One of our readers recently sent me this message…

“Hi, my brother and myself have just started on the raw food diet and he is an athlete and trains 5 days a week. Presently he is dropping weight and feels that he cannot afford to lose weight because of his lean structure. Any ideas on how to maintain his weight?. Thanks, Faye.”

Considering that I’m a slender individual and avid exerciser I can definitely appreciate the nature of Faye’s concern.

Here’s the key to help you prevent losing weight on a raw food diet…

Eat lots of good calories!

Weight loss boils down to burning more calories than you’re consuming. 

It’s generally a bit tougher to get in lots of calories eating raw foods compared to processed foods that are packed with tons of calories and little nutrition. But it can be done.

With that in mind, here are a few pieces of advise to maintain your weight while eating raw foods:

• Increase your intake of calorie-rich whole foods such as nuts, seeds, avocados, and coconuts. These foods are generally higher calories because of their “good” fat content. My favourite foods in this category include cashews, pine nuts, brasil nuts, walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, avocados, and coconuts.

• Prepare smoothies throughout the day that can be enjoyed immediately after your training sessions, games, or workouts. Smoothies are a great way to get tons of nutrition and easy to digest calories.

• Strength training workouts are key! Too many people think they can maintain their weight without building muscle. You need to strength training at least 3 days a week to keep your muscles strong and to prevent your body from wasting away. This is especially true for the ectomorphs in the crowd.

Based on these recommendations you would think that your diet would become a high fat diet, wouldn’t you?

Well, what’s the problem with that? Especially for someone whose already fairly slim?

You need to remember that as humans need healthy fats for a number of reasons which include: 

• improving cardiovascular health
• building strong bones
• improving lung function 
• better liver health
• maintaining a healthy brain and nervous system, and
• strengthening your immune system

If these sound counter-intuitive to what you’ve been taught then that’s great. 

It’s the truth – fats are essential for our health and for your ability to maintain a healthy weight.

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