Trouble loosing weight on RAW food

[mynameisEMA]

Hey guys, I would like to ask for an advice because Im getting so desperate with this. I have been on mostly RAW food diet for over 10 months and I havent lost ANY weight. I exercise enough, drink enough water and eat only living foods but although my mother has lost over 35 pounds, my weight didnt change even a bit and My body hasnt change much either.
I have no idea if am I doing anything wrong, or eat too much or what, but I cant believe that my metabolism would give up on me since Im only 20 years old.

Do you have any experience with that problem? Thank you for your help!

[MysticTree]

You need to include much more information and you also need to consider what the reality of "mostly raw" actually is.

[Bihaku]

I don't lose weight with raw either. I even upped it up a notch by deleting oils (olive oil, grapeseed oils, etc) from my diet. The only time I eat anything oily is from avocados occassionally. The only thing that is making me lose weight is Intermittent Fasting (IF) while on raw. I only eat within 8 hours and then do a water fast the rest of the 16 hours. With this I lose about 1 lbs every 2 to 3 days. But I have only been doing it for almost 2 weeks. But for some reason, I have gained weight, like 4 lbs. but I think it is from me walking a lot on my job and building muscle in my legs. Therefore, I need to start taking body measurements instead of just going by the scale.

I am inspired by "FastingTwins" on Youtube in regards to Intermittent Fasting, even though they are not Raw nor vegan. But they Intermittent Fast by eating only in a 4 hour range a day and water fast for 20 hours. That is a little too bold for me, since I eat before I go to work and during my "lunch" break at work which is within an 8 hour period. I want to eat before going to work and if I only had a 4 to 6 hour time frame to eat that means I won't be able to eat at work at all. The only thing I can do is drink water.

Maybe try Intermittent Fasting by having a 10 hour eating time frame, then next month move to 9, and month after to 8?

Perhaps Google "Intermittent Fasting" and do research on how you would like to do it.






Hey guys, I would like to ask for an advice because Im getting so desperate with this. I have been on mostly RAW food diet for over 10 months and I havent lost ANY weight. I exercise enough, drink enough water and eat only living foods but although my mother has lost over 35 pounds, my weight didnt change even a bit and My body hasnt change much either.
I have no idea if am I doing anything wrong, or eat too much or what, but I cant believe that my metabolism would give up on me since Im only 20 years old.

Do you have any experience with that problem? Thank you for your help!

[Non]

If one is on a low-moderate carb vegan diet one will lose weight, or normalize their weight.

Also oils may need to be minimized if used at all. I think oils should only be used medicinally. I still have a moderate amount of fat (to some it's considered high fat) but don't have oil. I use nuts and seeds in their whole food form if I need something fatty.

[robh]

I agree with MysticTree. We just don't have enough information. For example, how much do you have to lose? If it's 5lbs, you may not lose it being raw. If it's 100 lbs, something is up.

Beyond being picky about not having enough information, I wanted to congratulate you on being raw for 10 months. Also, getting someone else to be raw with you is another great accomplishment. Good job on both accounts.

[mpure]

I've never been raw to lose weight but from what I understand, if you are actually 100% raw, and fully commited to eating this way, you WILL lose the weight, and you will feel wonderfully.

[Bihaku]

In the raw food community on Youtube, many people have discorvered that gourmet raw foods recipes that use nuts and dates daily gain weight while on raw, not lose. So if you need to lose weight the dates and the nuts go to go. They be used for maintaining or gaining weight, not losing. Also, oils as well....gain and maintain weight not losing.



If one is on a low-moderate carb vegan diet one will lose weight, or normalize their weight.

Also oils may need to be minimized if used at all. I think oils should only be used medicinally. I still have a moderate amount of fat (to some it's considered high fat) but don't have oil. I use nuts and seeds in their whole food form if I need something fatty.

[Bihaku]

I don't think this is true at all. Everybody's body is different. There are lots of people on Youtube who lose tons of weight being 50% raw, or 70% raw, or 99.9 to 100% raw. But things don't work out for many people.

I've tried 100% raw and I gained weight not lose. So I gave that up. My body is weird. When I go high raw or 100% raw I get no weight lose.

I just watched Life Regenerator aka Dan "The Man" McDonald on Youtube and some woman he was counseling on a video complained of gaining lots of weight on raw, not losing. And he said that many people complain of this as well. He things has something to do with the lymphatic system being messed up along the the kidney's not being able to detoxify the body property where people would gain weight on healthy foods instead of lose. Now, I am not educated on the human body like that so, I don't know if he is saying the truth or making stuff up by being the "raw food detox expert", but regardless raw foods whether 50% to 100% does not help some people in the weightloss department at all. I am a prime example of that.

Here is his Youtube video on the subject. Beware it is 40 + minutes long. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qJE-XN_AxA&feature=g-user-u



QUOTE=mpure;698567]I've never been raw to lose weight but from what I understand, if you are actually 100% raw, and fully commited to eating this way, you WILL lose the weight, and you will feel wonderfully.[/QUOTE]

[Bihaku]

As for my opinion on raw, raw helps with changing one's health from being sick/ill to getting back to healthy, but as for weightloss, its varies to person to person. Some people lose a lot, or moderately and some people don't lose at all.


I agree with MysticTree. We just don't have enough information. For example, how much do you have to lose? If it's 5lbs, you may not lose it being raw. If it's 100 lbs, something is up.

Beyond being picky about not having enough information, I wanted to congratulate you on being raw for 10 months. Also, getting someone else to be raw with you is another great accomplishment. Good job on both accounts.

[MysticTree]

I just watched Life Regenerator aka Dan "The Man" McDonald on Youtube and some woman he was counseling on a video complained of gaining lots of weight on raw, not losing. And he said that many people complain of this as well. He things has something to do with the lymphatic system being messed up along the the kidney's not being able to detoxify the body property where people would gain weight on healthy foods instead of lose.

I don't know about the lymph part of the concept. Why would that mean you gain weight on raw but not on other foods? Doesn't seem to make sense but who knows. When I worked in the slimming industry - yuck -the single biggest cause of weight gain was over eating. I had clients who swore black and blue that they only ate according to the programme and hadn't cheated but they certainly didn't stick to it.

I have seen some people claim that raw food doesn't work but then I find out they are eating their regular food as well as lots of raw food.

It would be interesting to fill a house with raw food supplies and say 6-10 people who want to lose weight and just let them choose from the raw foods rather than giving them a specific list of foods to eat. Leave them in there for say 1- 3 months and see what happened!

[Raw Angel Mom]

I didn't read any replies so sorry if i repeat with others.

It could be hormonal. Are you 100% raw. If you aren't, do you eat soy. If yes, stay away from that, i can guaranty you, that it affect your hormone in a very negative way.

Your body could be busy fixing your primary organ and gland. I bet you look so much better and you have less volume. If you do weight lifting, the muscle mass is much heavier then fat.

As someone mentioned, we need more information to help you or at least share our experience.

All the best. One thing you need to do, is to put your health first. I am glad that i did, because i got saturated and i couldn't lose the weight either, i was vegetarian then but i made healthy choice for my health. I would exercise for my health. My journey began before i went 100% raw food again. My first time going 100% raw food, i didn't lose anything but again i was focusing on my health. My second time going 100% raw, i literally went underweight, i was scare to lose more and i panic and went back with some cook food. BIG BIG mistake, i started to get tired again.

Anyway, focus on your health and trust the process. It would interesting to know if you exercise, you list of food, if you have a very stressful life (this could prevent you to lose weight), if you are on medication etc.....

All the best!

[Bihaku]

Even if they were lying about not eating 100% raw, I think that doesn't really matter. Again, there are several people on Youtube who claim to only eat 50 to 70% raw and lose lots of weight. It is obvious that one doesn't need to be 100% raw in order to lose weight. To go from 100% SAD to 70% raw is such a significant turn around in health that being 100% isn't really shouldn't be really necessary in order to change one's health in a drastic fashion. If someone is going "high" raw and completely 100% raw and still not seeing weightloss then something has malfunctioned in the body that raw can't solve. Improve, maybe but not cure. And it is up to the person to try through trail and error what is making their body not lose weight. Now that sucks, because a person is eating healthy and doing so is not doing what they expected them to do and so the search to find that "cure" continues. And who wants to keep on searching year after year, or decade after decade on what their body needs. It's a pain in the butt.

Also, I read all kinds of weightloss forums. Hell, there are people doing Paleo, low carb (Atkins and South Beach) and lose lots of weight, but some people, including me, who tried these diets, didnt lose weight on them as well. So, to my conclusion, raw diet or low carb SAD diet, there has to be -although I can't find any- why some people can lose weight easily while others have a hard time no matter what diet and eating lifestyle they follow, because lots of people can lose lots of weight by eating healthy, or poorly...the type of diet really doesn't matter. While others, like me, have a hard time no matter what type of diet they try.

Now according to Dan "The Man" aka The Life Regenerator eating raw aggravates a person's problem, because, yes, the person is eating healthy, but if their adrenal glands and lymphatic system isn't working properly, then all the detoxing that happens when eating raw is not being excreted correctly in the body, instead the toxins build up, because the released toxins due to eating healthy (raw) has nowhere to go, but remain in the body causing the aggravation of weight gain. I think this is what he is saying. And I know from reading that fat stores toxins. But can toxins not excreted from the body help create more fat on the body?

I am wondering if I should try adrenal and/or lymphatic detox in order to heal my body. Unfortunately, the purest of all detox is the water fast. And I am not ready for that with my highly physical job. I wouldn't be ready for that if I had a desk job. So the second best is drinking a high water fruit juice, such as melons and do a lemonade or limeade fast and coconut water fast. Third best is drinking coconut milk from young thai coconuts. But in order to heal the adrenals and lymphatic system it seems is a combination of detoxing and fasting, basically not consuming much food at all for a while.


I don't know about the lymph part of the concept. Why would that mean you gain weight on raw but not on other foods? Doesn't seem to make sense but who knows. When I worked in the slimming industry - yuck -the single biggest cause of weight gain was over eating. I had clients who swore black and blue that they only ate according to the programme and hadn't cheated but they certainly didn't stick to it.

I have seen some people claim that raw food doesn't work but then I find out they are eating their regular food as well as lots of raw food.

It would be interesting to fill a house with raw food supplies and say 6-10 people who want to lose weight and just let them choose from the raw foods rather than giving them a specific list of foods to eat. Leave them in there for say 1- 3 months and see what happened!

[Bihaku]

I've been reading some more online about people having difficulty in losing weight. It appears that having a phyiscal or emotional stressful lifestyle creates lots of cortisol in the body, which makes people unable to lose weight. I wonder to a certain degree, that what type of diet you eat doesn't matter, if having stress will make you gain weight,

As for me, eating raw right now is only helping me maintain my weight, which I appreciate because at least I am not gaining anymore. But in order to maintain, I had to cut out nuts, oils, barely eat avocados like I use to. Basically, I am on a low fat raw lifestyle in order to maintain.

I am going to transition myself into detoxing via fasting. Since this discussion yesterday, I decided today to buy a whole bunch of different melons (about 6 -8) and about 15 young thai coconuts, plus 40 limes. Basically some of the fruits listed in order to do an adrenal and/or lymphatic detox. I plan on doing an intermittent fast consuming one melon and one coconut a day, plus drink a limeade within a 4 hour period and do a water fast for the remaining 20 hours.

Plus, if stress creates hormones to make the body gain weight, I need to focus on how to de-stress my body mentally and phyiscally in order to maybe lower the cortisol hormone in my body. I need to do more de-stressing activities in my life.

Maybe on my days off, I might do a water fast? I am not sure.

[MysticTree]

I am going to transition myself into detoxing via fasting. Since this discussion yesterday, I decided today to buy a whole bunch of different melons (about 6 -8) and about 15 young thai coconuts, plus 40 limes. Basically some of the fruits listed in order to do an adrenal and/or lymphatic detox. I plan on doing an intermittent fast consuming one melon and one coconut a day, plus drink a limeade within a 4 hour period and do a water fast for the remaining 20 hours.

That sounds interesting.

My point about the experiment which a house full of raw food and a bunch of people is that it would should how 100% raw eating affects those people. If it included people who say they can't lose weight on raw it might give an insight into why.

I am not cycling to work this year. I think this make a big difference to my weight loss.

[DoxyDame]

In addition to what is said above about everyone's body being different as well as what do you consider "mostly raw" there is also other attributes to consider such as what type of raw foodist are you? There is Raw Gourmet, Low Fat Raw, High Carb Raw... I fall into the last two... i consume almost all fruit, some veggies and almost no nuts or seeds. But which kind of raw foodist you are is entirely up to you and what you feel comfortable with. For me. Being High Carb, Low Fat Raw Vegan even if it's not 100% is way more beneficial to me and my soul and body than Gourmet raw (mostly veggies and seeds and nuts, smaller amounts of fruit, low carb, high fat)

Hopefully you found some help or inspiration. I did see you haven't responded to your thread yet. Maybe you'll come back soon? :D

♥

[walnutty]

I just LOVE it when people ask for help and then disappear!

[MysticTree]

They probably will be back at some point when they remember they posted here and have remembered their password :)

[Aleesha Sattva]

Bihaku please don't insult other members of this forum and other people within the raw food community. We are not here to judge, we are here to share our experiences with others. I have removed your posts from this thread.

in light,
Admin

[CaraS]

I've been overweight my whole life and have tried many, many, many diets and eating programs and in every case I lose a bunch of weight and then gain it all back and then some. I LOVE eating raw and I've lost over 50 pounds so far by switching to a raw diet. But the other thing that I did along with it is that I found a great therapist. For me and I presume for lots of other people, food is emotional. Getting to the core of the emotional reasons for eating and figuring out what it is that makes your body hold onto weight is key to letting the weight go.

I've been 'stuck' at right around 200 pounds for months now. My diet hasn't changed, my exercise hasn't changed, but I stopped dealing with the emotions. I started therapy again 2 weeks ago and I already notice a difference in my body.

For anyone who struggles to lose weight, I would HIGHLY recommend checking out Jon Gabriel (google him). I think he's right on about weight loss and looking at it in terms of figuring out why your body wants to be fat.

[robh]

It's easy to get our vitamins on raw food. We tend to forget about the minerals, however.

If you don't get all of your minerals, your body will cause you to eat and eat and eat. This will cause you to gain weight.

Take your daily diet and put it in a nutrition tracker program. Do you get enough zinc, calcium, iron, etc?

Once I started getting all my minerals (took a couple of weeks), I stopped craving food and my appetite decreased.

If you overeat, you will gain weight (regardless of the type of food you eat). A lack of minerals could be the cause.