Two weeks, no weight loss-suggestions?

[bluedog]

So, I know this is about to be about health (and it is), buuuuut I read so many success stories on hear about people losing oodles of weight quickly that I feel like something is not working for me. But what?

I don't think I've overdosed on nuts/dates, as I only eat them on their own (i.e. no fancy raw desserts). I've been having green smoothies, zucchini pasta, a little bit of chia, lots of fruits. I haven't really been eating grains. Oh, drinkingplenty of water and green tea, not to mention the water added to my smoothies. I would be eating more dates/nuts were I not concerned about weight (TJ's has raw almond butter, btw).

I'm 5'6", 136lbs and am trying to get down to 120. After two weeks, so weight loss. :(


Suggestions for modifications in diet?

[Papa2X]

OK, only speaking for me.... I was having way too much salt. I stopped, and the weight started coming off.

[fastfreedom]

Something to consider is that the majority of people who have been on an unhealthy diet of cooked and processed foods has the ability to carry around pounds of undigested and trapped matter in their GI tract. It could possible that the majority of the weight you want to lose is that matter trapped in your colon. If this is what's going on then you just need to give it more time to free itself and be evacuated from your GI tract. You can speed up the process by doing a P&B cleanse and or colonics. Flax seeds are also good. But when I want to target the GI tract for cleansing, I suggest the P&B cleanse. And if possible, also to add in colonics or enemas to get everything nice and saturated to help it release from the colon walls.

[bluedog]

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion, but cleanses/colonics/enemas aren't for me for a variety of reasons that I prefer not to go into. I'm a firm believer that for myself, raw is the best cleanse. I don't think a lack of enemas are causing me to stall, though.

[fastfreedom]

psyllium is part of a plant that bulks up. Basically it is insoluble fiber. You don't need to do the colon-hydrotherapy part, it just makes everything happen quicker.

And if you don't want to do the p&b then you can increase your intake of high fiber foods. Like greens.

But of course this is all just an assumption to the possibility of where some of the weight could be coming from, and some ideas to help if it is.

Other than that, just give raw food more time and you'll see results. Also you could check out juice fasting if that is an option. It's very common to burn fat and lose weight while fasting. ;-)

[walnutty]

5' 6" and 136 pounds and you are complaining about weight???!!!

[walnutty]

(TJ's has raw almond butter, btw).



Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Trader Joes's "raw" nuts, nut butters, seeds, etc. are not raw. They are not roasted, so they are allowed to state raw. Do a search about this issue as it was discussed in detail several years ago.

[bluedog]

Yes. I know it's technically normal, but each of us knows what's best for his/her body. :)

[bluedog]

I mean, yes to the complaining, no to TJs. :(

[walnutty]

It's a perfect weight for 5' 6".

Most people that state they loose oodles of weight quickly are morbidly obese. I was! I was 308 and I still only lost an average of 2 pounds per week while eating 100% raw and while working out 20-25 hours per week! I also kept a food journal, because I was already in the habit of doing that (not because I was counting calories) and I would say I averaged 1700-1800 calories a day!

Raw will get you the healthiest you can be, but I do not believe it will get you skinny! Calorie restriction and OBSESSIVE exercise will do that but I am thinking you want to be HEALTHY!!!

:heart

[qwerty988]

Why not try a juice feast?

That'll clean up your diet and get your appetite in check.... you clean out your system and have a nice detox and the weight really does melt right off, too!

[Traceyraw]

Yes Juice Feast is awesome. I would lay off the dates. Try more greens and fruits like grapes,apples,pears. Maybe not to many banannas they tend to slow my weightloss. Grapes and apples work the best for me along with green juices. Don't forget H2O. Drink plenty of it.

Enjoy.

[bluedog]

I was hoping not to juice fast at this point, but thanks for the suggestion! I don't own a juicer, for one thing and I'm still really, really hoping that raw fruits/veggies in their whole state would be enough. I can lay off the dates/bananas, but add that to excluding raw nuts, and I'm not left with many high-calories food options, no? I saw online that it's very difficult to do a low fat raw diet without bananas/dates, but unless I eat more avocados and nuts (that are not raw, apparently), my diet won't be high fat.

Hopped on the scale this morning and had gained 2lbs.

I know many people who have a lot to lose can release a lot of weight initially, but there are also those is the 130s/140s who get down to 110s/120s.

[bluedog]

p.s. I'm not eating more than 3-4 bananas/day.

[RawLibrarian]

So, I know this is about to be about health (and it is), buuuuut I read so many success stories on hear about people losing oodles of weight quickly that I feel like something is not working for me. But what?

I don't think I've overdosed on nuts/dates, as I only eat them on their own (i.e. no fancy raw desserts). I've been having green smoothies, zucchini pasta, a little bit of chia, lots of fruits. I haven't really been eating grains. Oh, drinkingplenty of water and green tea, not to mention the water added to my smoothies. I would be eating more dates/nuts were I not concerned about weight (TJ's has raw almond butter, btw).

I'm 5'6", 136lbs and am trying to get down to 120. After two weeks, so weight loss. :(


Suggestions for modifications in diet?

What about exercise? Dietary changes are the key to weight loss, but upping your activity level could certainly help.

Maybe eat more greens (salads) and less fruit?

I would agree with others that your weight goal may be unrealistic without major calorie curtailment and major increase in activity level, since your current weight is proportionate to your height. I would also agree with walnutty that the stories of rapid major weight loss on raw are coming from people who are quite overweight to begin with.

[rawmiss]

So I calculated your BMI and although people are saying that you are at a perfect weight it is almost exactly (0.2 difference) the same as mine. And, like you, I feel like I want to lose weight since my BMI has gone up by 2 points recently (due to bad eating because I was moving and my routines got broken and it got harder to shop for food. Now, I can only go once a week, where before I was going twice a week and now I have to learn to shop for a whole week, and that's hard when you buy fresh produce).

I think your problem is (like others have said) you're not overweight and so the weight comes off very slowly. Like they say, the last few pounds are the hardest to loose.

[bluedog]

I spend all day in front of the computer, but I workout at the gym 3-4 times/week (cardio/weights).

Rawmiss, has raw helped you release any weight so far?

[Juicing Juli]

Blue dog;
I have noticed that the day after I work out (I too do weight lifting and cardio) that I'm either up on the scale or stay the same. My trainer thinks it's due to water retention. If you are lifting, you do need the protein from nuts, but you may want to control that part more. I would agree with the above posts:
1)Make sure you are drinking water. Take your weight, divide by two and this is the number of oz. you should be drinking of water every day.
2)Try foods that are natural diurectics like celery, dandelion greens, asparagus. You can google for others.
3)Do you know if your hormones are in balance? If they are not, then you won't lose weight. I believe that eating raw will balance them out eventually. But that's another thought.
4)ARe you eating healthy fats? Coconut oil/butter, avocados? You must eat fat to loose fat.
I eat at least 1 sometimes 2 avocados a day in addition to walnuts. How about whole young coconuts?
5)Are you 100% raw? Sometimes if you are not, then it will take longer.
Hope this helps.

[bluedog]

Hi Juicing Jill.
I am drinking plenty of water, have taken nuts out of my diet, and am eating a few tablespoons of puréed avocado/day. Haven't checked out hormonal imbalances, but I doubt I would be able to afford the costs of these tests under my plan.

Some have said to eat more greens and less fruit, while others caution against too much fat. In both cases, the message seems to be eat fewer calories; in that case, raw food, despite the nutritional benefits, becomes like any other calorie in/out diet.

[Juicing Juli]

you might not be getting enough calories if you are saying that you are only doing a couple tablespoons of avocado and no nuts. You need protein if you are weight training. the raw diet is not about calories. I don't think your goals are unrealistic. Alissa also suggests getting 30 minutes of exercise every day if I'm not mistaken. I also heard once that if you want to lose weight you must workout at least 5 days a week. how old are you?

[rawmiss]

Rawmiss, has raw helped you release any weight so far?

I think so. I don't own a scale so I only weigh myself when I visit my mom so I haven't weighed myself since Christmas. But I'm now buying and eating more of my food and I've stopped eating my husband's food so I know it's just a matter of time and I'll be back to normal.

One trick to weight loss is to eat fruit in the morning and nothing else, because the body is busy losing weight in the morning, and eating food that needs digestion will cause it to stop working on weight loss so it can digest the food (the digestive system is not very good at multi-tasking). This was the big weight loss trick in the biggest selling diet book of the 80's, Fit for Life.

Another trick is food combining and there are lots of websites on food combining but basically food combining is don't combine proteins and carbs because the body will only digest one and the other will end up as fat. This is kind of how the Atkin diet works, they've removed the carbs so the undigested carbs are no longer being stored as fat. But if they had simply separated the carb meals from the protein meals by about 4 hours then you could have your carbs and eat them too and both proteins and carbs would get digested and not end up as fat.

I hope that helps. I'm really good at the fruit-in-the-morning routine. It took me about two years of breaking habits before it became an effortless ingrained habit. But, I've only been studying food-combining for a short time and I still don't do food combining very well.

[bluedog]

I think so. I don't own a scale so I only weigh myself when I visit my mom so I haven't weighed myself since Christmas. But I'm now buying and eating more of my food and I've stopped eating my husband's food so I know it's just a matter of time and I'll be back to normal.

One trick to weight loss is to eat fruit in the morning and nothing else, because the body is busy losing weight in the morning, and eating food that needs digestion will cause it to stop working on weight loss so it can digest the food (the digestive system is not very good at multi-tasking). This was the big weight loss trick in the biggest selling diet book of the 80's, Fit for Life.

Another trick is food combining and there are lots of websites on food combining but basically food combining is don't combine proteins and carbs because the body will only digest one and the other will end up as fat. This is kind of how the Atkin diet works, they've removed the carbs so the undigested carbs are no longer being stored as fat. But if they had simply separated the carb meals from the protein meals by about 4 hours then you could have your carbs and eat them too and both proteins and carbs would get digested and not end up as fat.

I hope that helps. I'm really good at the fruit-in-the-morning routine. It took me about two years of breaking habits before it became an effortless ingrained habit. But, I've only been studying food-combining for a short time and I still don't do food combining very well.

--Thanks for the info--I'm glad it's working out for you! I've been doing fruit/greens in the morning and afternoon, saving the avocado for dinner....still no budge on the scale and clothing isn't any looser. :(

[qwerty988]

I'd give it more time. Two weeks isn't very long! Think more two or three months.... from everything I've heard, if you stick with it, the extra weight WILL leave your body!

Consider a less expensive or second-hand juicer, because fasting really works! You can also try a green smoothie fast. Or join the Monday fasting club and try short-term water fasting.

My first juicer was just a cheapie Jack LaLane and it got me through several weeks of juice fasting just fine!

[tiggerbounce]

Have you considered taking some probiotics/eating some fermented foods or trying to do something for a candida cleanse? If you have candida/yeast problems you often won't even realize it. And your gut flora will be out of balance as well. Many people who take care of the candida find that they lose weight. Pau D Arco tea is an awesome anti fungal. I keep it on hand at all times. And then take probiotics or fermented foods as well to get the gut flora restored. Have more salads and green juices than fruits and fruity juices as candida loves sugar. And do keep the calories up. It should not be about calorie restriction. It is about giving your body as many nutrients as possible. Greens have a lot of nutritional bang for the buck. And be patient and give yourself time. Whole body health is a process and can take a bit of time.

[walnutty]

Hi Juicing Jill.

"...raw food, despite the nutritional benefits, becomes like any other calorie in/out diet."

That is actually a good thing to remember!

Calories in and calories out is how you LOSE weight.

The difference in calories is their nutritional punch! A lot of people turn to raw food because they are SICK! If raw is healing their thyroid, say, then their metabolism will work better and they will take the weight off. If they have diabetes and raw HEALS them then they will lose that belly fat that diabetes causes!

You need to be realistic, bluedog. If you do not have a metabolic issue that needs to be healed and you are eating the same calories raw as you did of SAD food then it will probably take you a very long time to lose weight. A person loses weight because they heal and/or they restrict calories by what they eat or expend calories through exercise.

I mentioned earlier that when I went 100% raw I only lost 2 pounds a week and I was very sick and morbidly obese. I did not work out the first 2 months because of fibromyalgia pain, but after 2 months of eating raw that pain was alleviated. THEN I started working out about 25 hours a week and I STILL only lost 2 pounds a week. So, raw is healing more than anything!

I do not know your age, your gender or if you have any diseases. That might be helpful to know. But it sounds like you just want to lose weight and if that's so then you will have to look at the calories you are taking in and also what your output is each day.

[bluedog]

Hi walnutty,

There's a lot of research that suggests that calories in doesn't equal calories out, though. For example, there was a study done (last year, two years ago?) looking out at fructose causes more weight/fat accumulation than either sucrose or glucose (it was published in the NYT). Gary Taubes has written extensively about not all calories being equal, namely the impact of carbs on those predisposed to gain weight. In the raw domain, there are many claims that I've read about people tallying up very high calories compared to what they were eating on SAD. Where they gained weight on SAD, they lost weight on raw while eating more. Obviously, there are other factors to consider (like whether your body prefers to route energy to your muscles or your fat tissue).

Read the Taubes book (Good Calories, Bad Calories). I'm *not* advocating the logical conclusion of his book, but the science and methodology are spot on (something that is sadly entirely lacking in the raw world).

But you've reaffirmed the necessity of patience, and for what I thank you. :)

[walnutty]

Hi bluedog,

Yes, I'm living proof that there is more going on with weight loss that just calories in and calories out as I was burning 7 pounds a week in calories out (with my workouts), yet only losing 2 pounds a week and I was eating all raw! I think the point I was trying to make was that calories in and of themselves are the same, it's the nutritional value that is different. Does that make sense. It's easier, obviously, to talk person to person than type person to person or person to forum...Ü...

I am a big fan of "The Biggest Loser" television show and the scale doesn't always show how hard the contestants work. There is a lot more to weight loss than just calories....age, sex, metabolism, diseases (especially metabolic ones), stress level, activity level, muscle mass, healing power of the foods we eat, etc., etc.

Best of luck to you and please keep us updated!

[Traceyraw]

Hi walnutty,

There's a lot of research that suggests that calories in doesn't equal calories out, though. For example, there was a study done (last year, two years ago?) looking out at fructose causes more weight/fat accumulation than either sucrose or glucose . :)

Now you are scaring me. Im doing a week experiment of increasing my fruit intake to 75% to see if I can excelerate my weight loss. I will have Green juice. Chia pudding and all of the fruit I want to eat. I was looking at U-Tube and there are people who swear by fruititarian diet. I love fruit I need to cleanse and detox so Im going to try this way for a while. I ll let you guys know how it works for me.

[qwerty988]

Now you are scaring me. Im doing a week experiment of increasing my fruit intake to 75% to see if I can excelerate my weight loss. I will have Green juice. Chia pudding and all of the fruit I want to eat. I was looking at U-Tube and there are people who swear by fruititarian diet. I love fruit I need to cleanse and detox so Im going to try this way for a while. I ll let you guys know how it works for me.

Don't be scared! Trust your body. If your instinct is telling you this is the way to go, you're wise to listen! :kisses:

[Traceyraw]

Thanks Qwerty, My body is saying eat grapes lots of grapes I can't get enough of them. Freelee only eats fruits is very skinny and runs marathons. I need her energy . :)

[theresaann]

Just to share, according to Dr. Fuhrman, 5'6" and 136 pounds is not ideal. He would say 124 is. (4 pounds for every inch over 5'). I'm 5'5" and 132, so I'm not dissin' ya. Modern BMI tables are not healthy.

Also, in my experience, I didn't start losing weight on raw for about 6 weeks, the last time I went raw and I realized it was because thats how long it took my liver to start detoxing. We can't really lose much weight until the liver detoxes. So hang in there!

I've also heard people say getting away from nuts and def. oils helps (ie 80 10 10). I'm not ready for that yet...just going back to raw myself.