Started exercise and diet recently, but...

[Rixis]

to me, the biggest problem with a raw food diet is that most of it that i've tried tastes like shit /shrug

(and yeah, backed up sources > opinions and anecdotes, but meh, each to their own, i don't mind people following god as long as they don't try to get me to believe in the invisible man, once they have proof he's there, sure, but for now ... )

[Pattydeegz]

First off, get the idea that you can do some miracle workout that helps you lose 16 pounds in one week or that you can do one exercise 10 minutes a day and lose it all out of your head. It's hard work and you have to really dedicate yourself to it. You're not gonna like it, you might miss the foods you eat now and you'll miss out on quite a few dinners that mom makes, but it's well worth it in the end. Don't think you can't indulge anymore, because you don't have to completely give up on food as you know it. But if you think you can have a bag of chips every day or that you'll just have ice cream after dinner, you're not gonna see the results as quickly as you normally would. Also, I find that I stop having little food cravings after the first few days, and when you get on that scale after the first week and see 3 pounds gone, those chips suddenly won't look as appetizing.

If you go out with your friends once in a while, sure, order a burger and fries and have fun. But, like I said, there's a serious amount of dedication involved and there are plenty of menus that can cater to a low calorie diet without eating cardboard. If you know you're going out to a restaurant, take 2 minutes, go online and look at their low-calorie menu and get an idea of what you can eat there. Learning menus at local restaurants is really useful information to have. Fast food menus, too, have items that are good choices.

Figure out your daily caloric intake here:

ehow.com/how_4608985_figure-out-recommended-calorie-intake.html

Alternate your maximum and minimum caloric intake relative to your activity level by 100. So if they tell you 1700 calories min and 1800 calories max, alternate between those two every day. Eat portioned meals 6 times a day every 2 and a half to 3 hours (1700/1800 divided by 6 meals a day). High protein and low carb is the way to go as far as your diet. Count everything!!!! Soda counts, food toppings count (ketchup and salad dressings). Make sure you know exactly what's going into your food. Getting a food scale is never a bad idea if you plan on cooking for yourself (which you're definitely going to do). They're relatively cheap for how much use you get out of them. Middle of the line ones cost about $50. There's a pretty good selection of them on Amazon.com.

You'll probably start somewhere around 2100 calories. If you notice yourself plateauing at some point, lower your intake by 100 and you should continue to lose the same amount. Never, ever eat less than 1700 calories a day. Eating too little calories is just as bad as eating too many. If you notice yourself losing more than 3 pounds a week, you're eating too little. You might see 4 or 5 pounds come off for the first week or two since you're losing water weight retained by carbs, but that's it.

Whether or not you gain muscle is based on how many calories you take in, so don't be afraid to lift. It tires your muscles and causes them to consume calories to rebuild. It's not necessary to do more than 3 or 4 workouts for each muscle set. Choose which ones you like to do and keep with the same workouts. The idea isn't to increase how much you're lifting every week. If you're doing it right, you shouldn't be getting any stronger at all. Find a suitable weight for you to lift and keep at that weight for as long as you're trying to lose. There is NO WAY to increase how many pounds you're losing a week. If it is over 3, you are doing it completely unhealthily and you will end up hurting yourself.

Get the idea of spot reduction out of your head. Questions like "how do I get my arms toned?" or "I want to lose stomach fat, what exercise can I do?" are wrong ways to think. Body fat has to do with your entire body as a whole. On a side note, you lose on your stomach last, so don't be discouraged when you don't have those 6-pack abs in a month =P. Doing 200 crunches a day isn't gonna do you any good, it has nothing to do with losing weight. You lose weight through burning calories and that's it. There's no such thing as a "full body workout". If you exhaust all of your muscle groups at once, you're just over-training and you'll never recover and end up losing muscle.

This is the regimen I follow when I'm trying to cut:

muscleandstrength.com/exercises/main.html

Monday - Chest/Triceps
Tuesday - Shoulders
Wednesday - Back/Biceps
Thursday - Legs

You're gonna want to take in a protein shake with around 60 grams of simple carbs (sugar) and that does count as one of your meals for the day. So two scoops of protein powder with a cup and a half of water and 12-15 tablespoons of sugar.

Cardio should be a high pace for somewhere around 20 to 30 minutes depending on how much you want to do and how hard you go. Obviously you're gonna have to build up your endurance, so find a pace you're comfortable at and try to increase every couple of days until you find something that's suitable for you. Bike, Eliptical and Treadmill are all no different from eachother so it comes down to personal preference. And please, please never pedal backwards on your machine. I see a lot of people do it and I have no idea what they think they're taking away from it, but it does nothing at all for you. It has no resistance and you can't go more than 10 RPM's without throwing your knees out.

Always take a 5 or 10 minute cooldown. You never want to go from 80% heart rate to completely sedentary. Check your heart rate a few times during the workout to make sure you're staying somewhere around 70%-80%. The machine should have a table for where you're supposed to be.

Don't gulp water down whenever you're thirsty or you'll cramp up very quickly, but try to moderate how much you take. Obviously don't dehydrate yourself, but make sure you're only taking little sips instead of taking in half the bottle every 5 minutes. Also, wearing a hoody and sweatpants and knee-high socks and wool underwear doesn't do anything. Sweating more doesn't make you lose weight, it dehydrates you faster, you lose water weight and then you gain it back as soon as you drink again. It's something you see a lot of people do and they're not making any more progress than anyone else.

Just keep in mind that there aren't any crazy secrets or hardcore workouts that you need to figure out. It's simple science on how your body works. You eat 6 small meals a day and it increases your metabolism and you burn more calories the more active you are. That's it.

I can't really think of anything else right now, feel free to message me if you have any questions. Good luck!!! And please trust that these are the right answers, I've had extremely good success with what I've told you. I went from 270 to 180 losing 12 pounds a month healthily.

[Deleted]

I highly suggest adding the food you eat onto www.myfitnesspal.com

I have it as an app on my iPhone and it encourages me to eat less and exercise more. You input your target weight and you can see detailed information about how much you eat and drink a day. On the app there's even a barcode scanner which allows you to quickly input your food and drink.

It's literally the best thing I've come across because I'm on a strict calorie diet and if I go over then it spurs me into exercising to counter it. It keeps me on track because I can easily get distracted and lose the motivation.

Also if you're interested, you could diet with me - you lose more if you diet with someone else. PM me if you fancy it

[Deleted]

It's simple science on how your body works

You eat 6 small meals a day and it increases your metabolism

Meal timing is irrelevant for fat loss / metabolism.
6 small meals won't speed it up, 3 meals won't slow it down.

[Pattydeegz]

Meal timing is irrelevant for fat loss / metabolism.
6 small meals won't speed it up, 3 meals won't slow it down.

Other than that your advice was good.

Incorrect, getting your body used to burning calories on a constant basis as opposed to having it break down 3 bigger meals a day is a big difference.

[Deleted]

Incorrect, getting your body used to burning calories on a constant basis as opposed to having it break down 3 bigger meals a day is a big difference.

Look up the Thermic Effect of Food.

This belief is partly based on a gross and blatantly incorrect interpretation of research concerning TEF (Thermic Effect of Food).

The problem here is that the research has been presented in such a way that it has lead people to believe that the net effect of TEF of several small meals would be greater than that of a few, large meals.

TEF is directly proportional to the calories contained in the meal you just ate (ref). Assuming a diet of 2400 calories, with the same macronutrient composition, eating six small meals of 400 calories or three big meals of 800 calories, TEF will be exactly the same at the end of the day.

Article here:
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/meal-frequency-and-energy-balance-research-review.htm

Bodybuilding.com thread mentioning it here:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...p?t=122570041&
(My point being if this stuff is common knowledge to the average BB.com denzien then you should absolutely know.)

[Deleted]

If the Raw Food Diet was so great it would stand by itself and not need crazy recruiters and fanciful claims.

Well, you kind answered your own question. I 100% agree with you. Fake things don't last. So don't you find a little bit odd, that if you google "raw food health, raw food benefits, raw food diet, etc..." that you mr. google serves you with litelary hundreds of pages, forums, portals, recipies? All those peoples must been faking it...and stating false claims day by day Thakes perfect sense, doesn't it :P
Did something for fun..just googled "raw food and someting" and this is the first link that came up:
"The cold truth about raw food diets: Contrary to the propaganda of raw-food advocates, cooking actually can help you absorb more nutrients" it's an article, well funny thing is if you read the comments from users. I will just point out a few all from different persons:

- I had 3 diseases and they are all gone. Raw Food gave me my life back.

-Ive been on a 100% RAW food diet for 8 weeks now. I am now for the first time in 15 years off my anti-depressants and for the first time in 15 years and doing awesome. I have not had to take painkillers for 3 days now - THAT has never happened before!!!

-I was in fairly good health but still suffered for several years from chronic daily hemorrhoids, rectal fissure, insomnia, cracked heels, general chilliness, poor concentration, was 30+ pounds overweight, and my hair was turning grey rapidly. I was eating a mostly organic whole food vegetarian diet for over thirty years (on which I overcame Lymes disease and migraine headaches), and applied ayurvedic and chinese medicine wisdom to my diet and lifestyle. I ate no junk food at all. It wasn't until I adopted a 99% (and later 100%) raw, organic diet that every one of the above-mentioned symptoms completely disappeared never to return...

- I have Systemic Lupus and was given plaquenil to help me. It did, but for many years it was not 100% better until I went on a raw food diet for one year. My lupus symptoms eventually dissapeared entirely, and my blood tests showed as if I didn't have lupus at all

- I have changed my diet to about 80% to 90% raw foods. I have been on it for only about a month, if that. I had bad psoriasis before this. after changing my diet it went away almost completely

-I've been raw for almost 3 years and have never felt better. It took me a long time to adjust, though....lots of yo-yoing back and forth.

-I have been raw for 3 months. My face cleared up, I lost 20 pounds, I look and feel better than I have in YEARS, I have the energy I had when I was 10. After having 2 miscarriages last year, and almost dying from one of them, I am finally pregnant with a viable pregnancy. If I eat meat, wheat or cheese, I notice how crappy it makes me feel. It's not good for me.

- Now I am 80 percent raw and include a very small amount of meat and fish and have no cravings and have had the same health benefits, psoriasis, chronic fatigue, amenorrhea, depression, candida, weakness and oedema all gone in two months


and so on...I didn't bother to read all, I just kinda scanned it through. Link is here: http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives...ood-diets.html you can read it all for youself. Have in mind that if you look up for a good forum or site with like 50k - 100k users you will be amazed by their success reports and couldn't read them in a month time. But i guess all those people lie to, right?
Your point was that Raw food diet doesn't stand by itself, but i reality it's only your ignorance that made you belive that.
Good luck!

[Deleted]

I don't know how many times I have to repeat it.
Personal anecdotes are not evidence, never, ever.
People lie, people bend the truth, people exaggerate, people are mislead.

Scientific. Studies. Articles. Tests.
Those are what you need.

Your point was that Raw food diet doesn't stand by itself, but i reality it's only your ignorance that made you belive that.

No.
My point is that, if everyone knew how amazing Raw Food Diets were, and how they cure the uncurable, docors would reccomend it, schools would teach it, there would be numerous studies published on the benefits.

None of those are currently happening.
It's a fad.
There will be a new fad, maybe a "Red food only diet" in a year or so.
You've just latched on to this one.
Which is fine, but hyping it up and spreading lies, is uncool.

Peace.

[Deleted]

I
No.
My point is that, if everyone knew how amazing Raw Food Diets were, and how they cure the uncurable, docors would reccomend it, schools would teach it, there would be numerous studies published on the benefits.

Maybe you don't know that this world operates around a little paper thingy called money. Doctors have very limited knowledge about certian things and most of the time they don't know why disease emerged and they treat it's simptoms, rather than it's cause.
Yeah, that's right. You get sick you get pills that cover your simptoms, but in majority your cause of desiese remains hidden and ready to burst up sooner or later again. Doctors told me to take Nexium pills to "cure" my acid reflux, but forgot to mention it could also mess up my body organs. Yeah, that's right. Luckily I abandoned it fast, because I started to gain some scary stuff from this pills. Searching the internet I found it's in top 10 most dangerus drugs to human body, and some people have lifetime regret using them.
And if you look scientific study, they will tell you they are perfectly safe. With a minior posibility or minimal side effect. In reality it can't be furthest from the truth.
So there you have your scientific study. But I guess when people say it messed up their brains, livers & kidneys are full of BS too right?And also fluride in toothpastes & water...everyone uses it, and it's proven that it damadges you pineal gland one of the most important parts of your brain that control serotonin and melatonin! Yes, there are SCIENTIFIC studiest it does dumb us down, and yet it's perfectly leagal.
Doctors don't know anything about energy flow, energy congestions and holistic aproach to cure a human body. Don't me even get started about chakras & auras of human body. How your inner feeling reflect to your health and so on and on...
This things will never be PROVEN for people like you, because you just can see chakra or just see aura. You can't prove astran projection and lucid dreaming and stuff like this.You can't measure it by our technology, so they will never be 100% proven, but if you have just a little bit of brain, you know that those things exitst, wether you see it or not. Because people expiriance it, whetrer you like it or not.
Back to your reply...Pharmacy it's probably one of the biggest buisness in the world and they will to anything to cover up anything related to free healing. Healthy human= money lost. They are making a zillions of dollars and imagine where would they be if every human could just heal himself just by watching his emotions/thoughts/diet/water?
So yes, go ahead. Belive mainstream media and doctors and "scientific" study and be the sheep they want you to be.

P.s. Don't get me wrong, i still believe medicine and doctors can do success in many things, so abandoning it wouldn't be wise idea. But, if you have health problems and want to feel good, instead of "happy pills" go for "happy food", what do you have to lose?

[Radux]

What? Being sheep because we follow science? Now you've gotta just be kidding me. Our 'science' is the reason we have miracle curing drugs like penicillin. Everything has a risk. Cooked food and Raw food both have risks, but people are being ridiculous if they feel that eating is going to cause them to die because of a minor risk.

Personal anecdotes don't necessarily count because they don't necessarily have the chance to be replicated. Many studies have large control groups and people to participate to make sure it's not just a fluke. A proper study should be able to replicated by nearly any person with a degree so long as they have the stuff to do it and get the same results.

The problem with your Google searches is that anyone can post crap on Google. Google posts stuff higher on the list based on how popular it is, not how accurate it is to the topic. I could post a Meat Diet thing and have thousands of people visit it. The difference? I'd be making everything up and be full of shit because I made it up, yet it still has the possibility to be the most popular link on Google/first one on the list.

People are performing studies on the pro's/con's of raw food diet, but there haven't been enough to make a final determination over the long term because there hasn't been enough time. Thus far, there have been good things and bad things to come out of it. However, compared to a normal balanced diet, there are more con's than pro's. Try using the Journal of the American Medical Association opposed to Google if you want your claims to have merit.

No one here is saying that your anecdotes are necessarily made up or anything, we're just preferring the opinion of people who have large groups of people trying this and seeing the results and publishing said results for everyone to see.

[Deleted]

And also fluride in toothpastes & water

Doctors don't know anything about energy flow, energy congestions and holistic aproach to cure a human body. Don't me even get started about chakras & auras of human body.

you just can see chakra or just see aura. You can't prove astran projection and lucid dreaming and stuff like this.

be the sheep they want you to be.

Not going to touch this with a 10 foot pole.
Enjoy your raw food diet.
I hope you're as happy and healthy as you say you are.

[Projali]

Not going to touch this with a 10 foot pole.
Enjoy your raw food diet.
I hope you're as happy and healthy as you say you are.

Didn't you hear? We're all sheep because we want evidence. Confidence intervals are tools of the man and just there to control you and make you disbelieve the truth of raw food and reflexology.

[Deleted]

Sorry if i ofended anyone with sheep terminology. Didn't intent to. Anyway, it's getting kinda a pointless to discuss over raw or not raw diet, because we aren't going anywhere with this. I shared my knowledge, if some want's to try I'm sure he will benefit in many ways. Like I said, you have nothing to lose (exept extra weight ) and you can gain so much. If some is interested i'm still happy to answer a question or two, just PM me. We'll just have to agree that we disagree
I wish you all the best!

[Deleted]

Id just suggest eating healthy.. thats it :P
Eating a lot of soup (not that dry maggy or w/e sht noodle soup) .. a real soup ..
Eating fish insted of other meats as much as possible..
and obv fruits and vegetables
sry for bad english..

[inboundpaper]

If your not trying to get mega ripped, you can eat a little of everything and be perfectly fine.

[darkwarrior42]

Well, I'm not forcing you to believe me. It's your call. I can only write what I've gone through. I'm extremly fortunate to have been presented to this raw food knowledge by amazing person and it worked wonders for me. If you search internet about raw foodism and beneficial stuff you will find hundreds if not thousands of sites and people benefiting it from head to toes. I won't earn a penny of it so i have no other motives than to inform peoples how powerfull stuff this is and can be powerfull for you also. I have no reason to lie. It's a suggestion topic isn't it? The rest it's up to you. Good luck

Sorry about the delayed response.

I did do research when I found out about this diet... not because I was going to consider it (my situation will prevent it from being a realistic option even if I were so inclined, which I certainly am not), but because it's something I knew little about. Discounting obviously biased sites whose sole purpose was to promote the diet (edit: or to discredit it, which I also found), I found as much in support as I found against it, and many articles that indicate strongly the largest benefits are not derived from the raw state of the food, but rather from eating a lot of foods people often don't get enough of. For every person talking about how wonderful it is, I see another person who became so sick from the diet he/she literally could not continue.

Rather than believing that this diet is so wonderful we'd all be better off with it, isn't it far more logical to believe that everyone's body is different and reacts a little differently, and that the changes in diet that have to be undertaken along with going raw are at least as responsible for the improvements, if not more so? This is the thing that gives me a hard time here: the fact that these grandiose claims are being made without anything but anecdotes to support them, and that there are people who attribute all manner of cure to these diets. Hell, I saw one person claiming he could use this diet to cure Diabetes; if that were true, it wouldn't be some simple diet, it'd be worldwide news that saved millions of lives.

You don't have any financial motives, but honestly it does sound like you have a political agenda. "How powerful this stuff is", in particular, sounds a lot more like someone trying to sell something rather than someone trying to give objective advice. I could go on more here, but ultimately your post here made me far more likely both to avoid this sort of diet, and to advise others to do the same. Anyone who talks that much about something with so little science, so few drawbacks, and so much potential gain with such little effort.... well, there is a saying that goes "if something is too good to be true, it probably is." Between the fact that most people advocating this diet seem to believe it's perfect (and nothing is perfect), the very mixed research into the issue, and the fact that a rather disturbing number of the doctors supporting the diet are frauds (either they're not doctors, or they simply have doctorates in fields which do not relate at all)... I see no reason give any real credence to the movement.

(And no, its sheer popularity doesn't count... popularity doesn't equate to quality or trustworthiness. 4chan comes to mind... and there are innumerable other examples of things that were popular but just not all that good, or outright wrong.)


The biggest thing is simply to make sure you have a balanced diet that regulates calories. Fat has the most calories per gram, so is definitely something to avoid where possible. Exercise regularly, make sure all your muscle groups get a workout (and give them time to recover), and you'll see improvements.

[Deleted]

It's true, everyone is different. You said by your self that you've read claims from others how wonderfull it is didn't you? Also, for every one that had success you found another, saying it made them feel worse. Well, at the begining my skin felt like it was burning for time to time during the day, i got a little lightheadness and headaches in random places from forehead till the neck, got sore throat (in the middle of a summer) and my eyelid started to blink randomly. Lasted a few days, week at worse. It was no big deal i could go easily withe those as I even said i had almost non detox process, but I know there are people that have realy severe one. From fever, severe stomach and head aches, vomiting... And this is the reason why most people quit and claim it's not working.
You can't expect to eat 5 bananas and 2 apples and claim that this thing is rubbish. You eat cooked/processed/unhealthy, drink beer and probably smoke for like 25 years, and then most of people expect that 5 days of raw food cure them all for good. Like you said, everyone is different so this is no universal timing, how much time will it take to work. For some 2 weeks, for others maybe a year or even more. It all depends who they are, how were their living habbits, etc..in short: the more unhealthy you were before, the more it will take.
I saw at least 100 persons claiming raw food cleared their diabetis (not sure what type thou). I've also seen people saying it helped them very much, but not cured them. And like that, i've also see ppl saying it didn't positive effect at them at all....but the fact remains, some people get well. And if you were (god forbid) to face this illness, it would be natural to try something that other claims it may work, rather then spent you entire life on injections & pills.
Heck, one person can claim X drug made wonders for his illness, while other 10 ppl won't benefit a bit of it. It's the same situation, isn't it? Some ppl get cured from cancer by modern medicine, others don't. Why? Why doesn't it then work for all, like you would like to know about raw food benefits?
It's not easy diet, it takes effort, proper mindset and a lot of discipline to stay even a week on it, not to mention a month. Then it gets better, you body and mind adept and you starting to really enjoy it. I mean like you will actually miss a raw meal even if jucy steak will be on you dish.
I feel like i'm batteling 4 or 5 people here and have to defend my every word. I'm not your enemy, I'm just a trying to give you one more option to better health. I got flamed right after i put first reply on raw foodism. I could as well tell you all to piss off and go into a bar for a nice pizza..eee i mean salad If you are healthy or half dead, it probably won't affect me eather way so please try to understand that im still answering this because I'm one of thousand living profs that it can really make difference in you life.
Best of luck

[Alistairr]

Well I rode my bike to a Public's nearby, I lost 5 pounds since Saturday. I am also going to go to a local gym tomorrow and most likely sign up there. I know the 1st sets of pounds lost will go by easily, but it is great seeing results. I will be keeping with my program and continue loosing weight and getting healthier.

[Projali]

Well I rode my bike to a Public's nearby, I lost 5 pounds since Saturday. I am also going to go to a local gym tomorrow and most likely sign up there. I know the 1st sets of pounds lost will go by easily, but it is great seeing results. I will be keeping with my program and continue loosing weight and getting healthier.

That's great to hear!

Keep up the good work. Don't let the gym membership people hassle you into ridiculous contracts. Hopefully there's a location in your town that has month by months or no ridiculous cancellation charges.

[Shinen]

Guess I'll throw the question here. Not that I have to worry about my weight, but lately I've been feeling the need to snack more. I know too much fruit can be bad due to sugar, so I was wondering about snacking some raw vegetables. Does anyone know what's the best or any tips about it? Thanks a lot!