Calorie Restriction Diet? OR, EAT To Be LEAN!

I have realized since starting to eat a raw food diet that there are two major camps in the raw food movement, the eat less camp and the eat enough camp.

The eat less camp believe that a calorie restriction diet will be better for your health in the long term, as the body does more cleansing and repair work when it is not busy with digestion, and they argue that the calorie model is highly inaccurate and not based on solid science.

The eat enough camp believe that you will struggle to be successful on a raw diet unless you ENSURE that you are eating enough calories, and say that even IF the calorie model is inaccurate, it is at least something to work with so that we can objectively measure our intake.

Dr Douglas Graham, author of The 80/10/10 Diet, does not recommend a calorie restriction diet. He recommends that you eat ENOUGH on a high carbohydrate low fat diet to fulfill your caloric needs and do vigorous exercise at the same time.

When you are new to raw, and making such a major life change, it is very difficult to be successful AND try to eat a calorie restriction diet at the same time.

The ones who try to do this are far more likely to eat cooked food, to binge on fatty food, to obsess about food, and to suffer through many cravings and become more and more disordered in their eating habits.

When I first started on this path I had come from the calorie restriction diet mindset (1200 calories per day) and so at first I did NOT eat enough in terms of calories.

I was trying to follow a raw version of a standard calorie restriction diet. When I just ate as much as I pleased I had the niggling feeling that I was overeating.

The result was that I did have several returns to cooked foods, sometimes even eating cooked foods that I had stopped eating and hadn’t eaten for quite some time BEFORE I went raw, like highly processed vegan food! Did I lose weight? Heck no! I gained some!

A One-Way Street!

When you begin to eat a very clean diet your body becomes MORE sensitive, it becomes LESS forgiving. You suffer more when you go off your path than if you had never begun on your path in the first place. In that way it is a one way street. Sure you can turn around if you want but you’re going to run into some serious oncoming traffic.

When you eat an overly restrictive calorie restriction diet you’re far more likely to binge on fatty foods and/or unhealthy cooked foods and can then actually gain weight because of the excess of calories that any cooked food binge will result in.

Also, if your calories consumed are not enough to sustain your daily activity then you’re also not going to be inspired to exercise, and exercise combined with a high nutrient diet is the best way to reduce your body fat percentage.

Many of the folks who believe they should practice a calorie restriction diet on an ongoing basis do not do much exercise, and it is no surprise: when you don’t eat much, you don’t have energy to move much.

Put binges and disordered eating behind you for good!

When you eat enough calories from fruits and vegetables you DON’T have crazy cravings and disordered eating.

Just EAT!

When you are eating enough calories from fruits and vegetables it is very easy to be successful.

Every cell in the human body runs on glucose, if you cut your carbs, you increase your cravings. When you’re adequately carbed it is easy to forget about food, you’re free to focus on everything else in your life. You feel great.

Concerned that eating too much fruit will cause weight gain?

Eating too much of anything will cause weight gain. You should never have ‘too much’ of anything. You should eat enough, enough that you are satisfied and free of cravings, but not so much that you can’t move after your meal.

Of COURSE it’s possible to gain weight on a raw food diet. If it wasn’t, then all those folks who wanted to build up muscle would have to steer clear of the raw diet. And this is just not the case. You can easily gain muscle weight on a raw diet. All you have to do is strength train very hard, and your appetite will increase along with your growing muscles, which will naturally attract you to more food to fuel the bigger muscles.

If you consistently consume too many calories, you can also easily gain some fat. However, the good news is that there is no such thing as a long term 100% low fat raw vegan who is obese. There is just no such thing, no matter how much fruit they eat. This is because even if you had to overeat on fruit every single day of your life, you would NOT be able to get in enough calories to become obese. Fruits are extremely satiating, as well as not being calorie dense enough for this to happen.

It is certainly possible to carry a few extra pounds of fat, and not every raw foodist you meet is going to be in fitness model shape. It totally depends on your individual goals. If a super lean fitness model body is something that you want, and you have excess fat that is not budging, then counting calories is key so that you can get acquainted with what amounts you should be eating.

However, it is best to create the caloric deficit required to begin losing fat at a sensible rate, by vigorous daily exercise, rather than by restricting your intake to unhealthy levels.

Remember, it did not take a week to get your body into the shape it’s in, it won’t take a week to get out of it.

So whether it is succeeding on a raw food diet, or succeeding with weight loss, the advice is the same: eat enough food. Leave the fasting and the starving to the folks who like obsessing about food.

Alison Andrews is a raw food writer and coach. She is also a singer/songwriter, actress and author. To read this article on a calorie restriction diet see: http://www.loving-it-raw.com/calorie-restriction-diet.html

To find out more about the raw food diet, see Alison’s website: http://www.loving-it-raw.com