How can I gain weight?

[suzannekuntz]

I have been living on 100% raw for almost four years. I have so much trouble gaining weight. It has gotten so bad that it hurts to sit down on a wooden chair or to bump my arm. When I try to eat food with a higher fat content like coconuts, I feel fuzzy. Any help?

[Myca]

Eat more nuts?
May I ask if you were ever overweight? before RAW I mean.

[Myca]

May I also ask if you eat a lot of fruit?
I'm asking because I have the opposite problem.
Thanks

[suzannekuntz]

No. I have never been overweight. I have tried to eat more nuts but they don't help me gain weight. I do eat a lot of raw tahini which I know has a lot of fat in it but still it does not help me to gain weight. In fact, I seem to continue to be losing weight.

[suzannekuntz]

I do eat a lot of fruit.

[pixie_333]

have you tried gaining muscles?

[TaupeRawMan]

Hi Suzanne -

how is your calorie intake?

[SmilingRawDancer]

Even if you think you're eating alot, find a way to eat more. Sneak in nut milks and fruit juices that aren't filling but have calories. I wish I had your problem.

[Springtime]

Ways to get more foods into your diet:

Dressings on everything
Dips to dip your snack-fruits in
Have raw treats all the time
Slowy try to make your portions larger, by adding just a little more than usual

Or, if you feel like you're loosing weight still, and it doesn't make any sense considering your diet, you should go see some kind of health professional. I know parasites can make you loose weight, for example.

Peace

[ShantiLove]

I dont belive high fat is the answer. But hight in calories is.
I have found that if I eat a lot of avocado I start to loos more weight and faster. So max a 1/2 or one whole avocado a day as I too are working on ganing weight.
Green smoothies are surpose to help gain weight and the 80/10/10 diet aswell. The 80/10/10 advise to eat mostly fruit as your source of calories. But important to eat enough, and that is a lot of fruit. Then a lot of greens and also a little fat (10%).
Weight bearing exercise is good to gain muscles.

But for me this is still in theory as im still trying to find the right combination that works. I had to start to eat a little cooked carbs. everyday to keep my weight stable as I was loosing way to much weight.
But there is only one way to find out, to experiment ;) keep us posted with you progress :)

Oh I just thought of somthing. Are you ok with wheat, oat and other grains like that ? If you are then that would be a great way for you to get carbs. That would be sproutet wheat, buckwheat and raw oats. But if you are eating this and having weight problems it might be a allergy/intolerance to gluten ?.
Maby you should see a naturapathic doctor to be shure there is no imbalances in you body. After 4 years raw you are surpose to have balanced out you weight. I know my low weight problems comes from digestive issues: crohns and colitis + it is genetic. Maby you should get it checked out ?

[suzannekuntz]

Not only can I not gain weight but my teeth are looking horrible and my hair is thinning very quickly. I am also exhaused.

I think I have a serious deficiency. I have had a blood test and found that I am lacking in B12 and iron but everything else looked great including thryoid. I have started to take vegan vitamins to address this but it hasn't seemed to help.

I greatly appreciate your help. I really want to stay on the raw food diet. Now that I have done this so long, if I eat anything that is not raw, my body smells for three days! This includes miso or nutritional yeast.

Suze

[suzannekuntz]

I have tried to gain muscles. It is very hard for me to do this. I work at it but muscles don't seem to stick on my frame. I probably need to exercies fro 2-3 hours a day but can't seem to find the time to do this.

[pixie_333]

I have tried to gain muscles. It is very hard for me to do this. I work at it but muscles don't seem to stick on my frame. I probably need to exercies fro 2-3 hours a day but can't seem to find the time to do this.

i'm not an expert.. but have you tried spirulina? it has loads of protein in it. but if you feel it's your frame or another matter... that could be so.

i hope you start feeling better very soon

[ShantiLove]

Yes my first thougt was spirulina too, and chlorella, barleygrass or wheatgrass. They are all loaded with easy to absorb and digest nutriens and specialy the spirulina and chlorella is loaded with protien aswell.

Ofcourse you cant build musclemass if you are deficient in nutriens. You teeth and hair problems also shows that you are lacking in minerals among other things.

So my advise would be to go to a naturapaht and they can do a hairmineral analyse where you can see what and in how big a way you are lacking the different nutriens. And they can give you maby a higher dosage of what ever you are lacking so you body can get back on its feet again.

Spirulina is great to build up the iron levels and taking extra B12 in the form of Methylcobalamin which is highly absorbabal woul be a good place to start.
I dont know if you can get somthing called Salus Floradix formular in the us, it is a great natural iron suppliment. It taste good and works really well.

Up you intake of dark leafy greens specialy in a blended form or juiced. Get as many kinds as possible and rotate. Get a little lemon juice or somthing else higt in vit. C with the greens to absorb the iron.
Somthing like chia/salba seeds would be great to get protiens + nutriens, but also flax and hemp seeds would be a great ad.
Eat more vegetables and sprouts, and some seeds /nuts, and did I mention leafy greens :D
Oh I just remembered that goji berries also have a high content of iron and protiens.
Best of luck, I hope you get back on you feet soon :D

[Marin Mom]

I went through this too. Eating more nuts and avo didn't help. I cut back on so much fruit and really upped the greens (heavy ones like kale and chard)plus exercise daily plus once a week or so I have a small bowl of quinoa. I am also not afraid to add a little nutritional yeast or miso to my salads a few times a week. I weigh around 126 at 5'9" but it's a whole lot better than the gaunt look I had for the first 1-1/2 years of raw.

[rocafella2]

I HIGHLY recommend you start eating raw dairy.

I am a big time raw foodist, and doing so messed up my teeth and ive always had trouble gaining weight.

It sounds as if you have the same situation as me, so i highly recommend you start drinking raw milk. Once I started drinking raw milk, I gained weight, it made my bones stronger, and completely healed my teeth because raw milk contains so much calcium (it even made them whiter and straighter).

If you need to find a source of raw milk go to

www.realmilk.com



I can't stress enough how much raw milk has helped me in this raw food lifestyle. Don't sleep on raw milk