Newbie needs help

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Permalink Reply by JM McGuckin on April 6, 2012 at 1:22pm

I use an app on my iphone to track my calories and I know I need to increase my calories. My wife has been telling me that for awhile now. I work as a maintenance man so Im burning calories all day long, Im also trying to lose weight so I was at 1500 calories a day. A couple people I talked to told me thats way to low. I guess I will just attempt to eat more fruit its just hard to plan meals for the day. I don't have time to just sit and eat.

Permalink Reply by Matt Willard on April 7, 2012 at 1:53am

 Whats up man....Ive been HCRV for two months.  I eat upwards of 4000 calories a day and I run at least 15 miles a week and Ive lost 20lbs...NOONE GETS FAT ON FRUIT...If you have decided to live this way you must forget everything you think you know about"DIET"...nO CALORIE RESTRICTING!!!

                                                                  GOOD LUCK BUDDY

Permalink Reply by Sara Murray on April 6, 2012 at 1:31pm

I would really encourage you to seek out Dr. Graham's research and information about fat and fatigue. He says that when people are going or are 100% raw and they still have issues they are not low fat enough and when he examined their diets the lowest person was still actually at 40% fat!!! 80 carbs 10 fat and 10 protein is the rule here. Too much fat gets in the way of other good sugars and nutrients your body needs, It also causes inflammation. For instance if you wake up in the morning and eat 3-5 oranges and have a large glass of water you would expect to feel invigorated and waking up well because of that natural sugar right? Well, if you consumed fat the night before that fat may be inhibiting that sugar from entering your system properly. The result being that you eat the oranges and drink the water and actually feel more tired and possibly more hungry.

I would suggest signing up for cronometer.com (it's free) and setting the % so that it will reflect the 80-10-10 rule and really monitor your fat intake. No seeds, no nuts, no oils. Watch out for salad dressings, and natural sources of too much fat like avocado. Athletes in season can handle the fat that is in an avocado, people who work in an office everyday...not so much.

Also monitor your weight. Sudden drops in weight from going 100% raw can add to fatigue. I had to stabalize mine with some rice in the form of noodles and regular rice. (rice is cooked food, this is a personal choice. I choose to stabalize with rice instead of eating nuts and avocado because I have candida and inflammatory issues that arise from too much fat/oils.)

If you burn 2000 calories riding you will need to consume more than 3700 calories on ride days. 1700 is the minimum amount of calories anyone should ever be getting unless there is something seriously wrong. I have found that I need to consume between 3-4K calories a day just because I have a high metabolism! Cronometer.com is great in this respect. It really keeps track nicely of your exercise and food intake and lets you know where you're at on any given day and also shows you how your week is going because it keeps track longer than just one day!

Hope that helps!

Permalink Reply by James bananaman Bailey on April 6, 2012 at 6:19pm

@ 1500 cals a day?!! you need to double your cals minimum! ...minimum!! - im a builder and i do i fair bit of running, 40 - 90 miles a week. some days i will not eat quite as much as i should and the next day i feel terrible! - the only cals i count are from fruit. the same amonts gotton from greens are in there but i dont count them. only the fruits becasue a) its easyer that way b) that way im always counting a little short so i know im getting enough in.  and for the record im just short of five ten. 12stone, low, low body fat. when i went 811, (cooked and raw vegan) i started dropping weight, from about 14stone, (although i held it well ;)  )! ...down to 12. you DO NOT need to withhold cals to drop weight. instead of using caffine to get threw your days, just eat dude! give yourself a couple of weeks/months maybe, (for me it was instant - but i wasn't restricting cals as a matter of course) and you will drop excess fat in an instant! ppl seeing you from one week to the next will be shocked and ask, 'whats going on?' ...'you look so differant?!'  - i eat any where from 3000 to 6000 ish a day. when i eat that much i can go to graft all day and run a half marathon off road at night. day in. day out. fruit is your friend, smash it in!!

Permalink Reply by Stephanie McClennon on April 6, 2012 at 7:02pm

EAT MORE. you're eating 1000 calories and burning 2000 calories. smells like a recipe for DISASTER.

bananas are cheap. buy more of them.

Permalink Reply by John on April 6, 2012 at 11:11pm

As you may have learned already, a raw food diet is very yin and causes the body to release toxins, so, I believe it is advisable to become a vegetarian first, and then gradually introduce more and more raw foods into your diet.  Brown rice and beans with greens and cruciferous veggies are not that expensive.  Lightly steamed kale and collards offer more calcium than milk and eat plenty of any fruits, walnuts and almonds and a fresh salad to start with.  Let your body tell you what is good for you and what is not as you gradually introduce a greater percentage of raw foods.  Remember that one's body has to stay in balance from the foods you ingest.  If you eat properly you will not need vitamins or supplements that the health food industry is pawning off on unsuspecting people.

Permalink Reply by JM McGuckin on April 8, 2012 at 12:43pm

So I upped my calorie intake to 2000+ and Im feeling a bit better. What I never forgot to mention was that I also have an infected finger that I'm taking antibiotics for. One I know that causes fatigue, two you shouldn't work out hard while fighting it and three see the first two. So I am going to continue to eat around 2000 calories and will lay off the heavy exercise until the infection is gone.