“Frederic - I am a Health Minister with Hallelujah Acres, which is an organization I think you might be familiar with. They advocate eating some cooked food. I'm wondering if you have information on GAINING weight on a raw food diet. This is not for me. I try to eat all raw, but I have contact with an individual who is underweight and seems to think cooked food will address the problem. Do you have any suggestions?” - Jill
ANSWER: That's a very good question, but I think you're missing the point. First you have to determine what is being “underweight”? Does that mean not having enough fat on you or not having enough muscle? Usually what happens is people lose a lot of body fat and then realize how undermuscled they are!
In general, “underweight” people do not consume enough calories, especially on a raw food diet. In order to build muscle, you have to engage in weight training and lift heavy weights. You also have to make sure you're consuming enough calories for your muscles to grow.
Eating more cooked food will not solve the problem. If the problem is an inadequate diet (not enough calories), you have to learn how to consume enough. A minimum for training individuals would be around 2000 calories for women and 2500 calories for men, per day.
I suggest in that case:
- Track down calories consumed every day
- Incorporate strength training.
Click here for the method I recommend.
- Make sure your diet is still low in fat and healthy.
