Plant-Based Diet Before and After: 6 Real Vegan, Flexitarian, and Mediterranean Diet Results

Plant-based eating covers a wide range, from strict whole-food vegan to mostly-meatless flexitarian to the Mediterranean diet. The six sourced stories below show real plant-based diet results across that range.

Vegan weight loss before and after

Keyrah switched to a whole-food vegan diet at 288 pounds. She lost 19 pounds in the first 11 days — which she says convinced her to keep going — and reached 160 pounds in about 10 months, a 128-pound loss. Jenison, a high school senior already eating vegan, cut high-fat plant foods like oils and nuts and lost 15 pounds in three weeks and 20 by week five.

Plant-based diet success stories

Pamela Footman had struggled with her weight for decades. At 62, during the pandemic, she switched to a plant-based diet and lost more than 100 pounds. Andreas Michaelides lost 44 pounds on a plant-based diet and has kept it off long term.

Flexitarian and Mediterranean diet weight loss results

Fitness instructor Alana Sanders went flexitarian — meatless most of the time, meat only when she craved the protein — and lost 70 pounds. Registered dietitian Bill Bradley had regained weight after becoming a new father; recommitting to the Mediterranean diet's vegetable-forward, portion-controlled approach, he went from 256 to 210.8 pounds in two months.

Several of these results — especially the fastest early drops — came from high starting weights. These are individual results, not medical advice; if you're changing your diet significantly, check with a doctor or dietitian, particularly about nutrients like B12 on a fully vegan diet.