OK, so I dropped 50 pounds on vegan whole foods, but have another 35 to go. I've been about 90-95% raw for 4 days and nothing has budged. Am I expecting too much too soon? It's just that the last time I went this raw, I did it for two days and dropped 3 pounds, so I kind of expected the same results this time.

I read that on raw foods, you can eat as much as you want (within reason) and expect dramatic weight loss. Am I not being reasonable? I do nuts and seeds with most every meal/snack except breakfast. And I do put oil (cold pressed organic olive) on my salads. And I have discovered that I like a bit of coconut oil in my breakfast smoothie. Is this too much fat? (BTW - fresh oj, pineapple, banana, and coconut oil in a blender = yum.)

And I am exercising. I'm getting back into condition after slacking off while finishing my thesis, so it's a reduced level right now. But normally I exercise pretty vigorously for at least 60 mins./day, about 5 days/week. Either on the elliptical trainer or doing power yoga.

What do you think is realistic in terms of how much fat you can eat and still lose weight? And what's a realistic expectation in terms of weight loss?

And before anybody gets on my case about it, I'm not doing raw just for weight loss. Going whole really helped my arthritis and my naturopath said going raw would help even more. I also suffer from terrible seasonal allergies, hence my going raw during the spring. But yeah, I really want to get these last 35 pounds off.

First off, congratulations on losing all that weight! I've been struggling to stay on any diet and need to lose weight, too. Your post is an inspiration.

I lost a ton of weight a long while ago on this diet:

Raw mono fruit meals during the day
At night:

Large raw vegetable salad with 1/2 avocado. Dressing could be lemon juice, blended veggies
I could have a baked potato or any steamed veggie or cooked grain/legume with dinner. I usually just had a baked potato.
I could have fruit for dessert (almost never did).

No condiments, salt, spices, or anything from a package. For me, no nuts because I was trying to lose weight, and no bananas or dried fruits for the same reaason. I lost 2-3 pds/week with about 1/2 hr of brisk walking per day, and I have a slow metabolism.

The fats and oils will keep the weight on, and the spices and salt will keep the cravings going, in my experience. YMMV. Your breakfast smoothie would pack weight on me, no question. For me, greens work better as a cravings/hunger quencher than oils. So OJ, pineapple juice and a handful of fresh greens would be a better addition than bananas and oil for losing weight.

With nuts, a little can go a long way. For instance, when I make a fruit salad and want a little something more because I'm really hungry, I'll break up 2-3 walnut or pecan halves to sprinkle on top. It gives the salad crunch, it's enough fat to create satiety, and not so much that it will pack on the pounds.

Another appetite quencher is a green drink. I love green smoothies, too, but this is different. You put your handfuls of greens in the blender with water and some lemon, then strain it and put it in the fridge. Very refreshing, and definitely tastes better cold than room temp. I have fresh mint growing in my garden now and boy is that great in the green drink. I don't know why it cuts the appetite but it does.

Anyhow, this is way more than you asked and different than what you asked. But in answer to your question, yes I think it's unrealistic to expect to lose weight while eating so much fat. Learn to love salads without the oil dressing and find other snacks than handfuls of nuts if you want to lose weight.

By the way, I love oily dressings, too. I found that you can get some of the oily sensation with less oil by:

...using tahini in place of oil. Tahini is a more whole food, has fiber, and less oil per volume. I make a dressing of tahini, lemon juice and water that's pretty good and less oil/caloric that oil and lemon juice;

...using a few nuts or seeds in place of the oil. I make a 'ranch' dressing out of lemon juice, garlic, onion, a little water, celery, cuke, and a few cashews that tastes pretty good. There's still fat from the nuts, but a fraction of what I'd use with oil/lemon.

...blended veggies with garlic, onion make a good dressing. So does fresh salsa. If you blend tomatos with some garlic, lemon juice, an tahini or a few nuts you get a fair approximation of Russian dressing.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/12/2007 08:51PM by greenie.

I've been upping my raw percentage slowly (the non-raw stuff mainly comes from roasted nut butter and dry fruit I'm guessing is not raw because it's the usual Sunkist supermarket stuff) and just went from 50% to 70-75% as of last Monday. I weighed myself on Friday and had lost 4.5 pounds, but I'm guessing part of that was the calories (between 1400-1500 a day). My typical menu has been thus far:

(I do mini meals, which include veggies and/or fruit, good fats, and some protein for each meal)

Morning: 2 fruits, 1/2 oz nuts (this doesn't look like much, but with the fruit, it's filling)
Mid-Morning: tehina dip or guacomole with raw veggies, 1 fruit
Afternoon: Salad with either avocado and olive oil/apple cider vinegar vinegrette or tehina dressing
Mid-Afternoon (though usually I didn't feel like having this): cold veggie soup (with just a little olive oil in it) like a gazpacho, 1 fruit
Evening: Salad of fruit and veggie, 1/2 oz nuts, dry fruit
If I felt like something in the evening, I'd snack on more dry fruit but not in huge amounts (about 2 servings)


I have been limiting fatty foods like nuts and avocado, but if I feel like more nuts for a particular day, I have them. My appetite has been diminishing for the past few days for some reason, not sure why. Maybe detox?

I still have about 10 pounds I'd like to lose (15 would be awesome but I'm not pushing it ) but I don't expect to have a huge loss like I did this week. I'm 5' and have been yo-yo dieting for so long, I'm surprised my body has been responding so well to raw in terms of weight.

Hope that helps!
Tam