Calorie Restriction Diet - Is this the way we should eat?

For years I followed a calorie restriction diet, and believed I was eating low fat.

My calories were between 1000 and 1200 maximum per day and I only bought low fat or reduced fat products, used 2% or skim milk and reduced fat cheese; and I was a vegetarian so didn’t eat any flesh foods.

A High Fat Diet

I was living in a fool’s garden if I thought that was a low fat diet as there is no way a regular diet that includes animal products is ever really low fat.

A few years ago I discovered how products like 2% milk are in fact high fat products. Would you assume that 2% milk only has 2% fat in it? I am sure you would. It is exactly what you are supposed to assume.

If you measure it by WEIGHT, well yes it is only 2% fat. If you take something that is 35% fat and add water, you are ensuring that the fat percentage BY WEIGHT is reduced. However, the fat percentage BY CALORIE, remains EXACTLY THE SAME.

2% milk is not 2% at all, because the added water changes nothing except the volume. 2% milk contains 35% fat by calorie. It is just a numbers game that industry uses to fool you into thinking something is low fat, when in fact it is anything but.

The average 'low fat' calorie restriction diet contains around 30% of its calories from fat!

How can this be called a LOW FAT diet?

According to The China Study and every other major health study ever undertaken, the only SAFE margin for fat consumption is BELOW 10%. Dr McDougall, Dr Esselstyn and many others, all have vegan programs that have achieved significant success by reducing fat consumption to below 10%.

When processed foods and animal products are removed from the diet, and plant fats such as nuts, olives and avocados are minimized, it is fairly easy to achieve a low fat diet.

On the raw food diet side, Dr Douglas Graham has taken all the recommendations from solid science and put them into the context of the raw food diet. Dr Graham 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.

I have realized since becoming raw 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.

I think that even though the two camps might seem to be at odds, I think that everybody actually agrees that when you are new to raw, it is IMPOSSIBLE 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 and so at first I did NOT eat enough in terms of calories.

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

So, even though I was eating more than before, and enjoying that a lot, I would still hold back a little from FULLY satisfying my hunger, for fear that it would be too much!

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!

A One-Way Street!

When you become raw 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.

In the back of my mind was always the desire to be really thin, and the calorie restriction diet mindset was so ingrained that I thought that if I cut back calories, surely that would mean I would get thin faster, right? Right?

Skinny Fat

Well, maybe...... But is it really going to be the kind of thin you want? If you lose weight too fast, is it really all fat you’re losing?

If your calories are not enough to sustain your daily activity aren't you also going to lose a bit of muscle, and a bit of everything else?

And then when you inevitably get so hungry and starved for nutrients that you binge, then the weight you put on is going to be ALL FAT!

So are you really getting thinner? Or fatter? Is the calorie restriction diet model really serving you in any way?

Put binges and disordered eating behind you for good!

Doesn’t it make more sense to lose fat at the right pace (whatever that may be for your particular body)?

To eat enough calories so that you DON’T have crazy cravings and disordered eating? So that when you lose the fat you say goodbye to it for good, rather than continuing on the yo-yo?

Not everyone loses the fat as fast as they’d like. You don’t get to decide what your body deals with first. It may well be dealing with FAR more important issues than fat cells. And that’s wonderful actually!

Provided that you have taken cooked foods out of the equation, and are eating just the healthiest raw foods, you CAN eat as much as you want, as much as you care for!

When cooked food is involved you EASILY overeat, as cooked food is a very dense form of calories, so 'eat all you want' only applies to 100% low fat raw vegan food.

I know this is sad news if you're very attached to certain cooked foods, but if you struggle with your weight, then eating cooked food may be the thing you need to let go of in order to put calorie restriction diets behind you for good.

If you're not willing to let go of cooked foods, then check out Dr McDougall's program, his high carbohydrate low fat diet is great too!

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. You don’t struggle with cravings and preoccupation with food, you don’t struggle with disordered eating.

The calorie restriction diet ideal that I held for so long does not serve me at all anymore. I now aim for low fat and ENOUGH calories.

Another great reason to eat enough calories from fruits and vegetables is that you need enough carbs to burn fat. If your body is undercarbed it may not have the ENERGY to DEAL with those toxic fat stores.

When you go on a water fast the body has no choice but to get stuck into the fat for fuel, but it also has extra energy as it isn’t dealing with digestion.

However, when you ARE eating, but you’re just not eating enough, your body can just ignore those fat stores and make its metabolism a little more efficient so that you can get by on less calories and you don’t lose any weight at all.

Happens to plenty of people, especially those on standard calorie restriction diets. Or they lose some fat, some muscle, some organ tissue and degenerate.

I do believe that if you want to be 100% raw then eating enough is crucial. If you are not concerned with being 100% raw, that is fine too. However just remember that it is very EASY to overeat on cooked foods and therefore it can make it very hard to reach, or to maintain, your ideal weight.

Concerned that eating too much fruit will cause weight gain?

Well, it IS possible to gain weight in the first few months of a 100% raw diet, but 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.

However, for someone who is coming from a background of calorie restriction diets, there MAY initially be some weight gain as the body re-balances itself (however this is NOT common at all, it is much more common to lose weight). If this is the case for you, then patience is required.

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. Give it a few months of 100% compliance before you decide this way of eating is not for you.

So this is the advice I would give to anyone who is new to this. Eat enough food. Leave the fasting and the restricting and the under-eating to the folks who like obsessing about food.

If you want to succeed on a raw food diet long term, put eating disorders behind you, and just be able to EAT and then forget about it, then the secret is to eat enough.