The slimming industry spends millions on perpetuating common myths about weight loss. A raw food diet used in the right way can help youlose weight effortlessly and permanently!

The Myths of the Diet 'Industry'

There are literally hundreds of commercially marketed diets that guarantee you will lose weight. Some of the most popular of recent years include the Atkins Diet, Hollywood Diet, GI Diet, the Zone Diet,Weightwatchers - the list goes on and on. 

Someof these diet books are based around the idea of a 'crash diet' where rapid weight loss is seen as evidence of success. Often, what has been lost from your body in the first few days is not fat but water. Once this excess water has been shed, weight loss slows dramatically.

After a few days or weeks you can start to feel tired, sluggish and dull. You then break off your diet in an effort to restore energy. This causes you to lapse back into comfort foods and your familiar bad eating patterns. You start to gain weight again and then decide to try another 'magic formula' to shed some pounds. The cycle continues....

There are hundreds of thousands of people who lose the same five or ten pounds only to put it back on with a few weeks or months. What really determines losing weight is not some abstract formula of calorie deprivation but rather how fast your body can metabolize - or burn up- the excess fat you carry around and the food you take in on a daily basis.

Regulate your metabolism with raw foods

What is metabolic rate?

It is the rate or speed at which your body 'burns up' calories. If you eat 2000 calories a day and then 'burnaway' 2000 calories that same day you will stay at the same weight. If however you consume 4000 calories and your body only burns 1000 calories then this is stored as fat.

Many factors influence metabolic rate. Being overweight tends to slow down your metabolism. Going on a low calorie diet slows your metabolism even further and your body learns to conserve energy as it feels thrown into starvation mode. This effect can produce rebound eating as studied by Berkeley professor Seth Roberts .

How do you break this pattern of diet - bad eating - diet ? First we have to understand what determines our metabolism. Our bodies use up energy in the following ways:

BMR or basal metabolic rate - this is our unique individual speed at which we burn calories (We've all met people who can eat high-calorie foods all day and stay incredibly thin without exercising.) This factor is often determined by our genes but can also be influenced by our eating and living habits.

Calories consumed for activity - any physical activity requires an expenditure of energy (or calories) - even fidgeting uses up energy. Naturally, regular exercise is a pre-requisite for permanent weight loss. You don't have to necessarily have to frequent the gym every day. Try using the stairs instead of the escalator or substituting short car journeys with a brisk walk.

Thermogenic effects (ie digestion) - the actual process of converting food into usable energy requires effort by your body

How does a raw food diet help your metabolism?

Araw food diet will naturally increase your energy levels. Cooked, heavy foods literally 'weigh you down'. Heated oils andstarchy foods are much harder to break down in the gut and require morethermogenic energy to digest. With raw foods you are much less likelyto feel drowsiness after meals and therefore can expend more energywith active tasks.

'Empty calories' are those which provide energy but no associated nutritional benefit. Examples are refined sugar and cakes, white flour and fatty pastries. By cutting back on these foods and incorporating more healthy organic raw fruits and vegetables into your diet, you are less likely to experience 'crashes' due to low blood sugar levels - meaning you will stay active throught the whole day.

A Raw Food Detox Can Rid You of Excess Fat Forever

To shed fat forever you must re-establish biochemical and energetic balance in your body. This imbalance is one of the key causes of fat to accumulate in the first place.

Virtually every overweight body is nutrionally starved despite the number of calories it has consumed. The digestive system of a person that eats highly processed, chemically altered foods or someone who chronically overeats, cannot function normally as it remains in a state of persistent stimulation, craving the nutrients it deserves. 

The widely held view is that excess fat stored in the body plays a 'passive' role. In fact our fat stores play a very active role in gathering substances which the body experiences as toxic or poisonous. Fat cells are a perfect storehouse for these toxins and people who easily store fat have difficulty dealing with these wastes.

A vicious circle is created: excess fat decreases metabolic rate and toxins build up as more fat is stored. The liver, who's function it is to rid the body of such toxins is put under stress, making it increasingly difficult to detoxify and and even harder to avoid laying down more fat.

To achieve permanent fat loss you need methods for eliminating toxic wastes from your body. As you start to feed your body more raw and living foods, your digestion will improve and your metabolism starts to function normally again. Chronic fatigue becomes a thing of the past and all those unhealthy food cravings will gradually vanish.

It is common for raw fooders to experience unpleasant side effects when transitioning to a healthy raw diet. But once this detox process is well underway, you will experience a new kind of energy that will enable you to lose weight effortlessly, look good and feel great day after day.