Hi everyone,
Hoping some of the more experienced raw foodies on here can give me some advice... or anyone who is losing weight by eating raw. I've been eating 50-80% raw for a month now, have let go of pork/chicken/beef (never was a big pork or beef eater), do still occasionally have fish. I admit in the first three weeks or so, I ate a lot of fruit and that's probably why I didn't lose weight. But now I'm mostly on greens (green smoothies and raw salads) and the weight isn't budging... I'm so frustrated. My diet isn't perfect now, but overall it is so different from how I ate up to this point that I can't believe the pounds aren't flying off! What am I doing wrong? Usually my body is pretty responsive when I do any type of diet/exercise regime, and I notice my clothes fitting looser within days.

By the way, I practice hot yoga and vinyasa yoga (pretty vigorous) 4-5x per week and am also hiking twice a week... I could probably up my activity level although it's a little difficult with my work hours.

Any words of advice are greatly appreciated. Thank you!!!

First, I am in no way an expert or even long term raw (only 10 months), but I have lost weight (yay!) and have read a LOT about raw food. With that disclaimer out of the way, here are some things for you to consider:

1. See if you can make the shift to between 80% and 100% raw.
(It's likely that it is the other 50% of cooked food that's keeping you back.)
Congrats on eliminating pork/chicken/beef!

2. Fruit is my friend. I eat an amazing amount of fruit and still lose weight. It gives me energy and makes eating raw enjoyable. For me, it was controlling my fat intake that made the difference in weight loss. When I started keeping it to 10% or less of my caloric intake, I lost weight.

3. In the beginning I entered all of my food each day on www.fitday.com to monitor my percentages of fats, protein and carbs and to ensure I was getting enough nutrients. I quickly got comfortable with what I was eating and no longer check, but it's probably a good idea at first. You might be amazed as I was how much fat sneaks in when you eat olive oil, avocado, nuts and seeds. Don't get fat phobic, though; we all need some fat in our diets. Oh, there are other sites like fitday, but I haven't used them.

4. You are right on track with the greens and it's great that you are exercising.

Keep trying until you find what works. Good luck!


My favorite raw vegan

hard to say really , sounds like you are very active are you trying to lose just a little weight and not seeing results or lots of weight?

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

Yes, things like salad dressings can add up quickly.

Nutritiondata.com and cronometer are a couple other nutritional calculators. If increasing the percentage of raw then you might want to watch the electrolytes on those long hikes on desert trails, plants not always cutting it.

with losing weight its always a case of calories in vs calories expended and obviously you have to be expending more than your consuming to lose weight. If this isnt working then something else is going on such as hypothyroidism etc.

i find seaweeds are great at stimulating my metabolism and helping me lose weight.

desert_om Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi everyone,
> Hoping some of the more experienced raw foodies on
> here can give me some advice... or anyone who is
> losing weight by eating raw. I've been eating
> 50-80% raw for a month now, have let go of
> pork/chicken/beef (never was a big pork or beef
> eater), do still occasionally have fish. I admit
> in the first three weeks or so, I ate a lot of
> fruit and that's probably why I didn't lose
> weight. But now I'm mostly on greens (green
> smoothies and raw salads) and the weight isn't
> budging... I'm so frustrated. My diet isn't
> perfect now, but overall it is so different from
> how I ate up to this point that I can't believe
> the pounds aren't flying off! What am I doing
> wrong? Usually my body is pretty responsive when
> I do any type of diet/exercise regime, and I
> notice my clothes fitting looser within days.
>
> By the way, I practice hot yoga and vinyasa yoga
> (pretty vigorous) 4-5x per week and am also hiking
> twice a week... I could probably up my activity
> level although it's a little difficult with my
> work hours.
>
> Any words of advice are greatly appreciated.
> Thank you!!!

+Well it's probably not the greens as there aren't enough calories in them to gain weight. Agree with the other posters to examine fat content first as fat is not only the least sating (filling) macronutrient but it's also the most calorically dense. I agree with Trive and Loeve to use either Fitday or Nutritiondata.com to track your intake. Once you see where most of the calories come from, take aim. Some other thoughts:

* aim for 40 to 60 minutes of aerobic exercise daily at least 5 days a week. If possible, alternate exercise activities between a lower body weight bearing exercise like walking, jogging or stairclimbing with a whole body non-weight bearing exercise like rowing or swimming. At a any given level of effort, cross training between two types of exercise like this helps your body perceive its working harder than if you just did one type of exercise.

* front load your meal with a low calorie starter either veggies, fruits or non-fat soups. They will fill you up faster than if you leave them to last after you've consumed the most caloric dense part of your meal.

* when you eat out, ask the waiter for a to go container at the beginning of the meal and when your entree comes, put half of it into the to go container. Out of sight is out of mind. Or better yet, order two appetizers.

* I strongly recommend the Fast Track program for weight loss described in Raw Food Revolution by Soria, Davis and Melina. It's outstanding.

Best of luck to you!

Paul

One more thing. I am becoming more and more convinced that the strategy of putting as much distance as you can between you and the standard American diet as possible is a good thing. If SAD foods are addictive, then it's in all of our interests in getting back in touch with our unstimulated taste buds... learning to reacclimate to low sugar, low salt and low fat whole raw vegan foods. To wit. [therawtarian.com] Laura-Jane is a raw vegan who is wise beyond her years. I'm 50 in a few days and am learning a lot from her. Also see the Pleasure Trap on Amazon by Goldhamer and Lisle. They are vegan but not raw vegan. Point is the same though, calculated cheating is a mistake. Put some distance between you and the bad stuff and keep the distance. Don't succumb. Best.

Paul



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/2010 05:21PM by pborst.

desert_om Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi everyone,
> Hoping some of the more experienced raw foodies on
> here can give me some advice... or anyone who is
> losing weight by eating raw. I've been eating
> 50-80% raw for a month now, have let go of
> pork/chicken/beef (never was a big pork or beef
> eater), do still occasionally have fish. I admit
> in the first three weeks or so, I ate a lot of
> fruit and that's probably why I didn't lose
> weight. But now I'm mostly on greens (green
> smoothies and raw salads) and the weight isn't
> budging... I'm so frustrated. My diet isn't
> perfect now, but overall it is so different from
> how I ate up to this point that I can't believe
> the pounds aren't flying off! What am I doing
> wrong? Usually my body is pretty responsive when
> I do any type of diet/exercise regime, and I
> notice my clothes fitting looser within days.
>
> By the way, I practice hot yoga and vinyasa yoga
> (pretty vigorous) 4-5x per week and am also hiking
> twice a week... I could probably up my activity
> level although it's a little difficult with my
> work hours.
>
> Any words of advice are greatly appreciated.
> Thank you!!!

I dunno...I am not of the belief that all calories are the same. If a food is raw, I think it impacts the body differently, due to the enzymes in particular. For instance, avocado contains lipase, which is an enzyme that digests fat. In addition, you have fiber to encourage regularity. What if you compared those 350 calories from one avocado to 12 oz. of whole milk yogurt, which is pasteurized, has no fiber, no enzymes?
This is what I think may be happening: you haven't given it enough time. I remember doing an experiment six years ago where I ate 1800 calories a day (and really measured out all my food) and was totally vegan (this had nothing to do with raw). After a few weeks I put on a pair of jeans that was the symbol of the amount of weight I wished to lose (I don't have a scale). I was devastated that they still wouldn't even fit to pull them up over my hips. Normally I would be utterly discouraged because even though it was only several weeks, it seemed like enough time to see some sort of difference. But I continued and vowed not to try on those jeans again for a while. Sure enough, my metabolism started to get in gear and then the weight really started coming off! Fast enough for me to abandon my experiment after only five months instead of six when I was getting too thin
It may be that your body needs more time to throw off toxins and sludge, which may impair metabolic rates.

Paul, thanks for posting Laura Jane's therawtarian site. I read the article that came up and agree with her that SAD foods are so addictive that it is easier to just go 100% raw and eventually your tastebuds change. Now I, too, crave salads, although I also crave single veggies. I would never have believed that I'd really enjoy eating a plain cucumber or just celery, but I do!


My favorite raw vegan

Thanks for all the encouraging advice guys. My first reaction to not losing weight after a month (because this is how my brain works) is, why not just go back to my regular (SAD) diet? This isn't working anyway, etc. Ok, so I know that's what I want to do, but have experienced too many cool things in going raw (like clearer thinking and more energy) to not see it through.

It could be that, like Banana Who said, the body has to flush out all these toxins of years of not so great eating habits, metabolism has to right itself, before I can expect results. After all it's just common sense-- if I continue eating raw, eventually how could I NOT lose weight?

I think my biggest challenge is when I go off the raw to eat something (usually in a social situation) that is definitely not on the raw diet (like the potato dish served at yesterday's work pot luck), totally fattening and energy-zapping... I justify the splurge to myself by saying, you've been eating so healthy, this won't hurt. I think I'm having these little splurges more than I realize.

The other thing I want to ask you all is, what is your opinion on colonics? Maybe I will try posting this question in a different forum post... but what has your experience been with these, do you have advice on what has worked best for you? Do you recommend them?

Hugs,
Amy

Amy,
I eat really well and get lots of fiber. Also, I'm "a regular gal," if you know what I mean. Therefore, I don't think I need colonics. Besides it just strikes me as not natural. Others have strong opinions otherwise, though.


My favorite raw vegan

I always thought hiking was more of a muscle-building exercise for the legs than a weight loss one?

desert_om Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> the body
> has to flush out all these toxins of years of not
> so great eating habits, metabolism has to right
> itself, before I can expect results. After all
> it's just common sense-- if I continue eating raw,
> eventually how could I NOT lose weight?


Amy, you said you were only ~50% raw and you have been 'splurging lately and still consuming fish and potatoes and used to eat more fruit but now less... You've hardly begun a detox. Although this may be different from SAD to a degree, it isn't realistic to expect dramatic results yet.

I posted in a recent message that the weight is beginning to come off now. For me, a 100% raw diet doesn't feel right, at least not at this time. I've made a lot of improvements to my diet, but it isn't perfect. I've read and heard so much different advice from varying sources that I'm really now doing what feels right for me, my body-- it's like a favorite yoga teacher of mine says, only you know your body and what's going on with it. So I eat some cooked foods, some fish, and a high raw diet.

Hey dersert_om, what's new in the valley (or are you in the high desert). My 21st class reunion is in a couple weeks and while there's no way I'm going to make it I like to reminisce. I used to like to stop at a farm stand along the Salt River Indian Reservation on my commute from Tempe to Scottsdale.

Eat veggies first, all of them and save the rest for last.

Kref

Eat more fruit and no dressings. Just avocado for your fat. No salt. Drink plenty of water, exercise ,and get some sleep.

You're starving yourself if you're not eating fruit. I don't understand why people malnourish their bodies, esp. with the wrong idea that something like fruit would make them gain weight, and secondly to try to look a certain way insteaad of actually FEEL good. EATFRUIT you're made for it. trust me.

1. If you have insulin resistance at all, you will want to limit really sweet fruits and dried fruits for now and concentrate on vegies first. Perhaps later your pancreas will have healed and you'll be able to deal with more fruit.
2. Concentrate more on weight-bearing exercise than aerobics for weight loss, as well as development of muscle tone (which will make you look and feel better)-- at least that's what I've read works better.

Sharrhan:


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