Hello all. I just started the RAW food diet not long ago and I have some concerns. Perhaps you might be able to help me. First, I seem to be gaining weight and looking/feeling very bloated. it could be because iam always eating! why is that? I am always hungry. here is what I ate today... I had a pear as a pre workout snack early this morning. a fruit berry smoothie (strawberries, cranberries, rasberries, lemon, 1/2 apple) with flax seed as a post workout breakfast and a nuts/seeds bread type RAW food I purchased. for lunch i had a blended salad with romaine, cucumber, tomato, green onion, parsley, celery. snacked more on the seed bread stuff. then later i had RAW dehydrated wheat with a RAW brazilian nut chile spread. and snacked on RAW sun dried goji berries (lots) and kelp crisps throughout the day. and i havent had dinner yet!!!

soooo..am I eating too much? too much fruit or nuts/seeds? i want to lose weight NOT gain weight. I workout 6 days a week. 3 of which are with a trainer (weights) the rest of the days are all cardio. so I feel like i shouldnt gain weight so easily but I am and I do (even before going RAW i gained weight easily).

also, on average, when do people start to experience the gained energy I have ready about. and the great overall feeling of health?

so any help would be appreciated...like what should a typical day of food look like.? am I eating way too much? when will the weight start coming off? is it a bad idea to eat the purchased meal from RAW cooks in the area..meaning are they mostly high fat and high calories (nuts) meals? I ordered RAW meals from a local RAW restuarant for next week to be delivered so I can try and get the hang of eating 3 raw meals a day and not snacking. im hoping this wasnt a bad idea.

thanks an advance for your help. So far I love the RAW foods and I want to succeed at this diet. but i wont if I gain weight...

thanks

d

How long have you been raw? How much do you weigh? are you gaining muscle? Are you regular? Most of your question can be answered by yourself. I have been raw since june and have lost about 80 pounds. I am very over weight though. I am just starting to feel very energetic but overall I have increasingly felt beter than ever since going raw. You eat more than I do but you may need the food because you workout a lot. I think I eat to little yet I only eat when I am hungry. When I started I was very hungry yet I wanted to shrink my stomach and also feel hungry. I also do not eat when it gets dark out I want to give my body a rest from eating food and allow it to not have to digest food at night. I also think the raw restarante food may be full of nuts which are full of fat. I went through a nut craz but can't eat them now due to real bad teeth.
I think that going raw is a very hard thing to do and we have to figure out what will nnot cause to much stress so we can transition into the raw way of eating. I really find that by keeping it simple helps me a lot. I eat fruit and blend some greens for a green drink and I really enjoy the wheat grass juice.

When I first started all raw, I was hungry all the time. This is because when I ate cooked foods, my stomach had this heavy feeling which I attributed to feeling full, which never really happened when eating raw. I had to get used to my belly feeling different to know that I was full, rather than the old lead brick in the belly feeling.

The 2nd thing that was happening was my body really loved the raw foods, and I think it was just asking for more foods because my body was undernourished from the nutrient sparse cooked foods. Over time, this feeling of being ravenous all the time disappeared.

What helps with fullness is to eat just one thing until you are full, say like bananas. And when you get hungry again, just eat bananas again. If after a while, if you are still hungry, continue eating bananas. At some point, your body will say no more bananas. If you can resist the temptation to eat something else besides a banana, you will find your food intake is limited. The opposite of mono-eating, which is variety, creates its own form of appetite.

I am pretty new to the raw food thing, too. I myself have always had a problem with gaining weight even though so active (play collegiate soccer). I now have lost a lot of weight (couldnt tell u how much - stopped weighing myself a long time ago...lol...but i fit into clothes that i havent in forever).
The first few weeks of being raw I had the same problems - bloated and always hungry(which meant I ate all the time).
Well this is what I changed (normally dont have problems with bloating now):
- try to soak my nuts and seed for there are enzyme inhibitors on them (if i cant soak them then i try to grind into powder - seems to help)
- I make sure to have at least 2hrs preferably 3hrs between meals and snacks. Your digestive system needs time to rest.
- Since I am a college student and quite busy before i ate my food on the rush...I now try to relax and eat my food and give it time to settle before being too active.
And now with the hungar thing - for myself I was not getting a correct balance in my food at first and actually my body was too weak to complete workouts correctly. I researched a whole a bunch and realized that I was not getting enough protein, oils, food, and some other nutrients. Now i make a smoothie with hemp protein, hemp oil, spirulina, maca root, sometimes chlorella, sometimes flax seeds and bananas. Now I drink one of these a day or every other day.I also pay close attention to make sure I am eating enough - it is so easy not to eat enough when I need so much calories for the exercise that I do. I cannot believe the difference - I can easily complete workouts and keep up with everyone, also I dont have my constant hunger.

Well this is a brief summary of what I did - I hope it assist you in finding what your body needs - your body will tell you Good luck

Yes, it takes awhile to get used to that lighter feeling in our stomachs and to not mistake it for hunger. I read that David Wolfe ate 9 avocados per day at first, but you eventually get beyond it. It is a phase many of us go through.

In terms of energy, you could be detoxing and you just need to get more rest to get through it.

Or here are some other possibilities:

1. Not eating enough calories. Calories provide energy, so if you don't eat enough of them - no energy.
2. Eating too often and therefore not giving the body a break from digestion, which requires a lot of energy. If your body needs extra energy to carry out the digestion, it will borrow it from elsewhere in your body. That's why people get tired and want to take a nap after a big meal, like a Thanksgiving dinner.

Eat only when hungry. If you are not hungry at breakfast, don't eat. Fasting until noon is good for you. All the studies about needing breakfast are done on people eating the S.A.D. and they need a stimulant at breakfast to get going.

3. Eating too much fat (like nuts) - fats require more digestive energy.

Also, here is an article that might help at [karenknowler.typepad.com],

wow thanks so much for all your responses. its encouraging! VEGANATHLETE....its helpful to know you went through the same thing. I do think that I eat too often and dont let my body rest from digestion...its always digesting at the rate I am going. so I will work on the 3 hour inbetween meal idea.

KARENND thanks for the article! its full of fabulous info and I relate to a lot of whats being explained in it. thanks so much!

Im so glad I found this forum. how supportive! thanks so much for the advice.

I will check back in soon....

D