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has anyone lost weight on this diet

Hi~ I want to be healthy and think that raw is a wonderful way of eating, but I have to lose weight. So far I haven’t lost any weight and I atually think I may have gained weight when I’m raw. I would really appreciate any sort of advice. I’m not sure what to do…

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  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    Hi Raven, To lose weight I think you need to be sure everything you are eating is raw, truly raw. As you can see there are many discussions here about what is raw and what is not. Here’s a link that might help: http://www.purelyraw.com/deadfoodlist.htm

    I went down three dress sizes in a year but my weight stayed the same! I think my fat turned into muscle. My husband has lost a lot of weight, most of it by just going vegan have a look: http://www.purelyraw.com/ourstories.htm

    If you are eating a lot of nuts which aren’t really raw, and a lot of dried fruit that isn’t really raw then maybe that is why the weight isn’t falling off. I’d say just try to be truly 100% eat lots of greens for at least a month, and see how you feel, and what happens. Good Luck, stay with it, it just takes a bit of fiddling around to get it right but it is worth it!

    p.s. for an alternative take on weight loss I hear the book ‘The only diet there is’ by Sondra Ray is good.It helps you to tackle this issue from the inside out, with your mind. It may help to support your process with something like that.

  • spiritedmamaspiritedmama Raw Newbie

    I have hypothyroidism too. I have notice a lot of changes since becoming raw, and as I get closer to being 100%, I notice that I have alot more energy. Also, not so many energy highs and lows throughout the day. Also I have noticed that mood is more stable, which was a big problem with my hypothyroidism. I no longer need to take medication, and now just manage my thyroid with one 500mg kelp capsule a day. I am hoping that after being 100% raw I can just up my spiriluna and blue-green algae in my smoothies and that is all I will need. Oh, and yes I have lost weight through my almost year long journey…a little over 30 pounds so far. Good luck on your journey!

  • hey lucy my uncle is on his way down to gabs place now ill keep everyone posted on his progress and feedback

  • Hello there,

    I’ve lost over 80lbs on raw. You can check out my before and after pics on my website.

    Many people can lose a great deal of weight eating any thing they want as long as its raw, but some people need to limit their fat intake, particulary oils, nuts and seeds. Try this for awhile and see if it helps.

    Fill up on delicious fresh fruit and fruit smoothies instead. It is important to stay full and stay satisfied so you don’t get tempted by cooked food!

    Wishing you all the best,

    Audrey 

  • Yes, I’ve lost weight – in fact, this has been the only way I’ve ever felt so successful! I’m a pretty small person height wise, and small boned. I’ve lost a total of 12 pounds, which dropped me 4 dress sizes. Three pounds for me can take months to lose, and change a lot in my appearance.

    However, I have a friend who tried raw just to lose weight,and she gained five pounds! She said it was due to copious amounts of guacamole….

    Keep with it – I know my metabolism has increased! I no longer go the gym to run like a hamster on a treadmill. Instead I do yoga at home, and I’m more toned than ever with MUCH less work.

  • It’s really simple to lose weight. All you need to do is increase the fruits and digestible vegetables such as lettuce and reduce the nuts and fats. Stop using oils of any kind. Use lemon or orange juices for your salad dressing instead of oil. Increase your exercising. As for hypothyroidism, it is often due to eating grain (even raw ones). I suggest that you eliminate all grains (wheat, rice, kamut, quinoa, etc.). Doug Graham has a book called Grain Damage which points this out.

  • I have been raw for almost 4 months. When I started I was 173, my biggest problem now is trying to stay above 160. (I am just over 6 ft tall) This morning I was 158. I disagree with what I just read from Socal (at least when applied to myself) I eat either a pecan carrot or a walnut burger everyday. I also eat flax crackers or onion bread everyday. I do load up on fresh fruit and vegetables but every weekend I make either a pie or cake or cookies that are just loaded with nuts and seeds. I workout and run about 4 or 5 times day so I am sure that helps also. I love eating raw and will never go back to cooked food. I am 43 and I have more energy then when I was a kid. When I don’t eat nuts and seed I don’t seem to have much energy. I also have noticed it’s very hard to put on any muscle when I take nuts and seeds from my diet

  • spiritedmamaspiritedmama Raw Newbie

    Isn’t it so amazing how we all have bodies that work differently, yet still keep each and every one of us alive! We truly are amazing creations! Socal, I had not heard of that book, thanks, I will check it out! I personally work out for 1 hour every day either on my eliptical or running, burning aprox. 1000 calories a day. I eat 6 small meals everyday, and I know for me that if I don’t have some sort of nut with my first meal, and fresh fruit with my 3rd meal (the one before my workout) that I don’t have as much energy and I tend to struggle through. However, when I stick to the above mentioned regimine, the only thing stopping me from going another hour is having to get my daughter…LOL!

  • Wow you are all so wonderful!!!!! Your support is amazing!!!Thank you!!!

  • Rick, I don’t see what you mean that you disagree with me? Raven was asking how to lose weight, you do not seem to have the same problem. Raven is eating things that are preventing the loss of weight…not sure what your point is? Gaining weight can be acheived by using a diary guide like nutridiary.com and keeping track of your calories input for a typical day / week or more. You need to get an idea of your use of calories on that day or week also. They have some methods to calculate this such as inputting amount of exercise. This is a good way to judge why you are not losing weight as well. I hope this is helpful.

  • LucyLucy Raw Newbie

    Gabriel Cousens said in his book that the human genome research by the federal government’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) found as many as 1.4 million variations in the human DNA. As he said “it’s not surprising that those of us living in the human condition should have at least several different basic diets to choose among,according to our genetic physiology.The point is,there is no single diet nor a specific supplement regimen that works for evryone and every disease.” We are all different in body types and equal as humans,but for some of us,like me,a lot of veggies,less fruits,and less nuts and seeds work. But for Rick is different. The important thing is that we are on a raw organic diet,lifestyle.

    Hi Jaymz72 ,I couldn’t understand what did you say about your uncle.

  • rawgirl1976rawgirl1976 Raw Newbie

    Rick, I could not agree more. I don’t know why Socal is so down on nuts and seeds but without them I have no energy also. My ex boyfriend and I ate 2 of the pecan burgers each day along with a lot of fruits and greens and we both lost a ton of weight. I know 4 other people who eat raw including my father and the same has been true of them. My ex said the same thing about not being able to put on muscle and not feeling very strong at the gym without eating nuts. Socal if you read this could you please tell me where you get your protein from? Rick do you mind if I ask you what city you live in?

  • Spiritedmama, I had not heard of hypothyroidism so consequently, I’ve been doing a ton of research about hypothyroidism. I have a lot of symptoms that coincide with the research I’ve done. I’m going to start taking kelp, but was wondering how long did you take kelp before you started noticing a difference?

  • spiritedmamaspiritedmama Raw Newbie

    Om, I was originally diagnosed by my naturopath when I was trying to get pregnant with my daughter (now 3 yrs old). He put me on a naturopathic medication for my thyroid which I took until my daughter was 1 year old (about 4 years). At that point, my husband switched jobs and we no longer had health insurance and also lived in another state. So, I researched alternative therapies for hypothyroidism, specifically Hoshimotos Disease, which is what I have. Kelp was the #1 alternative treatment. I am saying all this because I think it is hard for me to tell when/if I started really feeling a difference because I went right from one thing to another. I would guess though, based on my experience when I first started the naturopathic med. that I was on, that it would take anywhere from 1 week to 1 month. I can say that on occassion I forget to take my kelp, and if it has been a couple of days, I can really notice a difference in my energy levels. Hope this helps!

  • Thanks Spiritedmama! I’ve been taking kelp for two days and today felt pretty energized. Could be a coincidence, I’m going to give this a month and then re-assess!

  • Hi, lucy

    What do you eat during the vegi fast?

  • LucyLucy Raw Newbie

    Hi Eunice,I just had veggies and fruit juices for 3 days. Like celery,cucumber,kale and apples, or like just now I had celery,cucumber and grapes. Or just kale and lemon,or collar green and lemon,or any green veggie and lemon.I always put lemon because I love the taste of it.The best thing is to have veggie juices.Fruits are very sweet,and when you do fast best is only veggie. I still have 3 to 4 cups of veggie juice and or veggie/fruit juice a day. Yesterday I had spinach,kale,lemon,romain lettuce and apples. I love kale,lemon.It’s one of my favorite.Of course,carrot juice is very important and as Gabriel Cousens said carrots are meddium sweet,and Norman Walker (book:Fresh vegetable and fruit juice)had carrot juice until his 80+ years. Don’t forget the carrots. Ah! For complete cleanse: celery and cucumber are the best ever!and I would put some lemon on it.Hope I could answer your question.

  • chriscarltonchriscarlton Raw Newbie

    Do you believe that you can lose weight? We are told by so many people that we are all different from one anther. Some people are meant to be thin, some heavy. We are told that this trait, or that one, is in our genes.

    I was convinced that I was just a product of my family tree. Now that I have my health, I am amazed to have broken the trend. I have lost 160+ pounds. If I start thinking the way I used to, I can gain 10-15 pounds in just a few days, even while practically living on green smoothies.

    Let go of your old beliefs about yourself. And also believe in Raw Food. This is not just another diet. This is you finally eating only what is meant for you to eat.

    Also a lot of weight is toxin storage. Our bodies store toxins as far away from our vital organs as it can. This is why we gain more around our bellys, thighs etc. and not as much near our chest where our heart and lungs are.

    You body will begin to dump these toxins, but only when it feels safe that this change you have made is a permanent one. Be patient.

    read this webpage if you like… http://www.purelyraw.com/changeyourmind.htm

    It may help with you self belief.

    Hope this all helps! Chris

  • fuzzyfacefuzzyface Raw Newbie

    i did not read every post thoroughly, just a quick scan because today is super busy however…

    fat cannot turn into muscle and muscle cannot turn into fat. they are completely separate tissues. the volume of each can increase or decrease…which is a more accurate descriptive of what occurs when people change their nutrition or exercise regimes.

    my suggestion to all of the individuals i have trained over the years is to not use a scale. they do not provide an accurate measurement of the body’s muscle, fat, or water levels (which can fluctuate dramatically). watching your waistline as well as the thickness of your skin are probably the best ‘at home’ methods of monitoring.

    just remember, if you weigh 400lbs on a scale but love the way you look and feel, who cares about the number

  • This is a great topic and I am so happy to see so much wisdom out there: Lucy: Right on Sister…We are all differnet and only you can KNOW what you need :) Chriscarlton: Love your Site and your AWARENESS :)..thanks for bringing it to light…I forget to flip the switch sometimes and appreciate all the help I can get! Fuzzyface: Amen!!! Its all about how you feel!

    Thanks everyone for the inspiration, recipes and solidarity! I love this site and it is the major source for my inspiration and courage to do what I know is right for me!

    I have many nagging…no serious (yet and now never because I wont let them develop) health problems that have lead me to eat raw and weight is one of them;

    The way I am doing raw…is let my pleasure lead me…I eat whatever sounds good when I am hungry and I dont worry about fats or food combining or protein…I Dont worry about it… If I feel like crap after eating something I make a mental note not to do that again..look for connections in adverse reactions and avoid those in the future. I grew up with many issues on food(anorexia, bulima, binging purging, and overeating)Mostly Vegetarian/vegan with Carnivore guilt, always worring about weight, calories, nutrients, protein, exerciseing like a hamster sometimes and others being a bump on a log…

    NOW I AM FREE!

    I dont worry about food at all…I just love it!

    I dont know if I have lost weight..I chucked the scale when I started raw…its been since April 1st, On “learning days” I have been 75% raw, those days are becoming fewer as I notice my body rebel agaisnt cooked foods. I have released 5 inchs already, my skin is clearing up, my mood is great when I am all raw, and eating is a pleasure without guilt!!

    Thanks again! In LOVE AND LIGHT Ambika

  • I lost 15 lbs in 2 months and I wan only 123 to begin with. I didn’t even realize I had lost so much weight b/c I have SO much energy and feel so good-until I weighed myself today. Today was my first workout in all that time too. So now I’m 108- which I haven’t been in YEARS and have tons of other benefits too. I look & feel a million times better.

  • Ambika, Your love and light shine through your post! Thanks for sharing your journey with us.

  • Thnkas Om..your sweet..its great to be able to “talk” with people who understand!

  • I lost 58 lbs in about 4 months. My Body stopped losing wait as soon as I was at the weight range I wanted. Go figure.

  • stylistchickstylistchick Raw Newbie

    i lost about 7 lbs in the first month. i was a little dissappointed, but i feel so much better, and my clothes are getting loose, so i think its best to not focus on a number.

  • omshantiomshanti Raw Newbie

    ambikalee, and Zoe and Chris, Im with you guys on the intuitive eating thing. I eat when im hungry and what i feel like…even did this on cooked foods which lead me to some unusual choices for certain meals(pizza, salad and potroast for breakfast) I find when i eat what i want i feel satisfied if i try to eat”whats good for me” “what constitutes that type of meal” ect ect i would feel unsatisfied leading me to eat a bunch of other stuff!

    Since embrarking on raw, i am more toned and weigh less than i have in years with less work, way more energy and clarity! I am very active by nature, swim 2 miles 5 days a week, yoga three days a week, ride horses, train horses for a living, garden, bike hike, walk….ect ect now i still do my yoga i still train but have been to busy to swim much or ride my own beasties but i lost 6 pounds with out any effort and my skin and muscle tone is fabulous! I even took a collogen protein suppliment trying to get my sore muscles feeling good and as soon as i gave up meat dairy grain and cooking my muscles rarely hurt. i can actually get right out of bed and walk flat footed and upright right off the bat….before raw i couldnt do that, i was pitied (and laughed at ;)by my husband who would always ask if i was upright yet in the mornings. the other funny thing is that i would have terrible gas( gross i know but very true) i was infamouse for it;) everyone blamed the onions or garlic in the meals we ate but what i learned was, the second i stopped eating cooked foods garlic, cabbage, onions, broccoli, brussel sprouts ect DO NOT bloat my stomach or give me gas. I love this way of life and aspire to be high raw soon! so far everything i eat is raw but im having a time giving up my tea and wine and beer although wine is on the way out as i get really light headed after a glass now! so embarrassing as i had a tolerance before and never was drunk, last two glasses of wine (on seperate occations) i had to be led out the door, i was reeling!!!! ugh why people like that feeling i dont know!

    those of you not loosing give it time….wieght loss while nice, is not that important if you feel better!

  • Since we’re moving into spring it would be great to loss some of my Winter wieght. Eating lightly with delicious Raw Foods is the way to go in weight loss. I’m happy to say I’m looking forward to Spring and the fruits and vegetables it brings. Good luck to all lossing the Winter Weight, KJ

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    I tried to do 100 raw all at once. It didn’t last long, because I was too stressed x%x still completely addicted to food that was bad for me. When I went back to a SAD diet (after about six weeks raw), I started to gain weight. I was stressed with too much demanding my time and attention. Then I went through a breakup from an engagement, and I kept steadily gaining more weight. People would tell me “Just eat less and exercise,” but I knew there was more to it than that for me, and that wouldn’t work until I worked through the psychological factors that were causing me to gain weight. A few months later, I weighed more than I had weighed at nine months pregnant, and I realized this was getting serious. I went to work on the emotional things that were making me believe I needed to be fat. At some point in the process, it came to me that there was the “real me” inside, who was skinny, healthy, etc. and then there was all this extra “stuff,” and that if I just fed the real me, everything else would just go away. (I came to realize later that this included emotional, spiritual, mental, etc. too, not just food to my physical body.) When I had worked through the emotional crap, I became willing to take in only what my body wanted. After about two weeks of this, I realized I was ready to start transitioning to raw food (I thought I would never go back to it because it had been so difficult & unenjoyable the first time). I started to lose weight even before going back to raw, just from the day I mentally became willing to let it go, I lost 5 pounds in three weeks even before eating high raw. After that, I lost another 35 pounds in the next three months, and then maintained that weight by eating what my body wanted (which included grains sometimes, or not, meat sometimes, or not, sometimes tons of fruit & nuts, sometimes lots of vegetables, whatever). A few months ago, I started eating cooked food for a while because I was stressed & low on money & decided I couldn’t afford to eat raw. I am now back & eating all raw (I was eating meat sometimes & pretty much everything else raw before last month). I feel better than when I was eating cooked food, but the 12 pounds I put back on in those few cooked food weeks is still with me, even though I have been eating mostly raw again since mid-December. Thanks to chris s for reminding me of the emotional/mental connection – I guess I still have some work to do!

    As for hypothyroidism, I had that problem, too. I never felt like kelp/iodine would work. Then I read in a reiki book that thyroid problems can be a result of stifled creativity, and that resonated with me. I started doing all kinds of creative things (which I hadn’t allowed myself to do for years!), and after a few months, I slowly started craving things with iodine (pineapple & kelp noodles were what did it for me then). I also noticed a big rise in my energy without my thyroid medication, which I already had stopped taking because I felt I would rather heal my thyroid than to take the medications. Now, two and a half years later, my thyroid levels are normal with no medications. My doctor said it is normal for the thyroid levels to fluctuate, but I believe it is something different ;) I hope this is helpful to someone; it has been therapeutic for me to write it – thanks for letting me share!

  • SamiliciousSamilicious Raw Newbie

    wow angie. Thank YOU for sharing! I can relate so much to you because I have also experience how much emotions causes me to gain weight. Last year when I was still vegan but learned about raw foods so I was incorperating green smoothies into my diet, evn though I had sooooo much energy that I began to run every morning, I still kept gaining weight. And soon, I realized I couldn’t zip up one of my jeans!!!!!! (The others were really tight). But at the same time, I was extremely stressed out and in a really bad situation (I have divorced parents, living with dad, evil step-mother, NEEDED my mom, etc—by the way I’m back and happier with my dad). It was so weird though, at the time. I was so frustrated thinking, what am I doing wrong? Oh, and I think another factor was that I wasn’t sleeping enough.
    Like you angie, I still have some work to do because I am dealing with trauma and disappointment left from my biological mom. But I lost enough weight to fit into my jeans again, but since I still have some stress to deal with, my body is ‘showing’ me that my hanging on to that thin layer above my abdominals. lol. Raw foods has helped alot. It helps with feeling much happier and energetic, especially when I make a recipe that turns out to taste good! (rarely).
    Sorry for blabbing on, but another thing I noticed is that when I’m very angry and shouting all over the place turning into the incredible hulk (I live with 3 little kids. 3= a jungle), I notice that I get sooooo cold afterwards, particularly my hands and feet. Really cold. And I know its because of the stress. Or yelling. I think its the yelling. Meaning that it slows my metabolism and maybe this is what contributes to weight gain. I’ll post another forum about this but in general, I’m saying that from my experience, psychological issues is the #1 factor to gain weight, weakened immune system, and other health problems. Man, I really gotta control myself! Please don’t think I’m a mean and messed up person. I’m MUCH MUCH better now, and I find that more sunshine has helped too.

  • This is so great to hear all open up about their weight pain. I feel the same way. I’m sometimes angry too. Maybe when I can’t fit into any thing and know I just have to stick to my Raw diet. Being a chef kills me through the holiday’s and winter. It’s over now!!! 100% Raw yesturday and already feeling better. Spring has moved me into new growth and it’s not my weight. Spring cleaning the prefect way to look at ways the change your body and mind. Let the living foods bring you life.KJ

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