Two Rules for Lasting Raw Food Weight Loss

So you want to lose weight, right? Who doesn't?!

More importantly, you want to lose weight permanently AND healthfully.

Today, I'll show you two rules that you must follow if you want to lose your excess weight for good.

So let's get right to it, shall we?

Rule #1: Cut Back on Fat

Everyone knows that Americans eat way too much fat.

But we aren't the only ones. China, Russia, Brazil, Australia, and the United Kingdom (just to name a few) all have rising obesity rates that can most certainly be attributed to the adoption of a fatty Americanized diet.

This presents a huge problem for you in terms of weight loss. As Doctors Lisle and Goldhamer state in their book The Pleasure Trap (page 76):

"While the ancestral diet was perhaps 10 to 20 percent fat, the standard American diet is more than double this level. This means that tens of millions of people - in fact, most people - eat anunnaturally concentrated diet. This diet is miscounted by our bodies, and is a prime reason why people are overweight."

You see, both carbohydrate and protein contain about 1800 calories per pound. But fat contains a whopping 4000 calories per pound! This means that you have to eat significantly less amount of food on a high fat diet to meet your caloric needs then you do on a high carbohydrate diet.

And this applies to raw foods like nuts, seeds, avocados, olives, and oils too. All of these foods are high in fat and therefore more concentrated sources of calories than, say, fruits and vegetables.

For instance, take a look at the pistachio nut. Pistachios have about 2500 calories per pound (67% of which come from fat, by the way). This means that on a 2000 calories diet, you would only be able to eat just over 12 ounces of food each day!

Remember the importance of the three mechanisms of satiation for weight loss from my last article? 12 ounces of food, even though it's raw, is simply not enough volume to satisfy ANY adult human being.

Now let's look at the banana. Bananas have just over 403 calories per pound. This means that on a 2000 calorie diet, you would be able to eat 5 pounds of food each and every day!

Rule #2: Fill Up on Fiber

Another problem with the modern American diet is the lack of fiber. The foods that make up the diet include, meat, cheese, eggs, and processed sugary foods, all of which are severely lacking in this all-important substance.

Fiber is touted by the health and fitness industry as being a great tool for weight loss, and for good reason. Without it, we cannot accurately assess the amount of calories and nutrition in the foods we consume

Again, from The Pleasure Trap (page 78):

"Our calorie-counting machinery does not register fiber as caloric, because we cannot use fibrous material for fuel. But our digestive system does register the presence of fiber, and this presence is important. Fiber increases the amount of stretch receptor activity in the gastrointestinal system and thus helps the system to achieve an accurate calorie count. The removal of this fiber, however, may disrupt this sensitive system. This may result in an underestimation of calories consumed."

In other words, you need fiber in your diet in order to feel truly full. If you are full, then you won't overeat and you'll lose weight.

Putting It All Together

So how can you take these two low fat, high fiber rules and apply them in your own life?

It's simple! Here, I'll show you:

#1: Eat a Low Fat Diet

If you want to lose weight AND be healthy (check out my article on the dangers of too much fat), you have to eat a diet low in fat.

As Lisle and Goldhamer point out, the naturally varied diet that humans evolved eating averaged somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of calories from fat. Plant-based diet supporters today all agree that a healthy human diet should consist of no more than 10-15% of calories from fat.

On a 2000 calorie raw vegan diet, 10% equates to 200 calories each day from fat. Because all fruits and vegetables contain some fat, this leaves about 150 calories for overt fats like avocado, nuts, seeds, olives, etc. That's equivalent to less than half of a medium avocado or 1 ounce of pistachio nuts.

Eating low fat invariably means that the majority of your calories will come from carbohydrates. Preferably, simple carbohydrates.

In other words, you should eat lots of sweet fruit!

#2: Eat Lots of Fruits and Vegetables

Everyone knows that fruits and vegetables are full of fiber. What most people don't know is that they are full of *water-soluble* fiber, which is soft and easily digestible.

This is different from other fiber-rich foods like cereal grains that contain insoluble fiber, which is tough and rough on the digestive tract. For more information on the downsides of consuming grains, check out my article here.

By lowering your fat intake to an acceptable range and eating lots of fruits and vegetables, you will lose weight, feel great, and dramatically improve your health and longevity.

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze