hey everyone,

ive been 100% raw for about 5 months now, prior to that i was a healthy vegan for years.

raw has been pretty bumpy for me as my appetite is huge and its taken me so long to figure out how much i need to eat, how often etc, to feel full. i figured out recently the only way to feel full on raw was to have 2x avocadoes a day. but now ive gained weight and i weigh more than ive ever weighed in my life. ive now cut down to one avo a day, but am still going to bed hungry sometimes and the weight seems to be sticking around.

ive read of people who have eaten 6 avos a day when first going raw and still losing weight - whats the deal? im on a high fruit diet and all the foods i eat are really good.

confused

Everyone's metabolism is different - and can change over time. Due to poor food combinations...one's metabolism...level of activity....and the amounts of food eaten...some manage to retain or even gain weight. I doubt that avocados alone are making you fat. My opinion (without knowing more about your diet) is that you are probably eating combinations of foods which are poorly digested (in your case). Of course, increasing activity....more water....and an increase in greens and low-calorie bulk vegetables should (in general) go a long way to reducing weight...as will putting on some muscle mass. Make sure you are eating small meals very often....and not eating after dark. Just some tips that have worked for me.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

The body can direct its efforts as it feels necessary. This can mean that the body may prioritize a healing need above a weight loss need and direct its efforts there.

When I started raw I ate about 70% fruit and 30% greens and veggies. That has stayed the same over the last two plus years but what has changed is the fat in my diet. I ate as many avocados as I wanted and after awhile I wanted fewer and fewer avocados until I rarely eat avocados anymore, its been well over a month since my last one. This happened naturally by listening to my body rather then any conscious effort. I lost weight while eating the avocados. I know it doesn't seem fair that I could lose weight while eating more avocados then you have and I don't understand that either unless the body handles natural food fats differently then SAD fats ? I have heard of people adding raw coconut oil to their smoothies and losing weight. In a post yesterday the poster said he lost weight while over eating nuts [www.rawfoodsupport.com] Maybe other factors in the lifestyle come into play ?

Hi lilbear,

I found that for me, as I got older, I needed more exercise to avoid putting on weight. Once I started exercising more regularly and more strenuously, I lost weight even though I ate the same raw food.

I think avocados are a good food, but avocados don't have concentrations of the same essential nutrients that are in nuts and seeds (which I think are also a good food). Varying the types of fats can provide a wider array of essential nutrients, and that can be more satisfying than relying on the same kind of fat source everyday. It's usually easier to eat less of something - like fats, for example - when our bodies are getting enough of all the essential nutrients.

It's also usually best not to eat any fats in the evening if possible, because fats metabolize more efficiently during activity, rather than during inactivity and/or sleep. When fats are not metabolized, they are stored; and storing fats can lead to weight gain.

I always allow myself to have as much fresh juicy fruit as I want, which is usually a lot. That never seems to put weight on me, and I'm guessing it's probably not putting weight on you either.

So I'm suggesting 3 things: exercise more often and more strenuously, eat a greater variety of foods, and eat fats earlier in the day.

Without fasting, my weight stays constant at around 88 pounds, which is probably just about right for my height (5'1".



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2009 10:36PM by suncloud.

hey everyone,

thanks for all of your suggestions.

im not doing exercise at the moment - i started doing power wakling a couple of days a week which was good for me (prior to raw i had never exercised)until i noticed i started getting big arm muscles - i think i gain muscle quite easily and quickly on raw. i didnt want bigger arm muscles so i stopped power walking, but find it difficult to find strenuous exercise that wont give me arm muscles.

ive started to try to walk more - just normal pace, was doing an hour in the morning couple times a week - but then without increasing my heart rate ive been told this wont make me lose weight, and i think im even getting arm msucles just from this!

what i dont understand is that when i was cooked vegan i didnt exercise, then i became raw and put ON weight and need to exercise to get rid of it. doesnt make much sense.

my food combining is good, im quite strict with it. in terms of eating fats at night - i jus find that if i have a soup or a salad or anything without a whole avocado i end up going to bed hungry, so i eat my fat at night, but i know thats not ideal. i also eat nuts and seeds to make sure i cover my spectrum of nutrients but i find if i have a dinner with a handful or more of nuts and seeds ill still go to bed hungry.

it also doesnt make sense because im high fruit - usually i only jus eat fruit for most of the day (right now its 4pm and ive only eaten fruit) - i also have heaps of greens in my diet. i eat often in order to keep my metabolism going and never go really more than an hour or two without food. the fruti i eat is very caloric in order to fill me up as well.

help?

lilbear,

Is it possible that you are gaining muscle mass, which is heavier than fat mass, as you must know? Or are you gaining fat weight, with visible additions of fat around your abdomen, say? If it's the former, that's a good thing. It means your metabolism is getting more efficient.

IMO, keep the exercise, and don't feel bad about having muscles. Maybe, at a lower weight, your muscless will look better to you.

After all, why shouldn't a woman be muscular? Strong muscles are a sign of health, whether a person happens to be male or female. If ya got em, flaunt em!

no unfortunately its not muscle - its weight around my stomach/hips. some of my clothes dont fit me anymore which feels so strange. i just dont understand - especially when i usually only have fruit until dinner time where i have an avo and some greens. how could i have gained weight on raw when i was thinner was i was a cooked vegan who did no exercise?

ive started doing more walking but i just dont see why i would be gaining weight on a high raw diet instead of losing it...

You haven't really said your age, or fat%, or how much weight you've gained, but I'll take a stab.

Are you eating too late at night? Be sure to eat nothing in the 3 hours before bed. If you get hungry in that time it means you didn't eat enough earlier in the day.

How many meals do you eat per day? Are you a meal eater or more of a grazer? I don't really have an opinion either way, I'm just curious But you could try the opposite of however you eat now.

Are you eating any salt? Salt makes us retain water.

I agree with David to up the water intake, as it's very easy to mistake hunger for thirst.

I find it a little hard to believe that you get big arm muscles from walking.. not saying I don't believe you, but I'm a guy (I assume you're a woman) and I lift weights 5x/week and I struggle to put on every ounce of muscle. Don't be afraid to put on a little lean muscle anyway, it helps burn fat. A more muscled body burns more calories when simply at rest. And i definitely wouldn't use the belief that walking gives you too big of arms as an excuse not to do it. Do anything you can to get that heart pumping. Extensive rigorous cardio is antithetical to muscle gain.

When are you exercising? I believe doing some exercise prior to breakfast is great for getting the metabolism kickstarted for the day.

You shouldn't need to go to bed hungry. If you're hungry at the end of a meal it means you haven't gotten enough carbs. You should increase the amount of fruit you eat during the day in my opinion, thereby reducing the fat intake at dinner. Measure your calorie intake prior to dinner, it should be at LEAST 2/3 of your daily calories, considering that you're presumably getting lots of greens and veggies at dinner, which take up a lot of stomach room for very few calories. These reasons may be why you're reaching for the dense fatty foods. I do disagree with suncloud though and feel that fats are best eaten with dinner. Fats during the day just weigh us down and complicate the fruit eating.

I know I may sound like a broken record around here with recommending the 80/10/10 book all the time, but seriously, it's that good, check it out.

Could you take up jogging - it's fantastic for cardio exercise plus once you get into it you get a great 'runners high'.

I am 47 and found that in the 5 years that I have been running I have lost weight on my arms but got better muscle tone - all good for keeping the bat wings at bay

Yeah I was going to recommend running too but I realized it may be a bit much for someone to start depending on where they are in life. I actually stopped running because I felt it was making me too skinny. Now I do sprints up steps for my cardio. I got some Vibrams and may well get back into running, "barefoot".

I highly recommend the couch-to-5k program for anyone thinking about running. It's a nice gradual ramp-up and you can progress the weeks at your own pace. Highly recommended because often our cardio abilities can outstrip our physical body limitations and we can end up injuring ourselves if pushing too hard too soon. It treated me right, no injuries or even soreness past the first week or 2, and I've heard nothing but good things from others too.

couch to 5k:
[www.coolrunning.com]

Biking is also good but probably requires significant investment for most. I'm getting back into biking though, a decent bike which is properly fitted makes a huge difference in enjoyment levels.

Any exercise we enjoy and will do is the perfect exercise for us! I like the classic Nike moto "just do it", and always telling myself that any exercise is better than no exercise.

wow i wish avocado did that for me. i could eat 4 of them (although i havent done this) i would not gain any weight. ive eaten 2 a day and still stay only 105lb.

Yes, I believe exercise is good for us, no matter what weight we happen to be. The benefits of exercise go a lot further than just helping us to lose weight!

Exercise is healthy, and we will always look and feel better when we are healthy. If we don't exercise, we will not be as healthy as we could be - regardless of how we eat.

If we allow ourselves to think that we look better when we don't exercise, what will that mean for our health and our looks as we grow older? In the long-term, the internal organs of a body that hasn't exercised will become weak, and the body will wrinkle and deteriorate much faster.

Without exercise, the endomorphins are de-activated, and this can lead to depression. Not good. We're here for a lifetime!

If our image of ourselves as healthy and strong is a negative image, then either our image is incorrect, or our judgement of the image is incorrect, or both.

Strong women are beautiful women. Let it shine!

recently ive been grazing, but im high fruit - i used to eat more nuts and 2 avos a day but id say now i prob have nuts once or twice a day and only one avo a day, and at night. during the day i usually have 6-12 bananas, green smoothie, and other fruit throughout the day. i eat dinner at 6-7, try to eat as early as psosible, and im in bed by 10, 10:30.

im 21 and am usually about 51 kilos, but now im like 56-7 kilos. im about 160-5cm tall. prior to raw i was vegan for like 5 years and then 50% raw for about a year so its not like i have shitloads of toxins in my system preventing weight loss.

i def dont have much salt in my diet. but will def try more water

ive been trying to get up at 6:30 am and do an hour or so of yoga couple times a week, and ive also started to do a fast-paced walk at about 8pm after dinner (to work off the avo) for about 30-40 mins - i now do that every night. will that help with weight loss even though its not intense cardio?

given i basically just eat fruit all day this doesnt make sense! thanks for everyones help

I am assuming that you are female, if not i apologise, if so it may be worth just
checking out Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Symptoms.
There are many symptoms and its a little tricky to diagnose. If you see a pattern it may well be worth investigation through a health practitioner.

My sister and two of my Aunts have it. I have a couple of symptoms, but nowhere near as severe as my sister and aunts.
Its difficult to shed weight on any diet when you have this condition. Weight sticks on stomach and hips.
Just a thought.
ffx

I think the yoga will help for raising your metabolism, and the fast-paced walking will also help. How much will depend on your yoga routine, and how far you walk and for how long.

You're very young. It's good that you're starting an exercise program now while you're so young! The older you are when you start, the harder it is to get started, because the body can get kind of rusty. 21 is a great age to start yoga and stay flexible for the rest of your life. Good move!

You can add more exercise as you go along. Running is maybe one of the best exercises there is for managing your weight. When you're a little more confident in the results, you might even add a weights routine. Cardio weight routines are a great indoor workout and will help protect your knees for running and walking (yoga will help for that too).

If you eat your fats earlier in the day, you might not feel like you need them so much at night. Seems like it's pretty common that if we feel like we're overweight, we try to put off eating anything substantial for as long as possible. Then we fill ourselves at night, our food doesn't metabolize well, and we end up gaining even more weight. In fact, people have been able to lose weight just by eating their most substantial meal early in the morning (personally, I'd find that difficult).

Mainly, it would probably be better if you can eat your fats during the course of the day, rather than in the evening. But if you do eat some fat later, I think it's great that you've started exercising before you go to bed. That should help a lot.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/2009 10:19PM by suncloud.

thanks for the heads up re POSS, i'll look into that

ive been doing fast walking every night for about 30-40 mins and when i do yoga i do it for about an hour and a half and its pretty rigorous.

im reluctant to take up running and weights as i dont want any more muslces - they seem to form really quickly on me on raw..but ill keep up my current exercise and see if theres any weight change..

does anyone have any other tips for weight loss/appetite reduction? my other concern is that the exercise will increase my metabolism and then ill be even hungrier and more often! ive heard that fennel seeds are good for decreasing appetite, and cacao too.

ive been told by a few different people that walking and power walking is actually better for you than running - better in terms of calorie burning, easier on your knees etc - my yoga teacher also said the body goes into shock because it thinks its in danger when we start running,thus some of the chemical reactions - what does everyone think?

thanks guys