Hi All,

Can you please share your experience on your daily calorie needs and how it evolved over the course or your raw journey.

I have seen the posts of Richard Blackman here on the forums who claims to live on zero calories per day. That seems to be one extreme end but I am also very curious to hear others that could reduce their need for calorie intake while remaining healthy..

I am new to raw, currently at my 1.5month mark and it is going well following my bodies intuition. What I notice though is the total number of calories I am consuming is little below my online calculated calorie need!! I am paying close attention to what I am eating not to deplete my self in the long run but can't currently see I am really not giving my body enough, and the amount of intake I have currently feels healthy. This has been the motivation behing this thread as I would like to find more about how credible this daily minimum/optimum calorie standards are. And if there are people out there who maintain healthy empowered living with lower calorie intake.

[I have seen the posts of Richard Blackman here on the forums who claims to live on zero calories per day]

It might be true for an isolated day but it is most assuredly not true on the average.

If you can keep your nutrient intake high while keeping your calories low you will probably age more slowly.

Some people accomplish this by eating less every single day, some by gorging some days and fasting others, some by skipping meals, and some by a little bit of all three, depending.

learning_raw

Quote

I would like to find more about how credible this daily minimum/optimum calorie standards are.

I base my raw lifestyle not on science but completely on how my body responds to my effort to care for it. I have no idea how many calories I am getting per day and I'm not interested in knowing. I am very happy with the results of living intuitively as I am lean but not skinny and I feel good. I have confidence in my body's innate wisdom. I like to Keep it simple and not over think the raw lifestyle.

183cm and need about 1500 calories

learning_raw Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have seen the posts of Richard Blackman here on
> the forums who claims to live on zero calories per
> day.

The thing about the Internet is that you can say whatever you like & some people will believe you.

[The thing about the Internet is that you can say whatever you like & some people will believe you.]

On this forum, at least:

I am 97 years old and I still get carded.

I haven't eaten food in years and I am still healthy!

I cured my cancer by sungazing. Buy my book for $47.99 and learn how!

My B12 levels are normal even though I have never had them tested. I know this because I have complete control over the bacteria in my hindgut through visualization and chakras. Come to my seminars for $735.99 for 3 days not including room and board and you can do it, too!

Act now, these special offers won't last and space is limited!!!!!

HeHaw, HeHaw

That makes a good point in a fun way

I limit my use of the forum to:

1) A place to get ideas about the raw lifestyle to experiment with

2) A place to organize my thoughts by posting and getting feedback on my ideas

3) Good support, interesting reading, and a good laugh occasionally

But when it comes to the bottom line after I have filtered the above uses I proceed to use my inner coach as my guide rather then pre-determined rules of the raw road.

learning_raw Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> I have seen the posts of Richard Blackman here on
> the forums who claims to live on zero calories per
> day. That seems to be one extreme end but I am
> also very curious to hear others that could reduce
> their need for calorie intake while remaining
> healthy..
>
Reminds me of the old joke about the farmer complaining to his neighbor.
"Just when I taught that old horse to live w/o eating he up and died on me"

I also have been watching my calories - going for the max nutrition with the least calories.

"If you're not tough it's hard to survive in this world; and if you're not kind then you don't deserve to survive." –Raymond Chandler

Quote

Reminds me of the old joke about the farmer complaining to his neighbor.
"Just when I taught that old horse to live w/o eating he up and died on me"

Haha, what bad timing!

Arugula,

Sign me up for your seminar its sounds like a real bargain.

Cherimoya,

Love Peace and Happiness,

Learning raw -"I have seen the posts of Richard Blackman here on the forums who claims to live on zero calories per day".


Did Richard say that?? I highly doubt it. Can you provide links?

There is a radio show interview of him and there he explains his current diet consisting of few milliliters of water per day. That's the first very clear one that comes to my mind. I also remember watching his youtube videos on raw diet there he also explains his transition from fruits to only citrus(winter) and melon juice(summer) and if I don't miss remember he explains he transitioned from melon juice to water.. My overall impression of him is he is a breatharian currently that lives of mainly the water molecules in the air. He currently have a blog dedicated to this where he refferres to himself 'solartarian warrior'

Personally I find the subject fascinating and wish that instead of abandoning the forums he did some scientific observations done on him self and have his effort got recorded in controlled environment. If he is truthfull on his statements and got it proved then whole humanity could benefit from what he was able to accomplish. I find his way of keeping the mystery around his practice very selfish and inefficient and not being able to remain in communication through these forums unfortunately feeds in to him not being reliable. Unfortunately I don't even now feel comfortable referring to him as he is not here to respond ..

He might well be full of it...
Richard has been caught out on lies in the past, i know he was eating cooked vegan and bodybuilding in 2005,
If he is living of just water than he is not healthy or even if he was just living of citris or melon juice he is not healthy.
People have died from doing simular things, from starvatian.

Research has documented a significant correlation between long-term caloric restriction (half of normal) and dramatically increased lifespan.
The prevailing theory is that the mechanism is via sirtuins.
There are other ways to achieve health, vitality and longevity besides caloric restriction.

If you post a reply to this message and would like my feedback, it would be best to send me a private message to that effect. Otherwise, I may not check this thread for a while.

***Info from the advisors at HealthNVitality***

Learning raw, you are right. I just saw a video where he claims he has practically gone on a diet of water, sunshine and air.

[www.youtube.com]


Paulie, I don't know about him lying, but I did read his posts on a vegan site where he said he was back to eating cooked foods(2005/2006).
I think, though, that after a little while he went back fully raw.

is this thread going anywhere besides being a richard bashing thread? really there are some great questions here that are being buried in crap lol

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

lol, so answer some of them then

i agree that low calorie living is healthy and slows down the aging process.
I just feel that people listening to the likes of richard blackman who claims to be a liquidarian for 5 or 6 years is not a good idea, no one that is in great health is doing what he claims to be doing.
Eating mostly or ALL raw foods and getting all the nutrition you need from those and keeping the calories in check IS healthy, starving your body is not.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/2009 12:43PM by paulieGB.

OK So I understand that the important criteria here is not the amount of calories but the consumption of optimum nutrients.

Can you please contribute on what enough nutrient means for you and your systematic/practical approach for defining your optimum nutrition needs. How you come up with the amounts? by this I mean by example I understand fats are important in the diet but then there is eating half avocado a day and 5 avocados a day which I have seen both done by peoeple in the forums.

I am personally benefiting much from this thread and encourage to keep the info coming.

Thanks all!

Thanks for pointing out a couple of important points, i.e.
1 your gratitude for the info here and that you are learning, and
2 the important criterion being supplying the body with the resources/nutrients for it do perform its vital functions which lead to health n vitality.

To a certain extent, I can say that the best way for one to find optimum nutritional amounts is via intuition and attending to signals from the body.
After all, one's desires and needs for calories or nutrients can vary dramatically from day to day, despite nutritional theories which do not take biorhythms into account.

In my opinion, it is also very helpful to study raw nutrition.
There are many good books and websites which can help in this endeavor.

Thanks for your cheerful demeanor and passion.
Rock on.

If you post a reply to this message and would like my feedback, it would be best to send me a private message to that effect. Otherwise, I may not check this thread for a while.

***Info from the advisors at HealthNVitality***

Hi Paulie, sorry i cant answer the questions posted here because i am myself exploring the ideas of low calorie living , im just dismayed at the nature of some of the posts is all

wheni was in india back in 2002 i was talking to this monk about some stuff and he told me that we tend to elevate people to a pedastel that they never asked for therefore setting them up for scrutiny they never wanted

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

learning_raw Wrote:
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> Can you please contribute on what enough nutrient
> means for you and your systematic/practical
> approach for defining your optimum nutrition
> needs.

RDAs have decades of research behind them. If you want
to learn more, read the free online books at the national
academies press website. I use them, although I don't think
they are all 100% spot on 100% of the time, they are better
than throwing caution to the wind and eating nothing but
satsumas for years.


BTW if you want to meet RDAs on a raw food diet you will
probably have to make greens a daily feature, eat a wide
variety of foods, and not overdo it on any particular fat
source. And also find a secure, reliable source of B12 and
D if you don't deliberately sun yourself.

You have a lot of freedom within those guidelines, and there
will be a lot of room to debate with others as well. But saying
that you thrive on zero calories, well, that's inviting trouble.

Quote

RDAs have decades of research behind them. If you want
to learn more, read the free online books at the national
academies press website. I use them, although I don't think
they are all 100% spot on 100% of the time, they are better
than throwing caution to the wind and eating nothing but satsumas
for years.


BTW if you want to meet RDAs on a raw food diet you will
probably have to make greens a daily feature, eat a wide
variety of foods, and not overdo it on any particular fat
source. And also find a secure, reliable source of B12 and
D if you don't deliberately sun yourself.

Ridiculous! That's far too much work. I don't care for the opinions of stupid cooked food scientists. I know this guy online who said he ate nothing but satsumas & he was fine, in fact he even regrew a severed toe & a an extra 6th one to boot! Also, I've liberally interpreted a Biblical verse to support my decision!