Help me figure out and normalize a good body weight!

[RawDad]

Everyone knows the raw food diet is great for loosing weight, but what if you loose too much?!

In middle school (age 12-15) eating nothing but highly processed foods and mostly junk foods I topped out at 190lbs. My height topped out at 5' 9". Over my high school years I dropped down to 170. In my early 20s, without trying, I've averaged my weight at 150-160lbs. I figure this is likely my normal body weight range.

Now I'm 23 and 1/2, nearly 2 months raw, and I was expecting to keep my weight of 150-160lbs. My girlfriend a week and a half ago pointed out my ribs were sticking out a lot. We don't own a scale, but at my parents house with my construction boots and 3 layers on top to bottom I weighed in at 140lbs. I feel great, but as far as my appearance goes I'm not sure that ribs poking out is ideal.

So I have upped my fat intake significantly. I start the day with a green smoothie with flax oil and/or avocado. I started eating bags and bags of Goraw granola http://www.goraw.com/products/Live_Chocolate_Granola (chocolate and apple cinnamon). Lots of flax oil on my salads and avocado in them. I've started eating a lot more kale and spirulina for more protein. I've also been soaking walnuts/pecans for snacks.

My stomach is distended from eating so much, and its hard to tell so soon but I think it might be working to cover up my ribs a bit. I am thinking I might need to just build more muscle to cover up my ribs, so increased exercise is the next thing I'm gonna try.

What do y'all think? Got any good fat food recommendations? Or think exercise is the solution for muscle mass? Anyone else struggled with this? Thanks!

[Ucat]

I think this is one of the unresolved problems of a raw food diet. I am struggling with this myself. If you find a solution, let me know.

Although I think for men it is not such a problem, they can always build more muscle mass and look and feel good with close to 0% body fat. But us women are different, we need more body fat for both, looking healthy and for the hormones to work properly.

There are so many theories out there but I don't know if any of them work yet. I know that eating too much fats as a raw foodist can cause major problems, from tiredness and sugar imbalances and irritability to other things so I would try to find a way to get the calories from other sources...

Sprouted millet etc. should be a good source of carbohydrates. Lots of fruit. 12 large bananas a day are meant to give you 1500 calories. Some say raw organic eggs help with weight gain. Victoria Boutenko et al. swear by greens. Tonya Zavasta recommends fasting to slow down your metabolism (to make it more efficient) and says that you will put on weight more easily afterwards.

I think for you, as a guy, increased exercise is probably the way to go. I would be very careful with eating too many fats. For me though, I keep looking for a solution for this! (I guess exercise with weights helps for women too though, in moderation.)

Storm Talifero talks about the importance of celery and greens to put weight on. But I doubt many of these things work without exercise.

There have been some other threads on this in this forum, so perhaps do a search and see...

Does anyone know what Alissa Cohen says about this? I still haven't read her book (but will do)... and she seems to have a nice healthy weight.

One thing, of course, is to just make sure you eat enough! Whatever is your favourite raw food (like berry smoothies are high on my list) - maybe try to have those for snacks every day. My problem is when I try to save money while eating raw I end up eating too little. I think it's a big mistake and I have to find a way around it.

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[Ucat]

How are your energy levels? Are you metabolising your food properly? You could check for underlying things like the strength of your stomach acid (hydrochloric acid), do a parasite cleanse, and things like that.

But if your energy is fine you probably digest your food well...

[MysticTree]

there seems to be a common theme where people loose "too much" then re-balance and attain a healthy weight on raw. I think it's just something you have to work through to some extent.

[Revvell]

..... increased exercise is the next thing I'm gonna try.

That's what I was going to recommend. Check out Storm Talifero. His kids are quite thin and he keeps them active with body building movements ~ rock climbing, etc. He's slim and muscular.

[RawDad]

Thanks everyone for the feedback, I got my tummy back, and was tempted to post a picture but I think I'll spare y'all. I have increased my exercise and fat intake a lot, and since the creation of this post got my stomach back and can still see my ribs but I'm not as self conscious about it, they are not quite as noticeable.

My energy levels are definitely off... eating this for dinner late last night probably wasn't a good idea. I couldn't sleep at all and crashed at around 3:30 in the morning. It was sooo good though....but maybe I shoulda stopped at one.



I think I'm just gonna stick to my kale banana smoothies with flax oil and avocado for dinner, those are easy sleep nights.