Getting Big Muscles on Raw

[futureboy]

Any guys out there have low BF% (~5-8%) but still have pretty big muscles?

The only book out there is that out-of-print raw book on strength training while raw, but I've heard only bad things about it.

[justinesmith]

Hey futureboy ~ check out Storms blog about building muscles on raw... he is 56 and his body is INCREDIBLE! www.thegardendiet.com should get you there. :D

[sport]

Shortcut to: http://www.charliesgym.info/

[RawKev]

My body fat dipped below 5% this summer when I was running very high miles and racing every weekend. I lost about 25-30 lbs or retained fat, toxins that were stored throughout my body and digestive trackt, and water weight with virtually no muscle loss. I was down to 158 lbs at 6'2" and people thought I was 180+. I'm back into the mid 160's but it is winter now and I'm doing more weight lifting than running. You can definitly build muscle and gain strength when raw. You might not gain large amounts of weight like when on a sad diet consuming massive amounts of animal proteins, but you will be alot leaner and recover alot quicker. I've joined a competative road cycling team and hoping to do well in my category this upcoming season so I'm going to try to shave down to the mid 150 lbs range. my body weight hasn't been that low in over 10 years.

A great website about raw fitness and alternative methods of building a strong muscular body is fruitarianfitness.com

here's afew shots of me

http://photos-d.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v133/190/91/507376413/n507376413_298255_1807.jpg

http://photos-a.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sctm/v106/190/91/507376413/n507376413_416976_8810.jpg

http://photos-d.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sctm/v106/190/91/507376413/n507376413_416975_5529.jpg

http://photos-c.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sctm/v106/190/91/507376413/n507376413_416974_2766.jpg

[Dylan]

Wow Kev Looking awesome! Very inspiring pictures, thanks for sharing them.

[futureboy]

Yeah dude you are looking very lean. I've been dropping weight like crazy on my raw diet and it only keeps dropping. I don't really feel like I'm putting on massive amounts of muscle like I was on the SAD, but at the same time I feel a lot stronger. It's weird. And I don't have to eat tons of lean chicken and top sirloin steak every day, which actually is pretty tasteless since you can't throw sauces onto it.

How good does chicken taste without loads of spices/sauces? Not that good actually. How good does fruit taste by itself? Not ridiculously tasty, but good!

[aililiu]

How good does chicken taste without loads of spices/sauces? Not that good actually. How good does fruit taste by itself? Not ridiculously tasty, but good!



... NOT RIDICULOUSLY TASTY?!

:eek:
what fruit are YOU eating?

[irishserra]

YUM! :D

What more can I say?

[moonstar]

...holy healthy! Impressed with the muscles -- but you have awesome skin, as well. Inspiring!

Nice bike in the pic...

[RawKev]

Thanks! I used to have bad skin and was quite self-conscious about it. Now everyone tells me how great my glowing skin is.

My success can be attributed to:

100% raw diet, keep the raw fat intake low, don't worry about protein (if you are getting enough calories then you are getting enough protein), consistent daily exercise consisting of both cardio activities and some form of resistance training.

I'm a certified personal trainer now as well. It helps to be educated about fitness but you wouldn't believe some of dietary information I had to "agree" to just to pass my tests.

[solarliving]

Wow, I am seriously impressed. Very inspiring photos. Please give us an idea of your daily regimen.

[moonstar]

...please, do tell --

What are your vital stats? :) age, etc.

Your skin is perfect! It is glowing.

The look of good health (and, good health, itself) is priceless!

[futureboy]

I tried to email you but it won't let me. Did you lose all your "cooked" muscle before you started building up "raw" muscle? I still am in detox, supposedly, so I'm still dropping lots of fat and am not building up muscle as fast as I would like. That's par for the course so I'm not frustrated, but I am curious if I'm slowing down my detox by lifting weights.

Do you feel you maintain your strength longer on raw food? Some people claim that cooked muscles are like balloons and will deflate once you stop lifting, whereas raw muscles maintain their strength much longer.

[RawKev]

I'm figuring out how I'm going to answer this question. All muscles atrophy(get consumed by your body) if you don't use them on a regular basis. They will never disappear but they will get smaller. If you eat an all raw diet you are more likely alot healthier and will probably retain muscle mass and strength for a longer period of time before they will atrophy.

I lost no muscle or strength when going raw. My energy increased dramatically and I was able to train harder and more frequently with less soreness and need for recovery between workouts. I shed 20lbs weight in stored body fat that I couldn't release before and stored toxic buildup. Some colon therapy treatments increased the weight loss I'm sure. I've since gained afew pounds of body fat back now that I've slowed down my cardio activities for the winter off-season and increased my weight training and am building more muscle.

There is alot of conflicting information and opinions out there but my opinion which is drawn from science is that there is no difference between raw "muscle" and "cooked" muscle. No matter what you eat, muscle tissue is made from amino acids (building blocks of protein). An amino acid is an amino acid regardless of which food source it comes from. It's the rest of junk that you are getting in sad diet that doesn't promote a healthy body can definitely have an effect on muscle growth and retention. Amino acids are more readily available in raw foods because they haven't been destroyed by high heat cooking and processing. There is so much information on this topic and I encourage you to do some research yourself. I'm still learning and reading new things everyday.

Personally, I didn't lose any muscle size or strength when I went raw. It's important to highlight though, that lifting weights or any form of exercise breaks down old tissue and during the recovery process rebuilds it with new and improved tissue. Call it Raw muscle if you like but I don't really believe there is a difference. You just have a healthier body because you provide it with healthier fuel.

Don't be concerned with weight training slowing down a detoxification process. There is no way that it would have a negative affect. It speeds the process up by burning body fat which releases stored toxins, increasing circulation and blood oxygenation, and promoting balanced hormone production. Every system in your body is stimulated and improved by exercise.

[raweater]

Yeah dude you are looking very lean. I've been dropping weight like crazy on my raw diet and it only keeps dropping. I don't really feel like I'm putting on massive amounts of muscle like I was on the SAD, but at the same time I feel a lot stronger. It's weird. And I don't have to eat tons of lean chicken and top sirloin steak every day, which actually is pretty tasteless since you can't throw sauces onto it.

How good does chicken taste without loads of spices/sauces? Not that good actually. How good does fruit taste by itself? Not ridiculously tasty, but good!

I had the same problem of loosing weight on raw (it was not at all my goal). After a year I started working out again and then the weight finally started comming back on (and my appetite increased to 3000-7000 calories/day from about 2000). I went up rapidly from 130 to 140 but seem to have stabilized, I hope it starts going back up again soon.

[RawKev]

I had the same problem of loosing weight on raw (it was not at all my goal). After a year I started working out again and then the weight finally started coming back on (and my appetite increased to 3000-7000 calories/day from about 2000). I went up rapidly from 130 to 140 but seem to have stabilized, I hope it starts going back up again soon.

Work the largest muscle groups really hard and you will gain weight. Upper legs (quads, hamstrings, glutes), chest, and back. Often times building your lower body will stimulate growth in the upper body without much upper body work at all. Keep at it, and keep the calories high.

I can burn 3000-5000 calories during a bike training ride and I find it quite hard to replace those calories throughout the rest of the day unless I eat constantly until I go to bed. It's become increasingly difficult since cutting back on raw fats and proteins. On the really high load days where I do burn such high calories I focus on eating really calorie dense foods like bananas, dates, avocados, coconut, nuts and seeds. I make sure to have a couple extra table spoons of hemp seed and a reasonable(1/2 cup) of almonds on a salad with an avocado or two. I never eat any raw oils for salad dressings and stuff except for the odd time I'll put about half a table spoon of extra virgin coconut oil into a smoothie. But that is just me trying to stay as lean as possible, if I wanted to gain weight I would definitely be adding more fats back into my diet.

If you really want to gain weight then increase the amounts of nuts, seeds, oils etc. and you will fill out much easier than trying to stay on a very low fat diet in which the only weight you gain is in lean muscle. Expect to gain a bit of body fat, you wont be any less healthy from it.

[Rwmomto5]

Thanks Rawkev, I'm going to show this to my husband who's been discouraged. He lost quite a bit of body weight (almost 6'3 and down to 155 or so) works out daily (cardio and weights) and can't seem to put weight on.
He only weighed 168 to start with and would like to be at that weight again.

[namllets]

I also found that I've lost about 10lbs being raw. Probably toxic weight but I actually got stronger. I'm 6'0 and about 165 but I would actually like to be about 175lbs. But I can lift more weight at the gym now than I could before. It's strange. There are some pictures of me on my blog but I try to eat a lot of hemp seed, spirulina, greens and other raw protiens to help. Hope that helps! :)

[Mikkei]

When I first went raw I dropped from 130ish to as low as 119. Now that it's been almost two months, I'm up to 123ish and have been able to lift more and recover faster at the gym than I ever was able to on a regular vegan diet. I try to put 200 grams of nuts in my daily fruit smoothie so I can get enough calories to put on weight. I think I need about 3,700 a day to not lose weight. I hope people keep adding to this, because I'd love to hear about new ways and ideas to gain weight/muscle on a raw diet.