I have been doing intense exercise everyday in the past 1 1/2 years (weight training 3x/week and cardio 3x/week) but I was frustrated because I haven't been able to lose weight at all. Yesterday I decided to measure my body fat since I hadn't done that for many months. I asked my husband to help me take measurements at 8 different locations of my body using a body fat caliper and calculated my body fat. To my surprise, I found that I lost 3 pounds of fat and gained muscle, bringing my body fat from 27% (before going high-raw) to 23%, even if my weight stayed the same. I was able to accomplish this by eating only 10% protein of my total calorie intake and not taking any supplements. I no longer care how much I weigh as long as my body fat is decreasing. I now feel like I can someday realize my dream body of 20% body fat if I keep working hard and believe in myself. I'm totally convinced that it is possible to gain muscle on a raw vegan diet! I just wanted to share my joy with everyone.
Comments
The scales are deceiving and I'm glad you learned this! A male friend of mine recently did a 6-week raw diet plan (80/10/10) while working out with a personal trainer. In the 6 weeks he lost 11.8 pounds of fat and gained 5.8 pounds of muscle. Initially he was disappointed that he only lost about 6 pounds but when he learned how much muscle he'd gained he was pretty happy. His body fat % dropped from 24.8% to 19.9% or something like that.
Anyway, if you can measure body fat percentages that means so much more than what you weigh! Congratulations!
Hey, that's fantastic. For me, the opposite happened - I lost incredible amounts of weight really fasy before getting a stomach tube and so ended up really underweight but with an inverted physique - very low lean mass but with my body holding on to any fate it could. I was skinny fat. After four months of being in and out of hospitals and emergency rooms my health stabilized enough for me to began exercising again in January. By the first week of February I was able to up the intensity of my workouts drastically and I now do 10 minutes of moderate intensity cardio every day and 30-40 minutes of resistance training (bodyweight, resistance bands, and freeweights) every other day, with one day of rest on the weekend. I follow the basic muscle confusion principles of P90x, yet because I don't have the money for the DVD set I've just put together my own exercise program using Youtube workouts from Mercola Peak Fitness, BodyRock.Tv, ModeAthletics, and moricestreet909 - you should look them up! The transformation in my body, energy, health, mood, and strength has been incredible, and is progressing at a far quicker pace then I ever thought possible.
Since December, I have managed to gain 8.4 lbs, and yet as the number on the scale goes up, my waist and hip size goes down! It's very cool. And of course the inches increase where they should, like my biceps. As soon as I get the pics posted on Flickr, I'll post them on the forum.
Yesterday I started my first step towards transitioning from canned hospital formula for my stomach tube, to a home blenderized raw vegan diet, by replacing my breakfast with a green smoothie. I went ahead and ordered a Vitamix and it'll be arriving next week - very exciting!
Just wanted to share my joy too, and I'm so happy for you - keep us posted on your progress! Just remember, don't become a slave to the numbers - body fat percentages of course are a far greater number to go by than the mirror, but remember that the mirror+how you feel is the best thing to go by. If you get a ripped physique and you like how you look and you feel good, don't worry about trying to get to a specific bodyfat percentage that's lower, just go with what looks and feels best on YOUR body. Here's a link to check out which tells you how to reference your bodyfat levels visually:
http://www.podarco.com/fitness/content/view/65/96/
(but remember to reference the men's/women's bodyfat comparison chart below, since the above link is geared towards men. For example if you see a physique on a man which is said to be 13% bodyfat, remember that the comparative value for a woman would be about 19-20%, so don't think you have to get down to 14% !, etc)
Body Fat Percentage Categories
Classification Women (% fat) Men (% fat)
Essential Fat 10-12% 2-4%
Athletes 14-20% 6-13%
Fitness 21-24% 14-17%
Acceptable 25-31% 18-25%
Obese 32%+ 25%+
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Thank you for the nice comments, amyskene and jakkrabbit.
jakkarabbit, thank you also for the excellent advice and interesting information. You are right. I shouldn't focus too much on body fat %. How I feel about my body is far more important that achieving a certain number. I will keep that in mind. I did a round of P90X last year and will probably do it again this spring, but yesterday I ordered Insanity DVD program. I feel that I need a very good cardio program to shed the remaining fat. I just hope my body can take the beating as I'm not young any more.
You seem to be doing very well despite all the challenges. Your progress is outstanding! I'm looking forward to your pics. Good luck!
Okay, here's the links for the pics on Flickr:
First, just for fun: My stomach tube with some airbrush tattoos around it:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46833153@N07/4296634026/in/photostream/
And here's the exercise progression photos:
This is me, post face injury/stomach tube, at 100 lbs around Christmas, before gaining weight and starting my exercise program. My temples look like caverns!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46833153@N07/4347987110/
After gaining some weight, my face doesn't look so skeletal:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46833153@N07/4347239549/in/photostream/
My arms, when I was 100 lbs:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46833153@N07/page1/
(I'm flexing in all the photos below):
January, 11 days into my exercise program, 106.8 lbs, big difference already:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46833153@N07/4347987306/
The exciting part - Feb, 22 days into exercise program, 108.4 lbs. Wow, huge change even from 11 days before!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46833153@N07/4347987360/in/photostream/
And, my upper abs are starting to pop - after just 22 days of exercise! Can't wait to see how mad shredded I am by summer...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46833153@N07/4347239687/in/photostream/
Would love to see your progress photos!
jakkarabbit,
Wow, what a progress you have made in such a short time! That is very impressive and you look awsome! I'm very proud of your hard work and dedication! I wish I can have such a fast progress. I'm moving at a turtle pace compared to you. I'm pretty certain you will be totally ripped by this summer! Just keep going!!!
Well, in the end the turtle passed the hare, right? lol, I just had to pun on that since I'm 'jakkrabbit'... in any case though you will get to your goals. You should be really proud of the progress you've made.
I'm not sure exactly what to attribute the lightning speed of my progress to. It actually shocked me, to tell the truth! I was definitely not expecting results so fast! I think maybe I just shocked the hell out of my body before it had time to protest, since when I jump into things I go hardcore. lol. :)
That's awesome, Maxerbear! I was also into weight training before raw and it's always been pretty easy for me to put on muscle. I've seen even better results since going raw. I put on muscle so easily and my recovery time today is AWESOME! :)
Swayze
www.fitonraw.com/blog