I'm worried I'm not all right with fruits. I was doing raw foods pretty well until I added daily fruit blend smoothies. I gained 20 lbs. Do you have some kind and compassionate advice to help?

Background: Back injury makes it hard to walk, I love to eat and need foods I can snack on through the day, I was not gaining weight when I was eating raw deserts more often (cashew cream cake, chocolate cheesecake, etc...). I added raw fruits and blimped out. I never lost weight unless I was really starving myself of food and eating only non dressed lettuce greens and blended kale water with algae. I don't want to go back to the old "diet" and I want to be able to snack all day (in a perfect world).

Tools: Blentec blender, food processor, and magic bullet grinder.

**ps**- I know many negative comments may come to mind immediately, but if you have nothing kind and good to say then it's best left unsaid. It's not like I haven't beat myself up already over this weight gain. I need compassion, recipes, a day menu plan, perhaps a list of foods that don't trigger cortisol (or foods that suppress it), etc... I need stuff that really helps and I know you know something I don't.

How long did it take you to gain 20 lbs? 2 weeks? 3 weeks? etc.

When you say you added "fruit blend smoothies", do eat eat a smoothie the same time you eat something high in fat?

Describe your daily eating routine for us?

Thanks!

I gained it over 2 months. I would make a smoothie in the morning that was 1 gallon and I would drink a cup when hungry till dinner. I usually had some left over and I wasn't eating anything else. It was weird, other then I have gained weight rapidly before back when I was eating honey as a sweetener. I'm back to vegi soups and no sweets. I did really well eating only fats from the raw deserts. I'm also allergic to mangoes - even when peeled carefully I will get a rash wherever it touches my lips. I was having mangoes about 1x or more each week as part of the smoothie.
Then avocados came into season 5/$1 and I was having two a night for dinner with hot sauce.

A gallon is like 4 and a half litres isnt it, so that could equal out to a fair amount of calories ontop of your other food.

I dont agree what some say that its impossible to gain weight on fruit and inturn get fat. You can get fat on any food in surplus if your not burning the calories off.

Have you ran your calories through an online calculator such as fitday.com

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]

imawsomeh,

Sorry this has happened. However, like others I am confused when you say you "added" fruit smoothies to an already calorific regimen: Did you eliminate the nut based foods, or keep them and add in fruit smoothies? If so, that's a huge influx of calories you probably don't need if you are moderately active. Consuming a calorie dense food like fruit on top of another calorie dense food like fat(in the form of gourmet raw foods)could be overwhelming your metabolism. Liquified or blended fruit, on its own, metabolizes especially quickly, so that could be contributing to the problem. Curious: Have you ever tried eating lots of fruits in whole form, singly, rather than in juice? If so, did you respond poorly to that? That would be the test of whether you don't tolerate fruit well.


By the way, kale juice with algae and undressed lettuce greens isn't a diet, it's starvation, so I wouldn't do that again! If your metabolism functioned efficiently, if you had good energy and burned calories well on high fat with veggies, then it could be that this is the regimen your body prefers. I hope you can get to the bottom of this and get back to health



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/2011 12:20PM by Tamukha.

I did the calculation on the smoothie I was having: 1600kcal/gallon
I was eating 2 avacados/day and they would be 550kcal
Then I was drinking about 1pint of home made almond milk sweetened with honey: (Almonds 546kcal and 2T honey 126kcal).
And I was randomly having some green tea.

Topped with a sedentary lifestyle.

I guess I thought that eating raw would = weight loss no matter what I ate. I got that impression from the year I spent eating fat filled nut based deserts and the avocados, coconut milk & oil, all never had me gain more the 5lbs at the most when I was having 1/4 pie a day. I was under the impression that since it was raw it was taking energy to break down the foods and kcal was no longer an issue. Tamukha is right, it's got to be metabolism working better on high fat rather then fruits.

I never have really liked quantity of fruit. I just ate them before at less then RDA in the spring when they were fresh on the tree. Pears once a year, loads of persimmon when ripe, random wine grapes and stuff I would save like blackberries and strawberries in the freezer.

Yep, I'm getting to the bottom of it with this help. Any suggestions on a better smoothie?

Thats the problem far too many in the raw food movement make out that you cant gain weight or get fat on raw diets or with fruit etc.

But end of the day food is food and calories are calories no matter where they come from. It is harder on high fruit diets due to the volume of food and the quick digestion but it isn't impossible by any means.

Any reason why you couldn't introduce a little exercise to offset the extra calories, that way your still getting the goodness of the fruit.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]

imawsomeh,

I always add lots of greens--lettuce, spinach, kale--to my fruit smoothie, making it a mineral-rich green smoothie

Hi imawsomeh,

I don't know.. sounds like the culprit might just be the extra fruit smoothies combined with the avocadoes and the new back injury. Avocadoes are super high in fat! I only allow myself like a third of an avocado a day, and even then I would worry except they fill me up so good I hardly eat anything else that day. Fruit smoothies are tricky too. Imagine eating the quantity of fruit without it being all blended up. That's usually a lot of fruit. Fruit are still carbs. I'd cut them both way down.
If you want my guess it's that you're probably upset about your back and bored. Is there anything out there you've been wanting to learn lately? Maybe you could have a serious intellectual study about something or something to occupy yourself with while your back heals. (It's gonna heal right?) Can you swim or do some easy yoga or pilates?

I agree with you rawalice. Boredom is why I tried the raw cleanse. It's where I got the recipes with the fruit smoothies. Avacadoes are hard to find now (if I don't go to Mikes produce stand over on River Rd.). I'm switching back to greens, vegis, raw soups, green spirulina smoothies and back to enjoying fruit in it's whole form. Theres something about blending everything up in a tasty way that makes it easy to eat too much. I'm even going to go back to making the chocolate gnache. Another blog member here gave the link to puremarket.com and I checked out their weekly 21 item food delivery box ($175) and I'm considering doing that. There's a lot of dehydrated foods there and I'm not so sure I want to increase processed raw foods just yet. Well, the upside is that puremarket has choices I can easily handle and customize. I consider myself lucky to be able to metabolize fats in a low carb environment well. I guess everyone is lucky in that way.I don't mean to sound like some advertisement.

As far as the back, there's a herniation along the spine. I was recommended hylauronic acid to re-build cartilage, epidurals, PT, minimal lifting/bending/etc, surgery (which I turned down surgery), a lifetime on pain medications/pharmaceuticals, and the joint health formula of MSM, chondroitan, glucosamine combo (it's counter-productive that the vitamins are not covered by insurance). I think that eating healthy is key in healing, and a lifetime dependent on a pharmaceutical company is not sustainable - so I want to heal. A daily (internal) nutritional bath in mineral rich foods could create the optimal healing environment for that disk. I'm taking full time coursework to prepare to do something within my abilities for the rest of my life.

I guess fluid retention can also be a cause of weight gain if youre drinking a gallon of juice? maybe try eating fruits in natural form (not smoothies) and don't go over the top on quantity. Or just have 1-2 smoothies per day instead of a gallon which sounds like a lot...or have juices instead of smoothies which are also very cleansing....
the raw food cakes sound good but for me more as something to have now and then rather than as an all the time thing...

Oh wow, sorry about your back. it sounds serious. I don't know if it's the same, but I took glucosamine sulfate once for my knees and it really did seem to help them alot. (i was pregnant and your joints loosen, then i worked through my pregnancy standing all day long and weakened the cartilage.) I only took it for a bottle's worth, but i swear the cartilage really strengthened and solidified and stopped hurting/being a problem and I haven't taken it since and they're still feeling good.

Well, good luck, and remember, beauty comes from within.

The Theory is that Smoothies provide less nutrition (because of oxidation) than whole foods, therefore you eat more to compensate....thereby gaining weight.

"In Theory there is no difference between Theory and Practice. In Practice there is."......Yogi Berra

it seems your mindset is the main problem:

"I love to eat and need foods I can snack on through the day"

1) There should be a break between meals. This is known medical knowledge.

2) it also seems, from what you say, that you need another focus than using food to take your mind off the pains of life. I would not presume to know what else you used to do that you really loved before this became an issue, but I am sure there are some other ways to obtain and give comfort and joy that
you have explored in the past.


However some chemistry knowledge MIGHT help as well:
You can also add some supplements that help your body with blood sugar control. A complete B vitamin complex, extra amounts of the B vitamin Biotin, zinc, vitamin E, L-glutamine, and and chromium GTF may bel helpful. The Diet Cure by Julia Ross has more information on how to stop sugar cravings and control blood sugar issues.

Also of possible use: [www.drfuhrman.com]

also your raw diet sounds way too high in fat and not enough greens

this site has good info

[www.raw-food-health.net]

Craving Control Makes All The Difference

Hey imawsomeh,
check out the raw family smoothies recipes on youtube
[www.youtube.com]

Good luck. I do understand you.I gainned 10 pounds,and now I am finding out my way
of eating too. I can't have more than 1/2 cup of nuts a day,but fruits are ok for me.
I feel better eating 3 times a day (breakfast-lunch- small dinner).
I've heard that it is better this way,at least for me it is.
I feel terrible eating every 2 hours.

We have to find our own way. Again,good luck.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2011 10:32PM by cy.

no answer here

good luck though

hope u find your path

just wondering

if you added ice in your smoothies

or if any of the fruit was frozen

curious

cuz frozen stuff slows down digestion considerably

but then again, maybe u used only raw fruits

i dunno

just thought i'd ask