The short answer is a lot!
However, I know that probably doesn’t help much. I know when I first heard about a low fat raw began diet (LFRV) I didn’t understand how much food I needed to eat. I didn’t understand how to keep my fat at less than 10% of my total calories either.
Much of the reason for this was that before learning about a LFRV diet all I had heard from all the other raw foodies was that I had to eat my greens, lots and lots of greens. It seemed like that was all they talked about, eating greens! I ate many greens but they weren’t my most favorite thing to eat and they didn’t have very many calories…so to make them better and to keep from feeling hungry all the time I added high fat salad dressing to them.
I finally got it (LFRV) after reading The 80/10/10 Diet by Dr. Doug Graham. The answer was that I had to eat more fruit, a lot more fruit! I needed increase the volume of food that I ate.
How come no one mentioned this before, eating more fruit?
Just because I knew the answer, didn’t mean I could actually do it right away. It took practice to be able to eat that much food.
So how much food do you need to eat?
Let’s say you need 2000 calories and you want to follow the 80/10/10 plan and keep your fat under 10% of your total calories.
You need to eat something like this:
Breakfast: 4 lb. cantaloupe, 617 calories.
Lunch: 1 lb. nectarines, 200 calories
1 lb. apricots, 218 calories
Total calories for lunch – 418.
Dinner: Course one: 1 lb. grapes, 313 calories
Course two: 2 lb. papaya and 8 oz. tomato blended, 395 calories
Course three: 1 lb. romaine lettuce chopped topped with 10 oz. pineapple blended with 1 T. Tahini, 299 calories
Total calories for dinner – 1007.
The totals for the day are:
2042 total calories
85% of calories from carbohydrates
8% of calories from protein
7% of calories from fat
9 ½ pounds of fruit
1 ½ pounds leafy greens/vegetables
As you can see the volume of food needed is much more than we are accustomed to eating. Most people wouldn’t even consider eating a pound of any one fruit or vegetable in one sitting.
If you can’t eat all of the above food in three meals, start with four meals a day until you get used to eating more food. Gradually work yourself back to three meals a day. Good luck!
Raw Food Rocks!