So you think that by following the Raw Till 4 diet and eating way past satiation every meal is going to be the key for your weight loss? Think again. There isn’t anything terribly wrong with the nutritional recommendations but there is some calibration that needs to be done if you want have desirable results.

Why You’re Gaining Weight On Raw Till 4

The first major issue with Raw Till 4 is the caloric recommendations. It is recommended that women eat a minimum of 2500 calories per day and the recommendation for men is 3000 calories. The problem with this is that the recommendations are incredibly generic. It doesn’t matter what your size or activity level is. Everyone should be eating the same number of calories.

It is becoming well known in the high carb plant-based community that all the doctors & researchers (Dr. McDougall, Dr. Greger, T. Colin Campbell, Dr. Barnard, etc) all promote eating till satiation. It’s quite simple to explain. When you’re hungry you eat. When you’re full you stop. When you are consuming high carb plant-based foods, they are more calorically dilute than animal products so they fill you up physically with less calories. The problem is with Raw Till 4 is that they are teaching you to force feed yourself past the point of satiation which means you are consuming way too many calories than your body needs. The excess calories, despite being plant-based, can still cause you to gain weight.

While it is more difficult to overeat on plant-based foods, it is very much possible for a lot of people and if you watch the video above, there is lots of anecdotal evidence that supports this. Hannah & I receive many comments about weight gain that ranges from 10 to 50lbs on Raw Till 4.

The second major issue on why people are gaining weight on Raw Till 4 is the consumption of processed foods. Breads, pastas, white rice, refined sugar and even smoothies is heavily promoted to succeed on Raw Till 4.

While these foods are fine to eat in small amounts occasionally, they are not whole foods. I explain the smoothie phenomenon in the video above if you want to know why you should be more conscious about your smoothie intake.

All of the plant-based medical doctors promote whole foods. This is so important because when eating whole foods, you are getting all the nutrients, vitamins, minerals and fibre that comes along with the food. If you are eating a lot of processed foods, you will be eating calories but the food is not as nutrient dense. This causes the phenomenon of being overfed but under nourished. Which basically means people are eating a lot of food but not getting enough of the nutrients that support their health.

What You Should Do Differently To Lose Weight

There is no reason you should be gaining weight on a high carb plant-based diet if you follow the right principles. It really becomes very simple, eat healthy whole food plant-based recipes when you’re hungry, until you are full.

The caloric density of whole plant-based foods are very low so that you feel fuller on less calories. Consuming less calories will help you run a small caloric deficit and you will lose weight effortlessly.

I highly recommend you check out our recipe books. The recipes are delicious, the photos are beautiful and all of the recipes have helped Hannah lose 50lbs. There is also lots of lifestyle tips that will help you on your journey to finding your natural weight and improving your relationship with food.