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Ideal intake for weight loss on Raw

Hey! I know everyone has differing opinions, but I’d like to see what the general/most prevalent conscensus is: what is the ideal intake for raw weightloss? 80/10/10? 60/20/20? Low fat, high fruit? ALL fruit? portion control? What worked for you?

I ask because I’ve found myself trying all of the above, and not a pound is budging. When I don’t eat nuts I make up for it by eating lots more fruit, and vice versa. I just want to shed some pounds!

(I’m 5’2, 19, 120 pound female, exercise 45-60 minutes a day, either biking or uphill hiking, or both.)

Comments

  • rawjazzrawjazz Raw Newbie

    Hmmmmm…... well if you are exercising every day and only eating when you are hungry, perhaps you should consider if your body is at the weight it wants to be at? Just a thought.

  • Well, I don’t mind the weight number itself, but I have alot of body fat.

  • Raw_ChocoholicRaw_Chocoholic Raw Newbie

    Try interval training instead of endurance training. Or maybe alternate them.

  • pianissimapianissima Raw Newbie

    the weight loss “frame of mind” is a moot point on raw in my opinion. the point is to clean out all the cells and in turn your body returns to it’s natural weight, which is sleek and slender.

    have you tried going 100% raw before and failed to lose weight? fat and fruit are important components to your diet, but greens are the most important.

    make sure you are getting an insane amount of greens. this does two things: 1) stops craving 2)oxygenates for all the cells. a truly restorative food!

    also, drink lots of water between meals. adding a little lemon juice or raw apple cider vinegar helps me drink more.

  • Well I’ve been raw for 2 years now, every now and then(maybe once a month) having non-raw items like home popped corn and steamed veggies. I drink water and tea like there is no tomorrow (I pee all day :p) and when I’m not overcome with schoolwork and hectic scheduling I do green juices daily. For the past month I’ve kept my fat intake to a minimum, having 1/3 avocado a day and a small handfull of nuts, and mainly eating veggies, salads and fruits. It’s just frustrating. I want to believe that raw returns everyone to a sleek and slender weight, but I’m obviously not there yet, despite my efforts. I’m currently reading a book on weight training, so I’m going to build more muscle for sure, but I just wondered what everyone’s thoughts on the eating part were :)

    Thanks!

  • pianissimapianissima Raw Newbie

    ah. ok. not new. according to the long-term raw foodies on this site (i’m not one of them… less than a year for me) if you intake even a little bit of cooked food it sets you back up for the cycle of detox.

    are you a student? perhaps your weight is stress related?

    i’m curious to see what others’ take on this is…

  • I’ve thought over the stress part, and it’s a possibility. My weight is mostly around my middle/hips/waist/thighs, which screams of cortisol. I’d be fine with the extra fat if it was in my boobs or butt :p

    I also thought it was due to inactivity, so I upped my cardio efforts to close to an hour, 6 days a week. And I bought a heart-rate moniter, which shows that I consistantly get up to the 60-80% max heart rate zone.

    I’m upping the greens even more…

    but I would like to hear others thoughts on this :)

    it just frustrates me because there are people out there on 100% raw who eat millions (exageration) of calories a day, high fat desserts etc and they still have trouble keeping weight ON. I just wish I was there ;) I tried that for awhile, and lo and behold I just gained more weight…so I really can’t get away with that.

  • This is kind of a personal topic, but if you are not going #2 everyday that is probably a big part of the problem. Extra fat is waste and toxins that the body can not get rid of so even the healthiest of eaters such as us raw foodies can be overweight or carry extra unwanted pounds.

    In example whether you eat a a raw food dinner or a cooked food dinner if your body does not eliminate this it will turn into toxicity and be stored as fat. Think of your colon as a garbage can. No matter what you put in it if you miss the bag and it gets stuck in the can and does not get taken out with the garbage in the garbage bag it is gonna stink (i.e. in the body turns to toxins/fat).

    If you think this may be your problem you can read up on proper food combining, how stress effects elimination and try gravity method colonics, which in my opinion are essential to cleansing the body when on a raw food diet.

    Hope this helps and good luck!

  • Ah, that too. I go #2 (LOL) 2+ times per day, so I’ve thought of that too….blahhh

  • Well…I can slim down eating only raw fruits and vegetables,it means no fats and esp. proteins.I don’t need to make experiments no more-when I eat even a little amount of fat I feel very heavy.And when I eat nuts I feel my muscles growing…It’s not attractive at all.And when I eat a sufficient amount of fruits and vegs I find it very satisfying-I feel no hunger and still lose weight.

  • MarichiesaMarichiesa Raw Newbie

    Perhaps you should add in strength training two to three times per week. Is there any possibility that you are not eating enough and exercising too much? I know it sounds counter intuitive. But I mention this because I am experiencing a similar plateau. Several articles I’ve read recently suggest that the above may be the problem.If I figure it out I’ll let you know! ;o)

  • jenny2052jenny2052 Raw Newbie

    It seems very odd, but I’ve experienced what Marichiesa is talking about—a plateau due to eating too little and exercising too much. It was when I was mostly eating cooked vegan, but I was exercising 1-2 hours a day and had been very diligent with low fat, no white foods, etc. I had a lot to lose and had been losing very steadily, but the weight loss had dropped off completely for a few weeks. I remember one day getting extremely frustrated and eating a ton of boiled potatoes literally dipped in butter a party. I expected to feel really sick and to see a spike in my weight. Neither happened. I woke up feeling wonderful and the scale was down 2 pounds for the first time in weeks. I was absolutely astounded, but I figured that my body wanted more food. I started eating more in general, but particularly more vegan fats and the losses just continued. I’m certainly not advocating butter as a weight loss aid (!!!), but this experience did help to convince me that low calorie and low fat was not necessarily what my body wanted. If I’m exercising a lot, a good amount of food and a moderate amount of fat tends to help me lose.

    To this day, it is really difficult to convince myself to eat more if I’m wanting to see weight loss progress, but it always helps me! But I’m also a huge believer in different bodies needing different things (and of individuals needing different things at different times). Maybe you could try different approaches for, say, a week at a time, and see which worked the best for you? Perhaps these could also function as mini-cleanses. Like perhaps a week of mono-eating fruit, followed by a week of low sweet fruit and high greens. Maybe this could help to isolate what works best for you at this moment?

    Or perhaps a brief juice feast (maybe after the semester is out) could help to hit the reset button? Juice feasts of 3-7 days always help me to reconnect to intuitive eating, which helps stabilize my weight no matter which direction it needs to go.

    Hope some of this is useful to you!

  • Thanks for all the ideas, I REALLY appreciate it. I got RIGHT on it, and I started doing/incorporating strength training from a book by Joyce Vedral into my routine. My arms are sore! haha. I can’t do the full routine yet, but I’m learning the moves and form, and I’m going to be full into it by 2 weeks time! (Lucky I have tons of dumbbells in my house!) I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing right now, and see if the exercise catches up to me. I’m not overeating anymore (I used to have problems, but since I’ve been exercising more, oddly that has gone away…I’m less stressed.), and I’m back into my juicing routine too.

  • Luna bluLuna blu Raw Newbie

    hey Kyko, do you know what your actaul body fat percentage is? Do you know your BMI as well? If i knew that i would be able to provide some helpful guidance.

  • also keep in mind that if you are sticking to the same thing over and over, your body will get used to it and plateau. This means, mix up your workout every few weeks…if you run long and slow, try a week of fast intervals. change what kind of ab workouts you do, eat different foods…whether different amounts or at different times. falling into a monotonous pattern will slow you down.

  • daniefondaniefon Raw Newbie

    pianissima-what do you consider an “insane” amount of greens. And do you consider all green vegs greens or only leafy ones?

  • I’ve tested my body fat with wimpy online calculators, and the electric thing on my treadmill – the range is anywhere from 19-30% BF. It’s lame. You can tell just by looking at me that I have alot of excess body fat, and it’s mostly on my middle. My BMI according to most sites is 22 ish (don’t remember.) But again, I don’t have alot of muscle….I just need to build muscle, is what I’m learning, then the body fat issue should resolve itself eventually…

  • Luna bluLuna blu Raw Newbie

    19 to 30 is a pretty broad range. At one end you have a healthy fit female, on the other, you have a slightly pudgey one. 21 to 24 % is the ideal female. The best method is bio impedence. Can’t do that at home though, or online. it sends an electrical pulse (you don’t feel it!) through your body, and calculates the time it take to come back to the sensor. The more muscle you have the longer it takes, because muscle is denser than fat. (we are talking split seconds here!)

    You are on the right track with the weight training. The more lean muscle you have, the more fat you will burn! Gotta do some cardio too! :)

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