I realise calories are a very contraversial issue, and mainly a non issue in the raw world.

I am all for the eat when your hungry and do not eat when your not hungry, or detoxing or sick.

However as recovering from ED at the moment my doctor asked me just as an excercise to capture my cals for a few days during the week. Here is what they came up to for the days I checked

Day 1

410 cal - 5 apples

Day 2

650- 5 apples 3 pears

Day 3

200 - Broccoli/cabbage salad, 2 apples

Day 4

Under 100 - Broccoli/cabbage salad

---------

I have been raw since March, I was fully satiated all of those days, if not uncomfortable the 650 day. I feel happy in myself and have healed a lot of ailments since my journey began after 10years of being a vegetarian. I am active and workout daily.



Anyway, any thoughts or suggestions? My doctor no doubt is going to prescribe me some complan. He asked me to do this as a result of loosing 7lb after a recent flu/detox.

Any thoughts welcome or anything I could say/relay/show my doctor so that he can understand???

Thanks anyway...

Raw_Dancer

Your doctor is going to think you have an eating disorder unless you show him average 1500-1800 kcal days.

400-500 kcal/day is ok for a day if the other days are much much higher. Otherwise you lose weight.

BTW I can eat 6 apples for breakfast and I weigh 103, I get ravenous within a few hours, too. My kcal range is anywhere from 1300-2000 per day. I think I average around 1650 but I don't check regularly.

I agree with arugula. It may be that you are truly getting enough food for your body, because it has been trained to sustain itself on such a low level of nourishment. I've seen this in very advanced raw foodists who had been living super healthy lifestyles. Perhaps your body has been able to get where these advanced raw foodists are, and perhaps your body/mind/spirit is even ready for breatharianism. I don't know.

But most people here on this forum cannot sustain themselves at that level of calories. The minimum for most is their ideal body weight (in pounds) times 10. So if your ideal weight is 110 pounds, that would be 1100 calories if you were bedridden, but probably more like 1400 if you are mobile.

But as arugula said, the doctors are going to see your numbers, and they will think you are eating disordered. Many here will agree. I don't think your evidence will help you with the doctors.

Thanks for the responses, as I am said, I am recovering. So he isnt expecting to see 1000 or above.


I feel satiated on what I am eating, so am just a bit boggled as to why I should be making myself feel ill trying to triple calories to meet government guidelines...?

I feel I should eat when I am hungry and stop when full. Which is what I am doing. I never go without.

Thanks for the food for thought...

argula would you mind posting how you manage 1300- a list of what you typically eat?? would help me

Thanks

I am not totally raw, I still do cooked beans and beer, something like this:

5:30 AM: coffee with soymilk (50 kcal)
6 AM: two cups juice (50-150 kcal greens celery cuke carrot cabbage etc., sometimes add 1/2 apple or an orange)
6:30 AM: workout
7:30 AM-9 AM: 6 pieces of fruit (420 kcal)
noon-2: big salad, 12 cups (greens, tomato, onion, walnuts, olive oil, various vegetables and nonsweet fruit, beans, sweet corn) (400-500 kcal)
4 PM or when I get home: fruit salad: 4-6 more servings of fruit (350 kcal), 2 T flax (110 kcal), soy yogurt (50 kcal)
8 PM: beer (220 kcal) this is really bad, but I haven't kicked it yet.

I do better mentally and physically with 2 workouts a day, which requires even more food (add 2 cups of fruit shake with rice protein powder, which I have mixed feelings about), but I have been really busy with school and have been skipping the afternoon workouts.

Just a little confused with the whole calorie thing and going raw

It is to my understanding that you can have a eating disorder and feel completely satisfied and not hungary. Your body will get use to the low calorie intake and after a while really will not know anything better.

I've heard raw foodist talk about not needing to eat as many calories the longer they are raw due to the body getting enough nutrients. This kind of confuses me,too. Because really the body can get all the nutrients needed from juicing. It is not possible though to get the energy needed by just living off of juice.

Now I have also read in several different articles that part of our total calorie intake goes towards fueling digestion and nutrients absorption. In this case it would make sense that raw foodist would need less calories than people on SAD due to the fact that raw foodist do not use as much energy digesting food.

Personally, I've been 100% raw for almost 2 months and I tend to always eat 1700+ calories. This past week, I have been eating even more and even feel better. If I go under 1700 calories I dont have the energy to get me through the day -literally it seems like a workout to walk to class. Now I am a collegiate athlete so I am going to need more calories than most people.

Hey arugla you may want to check into Hemp Protein - that is what i've started using

Just a suggestion and I know a lot of people on here may disagree with this. Eating something the first thirty minutes of being awake really helps increase your metabolism. If I dont eat something those first 30 minutes then I feel like I am forcing myself to eat for the rest of the day. Though, if I eat when i get up I have an appetite to easily eat enough calories throughout the day. When i started doing this, i simply started off with just taking a couple bites of an apple and worked my way up from there.

Hey Rawdanceruk,

Have you considered adding more greens? Even just a 100-200 g of spring mix/dark greens might help you a lot in building a new nutrition program for you. I was eating about 300 g of dark greens a day, which I thought was a really good amount seeing what other people eat, but I just added another 200 g of greens (spring mix) to my diet and I feel even way better. I think all the nutrients and minerals from greens are very healing, especially as you are recovering from eating less calories and nutrients than your body probably needs.

As regards the doctor's orders of tripling your calories, I'd say just take things one step at a time. You'll certainly want to increase your caloric intake, but perhaps something like aiming for an average of 800 calories/day is a good short-term goal for you. And once you reach your first goal, you can re-evaluate and set your next goal(s).

Best Wishes in your journey

Rawdancer,

I've found that the longer I'm raw, the more I can eat. My digestion used to be very slow and one banana (very ripe) would make me feel stuffed for most of the day. Now I can easily eat three (or more on some days!) in one sitting. I never had an eating disorder, I just didn't get hungry because my food used to sit so long in my stomach. Now that my body is healthier, I can eat a lot more. I'm sure if you continually increase your raw food intake and eliminate the cooked, processed foods, your body will help you overcome any problems. Once your mind is healed, your body will take over and heal itself (that's what I think, anyway).

Lots of love to you,

Gypsy