Hey everyone!
I'm starting this discussion because I feel it is important to share what can happen and WHY if you come to this unlimited calorie/carbohydrate lifestyle after years and years worth of dieting and calorie restriction (aka metabolic damage), like myself! I came to this lifestyle in March 2012 after yo-yo dieting, calorie/carb restricting, fasting, taking stimulants and laxatives, smoking, drinking alcohol, binge/purging, and overexercising since 2006. My health was suffering severely (anorexia symptoms, digestive disorder, hormonal imbalances), so within one year of following this diet and lifestyle my weight went from an anorexic 120 lbs to a slightly overweight 185 lbs (I'm 5'11"), whilst experiencing immediate improvements in my digestion, hormones, sleep, skin, mental state, and overall health. I just published a very detailed blog post all about my experience here: http://www.nutritionbyvictoria.com/blog/why-i-initially-gained-60-lbs-on-a-high-carb-vegan-diet
I hope that you find the blog post helpful for your recovery if you are experiencing weight gain on this diet. Just know that it's NOT permanent! By sticking to the high carb low fat, unlimited calorie diet and lifestyle (sufficient sleep, water, exercise) you will recover the FASTEST, heal the QUICKEST, and experience weight loss EFFORTLESSLY once your body is ready to target the excess weight (after healing is complete). Initially, weight gain is absolutely necessary in order to turn the wheels of the healing cascade. My weight plateaued after the 1st year, and remained within 5-10 lbs of that weight gain after 2 years. After year 2, my weight started to shift downward, permanently. I've now lost a total of 30 lbs since coming to this lifestyle back in March 2012, and I'm experiencing the best health of my life!
Thank you so much for reading and feel free to leave me any comments/questions!
Victoria
Replies
I am a beginner after 30 years of binge- purge eating... I am terrified of weight gain. I am going to look into the blog you posted. Thank you. :)
I'm sceptical of the 'eat as much as you want' propaganda surrounding raw vegan diets. There are very few calories compared to volume in fruits and particularly vegetables. But too many calories are too many calories. Dietary fat is easily stored as is, as fat. Carbs are potential energy and are converted to fat only after abundant consumption. These wonderfully nutritious fruits and veggies give our bodies the energy to move but move we must lest we get fat.
I have just lost weight or maintained weight while being a raw food vegan and exercising. But it is good that your health is good. Good health is what is most important.
Did you increase or decrease exercise? Exercise change changes weight.
Love this! bump!
I'm about 220 rn. Do you think I'll get to 280 before I start to lose, on raw?
That's exactly what happened to me! Except for the having a child part! Get yourself some probiotics -good ones like HMF forte. And get tested to see if you've picked up a parasite - goes hand in hand with candida. It took me forever to get rid of mine! I did colonics and the special candida cleanses etc. but I knew it wasn't gone because of the sugar cravings being so unreasonable. Probiotics helped that A LOT- basically crowding out bad bacteria with food bacteria:) I feel your pain. And yes be patient with Getting your hormones back to a normal level ( I'm doing that now and for 7 months it's still not right) I'm actually giving accupuncture a try here - we will see what happens! Good luck to you:)
I'm kind of in the same boat at this point. I'm about to loose my mind!! I started raw till 4 beginning of 2014. I felt amazing and lost 20 lbs. Towards the end of the year I ended a long relationship and started a new one. (= Lots of stress). I stopped taking birth control after using for 16+ years. Then at the beginning of the 2015 I started eating a restricted candida diet where I lost a little bit more weight. Then I went through a miscarriage where I gained it allll back. That was a few months ago and haven't been able to loose any of the weight. I am back to a raw till 4 but it is not as good as I was a year ago. I have tendencies to go back to candida diet type eating. My husband doesn't like that I eat so much sugar and thinks that is my problem. :/
I am not able to do as much cardio due to lack of time. I used to run 2-4 miles every other day or use my elliptical 20-45 minutes. My elliptical broke recently but I still do pilates 5-6 days per week for about 45 minutes - 1 hour.
I'm SUPER depressed about this, I feel like I was doing sooo good and now all that hard work was for nothing. None of my clothes fit and I am really self conscious. I am very tempted to go back to the candida type eating but I know that it is very unsatisfying.
Also, I was eating 4-6 bananas every day last year but my hubbs says it makes my breath smell terrible so I don't eat them anymore :( I really wish that I was able to figure out what it was so that I could go back to eating them again...
I so know what you mean Jackie! I had a relapse to restriction a couple of months ago, and it was not pretty. If you need support I really recommend you watching this video: https://youtu.be/CNzvHAiSYug
The video contains many good tips and motivation to keep on going on this lifestyle, even during weight gain. About the bad breath thing, I do not know why that happens but I have totally experienced the same thing. Sorry that I cannot be any more help there....
how could bananas ever make your breathe smell bad? That's a lil' ridiculous... fruit doesn't do that... he's being nit picky or you're eating something else that's affecting your breath...
Dear Victoria,
Do you think there is such thing as overeating if you eat as much as you want? I eat till I am satisfied and it results in 3000 on average, mainly from fruits, rice and lentils. Some evenings I really stuff myself at dinner time because it feels really good. Should I be concerned about this behaviour? What are your thought on this topic in general? I don't know if I eat a lot because of my extreme hunger past and streched stomach or because I just naturally eat a lot.
When I was a child I also ate lots and lots of food, was a chubby kid, then fell into ED and now I'm a year into HCLF lifestyle (3 years vegan).
I believe I should just go with my hunger and follow my body, but sometimes I think about the overeating thing too much. Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
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