Adele loses weight through a vegetarian diet

We look at how singing sensation Adele replaced meat with jogging and lost 6kg on a vegetarian diet.

Karl Lagerfeld may have called her "too fat", but the designer can't take credit as the catalyst for Adele's recent weight loss. The Uk's richest young singer was reportedly motivated to change her lifestyle after losing weight following surgery on her vocal chords.

Adele and her charity campaigner boyfriend, Simon Konecki, have shed around 6kg since embarking on their fitness regime. The couple eat a strict vegetarian diet and go jogging with Adele’s dog Louie every morning. According to the UK's The Sun newspaper, the Grammy award-winner has so much more energy now that she has also stopped smoking.

A healthy vegetarian diet

According to Leigh-Ann Silber, registered dietician at nutrition consulting agency Nutri-Vation, a vegetarian diet can be healthy – "as long as it is balanced and you take time to ensure you get sufficient amounts of protein, vitamins and minerals". Silber adds that a "well-planned" vegetarian diet can ensure that you get all the nutrients you need. "To do it right, eat lots of fruit, veggies and whole-grains. Include nuts, seeds and legumes."

Silber provides the following 8 guidelines to plan a healthy vegetarian diet:

• Choose a variety of foods, including whole-grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds and, if desired, dairy products and eggs.
• Choose whole, unrefined foods as often as possible and minimise your intake of sweetened, fatty and heavily refined foods.
• Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables.
• If animal foods, ie dairy products and eggs are used, choose lower fat versions. Cheeses and other high-fat foods and eggs should be limited in the diet because of their saturated fat content. Their frequent use displaces plant foods in some vegetarian diets.
• Vegans should have a regular source of vitamin B12 in their diets.
• Sunshine (5-15 minutes per day) is your vitamin D supplement.
• Choose fats (nuts, seeds and seed butters, avocado and vegetable oils) to help meet your nutrient and energy needs.

Silber points out that those on a strict vegetarian diet, ie vegans (which exclude meat, eggs, dairy products and all other animal-derived ingredients) should take extra care to ensure that their diets contain all vitamins, minerals, protein and essential fats their body needs.