No offense... but... i need to know

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Permalink Reply by RawMatt on May 26, 2009 at 7:19pm

Good observation. :)

I think there are several reasons for it. One of the reasons is all the nuts, nut butters, seeds, oils and high caloric intake of the typical high-fat raw food diet. The average raw vegan dessert pie (6 servings) is over 3,400 calories. The average raw vegan pizza that you would eat at a raw food restaurant or make yourself is over 3,000 calories. Plus, the fat intake is usually between 35 and 65%.

Another reason is lack of movement. If you're eating that kind of high calorie, high fat intake, then you need to exercise daily. If that's not happening, one is going to gain weight.

Just because one eats raw, doesn't mean its healthy.

-RawMatt

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Permalink Reply by Mellifera on May 26, 2009 at 8:04pm

I eat high fat and have done so for five years now without gaining any of the weight I lost. The right fats are important! Low fat vs. high fat misses the different ways a high fat diet can be done.

There is a certain fat distribution (belly) that is strongly tied to disease (curvy fat on thighs and buttocks is not tied to disease). I often wonder when I see some raw foodists with large amounts of belly fat. It's made me a little suspicious of things like juicing: fructose without fiber...insulin spikes! And excess fructose has been pretty strongly tied to obesity, highly cholesterol, liver toxicity, inflammation among other things. Scientists are finding that it pretty much has the capacity to act like a "bad" fat. So if you are eating massive amounts of things like cashews and avocados, which contain the "bad" (it's only bad in excess) fat omega-6 which has similar effects + lots of juices, honey, sweet fruit = bad news!

Grains are another good way to gain weight. I'm eating some sprouted raw buckwheat now because I want to gain a little.

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Permalink Reply by Navae on May 26, 2009 at 8:55pm

Thanks... that makes sense... its what i assumed...

but it's hard to swallow when your seeing it on the experts. And, no - i am not referring to good fats.... i am talking about gaining weight - looking like you are carrying excess weight....no muscle definition (or little) , and for lack of better terms... flab. (on a previously more fit person).. AGAIN - i am REALLY not trying to be "that way"... it just baffles me!

But - i suppose you are right! lots of nuts/oils/far too many calories + too little exercise/cardio = unfit...

guess it can happen to anyone...

:) Thanks for the insight!

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Permalink Reply by yoda on May 26, 2009 at 10:57pm

There is also this thing called lifestyle. 'well known' often means 'higher profile' means more time is spent building/supporting the profile than it used to, even if they aren't really working on a higher profile as such, being well known means more people asking them questions/emails/phone calls/internet/speaking engagements/planes/travel/.... maybe they have such a profitable profile they have people to do a lot of that for them.... it's all less time on day to day running around, less time to work on muscle definition, less time for themselves, more stress..... stress can cause weight gain.

Sure lifestyle is just an excuse, but demands and time management are just excuses too.

Add stress and the wrong foods together and you can get a blob, though raw blobs tend to be smaller than cooked blobs.

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Permalink Reply by yoda on May 28, 2009 at 5:00am

Ha :) I'm probably verging on a raw blob I've got no muscle definition, desk job with long hours, and lots of unavoidable stress outside of work (probably why the work hours are so long!). I know if I ate burgers and pizza and had my lifestyle I'd be an extremely large blob, raw I'm just average build. It is a whole thing, excuses, priorities, stress, exercise, diet, environment.

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Permalink Reply by Silverfire on May 27, 2009 at 12:31am

As others have said, it's lifestyle as well as diet that affects the way our bodies gain/store fats and our overall health. This is further complicated by the individual constitution and metabolic makeup of the person.

I cycle naturally through high and low fat phases, but have not gained back the weight I lost when I became raw. The major issue for me is lack of toning, and that really can only be rectified by exercise, something which I need to do a lot more of.

One of the things with exercise is that it changes our relationship with the foods we eat. Consciously or subconsciously, most people's diets change when they increase their exercise, this change can be in the volume of food, or in the types of foods eaten.

Some people, even thought they are raw, still have unhealthy eating cues that mean they might be eating at the wrong time, combining food poorly and eating too many of one type of macro nutrients (fats are often a culprit, but sugars too). Again an individual's metabolic makeup will affect how these poor choices manifest themselves in the body (for some, poor choices, especially if they are not constant, have no effect on the weight of the body).

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Permalink Reply by Navae on May 27, 2009 at 10:24am

i'm sorry.. but this is funny...


from yoda:
"Add stress and the wrong foods together and you can get a blob, though raw blobs tend to be smaller than cooked blobs."

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Permalink Reply by CheL on May 27, 2009 at 12:31pm

Hi Rawtastic :)

I really appreciate what you're saying here. I agree that it is a really scary thing to have something going o in your body (in your case edema in your ankles) that you just can;t seem to help. I, also, had my own battles that felt almost hopeless until I started learning about raw food. I'm so happy that we've found something that truly addresses the problem and not just the manifestation of the symptoms.

I also feel that the questions that are being asked here are not being asked out of shallowness or judgment. For some people the scary thing is to look down and see extra weight around their middles instead of extra water around there ankles. It sounds to me like these folks are just trying to understand why and how this could happen when following a raw food diet. I think the questions are valid and important to ask. Navae was very clear that she is just trying to understand how this can happen. I think this is a place where she should be able to ask questions like this in oder to more fully understand this path she has chosen. I think that just by trying to gain knowledge about this lifestyle that she can use to further her own health and the health of those around her is a great way to help save leves and the world.

I really love your passion and I'm glad you are here and well :)
Peace, love
Chel

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Permalink Reply by Mellifera on May 27, 2009 at 12:51pm

I don't understand why other things can be an obvious sign of a problem, but others can't. Visceral fat is an obvious marker of many problems. So is acne and dark circles. I've had all of these things and of course they have a strong genetic compenent. None of them meant I was an ugly person, but they weren't signs of good health and showed that there was something that needed to change. It's not just about beauty, these things are biomarkers for internal problems. And when I see raw gurus that have them long-term, I do really question their methods. If I want to get rid of X; why should I follow someone who is touting a special diet, but still has X?

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Permalink Reply by SyLL on May 27, 2009 at 11:03am

the principal is simple
CALORIES IN must= CALORIES OUT in order not to store fat, if you eat more calories then you use then the extra energy will be stored as fat and it doesn't matter if its raw or not,. That's why people gain weight, they think that because food is raw it doesn't matter how much of it they eat. Moderation is the key.

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Permalink Reply by Mellifera on May 27, 2009 at 12:53pm

Actually organs metabolize different things differently...for example, excess fructose is converted by the liver into abdominal fat in many experiments. This doesn't happen to glucose. Calories matter, but very feel scientists believe in the calories in, calories out paradigm anymore.

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Permalink Reply by Mellifera on May 27, 2009 at 2:34pm

haha, I think they just end up using different pathways. it would be interesting if the fat is stored in different places because of this. I'll research more when I'm done with exams.

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