle at your nearest Whole Foods. You still have to eat the right foods.

Although it would be an added benefit, I didn’t stop eating gluten to lose weight. I stopped eating gluten because I found out I was allergic to it. Thankfully, for us forced to live a gluten free lifestyle, we have the option to replace our favorite foods (aka bread, pasta, pizza, chicken nuggets, etc) with gluten free substitutions. And thanks to the growing popularity of the diet, many GF products are taking over shelves in the grocery store and tons of restaurants now provide gluten free versions of different meals.

But if you’re going gluten free and trying to lose weight, does it make sense to choose a gluten free pasta dish on the menu rather than a low calorie salad? Just because the pasta is gluten free doesn’t mean it is free of calories. Does it make sense to buy a bunch of gluten free cookies (just because they are gluten free) if you’re trying to lose weight? Probably not. Would you eat those cookies if they weren’t gluten free? So although you may think going gluten free will help you shed the pounds, you still need to watch what you eat.

If you want to lose weight, you have to work for it. Those of us who eat gluten free so we don’t get sick AND want to lose weight still have to watch what we eat. We have to eat our favorite GF foods in moderation OR stay away from substitutions in general. We have to count calories, work out, and eat healthy. And like any other weight loss plan, it’s not that easy. So if you want to go GF to lose weight, go for it. But don’t purchase the overpriced GF items at the store if you’re doing the diet simply to shed pounds and not because you have stomach issues. If you want to try the diet to lose weight, just stop eating anything with gluten in it (bread, pasta, cookies, etc) and stick to foods that were gluten free before people even knew what a gluten free diet was. Make raw foods your bitch, eat a whole lot of yogurt, and become BFFs with veggie burgers (sans the bun).

The moral of the story is that you can lose weight by going gluten free – you just have to work for it. Pay attention to the amount of calories you’re taking in, exercise, buy mass amounts of fruits and veggies, and eat in moderation. And don’t have to stay away from GF bread and pasta if you love it. Just eat it in moderation and/or burn the extra cals away at the gym. Whatever you do, though, do not falsely advertise the gluten free diet as the newest weight loss fad. As we all know anyway, diets do not result in lifelong weight loss… healthy lifestyle changes do. And ridding of that awful gluten thing – it’s not so bad.