gaining weight on raw :( help?

[manker]

So I went organic at Christmas time (not raw) and lost about 6 - 7 pounds in 3 months or so. I went on vacation and gained 2 - 3 pounds while not eating healthy. So I'm back home and went raw only cheating with cheese, it's been about a month and I've gained 2 pounds! I eat mostly fruit and a few handfuls of nuts. I know fruit has lots of carbs and sugar, could this be it? I juice kale, Swiss chard and wheatgrass in the mornings. I'm at 141 and am 5' 8" my goal is 130 by mid august so about ten pounds in less than 3 months. Any help or suggestions are much appreciated! Oh I don't exercise too much so suggestions on how often or anything would be nice too!

[speltrong]

both nuts and cheese have a lot of fat. Have you done a calorie analysis of your typical day of food? That will probably help you to determine what is going wrong..

[speltrong]

and it might also be helpful to eat whole veggies rather than juicing them.. I find I do better at weight loss when I eat the whole plant (because then you get the fiber along with the calories).

[bananaberrie]

I'm sure it is frustrating to eat raw and gain weight. When I went raw I thought the weight would just melt off and I would have the problem of being too thin, which I have heard people on this forum talk about, but I'm not one of them.

The only thing I can say is that when you are close to an ideal weight as I was and it sounds like you are, the weight comes off really, really slowly. And it took my body awhile to adjust to the change of raw. I had a hard time eliminating my waste, if you know what I mean, when I first went raw and I think that was part of my slow weight lose. It just took time for my body to get use to processing and eliminating raw foods.

But as the other poster stated nuts can pack a punch as far as calories go, but there are a lot of people on this forum that believe that not all calories are created equal and that raw calories from nuts and avocados are easier for your body to work with therefore not equal to the same amount of calories in say a donut.

Another thing is when people first go raw people tend to eat a lot of nuts then as they keep eating raw they eat less and less. I did this and it also helped me in losing a bit more weight, by decreasing my nut intake.

All in all I'd say give your self some time, and notice how your body is eliminating it's waste. I've been on a high raw diet for 6 months now I've lost between 5-10 lbs in that time, but I was small to begin with, but it took time.

Hope this helps. Good Luck.

[Raw Angel Mom]

If you are going to make exception don't choose anything with starch.

As for the fat, you need the good one in other to lose the bad one.

Speaking for me, when i first went raw, i ate a lot of nut/seeds. Fruit, sweatener etc.... I went underweight. I started eating cook food such steam vegetable and rice, i gain back the weight. As i was training, and monitoring the scale, i noticed that when i would eat rice, i wouldn't loose weight.

Without question, starch has been the one to make me gain weight.

What you need to do, is to focus on your accomplishment. Let go your fear of gaining weight otherwise, you will be too strick on raw and ended up eating cook food.

Juice a lot of fresh produce and drink green smoothie (heal addiction). If you crave for nut, go for it, if you crave for coconut, go for it.

In time, your body will normalize, your first step is to feel comfortable with this diet and you can only do this by following Alissa Cohen philosophy which is freedome.

Focus on your health, you will lose the weight as a side effect.

All is well!

[bananaberrie]

If you are going to make exception don't choose anything with starch.

As for the fat, you need the good one in other to lose the bad one.

Speaking for me, when i first went raw, i ate a lot of nut/seeds. Fruit, sweatener etc.... I went underweight. I started eating cook food such steam vegetable and rice, i gain back the weight. As i was training, and monitoring the scale, i noticed that when i would eat rice, i wouldn't loose weight.

Without question, starch has been the one to make me gain weight.

What you need to do, is to focus on your accomplishment. Let go your fear of gaining weight otherwise, you will be too strick on raw and ended up eating cook food.

Juice a lot of fresh produce and drink green smoothie (heal addiction). If you crave for nut, go for it, if you crave for coconut, go for it.

In time, your body will normalize, your first step is to feel comfortable with this diet and you can only do this by following Alissa Cohen philosophy which is freedome.

Focus on your health, you will lose the weight as a side effect.

All is well!

Wow! Great post Raw Angel Mom. I always love reading your posts, they are always so encouraging and have good wisdom.

Thanks

[RawLibrarian]

I'm at 141 and am 5' 8" my goal is 130 by mid august so about ten pounds in less than 3 months. Any help or suggestions are much appreciated! Oh I don't exercise too much so suggestions on how often or anything would be nice too!

Two observations:

1. 141 pounds is NOT overweight for someone who is 5'8". To get accurate measurements of your body fat percentage, you'd need someone to do a skinfold caliper test who knows what they are doing. (There is a test where you are dunked in water--that is the most accurate but you need to go to a special facility for that). I just ran your numbers in a BMI calculator--at 5'8", your BMI is 21.4. "Normal" BMI ranges from 18.5 to 24.9; 21.4 is well within 'normal' range for someone your height and in fact is in the lower range of 'normal'. It might be that you would *like* to be thinner, but your weight is quite proportional to your height. I do have to say that BMI is not hugely accurate--it doesn't take into account the fact that muscle weighs more than fat. A highly muscular person could weigh a lot but have very low body fat. However, the BMI calculator is a quick and dirty tool to at least give you some idea where you are.

2. Exercise will definitely help--cardio for fat burning, and lifting weights to build muscle and bone density. When you exercise, it raises your metabolism, so you burn more calories even when you are not exercising. Everyone needs to exercise--it is really key to health and well-being, and exercise is vital to healthy weight-loss programs.

[sport]

http://cron-o-meter.en.softonic.com/
Download cronometer or use fitday.com or something like that for a few days. It will tell you what you are getting.

[RighteousYogini]

http://cron-o-meter.en.softonic.com/
Download cronometer or use fitday.com or something like that for a few days. It will tell you what you are getting.

Thanks for that, Vegan Warrior! You RAWK!