How Long Does The "Too Thin" Period Last?

[steveoregon]

A little history . . .

I’m 5’10”. I‘ve been about 70% raw for three years, and my weight was pretty stable at 147-150lbs (I’ve never been overweight). Back in February, I made the decision to go 100% and gave myself six months to do it. I am ahead of schedule. Took me about three months to get there. Going from 70% to 90% was the a little rough - especially withdrawing from bread. When I finally went from 90% to 100%, it was easy so far, knock on wood. A little over one week at 100%, no cravings.

This morning, I looked at myself after getting out of the shower. Wow, did I look thin, too thin, was kind of scary. So I weighed myself. I CAN”T BELIEVE what the scale says, 134lbs (no shoes, just jeans and shirt). Lately my clothes have been feeling very loose, like my jeans will fall off.

I don’t believe I can consume more calories. Like a lot of people who first start out raw, I feel like I’m overeating raw food a bit, because I’m still trying to get that full feeling I used to get with SAD. I’m a little tilted toward fruits - although I’m getting a lot of leafy greens in smoothies, large salads, juicing, etc.

I had read this thin period was to be expected. I can’t really seem to find any info on how long it lasts though – or maybe it’s different for everyone? A search on this forum shows this issue discussed in general, but little mention of how long it lasted.

I don’t want to know how to gain weight, because I sense it’s part of the process. However, I can deal with something better if I know what to expect.

Anyone who has experience with how long this lasted – I’m all ears.

Steve

[Aleesha Sattva]

from what i've read... this process doesn't take all that long to balance out.

but honestly... i'm still in the releasing space... so i don't have this issue in my life.

[RawHeaven]

Steve,

I don't really have an answer, but I'm curious what is your build? Small frame, medium frame? I ask because I'm 5'2 and have discovered I have a very small frame when I thought I had a medium one. My average fit weight has been 130-135 for most of my life when I was in shape and running for example. I started at 168 or so last year at this time and I'm at 120 now and still losing (fat) weight even when I eat a lot of food. My body is continuing to redistribute itself which equates to looser clothing, cheek bones standing out more, etc. I was alarmed at first, but I realize I have no idea of what my "true" weight should be, because I have not been at my true weight since I was what?...maybe 14 years old.

And are you getting enough fats in your system? Like avocados and coconut oil? I've found that although I'm losing weight, my skin stlll stays pliant and healthy looking as my body changes when I'm getting daily fats. It is a bit freaky when you start getting skinnier, but I'm sure your body knows what it's doing.

If you really are concerned, can you visit a homeopath, naturopath or acupunturist to give you more sound advice? It may help you find greater peace of mind or perhaps help you adjust your routine, supplement with different foods you may not be trying etc. Or maybe it extends beyond food and includes adding meditation or other things in your daily routine. Our bodies are all so different, so it's really hard to say. Especially between men and women.

Even though you've been raw for 3 years, you just started 100% not too long ago, so perhaps the weight you're losing are the toxins that were hanging around in your cells from the 20-30% of non raw foods you were eating? You may have to restart your gauge from when you began eating 100% and go from there and it won't seem so alarming. You're just rebooting your system in a way. I'm just thinking out loud here.

I wish you the best.


Crystal

[steveoregon]

Thanks for the response Crystal. I'm a medium frame build.

I'm getting plenty of avocados and oil in my diet. I will be monitoring my weight pretty regularly now, to see how long this takes. Will take some photos today - maybe show them in the future (thin vs normal), when the weight comes back.

Steve

[Bethanie]

I trying to go 100% but sometimes the soup i'm making get's a little too warm or if i'm dehydrating with my convection oven the temp goes a little too warm.
I do feel lighter and clothes are a little looser it seems.
B.

[jacsam]

Alissa's husband went 100% raw and felt he was too thin, he talks about it on her website and he also has pictures. I wonder if you could get some answers from them, maybe a consultation.

[Raene]

I'm female and 6'1" and I have dropped from 135 (already very skinny) to 126 (wayyy too skinny). My pants can come off without me even unbuttoning/unzipping. It's frightening, but I can't help but stick with raw b/c cooked foods make me sooo sick. I've been raw off and on for 2 yrs but have been 100% for the past few months. I read in Alissa's book that one skinny chick dropped lots of weight and it took her a whole year to gain back (and then she gained more than ever and was a healthy weight). Yes, that is a whole year on 100%. But I really hope I don't have to wait a whole year.

[FloridaPatty]

by Victoria Boutenko. She talked about how that happened to a lot of people. It was because their digestive tract wasn't in peak performance. Her suggestion - and I guess we're all going to get tired of this - a quart of green smoothies a day. She said after a month, most people digestion systems are better. Acid in the stomach is the main problem. Most people have a lack of acid like they should, even young people. Not sure if she was suggesting taking acid pills. I just got the book and read it quickly last night.

[veganman]

Hi Steve -

are you exercising much? Although logic would dictate it would cause you to lose more, I have read it is helpful for those trying to gain weight.

[steveoregon]

Hi Steve - are you exercising much? Although logic would dictate it would cause you to lose more, I have read it is helpful for those trying to gain weight.

I don't exercise at all right now. As I get more energy from the diet, I hope the desire will come more naturally. In the mean time, I will try to exercise more.

Let's see, where are those roller blades I bought last winter . . . .

[RawSinger]

Lifting weights will help you gain weight. Lean muscle mass weighs more than fat. Men don't need/should not have a lot of fat on their bodies. Ideally, their body fat percentage should be around 10-17%. You probably just need to bulk up a little, when you're ready. Just make sure you're schooled on the proper form for weight-lifting so you don't injure yourself.

Take care :)

[DavidZaneMason]

For me? About 1 month before I started to gain back about 10 lbs and stabilize. It's all good.

-David Z. Mason

[steveoregon]

For me? About 1 month before I started to gain back about 10 lbs and stabilize. It's all good. -David Z. Mason

Thanks, that's encouraging.

[jacsam]

by Victoria Boutenko. She talked about how that happened to a lot of people. It was because their digestive tract wasn't in peak performance. Her suggestion - and I guess we're all going to get tired of this - a quart of green smoothies a day. She said after a month, most people digestion systems are better. Acid in the stomach is the main problem. Most people have a lack of acid like they should, even young people. Not sure if she was suggesting taking acid pills. I just got the book and read it quickly last night.
She wasn't suggesting acid pills......that really is a fun book, enjoy it!

[Raene]

Funny; I read it and thought she *was* suggesting acid pills. We have naturally occurring hydrochloric acid pills at our HFS and they're made from beets. Hmm.

[RawHeaven]

Steve, I hope you do post your before and afters. It would be great to have more men in that section.

Speaking of balance...I weighed myself this morning and I'm back up 5 lbs, but still losing inches. I think I've gained muscle weight as I've been doing yoga...I feel stronger.

I believe you have to take the whole puzzle into consideration...fat distribution, muscle density/strength, exertion levels, digestive system, respiratory system, circulatory system, new cell production...eventually it will all click into place.

[steveoregon]

UPDATE:
My weight settled at about 132 for a few weeks (way too low), then started dropping slowly to 127. At that point, I became concerned. For five weeks I backed off 100% raw, and started including one bag of Uncle Bens brown rice (no salt) each day. The immediate effect was to gain about two pounds to 129, then lost a pound and my weight stabilized at 128 for four weeks. In other words, almost no effect. I'm not willing to go backwards any farther - I spent too much successful effort switching to 100%. I've ended my "rice" experiment and I'm back to 100%. I will let this "too thin" period run it's natural course.

I've learned a few things . . .

Increasing calorie intake during this period does absolutely nothing. For a short while, I tried eating so much raw food that I felt stuffed all the time - including fatty raw food. Zero effect.

Some people suggest weight lifting. Logically however, this would appear to only cover up the issue. It's not going to make my face look any fuller. Not against it - just saying.

I've spend hours researching this. Basically, this is just a process you have to wait out. Trying to short circuit it - rather fruitless.

Others have suggested colonics as a way to speed up detox and get through this period faster. That could be an answer - but still debating whether I want to go down that road.

I am wondering though - does everyone who goes 100% raw - and stays that way - go through this?

If only those of you who are tying to loose weight could trade pounds with those of us . . . .

Steve

My college weight (early seventies) while on the swim team (trim and muscular) was 165. So I've lost close to 40 pounds.

BTW, going on and off cooked rice caused no ill effects either way that I could discern. Cooked rice seems to be a rather benign (less addictive) cooked food.

.

[Raw Yogi]

Steve,

I had the same problem you had. For me it lasted for a few months after going all raw.However, what caused my situation to change was to simplify my raw diet. I am 5'10", and when I first went all raw, my weight dropped down to 130 pounds. It stayed there until I simplified my diet significantly. I looked at your website at your smoothies and salads, and I used to eat very similarly to that.

Ultimately what caused my weight to increase was taking out the elements of my diet that were stimulating me. These are the substances that are often used in cooked foods to help with digestion and to add flavor to the cooked foods. The reason I knew they were stimulating was because as soon as I removed all of them from my diet, I grew very fatigued and had a healing crisis. But after the healing crisis my health increased and my weight moved up to 140 pounds.

I took out these stimulating elements all in one day, and so the my body responded very shortly afterward (I think it was within a few days). You might try a more gradual approach.

So what where these stimulating substances? Spices and condiments. Salt, pepper, vinegar, cumin, garlic, onions, etc.

Also, at the time I was eating lots of fat in my raw diet. My fat intake was in excess of 60% of my caloric intake. I dropped my fat intake to a much healthier level.

[Eva]

Funny that I'm reading this now, I just got rid of onions yesterday. I was taking in a lot of cacao for a short time and had very bad results (headache, tummy pooch, concentration issues). When I decided enough was enough, after the first day "off," I started eating lots more onions than usual with the thought that they were very cleansing and would help me detox very quickly. Well, for several days, I felt less than stellar and thought "sheesh, this is quite a detox!" I even have had significant body odor, which is abnormal for my raw life.

Just yesterday, I had enough onions in my salad that eating (not cutting) it made me cry! It made me think my body might just be in detox mode from eliminating the onions. I may have an allergy, not sure.

In any case, in just the last 24 hours, my concentration, cheer and energy levels have skyrocketed back to the usually very high levels.

I don't know how these things would affect your weight, but perhaps Raw Yogi is onto something that could benefit you -- eliminating spices, onions, garlics, all of the spicy stuff. You could even just do it for a few weeks to test out the effect. You never know.

[Eva]

By the way, Raw Yogi and Steve -- thanks for sharing your experiments and experiences here. I'm sure there are people out there that can benefit. Not everyone comes to raw to lose weight. Some people just want to be super healthy and could go through the same experiences. :)

[Raw Angel Mom]

I went through underweight too, after 8-9 months raw, i started to gain a healthy weight and i have been maintaining it since. I think our body will get ride of all the bad fat before storing the good one. I still consume all the spice or stimulant that was mentioned on previous post, i didn't know they could be a problem but for me it didn't matter for i finally got a healthy weight. I personally didn't look better going on raw except when i lost my extra weight at first but i had more energy and i had faith in raw food, so i continued. I even tried to eat steam brown rice once in a while and it just didn't work, only 100% raw food works for me.

So this is normal and don't give up. Maybe you want to look into adding legume in your smoothies and maybe even chia seed in them too. Since, i have doing this for me, i found better result.

[saxmaam]

Funny that I'm reading this now, I just got rid of onions yesterday.

I second this. Raw onions make me feel AWFUL. It doesn't happen every time, so I can get fooled into thinking they are ok for me. But more often than not I'll feel headachey and fatigued after a dish with raw onions in it.

[RawHeaven]

Hi Steve, I met a raw food guy in person who's been at this for eight years. He shared with me that you have to give it more time in terms of the appearance of losing weight. He was referring to having a male body. It has to do with marbled fat being in the muscles when we're SAD or vegetarian even. When you become raw, you tend to lose the fat weight in the muscles pretty fast and if your muscles aren't well defined on their own it will give you the appearance of being ultra thin. The SAD (or other diets) are not true testaments to how your body should appear. As you heal your body with raw foods, you will experience many a metamorphosis, so please hang in there. The numbers on a typical bath scale do not accurately reflect what is going on internally with fat/muscle/bone structure.

He is 6'2 and pretty slender, but also very muscular. He looks strong to me and he works in construction! He says he gets a good laugh when the hulk sized guys are looking at him in amazement as he lifts the same amount of weight, climbs etc. Raw makes you very powerful! He said he looked close to emaciated for a year on Raw but he felt great. Then his body started to redistribute and rebuild itself. Body building on raw foods is much different than building your body on the SAD diet. He also told me he works out regularly - so exercise is probably even more important for raw food men whether you're an ectomorph (slender build) or mesomorph (build muscle easily) or somewhere in between.

I just wanted to share this as I just met him last month and spoke to him briefly. Inspiring guy.

If it still doesn't feel right to you, you'll have to do what's best for yourself I guess.