If you wanted to gain weight and stay raw, what would you do?

[MrGreenJeans]

Since going raw for almost a year now my neighbors and friends ask in alarm: Are you still losing weight? And I have to explain over and over, No, I have been 155 for about 6 months now. Then they warn me not to lose any more.

I guess they liked me much better when I was all porked out (LOL), with achy knees, arthritus setting in my hands, eyesight slowly deteriorating, etc. etc. etc. Now that I am over those things, why would I go back to their lifestyle of porking out and getting type II diabetes etc. etc. etc.?

I guess the incessant warnings I receive about being too skinny is getting to me.

If I wanted to gain weight and remain on the raw diet, what would I do?

Thanks for any help.

MrGJ

[GoingRAW]

My family always says that I am too skinny no matter what I weigh. Although I am at a healthy weight.

As far as your questions, I think that there are at least a few others that want to gain weight as well. Try doing a search for or contacting raweater.

Good luck,
GR

[LNdolls]

It takes a long time for family to adjust to the slightest change sometimes. They see you in an old way and the way you really are is a constant shock until they really take it in that you have changed.
Gaining weight in a great way is about gaining muscle... lift weights, do weight bearing exercises and the muscle - which weighs more and gives great shape will come!!! You may find your appetite increasing to build all that muscle, too.

[Green_Woman]

I have family/friends threatening to institutionalize me if I lose anymore weight.

They don't understand that I FEEL amazingly healthy right now, better than I've ever felt!!!

Besides, I'm not anywhere near dangerously thin at 5'4" and 120lbs. I'm just lithe and healthy!!!


Sometimes family can only harm by their "concerns"...

[Raw Angel Mom]

My husband and i both went underweight. I think this is because our body wants to get ride of the bad fat before storing the good one.

Since he started weightlifting, he looks great and gain weight.

Also exercise will bring balance in your body, meaning if you are underweight, you will gain, if you are over, you will lose. I think this is because our lymphatic system get to circulate and can get ride of toxic stuff that create imbalance. The lymphatic fluid can only circulate with body movement.

155 lb is great, depending how tall you are of course but it seems pretty good to me. We are just not use to see this size of people as much, lol... If you feel good and healthier this is what matter. Many time the one that decide that we are too skinny are often over weight and don't look healthy. So i think after looking myself in the miror and truly noticing more youth, i would stick to this life style and not worry about other opinion.

[MrGreenJeans]

Thanks everyone!
It looks like I will do some weight lifting. I have been doing loads of bicycling! It is just enourmous fun! But my bicycling is more aerobic.

Raw Angel Mom, I am about 5 foot 10 and a half inches tall.

Green Woman, I see you are, among other things, an actress. How has the raw lifestyle helped you in remembering your lines?

GoingRaw thanks for the tips about searching.

LNdolls, yes, I know what you mean by family. They are concerned for me. After a few years they should eventually "get over it." :)
I have a BowFlex and should dig it out and start using it.

MrGreenJeans, get a clue. Hey, that's me! :)

[cara4art]

All good answers by other posters, but I'll also put it out there that in our current Western culture, being overweight(please, no offense to those who are struggling and/or really on a mission to release their extra weight - hats off to you for undertaking a challenging job!)is increasingly been seen as "the new norm", so when many people DO see someone of a normal to slender build they think it's "dangerously skinny" when in fact that in many parts of the world where people are eating closer to their traditional natural diets and getting way more activity as a matter of course, people are predominantly slender, both sexes, most ages. Also, many people in our culture feel threatened when seeing someone actually get healthy too. It often happens just when you are starting to look and feel your best that all the negative comments come in, and some people will actually go as far as to sabotage you. I had this happen after I'd been on a solid weight-training program for awhile - was feeling and starting to look great(I'm on the small-boned side anyway, so this is hugely beneficial), and you wouldn't believe the flack I got from my girlfriends at the time and how I shouldn't be doing that kind of exercise etc. - yikes! One of the biggest obstacles especially to women who want to release weight is the lack of support in their families, I read sometime back, and this goes double if one is going raw because that goes even further.
But back to gaining healthy weight - there's no better way to do it than to get onto a good resistance-training program, and to pump those green smoothies loaded up with some power goodies like hemp protein, chia seeds, blue-green algae etc. Also including denser raw foods into one's daily intake - stuff like pates, dehydrator goodies, nut butters and other healthy fats in reasonable but not excessive amounts, and plenty of heavier fruits like bananas, etc. Lean muscle, depending on one's genetics, takes some time to add even with these measures, as one has to build it with the activity, rest, and nutrition. There are no shortcuts unless one wants to get into steroids which I'm sure no one here(including yours truly)would touch with a 10-foot pole anyway. Some people respond more quickly by way of their genetics, and others take longer and have to work harder. But bottom-line, if you are working out, you do have to EAT! Don't get hung up on calories, etc. but more just get in some good food and check out how you feel and how you perform and go from there.
Best of luck to you - it sounds like you're doing just fine.

[raweater]

I was about 175 lbs, mostly muscle, before going raw since I used to workout a lot but had quit, a side effect of eating SAD was that it allowed me to maintain my muscle mass since its empty calories and in my case was mostly maintaining muscle rather than putting on fat, after a few months raw I fell to 135 lbs due to lack of calorie intake. For 2 years I tried to eat as much as I could with no success in gaining weight. I finally understood the only possible way to gain weight on the raw diet is by lifting weights, ideally relatively heavy weights which you can only lift about 6 times before failure, and doing this on major exercises like bench press, squats and deadlifts, also make sure to have at least 24 hours of rest on each muscle group (don't work the same muscles two days in a row as that will cause them to shrink rather than grow).

Since I started working out seriously just about 4 months ago, I've already put on about 20 lbs. I have stabalized for 1-2 months around 150 lbs and just recently think I found why, I switched my main source of calories from walnuts, which have as much protein as red meat, to macadamia nuts, which have almost no protein at all, so for 2 months I was probably not getting the protein needed to build muscle which is probably why I stabalized. I just went back to walnuts rather than macadamia nuts 1-2 days ago so this should tell me if my theory is right.

You also need to make sure you are eating more, but this will come automatically as a result of weight lifting.

[Marin Mom]

I used to really worry about this one- at 5'9" and 122 I would probably be considered too skinny. Funny thing is, in the beginning I was getting a lot of those comments (mainly from family and well meaning friends, all overweight/ many with various health problems) and it really bothered me. Didn't have a rigorous exercise program aside from running with the dog or after my kids. I even tried to overeat and included too many nuts and denser foods and all I felt was bloated!

This is where my weight has stablized and I have come to accept it, as no matter what I eat my weight comes back to 122-123, as if my body was programed for this number. I don't have time for a weight training program to achieve a certain look. I feel great.

I do still enjoy nuts and chocolate desserts daily with the fresh food and I am never hungry, but I realize I eat less because I am so easily satisfied now. And here is the kicker- now people are saying I look fine, not too thin! So go figure. BTW I'm 50 and coming up on 1 year raw next week. :D

[unbent]

I have had the same problem with excess weight loss. I am 5'9" tall and at my heaviest I was about 175 lbs so have never really been overly heavy to begin with. I lost about 15 lbs or so after doing a colon cleanse followed by a liver cleanse and felt better and had more energy than I had in a long time. About 6 months or so later (in November '07) I started reading about the raw foods lifestyle and have not turned back since. While going through detox I have dropped down to about 130 lbs. I haven't been that weight since high school, I'm 43 now. I would like to put on about 10 to 15 lbs and have been trying to do so by adding more good fats into my meals. I do a lot of walking and bicycling and have recently gotten back into jogging. I have read several articles seen several videos regarding gaining weight on raw and most mention lifting weights. Most also mention that increasing food intake will not help except to help as you increase muscle mass while doing weight lifting. Unfortunately, I don't have any weights to use so I will have to do some concentrated calisthenics

I can also relate to the headache of having friends and family who harp about the weight loss. Most of my family is overweight and/or plagued with various ailments for which they have to take numerous medications for yet I am the one who needs to change what I eat.?

Keep doing what you are doing and follow the great advise of the wonderful people on this site who have either already been where we are or know of others who have and were able to put on the healthy weight that they wanted. I can guarantee you that that is what I plan to continue to do.

Andy

[rawfoodistdavid]

I have the same problem, if it is a problem. I'm just over 9 1/2 stone and just short of 5"11 and a 30" going on 28" waist. I actually feel good though and don't look ill, I just have no fat on me and a touch of skeleton ribs.

I'm going to try and exercise to built weight.

Ultimately, though, most wild animals, unless genetically made to store fat, are super lean. Perhaps SAD just means we're used to seeing people bigger than they would be on a natural diet and normal has been skewed.

[Veganforlife]

Green Smoothies w/extra fats, like avocado, nuts, coconut butter (oil), etc. AND lifting...

I've gotten it from my sister who weighs in at an easy 300 plus. But I'm not stopping what I'm doing...

I personally think one's body gets to where IT is healthy. We (as a nation/world) are used to seeing chubbo's nowadays...anyone looking "healthy" is labled skinny.

[raweater]

I don't have time for a weight training program to achieve a certain look. I feel great.

Do you watch TV? If so, how can you have time to watch TV but not take care of your health? Exercise is about as important as diet, my last raw recipe book says 70% of the benefits of eating raw go to waste if you don't exercise.

Even just 30 minutes a week would be enough. I do about 2-4 hours a week which isn't that much and I've gained 20 lbs of muscle.

[RawSinger]

Unfortunately, I don't have any weights to use so I will have to do some concentrated calisthenics

Weights are not that expensive. Check out your local sporting goods store. Or better yet, check on eBay, or somewhere like that.

[VibinOnLife!]

This information is from 2007, but I just happened upon it a few days ago. This guy...Nature Love...is very grounded and has great information about being raw, gaining weight, etc. He's been 100% raw for about 8 years now. And if you'd like to meet him in person, he works in the Newark Health Food Store in Deleware! He's Dhrumil's first mentor from welikeitraw.com. Evidently the guy looked so healthy that when Dhrumil saw him in the health food store he just started questioning him about his diet! And then Dhru had him come over to his apartment the next day and explain raw to him and his roommates! LOL! He must be a shining example of raw physically, but I have really gravitated to his way of eating and living. Enjoy.

Here are some pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhrumil/sets/72157601423525387/

Here is part 1 of his interview:
http://www.welikeitraw.com/rawfood/2007/07/interview-with-.html

Here is part 2 of his interview where he goes into more detail about weight and working out:
http://www.welikeitraw.com/rawfood/nature_love/index.html

[MrGreenJeans]

I am now in my home town for our family reunion!
The first words our of my weight challenged neice's mouth to me was: You're skinny! To which I smilingly replied: Thank you!
My sister-in-law from France looked at me (she has health problems as well) and exclaimed in front of everyone: You are so skinny! Are you sick?
I asked their skinny 17 year old daughter from France who brought her 17 year old skinny friend from France to give me their honest opinion of if I look too skinny. They both said I look great. When I was in France a few years ago the kids there are not weight challenged like the American kids. They look like bean poles.

When I spoke on the phone to my brother from France the first thing he said was: I heard you are skinny. This from a brother that has to take medicine for his thyroid and cannot exercise any more due to bad legs! and he is only 60!

Seriously! It is like my skinniness is the talk of the family behind my back.

My oldest sister though thinks it is great that I live such a healthy lifestyle. I am at her home now staying for a couple days. I have three large sprouting jars on her kitchen cabinet with different grains at different stages of sprouting. This morning I will make up some slightly sprouted oatmeal, slightly warmed . . . yummy!

Yesterday I made some smoothies. She loved my almond/banana/honey smoothie. She is not too keen yet on my green smoothies. She too has health issues. She loves my flat bread.

My twin brother loves my lifestyle too. I made a smoothie for him yesterday too. He and I have always been into healthfoods as since we were teens.

It is just uncanny that the weight challenged are the first ones to blab out loud that I'm too skinny.

I don't look gaunt . . . you know . . . sunken eyes . . . skeleton type. My facial skin looks very youthful with very good skin tone. My eyes are clear blue.

I just have to be a good ambassador of the raw food lifestyle and just smile and thank people who say things about me out of ignorance.
After all, I'm the one having all the fun. :D