Started out thin, switched to raw foods, now worried about weight loss.

[DanielB]

Does anybody know how long it might take my body to adjust to Raw food diet? I have always been very skinny despite eating lots of food, I think because my food has always passed through my body very quickly and is often not digested well. I switched to Raw foods 2 days ago and have experienced the following side effects that I'm hoping are normal and will go away if I stick with my raw food diet:

- Discomfort in my stomach, almost like the flue, with nauseousness but not throwing up.
- Less frequent trips to the bathroom. (I'm assuming this is a positive thing since the food is maybe staying in my body long enough to be digested properly)
- Further weight loss. (This is the one I am most worried about, I don't have much mass to loose)
- Tired and feeling weak

Is the weight loss after starting the Raw diet reason to be concerned if I am already skinny, or will my body adjust and start absorbing more nutrients if I stick with it.

Thanks everyone in advance for any advice you might have.

[Mary Kay]

Two days seems like just too short of a time to tell much. I personally believe in not shocking your body with anything and to ease into or out of things. Now some people ---some temperaments, possibly certain addictive types --can't do this. Nevertheless to suddently change your diet, would seem to me to be a shock to your system.

I'm very high raw, and don't have any intentions of becoming 100"%, but I'm pretty close at 90 - 95%, and I must say, I have trouble getting the weight to come off. Sigh .. as .I've been holding steady at 127 or 128 lbs and I want to weigh 115!

Can you ease into it?

Mary Kay

[DanielB]

Yes I defiantly can ease into it, although my diet even prior to starting completely raw foods was very healthy. I was only eating healthy grains (sometimes sprouted), fruits, veggies, seeds, and nuts but I was eating them cooked a lot of the time. I have also been taking a Raw protein supplement for some time now.

Despite all of that I think your suggestion will be helpful. I did make a pretty significant jump even from my healthy diet to completely raw.

I was also wondering if it was appropriate to have a small amount of cooked food, so that is very helpful to know it wouldn't mess anything up to do so.

Thank you so much for your response.

[Mary Kay]

Well, this is a raw forum, and people can't really tell you to eat cooked food here...I'm not trying to promote this either....just saying, maybe you've shocked your system! Others may disagree.....

You also mention that your diet was healthy however you seemed to rely on lots of grains, nuts and seeds, so you are apparently realizing that you're lacking in greens, veggies and fruits. Well, a really easy way to incorporate these that would not include too much roughage all at once would be to make smoothies or juices.

You can also start out by making some sprouts in small quantities and gradually incoporporating these etc.

Best of luck to you!

Mary Kay

[PansyLo]

It's only been two days, I don't really see the problem with staying raw but trying new things.

Maybe get some more foods that are rich in fats? Avocado's, coconut, raw nuts, raw desserts as well as salads, smoothies, sprouts etc. Make sure you're eating and drinking plenty.
Much of your feelings may be due to detoxing, going back to not 100% raw isn't going to help with that. I think if you're managing 100% now you should keep going with it and see how it goes but that's just my 2p.

If you're finding it hard to cope and get things organised to be 100% and still get a full varied diet then take a step back, learn and bit more and come in gradually if you think it will help. :)

[MysticTree]

2days only. That is nothing. You can't reckon any weight change that is apparent in that time is accurate.

[michigan roman]

home made nut and seed milks
walnuts
hemp seed
banana
avacado

[DanielB]

Thanks everyone. I have made home made hemp milk, avacado, and bananas around a lot so I'll keep going.

[fastfreedom]

Yeah it's possible you could lose some weight. It depends on how much your body is gonna shed and how many calories you are eating. If you eat nothing but greens and other low calorie plants all day for several weeks the pounds are gonna fall off. When I started out with raw food I wasn't concerned with eating enough calories, most people on here were telling everyone else to not worry about the calories you were getting. But it seems that the majority of people that find themselves here have some extra weight they could do without. So basically I wasn't concerned with calories and even jumped on that bandwagon. But I found out that after four months I had really lost a bit of weight. And looking back I can say that the majority of what I ate didn't have many calories, I was eating lots of food but really not getting very many calories.

I then thought that fats, (nuts,seeds,coconut,avacado,etc.), were the answer.....they filled me up and are calorie dense. But I found out that eating too much of those foods made me feel terrible. I was full but felt lethergic and just not so good. Just.....bleh.....felt terrible.

And I thought maybe I need superfoods so I could make some special elixer......duped again, and my bank account reflects it. Sure cacao gave me energy, but it wasn't nourishing me. I was merely being stimulated by the cacao.

Well what I've found out was that eating fruit is a great source of carbohydrates, and if your body has carbohydrates then your body has fuel. So basically you won't lose unnecessary pounds and you will have the energy you need to do whatever you wish to accomplish throughout the day if you are giving it enough fuel. I learned about Doug Graham and 80/10/10. I used to be on the, "don't eat too much fruit cus it has sugar", bandwagon and, "you need to eat lots of fat". But I can say that from experience I feel that this is the best way to succeed at being a raw plant food eater. Today I eat the majority of my foods as fruit. I eat some veggies here and there...mostly there ;-), and have also slowed down on my greens consumption. I feel good, no ups and downs like I used to experience. I have lots of energy, I wake up feeling good.

IMO, if I would have started out knowing about Doug Graham when I first learned about raw plant food eating I could of saved myself years of struggle and saved quite a bit of money being duped by the so called raw food "gurus" which peddle the next best superfood. And come to find out they aren't even succeeding at eating raw plant foods because they don't know how, and have switched up their foods to include animal products. If you want success follow someone that has achieved it, and IMO Doug Graham is someone you could actually look up to and take advice from.

[Raw Angel Mom]

I haven't read any replies so please accept my appologies if i repeat with others.

If you tend to be thin, you could have mal aborption issue. Raw food will be a significant step to heal this issue. Your adrenal could be malfunctioning as well. Doing fast, or eating a lot of semi acid fruits (grapes, citrus, apple, berries or watermelon) will without question put you on the right path.

I used to be skinny like a tooth pick. I could eat like a bear and i still would be underweight. When i started to normalize was when i started doing exercise years ago.

I went underweight again on my first year of raw food, now i am over my normal weight. I feel that my body got ride of all the bad fat that had stored the chemical or dangerous substance.

Without question, you shouldn't fear to go on a plant food and especially raw vegan food. Elephant, Gorilla, beef are very massive animal that do greens.

Start doing juicing with greens (wheat grass) or doing green smoothie or both.

You could have also parasites that caused the mal-absorption. This is a journey and fear not.

You body will resume to balance and don't have any fear if you notice any lost with your weight. Don't go into fear by being tempted to go to animal food.

ONLY LIFE FOOD can bring life to your body. You will never succeed to grow a garden out of cook or dead food ever.

What are your goal with your body? If some of them are to look great, to have energy, to be radiant of health and be in balance then the raw vegan diet is the way.

All the best!