So, I’ve been vegan for a little over 6 months, and I’ve been experimenting with an all raw diet (on and off) as well. My dilemma is this: I have gained some weight because of the yo yo(ish) way of eating and I really don’t know what step to take to get it off. I could either have a cooked vegan diet (including raw foods, obviously) and count calories, OR I could go cold-turkey and go 100% raw without counting calories. And no, I can’t find a middle ground because I am an all or nothing person (unfortunately). For the trolls who tell me to eat meat, or that it isn’t healthy to be vegan- I’m not changing my mind about that so don’t waste your time.
In the past I had counted calories whilst exercising (for at least an hour a day) and lost 50 pounds by doing this (note, I was not vegan when I did this). So, I know that counting calories works…But, since then, I’ve been reading books upon books, and doing oodles of research about raw veganism and I think that this could be the way to go for my health, and weight loss goals. What is your experience with this? Is it easier to get the weight off when raw? Should I still count calories? Sorry for all of the questions…
I know that veganism is environmentally friendly, animal friendly, and good for my health… But, should I just stay vegan and count calories, or go raw and not count calories?
Please help : /
First of all, counting calories may work, but it’s not a good method of maintaining an ideal weight. What you are doing is restricting intake, which, in turn, decreases your metabolism, thus teaching your body to store more energy as fat due to the food shortages it is perceiving.
So, reducing your calorie intake, then going back to your previous way of eating, you are teaching your body to store more food as fat. Restricting your intake will of course work, if you stay on a restricted calorie intake diet, but who wants that? Not me. I want to eat eat eat. More fuel = more energy = more fun.
My way: do not restrict food at all. Eat eat eat and enjoy it too. Instead, focus on nutrient rich foods, organic foods, fresh foods, foods you grow yourself or are locally grown, whole foods, and so forth.
Here’s a better way to become thin, just exercise more. It works. But, focus on raising your metabolism. You do this by concentrating on how: Hard?; Long?; Often? + Intensity.
And why not focus on becoming fit, flexible, and muscle toned as well?
For example, instead of just running around and around a running track, do interval sprints while running, then try to maintain your speed, recover, then do another sprint, maintain previous speed, recover, and repeat. You can cut the time you exercise down by doing this too. Intensive exercising for say 20 minutes will equate to perhaps an hour or more of just running along at a regular pace). You can also do Windsprints (aka Win Sprints). Mix it up. Track running, trail running, cycling, weight training and muscle conditioning in the off season… whatever you like.
Now, a note about calories. The calorie unit of measurement is completely moronic and you should not use this unit of measurement at all. This unit of measurement is determined by taking a food, putting in into a special oven that flash burns the food into ash; not even ash. The resulting heat given off by the burnt food is made into a measurement. Food does not burst into flames in one’s belly, therefore it is completely useless. So, please do not count calories anymore – forget all about calories. Trust me, I’ve done competitive athletics for nearly my whole life, and I’ve never counted calories. I’ve see those who do, those wanting to lose weight, athletes, bodybuilders, and… uuh, really, it’s useless.
Regarding raw food, yeah, go for it. Raw has more nutrients of course. But you cannot eat all foods raw – a lot of the food we eat is due to the fact that we need to cook it to access it. Do lots of reading, and learn from other people’s mistakes. rawfamily.com thegardendiet.com are two good resources.
I’ve never been on a 100% raw diet for a great length of time, but if you have a good diet, raw or not, your body should simply go to it’s ideal weight. I’ve had the same weight for my entire adulthood simply because due to intensive exercise, I was always at optimum weight. You can eat whatever you want, vegan healthy or not, and always have an optimum weight as long as you do enough exercise. But, if you want better performance, health, etc. then that’s where healthy fuel comes into play.
So, forget calories, they are moronic, don’t restrict intake, exercise more (Harder; Longer; More Often + More Intensely), eat more, stay vegan, go raw if you want (doesn’t matter when it comes to weight), and don’t miss out on any nutrients, good fats, and so forth.
One more note, you will also want to focus on improving your digestion, look at proper food combination for good digestion, pro-biotic foods, foods medications etc. that hinder digestion, acid alkaline and how it affects digestion, and so forth. Digestion is an important part of eating that is usually overlooked.
Maybe you should try a regular gluten free and vegan diet? I’ve read several articles that content the benefits of a raw diet come from its being gluten free and vegan and not from raw food itself. You could very well have a gluten intolerance which is causing your weight gain. I had a weight problem all my life before giving up dairy, which I found out that I’m allergic to and it was messing up my hormones and causing me to gain weight.
References :
I tried going on an all raw diet and found it too difficult to give up cooked foods. I think it’s difficult to do because cooked foods are easier for your body to digest, and sometimes cooking foods can allow your body to digest certain nutrients that aren’t available in the food’s raw form – the first example that comes to mind being spinach, which has more iron when cooked, I think. Also, I think there is a comforting thing about cooked foods which, for me, was very difficult to leave behind. It might be a good idea to consider that getting a serotonin boost from food isn’t always a bad thing, since your emotional health is a part of your overall health in general. So the way I look at it is that if giving up cooked foods means that you are giving up an important part of your ability to enjoy eating, it’s not worth it.
Maybe a compromise could be for you to eat one cooked meal a day, within a specific calorie limit, and then eat raw foods for the rest of the day without counting calories. Good luck!
References :
Look into the 80-10-10 diet. It is a raw diet you will need a few new kitcheny things like a vita mix, or a really great blender, and a spiralizer, and maybe a wheatgrass juicer. But it seems to work wonders as long as you have access to great selection of fruit, veg and raw nuts. Get the 80-10-10 cookbook, try it out, see if it works for you. Best of luck!
References :
I’ve been raw for years – it didnt make me lose weight.
I think cooked vegan is better. Most raw vegans including me develop deficiencies after a while. They get health problems which go away when they add either raw animal foods or cooked beans/grains. I don’t think raw AND vegan is healthy – you need cooked beans to be healthy as a vegan.
The best diet for weight loss is the caveman diet – no complex carbs, just meat, fish, egg, fruit, veg and nuts. Obviously thats no good if you’re vegan but I would recommend something along those lines. Cut out grains and potatoes and all processed food. Don’t eat anything out of a packet or tin, fried food, microwaved food, or salt. Only steamed, boiled, or raw. No oils except pure flax oil, extra virgin olive oil and extra virgin coconut oil. No margerine or butter. Only eat real natural foods. Beans, lentils, chickpeas – you can use nuts and seeds instead of the grains vegans usually eat. To get complete protein equal to meat you need to combine pulses with grains OR nuts or seeds. So cut out the grains and have nuts or seeds instead. Make sure you eat pulses at least once a day and a big portion of nuts or seeds every day (eg nut roast, nut cutlets, sesame milk, flax crackers, pumpkin seed dip). Nuts are better than seeds as seeds seem to be quite fattening. Nuts dont make me put on weight but seeds do. Its better to buy nuts in their shells, as ready shelled get chipped and go rancid when exposed to the air.
So eat beans (wide variety), lentils, chickpeas plus nuts or seeds every day. Plus fruit, veg, greens, berries, coconuts, oils, herbs, spices. You have to cook the pulses. You could eat the rest raw if you want or cook them, or do some of both. I haven’t found any weight loss advantage to eating raw, so if that’s your goal, you might as well cook.
Don’t eat potatoes, parsnips and limit your intake of fruit, dates and agave syrup. Eat as much dark leafy greens as possible.
Make legumes plus nuts/seeds your staple food instead of making fruit and veg the staple. Cooked vegans make grains+beans their staple. I think its a mistake to just stop eating the staple foods and thats why raw vegans have health problems, not because its raw but because they completely cut out the major food groups.
References :
I understand, I’m an all or nothing kind of person too.
I say if you can, and I trust you do, you should go on a raw diet. (:
Best wishes!
References :
you don’t need to count calories on raw. Unless of course you want to make sure your getting enough, not too much.
References :
I’m not a fan of raw diets, but I am a fan of whole foods. If you want to take off weight, do a little strength training on the large muscles of your body. Increased muscle mass "increases" your metabolism. Do some type of enjoyable aerobic– cardiovascular activity for 20-30 minutes a day (if your doctor says it’s okay. I don’t know your condition). Make sure you focus on good nutrition to provide your body with what it needs. Drink plenty of water instead of sweetened beverages. Eliminate refined, processed foods like sugar, white flour, breads, crackers, cookies, anything refined. Watch your salt intake. Too much salt makes your body hold excess water. Don’t eliminate salt… just cut out salty foods like canned soups and other high-salt foods. If you have to eat canned foods, choose low salt. Don’t restrict your calories too much. That can hurt you more than help you. Make use of calculators online that tell you approximately how many calories are right for your gender, activity level, height, age, and weight you wish to be. Here’s an example http://www.wvda.org/calcs/
I really don’t like the idea of counting calories, but if you do it for a week or so, you might get a feel for approximately how much food you should be eating. Don’t eat late at night before bed. Eat more smaller meals instead of one or two large meals if you tend to do that.
I really don’t view veganism or raw veganism as weight loss plans. You can gain or lose weight depending on what you eat.
References :
http://www.vrg.org/
http://veganhealth.org/
Raw does not mean healthier. If raw meant healthier then raw foods would not be, for example, so limited in protein. You cannot be 100% healthy or healthier not getting your daily required amounts of protein, which is extremely hard to do eating only raw foods.
Raw does not mean you will lose weight either. There are lots of raw foods that have an extremity high fat and/or sugar content. The best way to lose weight without doing any calorie counting is to exercise a lot, cut out all junk, drink more water, consume more fiber, and reduce portion sizes on everything you eat.
References :
Fat loss is effortless on a FRUIT based raw food diet. Veganism is not environmentally friendly. Grains are detrimental to our environment. Go fruit based raw vegan. Eat as much fruit as you like. Take a look at these websites: rawvegan.com, 30bananasaday.com, foodnsport.com
References :
You gain weight when you consume more calories than you burn, you lose weight when you burn more calories than you consume.
Raw vegan is more eco-friendly, and is healthier if done right(lots of fruit, make sure you’re eating enough calories, make sure to heavily limit overt fats like nuts, seeds, avocados and other fatty fruits, and eat a healthy amount of leafy green vegetables).
You should objectively count how many calories you burn and how many calories you consume whether or not you are vegan or raw vegan. In fact, it’s probably even more critical for you to count your calories when going raw vegan, as it will be harder to eat enough calories to maintain a healthy weight.
If you want to lose a pound a week, burn 500 more calories than you eat each day. You can use tools like Nutridiary to track how many calories you burn each day.
Edit: You should definitely check out 80/10/10, however you DO NOT need those kitchen appliances. In fact, 80/10/10 encourages you to eat whole fruits and vegetables, one fruit or vegetable at a time("mono-meals").
References :
First of all, counting calories may work, but it’s not a good method of maintaining an ideal weight. What you are doing is restricting intake, which, in turn, decreases your metabolism, thus teaching your body to store more energy as fat due to the food shortages it is perceiving.
So, reducing your calorie intake, then going back to your previous way of eating, you are teaching your body to store more food as fat. Restricting your intake will of course work, if you stay on a restricted calorie intake diet, but who wants that? Not me. I want to eat eat eat. More fuel = more energy = more fun.
My way: do not restrict food at all. Eat eat eat and enjoy it too. Instead, focus on nutrient rich foods, organic foods, fresh foods, foods you grow yourself or are locally grown, whole foods, and so forth.
Here’s a better way to become thin, just exercise more. It works. But, focus on raising your metabolism. You do this by concentrating on how: Hard?; Long?; Often? + Intensity.
And why not focus on becoming fit, flexible, and muscle toned as well?
For example, instead of just running around and around a running track, do interval sprints while running, then try to maintain your speed, recover, then do another sprint, maintain previous speed, recover, and repeat. You can cut the time you exercise down by doing this too. Intensive exercising for say 20 minutes will equate to perhaps an hour or more of just running along at a regular pace). You can also do Windsprints (aka Win Sprints). Mix it up. Track running, trail running, cycling, weight training and muscle conditioning in the off season… whatever you like.
Now, a note about calories. The calorie unit of measurement is completely moronic and you should not use this unit of measurement at all. This unit of measurement is determined by taking a food, putting in into a special oven that flash burns the food into ash; not even ash. The resulting heat given off by the burnt food is made into a measurement. Food does not burst into flames in one’s belly, therefore it is completely useless. So, please do not count calories anymore – forget all about calories. Trust me, I’ve done competitive athletics for nearly my whole life, and I’ve never counted calories. I’ve see those who do, those wanting to lose weight, athletes, bodybuilders, and… uuh, really, it’s useless.
Regarding raw food, yeah, go for it. Raw has more nutrients of course. But you cannot eat all foods raw – a lot of the food we eat is due to the fact that we need to cook it to access it. Do lots of reading, and learn from other people’s mistakes. rawfamily.com thegardendiet.com are two good resources.
I’ve never been on a 100% raw diet for a great length of time, but if you have a good diet, raw or not, your body should simply go to it’s ideal weight. I’ve had the same weight for my entire adulthood simply because due to intensive exercise, I was always at optimum weight. You can eat whatever you want, vegan healthy or not, and always have an optimum weight as long as you do enough exercise. But, if you want better performance, health, etc. then that’s where healthy fuel comes into play.
So, forget calories, they are moronic, don’t restrict intake, exercise more (Harder; Longer; More Often + More Intensely), eat more, stay vegan, go raw if you want (doesn’t matter when it comes to weight), and don’t miss out on any nutrients, good fats, and so forth.
One more note, you will also want to focus on improving your digestion, look at proper food combination for good digestion, pro-biotic foods, foods medications etc. that hinder digestion, acid alkaline and how it affects digestion, and so forth. Digestion is an important part of eating that is usually overlooked.
References :
Intensive endurance bicycle racing, weight training, vegan diet, cross training, and focus on optimum endurance exercise and diet for fifteen years. Nearly as many years studying human nutrition and related subjects.