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There’s a CONTROVERSIAL debate still raging in the low fat raw world.  There are many who believe that it’s impossible to gain weight on a low fat raw diet.

Yes it’s much harder to do so but it’s not IMPOSSIBLE.

I learned this lesson the HARD way.

My companion, Roger Haeske, wrote his thoughts on the topic on his blog:

Getting Fat On Low Fat Raw-Here\’s Why

A woman posted THIS from my blog that contradicted my experiences I was sharing on the particular forum.  She’s right to question it so here is my response:

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I need to write an update to what I wrote back in December on my blog.

Yes eating a low fat raw diet is a great way to melt fat–it does work by eating all the fruit you NEED instead of all the fruit you WANT.

I still eat a mostly fruit diet but I only eat what I need instead of all I WANT.

Notice how Dr Graham in his 80/10/10 Diet book doesn’t say “eat unlimited fruit”

He recommends a moderate approach.

He would sell WAY MORE books if he preached the “eat all the fruit you want” message.

I’ve fallen for the “eat as much as you want of BLANK and you’ll lose weight” message far too many times!

I believed it back when I was 19 when I followed “The Blood Type Diet”

Although it was never mentioned in the book I seriously believed that so long as I “ate right for my type” (which is O) that I wouldn’t gain weight.

WRONG. I had to moderate my eating.

I believed the same back when I followed the low carb diets like “Atkins” or “Protein Power” or “South Beach” etc

WRONG. I still had to moderate my eating.

Even when I ate a low fat cooked diet I still MODERATED my eating!

Recently I kept track what Andrew was eating in a day because Roger was concerned that maybe Andrew was eating too many avocados.

It turned out he was eating EXACTLY what he needed to eat (1400 calories a day and 30-35% of the calories from fat, which mainstream authorities recommend for an active 3 year old boy)

For me based on my size and activity level ( 5′7 and 118 lbs) about 2000 calories is what’s recommended (1950 to be exact, lol).
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/calorie-calculator/NU00598

So imagine if I’m eating double that amount of calories (which some days I was doing so last year). Unless I’m exercising 4 hours or more a day (I’m no Michael Phelps, lol) obviously I’m going to gain weight, which is what happened.

It was just 16lbs–not a big deal especially since I was still in the “normal” range according to the mainstream.

I just wasn’t happy being that size.

So once I eliminated all the “wrong” reasons I was eating (boredom, not wanting the food to go to waste, etc) I found I was able to cut the amount of food I was eating in half without feeling any negative side effects (like cooked food cravings, weakness, etc)

Also I’ve learned that there isn’t anything wrong with eating small amounts of overt fats in the diet–there was no need for me to be fat phobic!

I still eat some overts and I’m back to my optimal weight–cutting them out=unnecessary.

Yes eating too much overt fat is no good but eating too much of ANYTHING is no good (fruit included).

You can die from drinking too much water …
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=strange-but-true-d…

I always found that if I ate bananas I actually feel hungrier so I don’t eat them very often these days. I don’t really have to since I have access to other fruits like mangos (we just bought a bag of 100 of them for $14), oranges, papayas, guanabana, cherimoya, watermelon, cantaloupe and pineapple.

Back when I first ate a high fruit diet back in 2008 I ate more water rich fruits and I hardly touched bananas (I remember at one point I had a case of bananas where I ended up giving away most of them away because they were ripe before I could eat them)

So perhaps by eating so many water rich fruits back in 2008 I managed to eat only the calories I needed (without having to counting them) so I was able to lose 16lbs in 10 weeks.

So what have I learned from all these years?

I WISH there was a diet that allowed me to eat unlimited food and not gain weight, but it DOES NOT EXIST.

Well perhaps I could go on a raw vegetable only diet but then I would run into the problem of not getting ENOUGH calories.

Also if I’m eating a total of 25 cups of food a day, then there’s NO WAY I’m under eating:

Breakfast: 8 cups papaya

Lunch: 8 cups sliced mango

Dinner: 1 pint fresh oj

1 large Savory Veggie Stew

1 avocado

(83% carb/5% protein/12% fat)

Now when I gained the 16 lbs I was eating CONSTANTLY. I would have smoothies, I would eat bananas, dates, grapes, and whatever other fruit was in the house.

I would eat pistachios, durian and other fatty foods as well.

Roger was amazed at how much food I was eating. At first he was impressed that I was eating as much or sometimes more than he was.

Then one day I noticed that I had gained a few pounds. (I think it was about 8 or something like that).

First I blamed durian, then I blamed my upcoming period–I was in complete DENIAL.

I REALLY wanted to believe that I could TOTALLY pig out so long as I ate low fat raw.

Roger tried warning me but I didn’t believe him (what am I an IDIOT–I’m living with someone with YEARS more experience than me and I didn’t LISTEN?)

Then I realized that I gained more weight so I thought I needed to cut out eating overts. I tried this for a while but my weight stayed about the same (between 130-133lbs)

Well the scale doesn’t lie and neither did my wardrobe. My clothing started fitting tight. Of course I tried blaming the dryer shrinking the clothes but then I did something that really made me realize that I did in fact gain FAT.

I took my measurements and realized that there were an extra 3 inches on my waist, 2 extra inches on my hips and 2 extra inches on my thighs.

So as much as I’m not a fan of moderating my eating it’s the ONLY thing that seems to work in keeping my body how I want it to look.

Of course I can try the raw vegetable only diet. Maybe if I eat around the clock like I used to I will manage to get enough calories ….

On second thought, maybe not. I don’t think my digestive tract can handle all that vegetable fiber …

My birthday’s tomorrow and I’m happy to report that those extra inches of flab are GONE and they’re NEVER coming back!

Now that’s something to CELEBRATE!

Tags: 80-10-10 Diet, Atkins Diet, Blood Type Diet, Protein Power, Roger Haeske, South Beach