Chicken lovers gain the most weight (and other meat shockers)

Bad news for meat eaters like me: carnivorism comes at a high cost, to the tune of nearly a pound a year. A new study from Imperial College London examined the dietary habits of nearly 400,000 adults and discovered that those who ate the most meat gained about four pounds more over the course of five years than their vegetarian and light-meat-eating counterparts.

But before you panic and start stocking your fridge with tofu, here are a few easy ways to keep meat in your diet without piling on pounds:

• Go easy on chicken and turkey. The biggest surprise from the Imperial College study: the strongest association with weight gain wasn’t red meat, but poultry. That may be because people give chicken and turkey a “health halo”–that is, they assume that because it’s relatively lean, it’s okay to eat in larger quantities. A better bet: don’t eat more than a card deck-sized portion at any meal, and make sure you’re having skinless white meat (it’s lower in fat and calories than dark meat).

• Skip the processed stuff. After poultry, processed meat was most closely tied to weight gain–so if you must have them, save things like sausage and hot dogs for a treat, rather than a weekly staple.

• Check your plate. Unless you’re a linebacker or a competitive eater, there’s no reason why you need a 12 ounce steak–or even an eight ounce version. The Imperial College study showed that no matter what type of meat, the more you eat, the more weight you gain. In fact, the study authors discovered that every half pound of meat a person ate daily resulted in a four and a half pound weight gain over five years (i.e., if you’re eating a pound of meat daily, you stand to gain 10 pounds every five years, or about two pounds a year).

• Have a meatless dinner at least once a week. Studies show that people eat the most meat during the last meal of the day–but dinner can be delicious without it. For example, last night, I whipped up a tasty mushroom, onion, tomato and mozzarella egg white omelet. Just as filling as a burger or chicken breast, but low in calories (about 300 total) and completely meatless.

For more ideas on reducing meat consumption without going totally veggie (bonus: you’ll lose 15% of your body weight doing so!), check out this fun interview I did with dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner.

-Camille