I gained weight - and the main reason I think are dates. I just can't stop eating them. Six dates make 120 calories and I eat a pound of them easily. I do that with medjool dates, but also with the ones from regular grocery stores, even when half of the dates are dry. A few times I ate them late, so I could not sleep - too much energy.
I am like that with all the food, especially fruit. When I buy grapes, I just eat them until there is none left. Mangoes, anything. But, with dates, it is really too much - I am gaining weight.
When I started with raw foods, I used smoothies - maybe I need to go back to that until I figure out different way. I just don't eat enough salad, I am such a frugivore.
I actually feel much better when I eat a lot of grapes compared to when I eat a lot of dates. When I eat a lot of dates, I should be working in a coal mine or swim a marathon, that is how much energy I get.

Rab, I'm like that too with dates. I start out having maybe three at a time. Pretty soon I'm having 12. I don't feel that great afterwards. They seem like some kind of addiction.

I especially crave them after a salad. The solution for me seems to be: oranges. I can eat oranges any time and feel really good.

rab,

I have found when they're really, cloyingly sweet, I cannot stomach more than a couple at a time. Thus, I have resorted to putting them into my green smoothies for calories and a slight sweetness against all those greens. It is comparatively harder to "binge" on green smoothie than on dates alone

How to stop eating so much sweet fruit? Just get your carbs from rice, pizza, cakes, chocolate etc. EASY!

Dates make one fat? Well Freelee and I eat the most dates out of anyone in the raw food world. We are heaps fat hey! Check out our latest videos where we show our stomach fat from the last few days.

durianrider, you are like a broken record - I know, I know. You only repeated that megazillion fifillion times. I love fruit, that is not the point. I just don't like running marathons, get it??

rab, when I find some good fruit, I often need to eat it until its gone. That is, unless I bought an entire case of fruit, which I could never eat 38 pounds of oranges in a single sitting.

The only problem I see with eating a lot of dates is getting dehydrated. Make sure you are drinking some water as you eat your dates, or better yet, make datorate - a date and water smoothie.

I'm the same as Tam, after one of two I am totally sweeted out.
Rab, if you are going to eat that many dates it's probably a good idea to up your activity level. Not marathons if they don't appeal but something to burn off those calories. Or just don't buy dates at all. I don't keep chocolate in the house, or chips or crackers or any other sort of snack food. Because I will eat it. I will. Late at night if I'm up working after the kids have gone to bed... if all there is is cucumber or an apple I'll eat that of course but a box of crackers? Irresistible. And I don't even LIKE crackers!

Thanks all for good tips. I will try to restrict dates a little bit, and as I increase my workout activity maybe add more. I need to lose some weight, so I will need to run a little more.

What happens if you get an injury though and your activity level drops to nothing and your sitting pounding 6000 calories a day. Ive been there many a time due to chronic IT band syndrome issues, tendonitis, broken bones etc.

It doesn't matter if its fruit, bowls of pasta, nuts if your taking in more calories than your expending in most cases you gain weight, with fruit its harder but its not impossible by any means.

What happens you end up gaining weight and have to reduce your calories. The same thing applies here, you have one or two options, reduce your calories if you are gaining weight and don't want to or cant up your activity levels. Or up your activity levels to burn off the excess calories.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2011 02:54PM by powerlifer.

Rab,

I purposely changed my diet to predominantly dates for the winter to put ON weight because of the cold and due to the lack of good produce where I am located during that time of year.

I've been off them for about a month and its tough to stop but I find it helps to transition on fruit that contain lots of water early in the morning. I transitioned mainly on pineapple, apples and oranges. That seems to take away the desire to eat dates. They just didn't taste as good.

I was eating around 4o0o -60o0 calories a day. I got this idea that it was tough to stop because I was causing some diabetic-like changes due to the high sugar content. Then when I dropped dates my mood dropped as well and I got a terrible migraine. But, I let it run its course and I'm feeling much better now and my strong desire for carbs has leveled off. I'm back down to 2000-2500 calories a day. There will be a new game plan for next winter.

I'm one of them people who struggle with willpower. It's hard for me to stop once I get started.

david

The best way to restrict yourself is to buy lots of greens, and then chop the dates in half, and wrap them in greens and eat them sushi style. At a certain point you will be full from the greens without all the stimulation - or you can follow DR's good advice and eat 30 bananas on top of all the dates because you probably haven't had enough fruit, sugar or calories, and then go for a 3000 mile bike run to use up the 10,000 calories.

Wow. I'm glad I came across this thread. I just discovered mejool dates and am soooo addicted now. Have only been eating them for about a week and a half now. It's like eating honey but in gummie format! Found out they're in the bulk department at my health food store.

I've lost some weight and I was already skinny to begin with, so I could use a little more, but yeah I will try to eat more of the other fruits and greens.

I reduced dates for a couple of days and my weight dropped (exercised too). So, if you want to gain weight, medjool dates are perfect
I have decided to just keep the dates in check - a handful a day. This does not apply to other fruit, which I eat uncontrollably

Well I'll try it then, I am chronically skinny. The kids too, it runs in the family .

I keep my figs and dates in my fridge drawer. I only take 3 or 4 at a time, and leave the rest there.

My video to keep me inspired on my health quest: [www.youtube.com]

Look how lean, fit and strong Freelee and I are. We eat more boxes of dates than anyone we know.

Check out Freelee's before and after vid. We are going for a million hits on this one.
[www.youtube.com]

With all the respect, DR, your face always looks like you need seven days sleep. That does not help your videos either. Your look malnourished, like marathon runners, exhausted.
I prefer the look of swimmers, or just normal people who exercise as much as they enjoy and have active outdoor life.

To be fair singling out certain foods or food groups as being impossible to gain weight on just isn't physiologically correct. Some may be harder than others but as this thread is testament too you can gain weight with dates/fruit as in Rabs case.

There seems to be a notion that you can eat as much as you want of these foods and not gain weight and in turn get fat. But the missing key point here is exercise and that these people are very active. In the old days id eat 5000-6000 calories SAD diet which is quite abit compared to 6000 calories raw. Id gorge on kebabs, pizza, burgers and all sorts of other horrible food but id still be ripped. The key is exercise, everyone would ask me how was i able to stay so athletic and healthy looking. Simple i said i exercise regularly. And before anyone says i wasn't on steroids, caffeine or supplements i was a poor college kid who could barely afford the massive food bill let alone anything fancy.

Sit on your bum eating an excess of calories your going to get fat long term no matter what food it is. Again if its fruit its going to be harder to gain weight but its anything but impossible. Some seem to think its physiologically impossible to get fat on a high fruit based diet but it really isn't. Many testimonials from happy high fruiters show they were pleased at being able to put on weight etc. Like in the case of rab here if he was to continue gaining weight without upping his activity level long term he would put on more weight and become overweight/fat.



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/2011 02:44PM by powerlifer.

powerlifer - this is true. If I kept on eating two pounds (or more) of dates while sitting at the computer whole day - I would put back all the weight that I lost since starting with raw vegan foods. I have no doubt about this, as I was steadily gaining weight. I haven't changed my workout schedule much (basketball once or twice a week, light workout and running other days, but weather was bad). As soon as I cut dates to just a handful I started to lose weight.
Also, I noticed that there is a difference (at least in my case) in the way I feel while playing basketball 'on bananas' and 'on dates' - bananas are for some reason better for sports. I don't get quite the same energy from dates, even though they have more sugar. Dates are very good for digestion, and they can make you feel full, in combination with other foods (for me the combination of a lot of grapes and a little bit of dates works the best).

On a totally different note, when speaking of dates, as they like dry climates, I think that the areas where dates grow are actually the best for human life.

...and Prana is right, dates make you dehydrated, very much so. Following Prana's advice, I tried drinking even more water - and that made me feel better after eating dates. I would usually just have a large glass of water, instead I am having two or three now.