Raw 5 months, too skinny now . . .

[MrGreenJeans]

Hi,
I'm 5:10 1/2 and down to 155.
People tell me I'm skinny. I went from almost 190 to present weight.
I wonder what I can eat that is raw to put about 5 more pounds on?

Any opinions out there? This weight of 155 is my junior high weight! I feel like a kid again. My face, at least to me, does not look skinny.

[stevesgoinggreen]

Hi,
I'm 5:10 1/2 and down to 155.
People tell me I'm skinny. I went from almost 190 to present weight.
I wonder what I can eat that is raw to put about 5 more pounds on?

Any opinions out there? This weight of 155 is my junior high weight! I feel like a kid again. My face, at least to me, does not look skinny.

I say that as long as your doctor tells you everything checks out then who cares what people think.

[rawbutterfly]

155 lbs at 5'10" doesn't sound too skinny to me. My husband is 6'1" and went from 148-134 during the first 2 months raw. He stayed like that for about 3 or 4 months, then gradually put on 11 lbs without changing anything he ate or did. He has been at that weight for over a year now and looks great to me (hey, I guess I just like the skinny guys!). Anyway, I've read a lot of stories about people (mainly guys) who lost too much weight after first going raw then after a while their body adjusted to it's intended weight naturally. I think Allyssa has a part in her book about that too.

[Marin Mom]

I am finally putting on weight this week after losing 15 pounds I didn't need to lose at the outset of raw (6 months ago). I eat a nut pate a few times a week and avocados daily and was very slowly gaining but it is my recent daily habit (addiction :D ) to raw chocolate that turned things around. Bingo, I gained 5 pounds. Now I better stop!

Hope this helps.

[unbent]

Mr. Green Jeans,

I know what you mean. I have the same problem. I started about about 4 months ago at around 145 lbs and am now down to 138 (I'm 5' 9" tall). According to the MBI chart I am on the low end of normal body weight for my height. Some of the people that I work with and close family think that I have lost too much weight and are concerned. We just had a health screening at work and my cholesterol levels were fine and the nurse said that the weight should come back on its own, which is what I have heard on this forum and from others that are into raw foods, so I am not overly worried. I have been introducing more good fats into my diet like nuts, cold-pressed oils with my breakfast salad, cacao, coconut and avos in my lunch-time green smoothies. I understand that exercise helps with the weight gain as well. I normally do a lot of walking/jogging in the winter and as soon as warm weather returns will be doing a lot of bike riding. I don't normally do much jogging but have felt the urge to get back into it since going raw. I am going to add some calisthenics this month and strength training next month. We'll see what happens then.

Andy

[raven]

your weight sounds a bit low. you may want to go up to 165-170. are you working out? you may not need to eat a lot more but add weight training to put on raw muscle.

suzy

[Carlsbad]

Fresh orange juice, and lots of it! That's what Storm Talifero does (www.thegardendiet.com). You also might want to try adding more strength training.

[Conscious Midwife]

Put on a sweate and some old school LEVEI 501 jeans;)

[rawkchicster]

Put on a sweate and some old school LEVEI 501 jeans;)

LOL! definitely.

Eating at night always puts weight on me.... healthy fats. I'm not TRYING to put on weight at all, but that definitely works. (avos, nuts, etc...)

[VeroP]

My understanding is that it would depend on the type of weight you want to gain - there are three types: fat, water and muscle. You probably don't want to gain the first and the only way to gain the last is through strength training and building muscle.

[chilove]

Go by how you feel, not by others reactions. Remember that people are used to seeing people that heavier than is really ideal for us probably. It's perfectly ok to be slim! :-)

The incredible health benefits of being raw far outweigh (literally) being a little too skinny for society's arbitrary ideals!

Blessings,

Audrey
www.rawhealing.com

[raweater]

I struggled for 1-2 years on raw trying to gain weight, when I started raw I was maybe 160 lbs (150 would probably have been ideal back then), I rapidly went down to 130 and NOTHING I tried to gain weight worked, other than when I ate cooked food, my weight went up and then back down after no cooked food for a few days. Cooked food is obviously not the solution.

After trying all sorts of dietary changes (within the raw diet), I found only one thing that works: intense weight training

When I started, my calorie intake went from maybe 1500-2000 calories/day to 5000-7000 calories/day, this made me gain 10 lbs (to 140) but it seemed to level off.

I'm now tight on cash after buying the Green Star juicer and the Christmas purchases and decided not to start working out again (tripling your appetite means tripling your grocery cost, so don't expect to gain weight without lots of exercise and money). It really sucks because I'm back down to 130 and even less some times.

What sucks even more is I know if I start working out again I'll never get out of debt, I can't afford food for three for just me right now, but it was quite something how intense workout increases your hunger (the energy comes from the food you eat, obviously).

What I did was lift heavy weights, a weight that you can only lift about 4-6 reps, this is an ideal range to trigger weight gain. Lifting a lighter weight you can lift 10-20 times will workout more endurance than weight gain, and could possibly cause weight loss. Good weight gaining exercises are bench presses, squats, and other major exercises like those.

I had lost quite a bit of strength also, but I don't think this has anything to do with raw but rather the fact that I was not consuming enough calories to maintain my muscle mass and it pretty much melted away. When I started working out again near the end of the summer I got my bench press 20 pounds away from the maximum I ever lifted, so it is definately possible to exceed my cooked strength on raw, since I stopped working out my bench press went down 5 pounds, so it's now 25 lbs from the highest it's ever been due to my money issues.

I can't wait to have more money so I can start working out again, unless I maybe try to workout just a bit, but it gets addictive and I don't want to worsten my debt.

[MrGreenJeans]

Thank you everyone for your words of wisdom and encouragement! I really appreciate it!
By the way, my ex-wife is into green smoothies now and last night I went to the local basketball game and saw here standing in the hall. I hadn't seen her in a while and did a double take. I said she really looks different. I told her she looks like when I used to date her. Funny what good diet will do for looks.

Anyway, I went to the dentist this week who is wholistic and the nurse (who is very cute but probably married) is into vegetarianism (but not raw yet). I asked her what she thought of my weight and she said I looked a little skinny.
I told her I don't look skinny in the face. I think it doesn't look good when people are so skinney their eyes are sunk into their head. Anyway, I told her about the raw diet. We'll see. She had cancer and has beaten it so far. She didn't do what the doc wanted with all the chemical crap. Good for her!

Anyway, thanks dear friends!

Tony

[river]

I can totally relate to what raweater was saying about weight/training and money. My experience is near identical.

It seems that having a good quality diet is seriously expensive, when you need to add weight.

Has anyone managed to achieve this without going bankrupt? lol.

River.