Sprouted lentil calories? Please tell me this is a mistake.

[raweater]

When I checked my bag of lentils I was happy to see they packed a whopping 678 calories per cup, almost as much as nuts but without the fat! Then I checked sprouted lentils calorie content online and saw it's only 82 calories per cup! I just made a curry soup and blended in a cup of lentils thinking "I'm adding a good 500 calories here" just to found I might as well have added water as I only added 82 calories, I know they have lots of nutrition, but I can't live off low calorie food as I'd have to eat way too much of it.

Is this true? They suddenly don't look like a high calorie food anymore if they're sprouted (and cooked unsprouted lentils make me sick).

Do grains loose as much when sprouted?

What calorie dense foods are there in the raw world that:
-Aren't like 80% fat like nuts?
-Don't loose 80% of their calories when sprouted?

Thanks

[parsnip]

If you cook 1 cup of lentils (678 cals), you'll get approx 2.5 cups cooked lentils. If you sprout 1 cup, you'll get about 2 cups lentil sprouts -- this is according to the Sprout People but I think it's off, at least when you're dealing with brown lentils. I think it's more like 4 cups. And 4 cups of lentil sprouts is about 328 calories.

On average, sprouting decreases calories by about 15% (and increases most other things) -- guess it's a bit more for brown lentils. I include sprouted lentils and grains to boost my calorie intake without adding fat -- especially sprouted quinoa, which I think has about 300 calories per cup (but I'm not sure). But I'm not trying for all that many calories in a day, so it's obviously a lot more challenging when you're trying to get a lot. Maybe there are some raw bodybuilding forums that might be able to help you find lower-fat, calorie-dense foods.

[iamacranberry]

I'd say stop worrying about the calories. Ask yourself instead: do they make you feel full? Do they make you feel satisfied?

Sprouts will have less calories than their seeds because they are bigger and more voluminous. They do not "lose" calories per se, but they spread out, from what I understand. If you are convinced otherwise, I'd be interested to see your source. One sprouted lentil = one not sprouted lentil in terms of calories. The sprout just takes up more space.

Soak your grains and nuts if you're worried about it though. This just makes them soft enough to digest without them getting too big.

[raweater]

I understand that adding water to them makes them bigger and this is what results in the calorie loss per cup and that they don't really loose calories, I guess I'm saying I didn't expect them to absorb as much water.

About worrying about calories, I don't, but I want to get to 160lbs and then probably 180, and it's not by lowering calories that I'll get there, and as I said if I eat less calories I'm still starving. I need to eat a lot of calories to gain the 14 lbs and then more I want to gain, don't forget I'm very physically active and on top of that I am gaining a lot of lean weight as I want, so I need a lot of calories for those reasons.

Thanks

[iamacranberry]

Listen to your body and follow your own natural hunger rather than counting calories. Calorie counting is sort of an addiction...it took me forever to break it.

As I know I've mentioned in previous posts, the BMR calculators tell me I should be eating around 3000. But I only eat, on average, 1600, and I only know this because I kept track for a while of everything I ate and added it up at the end of the day. I don't gain or lose weight, and I don't feel hungry. Ironically, when I was counting calories back in the day, I WOULD feel hungry...I think because some of the foods one eats just to get calories trigger hunger that would not otherwise exist.

If you are hungry, eat. If you are not hungry, don't eat. If you are not hungry and are afraid you'll lose weight if you don't eat, choose calorie-dense foods. I believe there is already a thread dedicated to answering your question about calorie-dense foods.

[shooting star]

Calories are calculated by burning the food to see how much heat comes off (by measuring the temperature rise in water above the flame).

To me that seems like an inexact test for the miriad of chemical reactions that actually occur during digestion. So unless you are planning on setting fire to the sprouts in your stomach I wouldn't use that data!

[SmilingRawDancer]

Raweater - I don't think the sprouts don't change in calories much, they just get bigger. One cup dry will have 678 calories, but that sprouts into a HUGE AMOUNT of sprouts. That HUGE AMOUNT will still have around 678 calories in total, but I don't think anyone will want to eat that much at one meal. Perhaps try just soaking them and eating them at a small stage of their sprouting journey, OR do buckwheat.

I soak and sprout the buckwheat for about a day, just untill they have small tails, and they don't get that much bigger. (I then dehydrate them and they end up nice and crunchy for a cereal, or adding to raw bars.)
So you'll still get a ton of calories in a smaller package. Try buckwheat, barley (!! barley is the same deal.).

Good luck, and I understand the need for non-fat calories. If you're not already, also try juicing more. That will get you some good liquid calories that won't fill you up physically, will digest quickly (so you can eat more calories!) and will give a good calorie punch.

[Bobbie]

If you blend the sprouted lentils it's easier to eat more of them. For me anyway. I can't sprout enough of them. One lot goes in a day or two.

Chickpeas that have been soaked for 24 hours don't take up *that* much more space than unsoaked but are soft enough to eat, and taste nicer than sprouted chickpeas with tails.

[SmilingRawDancer]

Mmmmm chickpeas...my mom is cooking some right now in her Crock Pot, and they look delicious :( I need to get sprouting to make some Hummus!

[raweater]

Listen to your body and follow your own natural hunger rather than counting calories. Calorie counting is sort of an addiction...it took me forever to break it.

As I know I've mentioned in previous posts, the BMR calculators tell me I should be eating around 3000. But I only eat, on average, 1600, and I only know this because I kept track for a while of everything I ate and added it up at the end of the day. I don't gain or lose weight, and I don't feel hungry. Ironically, when I was counting calories back in the day, I WOULD feel hungry...I think because some of the foods one eats just to get calories trigger hunger that would not otherwise exist.

If you are hungry, eat. If you are not hungry, don't eat. If you are not hungry and are afraid you'll lose weight if you don't eat, choose calorie-dense foods. I believe there is already a thread dedicated to answering your question about calorie-dense foods.

I understand that but as I already said often I am very physically active and want to gain at LEAST another 12-14 lbs and then I'll see what I want from there. I will not acheive this goal by not eating a lot of calories, this is absolutely required to achaive my goal. I've been about 90% raw for three years and for the first 2 struggled to get my weight and strenght back without any results at all, my weight fell by 40 lbs and stayed there for 2 years. Now that I'm working out seriously again and making sure to eat a lot of calories I've gained close to 20 lbs, this is a true miracle for me as anything else I tried didn't make me gain half a pound.

I assume you were counting calories to loose weight, I agree that's not at all necessary when you eat raw food (I lost 40 lbs which I would have done anything in order to keep, it was almost all muscle, not fat), but this is not my situation, I have the complete opposite goal.

It's important for me to know how many calories are in food because I would never make a meal that's under 600 calories, that would almost be like eating a strawberry for most people which is nothing. If I spend 5-10 minutes to make something to eat it needs to have a bare minimum of 600 calories otherwise I'd be eating 15-20 meals a day rather than the 6 to 9 meals I currently eat per day.

Look at the example with the soup I made, I was sure I was adding 500 calories and that that soup would be a 600 calorie meal, but it ended up being less than 200 and a complete waste of time, I never would have done it had I known how little calories it contained because I was just as hungry after and was as if I didn't eat anything.

I hope you understand.

[iamacranberry]

I wasn't counting them to lose weight but to maintain weight--to NOT lose or gain. If I started to lose weight I don't really know what weight I'd lose, as I already have a low BMI and most of the weight I have is muscle.

My point is that as someone else who is very physically active I am doing just fine without counting calories, and that counting them doesn't necessarily guarantee that you will lose or gain weight. As I mentioned according to the calories I actually eat, I should be losing weight like mad....but I'm not. So by counting calories for the sake of gaining weight, you also may or may not end up actually doing so. My emphasis is on the fact that there is far more than caloric content that affects weight loss or gain.

My main goal, personally, with raw at the moment is to improve my general fitness level. And that I am doing...my time for running a mile goes down steadily as the weeks go by.

I understand your goal is to gain weight. My response is that there are things more important that exact calorie numbers. Thus, I stand by what I said originally. I wish you well in achieving your goals.