random weight question - Raw Food Chat

00rawr00 · 05-05-2006

im quite new and im curious as to whether i should expect to gain weight or not on a raw diet, i seem to eat a huge amount of fats... nuts, seeds, avocados, cocount, etc, and i tend to be constantly eating.has anyone had experience with weight when they first became raw? what should i expect?

lucky_rainboq · 05-05-2006

Usually when people first go raw they crave lots of fats because they are filling. This is OK for transition because if you are trying to completely raw, the most important thing is to eat raw and do what you need to get there. Some raw leaders feel it is OK to eat lots of fats. But this has no sound nutritional basis as most experts in any field of nutrition recommend less than 30% of fats in the diet calorically speaking, and for optimum health this number should be around 10%. Most typical raw diets get 65% of their calories from fat, even mor than the Standard American Diet which is about 40% of calories from fat!

I would say eat as much fat as you need while you are transitioning but in the long term aim to get your calories from fruit instead of nuts, seeds and avocados/coconuts. Dr. Douglas Graham has a good article about fat intake on his website at www.doctorgraham.cc

00rawr00 · 05-06-2006

thanks so much, ill try to listen to my body (i just don't trust it) and hopefully i won't baloon out!! the website is a great resource too!

lucky_rainboq · 05-07-2006

I really don't agree with "listening to your body" versus following tried and tested methods that work. But things work differently for everyone and it will take some time to see what works best for you.

Some people can lose a lot of weight while eating a high raw fat diet. This is often because what they were eating before they went raw was so poor that their body just drops the weight even with the high amount of fat. But it can't last forever. Even though we know fat coming from seeds, nuts, coconuts and avocados is WAY healthier than cooked fats, it is still a lot of fat. It is generally not healthy to eat a lot of fats, even if they are plant fats.