I want to make sure I get enough protein. My family & friends are saying I'm too skinny. I think I lost some muscle mass, because I was on a high protein diet before going raw. I'm lifting weights to see if I can gain some muscle back. Any raw high protein ideas? Thanks!!

Have you browsed stephen Arlin book Raw Power. (he does push alot of supplements, no kudos for that) but one recipe recommended is nuts/seeds ie. macadamian nuts and sesame seeds mixed with lots of cilantro or parsley. Also power smoothies with blue-green algae, bee-pollen, and/ or HEMP POWDER.

hemp and spirulina are good.

don't worry too much though, worrying burns calories

and green juice!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2006 05:19AM by innervegetable.

so no one mentioned sprouted chick peas =S I hope they are easy to digest because I really like to make raw hummus with them, though I know they are controversial little fellows..

E3Live Blue-Green Algae.

I was on a high protein diet before going raw, too - and I lift weights, and I find the E3 Live to be as effective as my whey protein shakes used to be.

I'm sure nuts are good too, but I feel somewhat averse to them in this warm summer weather.

I've found that as a man on a raw diet (and other men have told me they experienced this as well), I tend to lose muscle mass relatively quickly if I don't work out for a while (like a month or so). When I ate cooked, I could maintain muscle just by doing some push-ups once a week. On raw, I need to muscle train more like every 2 or 3 days.

The plus side, though, is that on raw I gain muscle weight much faster than I did before. I gain weight on hemp seed and hemp powder (and green smoothies) much better than I ever did before. And all I really do are push-ups and crunches, really basic stuff, and yet I'm gaining muscle like I'm using weights.

How do you know you lost muscle mass and not fat? Most folk on the SAD diet, even if they are not overweight or look fat, have fat marbled inside their muscles. If the muscles appear to shrink when eating a raw diet, this doesn't mean that muscle cells where absorbed or digested, assuming the person ate enough calories.

The way to create muscle is to exercise. The way to lose muscle is to not use your muscles. If there is no need for muscle, the body gets rid of it. Exercise or physical labor creates the need for muscle.

Arvydas Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've found that as a man on a raw diet (and other
> men have told me they experienced this as well), I
> tend to lose muscle mass relatively quickly if I
> don't work out for a while (like a month or so).
> When I ate cooked, I could maintain muscle just by
> doing some push-ups once a week. On raw, I need
> to muscle train more like every 2 or 3 days.
>
> The plus side, though, is that on raw I gain
> muscle weight much faster than I did before. I
> gain weight on hemp seed and hemp powder (and
> green smoothies) much better than I ever did
> before. And all I really do are push-ups and
> crunches, really basic stuff, and yet I'm gaining
> muscle like I'm using weights.



Hey thanks for posting this, I'm going to try the hemp protein now - I was previously skeptical as to its effectiveness.

I have heard this marbeled fat phrase. Of course, we have fat marbeled in our bodies, if we didn't have this structure to hold up the heart, lungs, and other organs, along with muscle, it would all fall out. The body needs the insdie muscle. If a person had less than 3% body fat, they would start eating up this muscle and they would look worse than anorexic. They'd look dead. and more dead. like a skeleton. So, the question is, aside from the marbeled fat that hold's everything up inside our bodies. Why would someone lose muscle mass on the Raw Diet? if they eat enough caloires? and work out? and want to keep the muscle they have? and hopefully gain more muslce? to have a more astehtic physique?
I can't seem to get a good answer for this question.

Denis,

Concerning the inability to gain muscle on the raw diet, how many hours a night do you sleep?

Bryan, you can call me nedsin for the forum name, ok? To answer your question, I sleep about seven and a half to eight hours a night. I sleep well, but before when I was drinking coffee on the other diet I slept less. So this has been a big imporvement in my sleep. I sleep better now.

Nedsin,

I've heard that athletes training for the Olympics will sleep in excess of 12 hours during their training. Members of the Kenyan running team will sleep in excess of 20 hours during their training. I've heard that some people who were unable to gain muscle on the raw diet (who where training very hard), increased their bodyweight simply by adding 3 extra hours of sleep each night. It is during sleep that muscle is actually created, so them more sleep one gets, the more opportunity there is for the body to create muscle cells.

That's not true, I gained more muscle before with only 6 hours of sleep. So it's from my own personal experience. I've been working on my physique for ten or more years, I look good enough to be asked to pose in magazines, even with only 6 hours of sleep. But, I agree with you on rest, it needs to be balanced out for muscle's to grow, and I did have it balanced out with cat naps, Sunday's off of the gym, and meditation twice daily. I make sure I'm not stressed so all this helps build muscle, or used to. I'm weak now with the Raw Diet and I don't want to be. I want it to work for me. I want to be one of those guy's who say's, I did it! I did it With BANANA'S!