"Dieters who go vegetarian not only lose weight more effectively than those on conventional lowcalorie diets but also improve their metabolism by reducing muscle fat a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition has found. Losing muscle fat improves glucose and lipid metabolism so this finding is particularly important for people with metabolic syndrome and type  diabetes says lead author Dr. Hana Kahleov Director of Clinical Research at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington DC. Seventyfour subjects with type  diabetes were randomly assigned to follow either a vegetarian diet or a conventional antidiabetic diet. The vegetarian diet consisted of vegetables grains legumes fruits and nuts with animal products limited to a maximum of one portion of lowfat yoghurt per day the conventional diabetic diet followed the official recommendations of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes EASD. Both diets were restricted by  kilocalories per day compared to an isocaloric intake for each individual. The vegetarian diet was found to be almost twice as effective in reducing body weight resulting in an average loss of .kg compared to .kg for the conventional diet. Using magnetic resonance imaging Dr. Kahleov and colleagues then studied adipose fatstorage tissue in the subjects thighs to see how the two different diets had affected subcutaneous subfascial and intramuscular fat that is fat under the skin on the surface of muscles and inside muscles. They found that both diets caused a similar reduction in subcutaneous fat. However subfascial fat was only reduced in response to the vegetarian diet and intramuscular fat was more greatly reduced by the vegetarian diet. This is important as increased subfascial fat in patients with type  diabetes has been associated with insulin resistance so reducing it could have a beneficial effect on glucose metabolism. In addition reducing intramuscular fat could help improve muscular strength and mobility particularly in older people with diabetes. Dr. Kahleov said Vegetarian diets proved to be the most effective diets for weight loss. However we also showed that a vegetarian diet is much more effective at reducing muscle fat thus improving metabolism. This finding is important for people who are trying to lose weight including those suffering from metabolic syndrome andor type  diabetes. But it is also relevant to anyone who takes their weight management seriously and wants to stay lean and healthy."