Hi folks

I am still mostly in the researching phase as evidenced by the fact that I have not unpacked my new dehydrator from its box...

Question is that I've read several accounts of people going raw and more or less effortlessly losing weight over time. So, is this simply because they have reduced their calorie consumption by eating raw? Or is there more to it than that? I can't help but notice that a lot of the packaged raw foods I'm attracted to (granolas for example) are very high in fat--like 24 gms per serving. I'm afraid to eat them because of how dense these are in energy value and I live a sedentary lifestyle.

Anyway, if you have thoughts on whether there is something biochemical going on with a raw diet that promotes weight loss--other than lowering ones calories that is--I'd love to hear.

thanks

My opinion:

Losing weight 'effortlessly' or the raw food diet is not a given. Many continue to eat poor foods and poor food combing.....and poor activity habits.....even on a 'raw food diet'.

-I think when one is living 'holistically' and getting in good air, sunlight, light foods, light exercise, and joyful/giving living....then the sum of health becomes greater than it's parts.

-In the beginning, I found it VERY helpful to start by becoming MORE aware of what I was really eating. The start of ANY permanent eating change is to journal what you ARE eating and 100% comfortable with for 1 week without censoring yourself....and then writing it all down...and writing down all the nutrient and calorie data.

-THEN a person (as I did) can compute how many calories they need on a daily basis to maintain weight, and devise an eating program composed of small changes that allow a person to come in consistent UNDER that amount. Along with good exercise (and the rest of the above habits) I think a person would have an excellent chance at weight loss. But I KNOW it's not a given. Heh..heh.

-Just my experiences.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

Quote

Posted by: PocoLoco , Date: September 10, 2008


is this simply because they have reduced their calorie consumption by eating raw? Or is there more to it than that?

IMO, its more then that.
Its about re-building the the body from the inside out making healthy cells using healthy natural building materials. Its about health and re-balancing the body. Thats why its important to use fresh raw vegan foods and striving to be as high raw as is comfortable and achievable.

> Question is that I've read several accounts of
> people going raw and more or less effortlessly
> losing weight over time. So, is this simply
> because they have reduced their calorie
> consumption by eating raw? Or is there more to it
> than that?

I believe it's much more than just calorie reduction. But I have no explanation :-)

I'm one of those losing a lot of weight quickly and totally effortlessly since I went 100% raw. I don't know why.

Oddly enough, for about one week I've been undereating (I had lost my appetite for some mysterious reason, but it has come back today), and in this one week I did not lose any weight, although normally I lose weight every week. It's even more than that: the more I eat, the more I seem to lose weight!

I personally believe that we don't understand much about gaining/losing weight yet. It's not as simple as burning more calories than we eat.

My 2 unscientifical cents ;-)

unless you decide you need them during transition
you wont need the dehydrator or packaged raw

fresh fruit and veggies is alot easier
and more nutritionally dense

but we all do it differently

fruitgirl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> unless you decide you need them during transition
> you wont need the dehydrator or packaged raw
>
> fresh fruit and veggies is alot easier
> and more nutritionally dense
>
> but we all do it differently

Yeah, I understand, but I can't eat just fresh fruit and veggies...I can last maybe a day and a half at most (very strong cravings for grains and cooked foods in general). At this point if I can achieve 50% raw I'd be happy.

From some of the readings I've done, it sounds like the body (on raw foods) regains energy that it can use to do "housekeeping" such as shedding excess weight. If this is true, it's a 180 from conventional thinking about how the body works and the age old "calories in/energy out" mantra we've been taught. I find this totally fascinating, if true.

Have any scientific studies been published on what exactly is going on with the metabolism, immune system, or (fill in the blank) for people eating mostly raw? Or even population studies such as those included in "The China Study" (relative to veganism) or the ones that resulted in the promotion of the Mediterranean diet as a healthy way to eat?

I think we hold onto excess weight when we ingest toxins. By eliminating these I think the body naturally drops weight despite caloric intake. That is the case for me at least. I have been on very high calorie diets of fruits and veggies and dropped weight despite food ratiosa and choices. An equivalent diet of wheat and refined sugars makes me bloat up. Water weight and toxins trapped in the tissues.

Quote

Posted by: dancerinthenight , Date: September 10, 2008


Water weight and toxins trapped in the tissues.

I wonder if chemical salt, that is salt that has not been incorporated into a plants cells, could cause water retention and then weight loss when eating raw foods ?

Yes, Poco, it is all about the calories.

With a high fiber raw diet, though, there is less metabolizable energy because we don't absorb as much of what's available.

So 1000 calories from raw vegetables are not going to have the same net energy effect as 1000 calories of granola. We might be able to use only 800 or so of the raw vegetables compared to 950 or so of the granola or just about all 1000 from an equicalorie amount of cooked steak or pasta.

But even with all raw there are ways to get a higher net from what is available. Blending 1000 calories of lettuce would get you closer to 1000 net, for example.

There is a book called Fit for Life.
It explains that raw foods are inherently high in water content,and that regular consumption of raw foods washes out your body of all the toxins(which largely means fat) ,which in turn keeps weight off or allows you to lose it.And that a raw food diet will keep you alkaline,rather than acidic,which holds alot of water in your system to neutralize it.
I guess the issue of calories is the fact that raw fruits and veggies are also low in calories.

Brian



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/2008 04:23PM by Raw1228.

so far I have heard

a) it is about the calories, and that high-fiber diet lowers net calories consumed
b) cooked food/wheat etc. creates toxins which causes our body to store fluid (and/or fat)
c) alkalinity doesn't promote water storage (less weight)
d) raw food diet + the accompanying healthy lifestyle choices is associated with healthier, lower weight people (paraphrasing David M.)

Here are a couple of other theories I've read that have merit:

e) People consume the same amount of weight of food every day. High water content foods cause people to fill up faster, with overall fewer calories (basis of "Volumetrics" and "Weight Watchers"
f) Eating cooked food...food is molecularly altered and unrecognizable by the body which causes us to consume more food in an attempt to obtain needed nutrients. The high-calorie, little-to-no nutrient lifestyle promotes weight gain. With nutrient dense foods, body is satiated (no cravings).

I think the theories here that are the most controversial are b, c, and f I am open minded about them though because I agree that there are things about nutrition and physiology that are not understood and this subject may be one of them.

And I love reading the stories of how eating raw foods changed peoples health for the better! If you have any recommended reading for me along those lines I'd appreciate it. : -)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/2008 05:19PM by PocoLoco.

To add to the post a bit: I don't think it's ALL about the calories. But why stack the deck against you? If you are unaware of how many calories you are taking in....that aint good. And if you are consistently taking in well over what you need to maintain body weight......well....why stack the deck against yourself in a weight loss routine? Why not use all tools available to some degree?

-Just some thoughts.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

PocoLoco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> so far I have heard
>
> a) it is about the calories, and that high-fiber
> diet lowers net calories consumed
> b) cooked food/wheat etc. creates toxins which
> causes our body to store fluid (and/or fat)
> c) alkalinity doesn't promote water storage (less
> weight)
> d) raw food diet + the accompanying healthy
> lifestyle choices is associated with healthier,
> lower weight people (paraphrasing David M.)
>
> Here are a couple of other theories I've read that
> have merit:
>
> e) People consume the same amount of weight of
> food every day. High water content foods cause
> people to fill up faster, with overall fewer
> calories (basis of "Volumetrics" and "Weight
> Watchers"
> f) Eating cooked food...food is molecularly
> altered and unrecognizable by the body which
> causes us to consume more food in an attempt to
> obtain needed nutrients. The high-calorie,
> little-to-no nutrient lifestyle promotes weight
> gain. With nutrient dense foods, body is satiated
> (no cravings).
>
> I think the theories here that are the most
> controversial are b, c, and f I am open minded
> about them though because I agree that there are
> things about nutrition and physiology that are not
> understood and this subject may be one of them.
>
> And I love reading the stories of how eating raw
> foods changed peoples health for the better! If
> you have any recommended reading for me along
> those lines I'd appreciate it. : -)

A complex subject "weight loss on raw".. in addition to the above posts, I think "f" is on the right track. Thru 2 or 3 billion years of cellular evolution on raw foods, the consumption of CALORIE dense WHOLE FOOD carbs, proteins, and fats has more or less satisfied the hunger and cells of each animal in its nitch. It is mainly since the over-processing of foods that humans can now consume calorie dense (but nutrient deficient) foods, which satisfy our taste buds but do not satisfy us at the cellular level, which leads to more hunger signals and over-eating of calorie dense but empty food, unless we are aware enough to see the folly.

I'd also like to add another piece to the puzzle, which I think was a main factor in my weight loss. Raw food gave me lots of energy... more than I knew what to do with, so I just started moving around a lot more, just so I could manage to sleep at night. Of course that led to more calories burned and less time just sitting around because I was too tired.

Also, having a "restrictive" diet means that people stopped offering me food that I wouldn't eat, so that I wasn't tempted to eat things just because I didn't want to hurt someone's feelings.

And, after a lengthly emotional detox, I also just became happier, so there was much less desire to comfort eat.

Just what I noticed personally...

Rose, I am also losing tons of weight on raw, although I am not 100% raw.
I have also found that I will not be hungry for days and then suddenly I will be hungry. I still have tons of weight to lose too.
I am still trying to get away from the mindset that I have to eat 3 meals a day.
I will read Quantum eating also.

The calorie theory has been debunked, why do people advocate and go gung ho for a raw food vegan diet, which is the most anti-Establishment, Big Pharma/FDA/USDA, orthodox thing to do (which is the right thing in the case of following a raw food vegan diet, the human nutrition requirement), then get sucked right back in without so much as a whimper or a LIGHT BULB go off that just because Dr Graham says you need 50,000 bananas or other sucrose rich hybrid fruit to get your "calories" doesn't make it so...
In fact, it isn't so... Proof in point, I was a bodybuilder for ~12 years, I have been vegetarian/vegan/rawfood for ~ 6 years... I spent 1 year following the 1-meal per day WARRIOR DIET, doing it vegan, taking in about 500-600 calories PER DAY in my evening meal, and maintained ~192lbs, 7-8% bodyfat, and tons of energy... if calories were the holy grail and of utmost importance this wouldn't have been possible... Case in point, your "metabolism" (somonoe PLEASE remove this work from the English language from misuse and cliche) adjusts and adapts to you, not the other way around...

Do people realize as long as the nutrient density is high, the quality and the integrity of the fruits/veggies/greens are high, that calorie density seeking is the wrong direction... Esp. bananas and mangoes and dates... high sucrose, low genetic integrity, low nutrient/antioxidant density...

EVERYone can become very lean, muscular, if they stick with green leafies, broccoli, fruits like apples, pears, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, grapefruit, cucumber, seeded grapes, etc... in mono diet fashion?

Informant