How to Lose Weight on a Vegan Diet: My Experience with 80/10/10 or Fruitarianism

I was vegetarian for 18 years and I did not lose weight, even gradually. I thought I was eating very healthfully, and I enjoyed great health through all of my teen years and early twenties, almost never becoming sick.

Then I decided to go vegan for animal rights reasons and I wondered if I would lose any weight. I did not. I was vegan for about 6 months, before I decided to start eating more fruits and vegetables when I started learning about fruitarianism, a form of raw veganism.

That’s when everything changed for me.

I could definitely say that eating fruits and vegetables is the only way I have ever discovered to lose any weight longterm.

I used to be really into the fat acceptance movement, with one of my favorite bloggers being Ragen Chastain of DancesWithFat.com. I still am, and totally agree that people should love their bodies at any size.

But now I realize that a lot of people who have accepted their body size after having failed at hundreds of diets as most have, have never tried eating a high carb low fat lifestyle, because it is very counterintuitive and seems crazy when you first hear about it. And most have never even heard about it.

No one needs to lose weight…but if they want to…this lifestyle could make it happen for them, as it has made a lot happen for me.

Mainstream weight loss advice is terrible.

It’s quite sad really. The media is constantly harassing you to lose weight and yet giving you advice that will never allow you to lose weight longterm and maybe even cause you to gain weight instead.

For example, the simple equation of eat less calories than you burn….

So obvious and yet such terrible advice.

Allow me to explain. If you restrict your calories to try to lose weight, your body will panic and you will get verrrrrrry hungry. You will then look for the most concentrated form of calories available to feel satisfied. I used to eat cheese at times like that. Which is very high in fat.

Many people call this emotional eating, but it is really a simple law of the body. You are hungry. You need food. Yet society tells us it is possible to starve the body to lose weight. But the body is smarter than you, and isn’t going to let you starve it. It needs to keep you nourished and alive.

On the other hand, fruitarianism allows you to never restrict your calories, yet still lose weight.

How is this possible?

You keep the fat in your diet really low…because fruits and vegetables have very little fat in them.

What I have realized is the amount of fat you need to eat to lose weight is so small that people would cry when they heard it.

What if I told you…that you needed to eat ONLY fruits and vegetables. (and other low fat whole foods are an option too like potatoes and rice)

Yeah, and no avocados or nuts either. (well, sparingly)

Ha. People wouldn’t like it.

But it works and you’ll never be hungry and you’ll never have to starve yourself. And you’ll experience a ton of other health benefits.

I tried to lose weight my whole life before finding fruitarianism, and it sounded insane to me too when I started.

Therefore I understand why many people dismiss it as unhealthy and insane.

But many people are not very open minded and don’t like to give things a shot before dismissing them completely.

One good thing about me is I always keep an open mind…or so I think. I gave it a nice two week trial.

It wasn’t easy in the beginning. Mostly because people aren’t very supportive because it sounds so crazy. Trust me, I have endured my fair share of laughing at the case of bananas in my room.

Anyway, yeah it’s extreme.

But the benefits are also extreme. Which is why I kept on with it, after trying it out.

When I first read 80/10/10 by Doug Graham, I think I laughed at his meal plan. There was no possible way I was going to live life on only fruits and vegetables for life. LOLOLOLOL.

But now I see his point.

I agree that keeping your calories from fat at under 10% of your total calories will make you lose weight. It will also skyrocket your health.

At least it has worked for me. Which is really saying something! I am going to try to find before and after pictures of myself for an upcoming post.

In order to do this, you basically have to eat all fruits and vegetables and 1/3 of an avocado max per day or a small handful of nuts max.

Or you can do something like Raw till 4, and for dinner have something very low in fat like potatoes or rice with a fat free sauce. (this is what I try to do).

Some people would rather die than eat this way probably, but there are a lot of benefits that make it worth it.

For example, when I drink a fruit smoothie in the morning, I literally feel like sliding into a split as I drink it. Or sliding up into a handstand on the wall. Or doing ten pushups.

But when I eat something high in fat, like hummus which has oil in it usually, I feel like sliding into a chair and relaxing. Often I will fall asleep soon after. It is a very comforting feeling, but I feel my body being like drugged almost and sedated…in a good way sometimes…but not in an energetic way.

Other benefits are that your skin looks instantly better the more fruits and veg you eat. Also your body over time will lean out. Sometimes I look in the mirror in the morning and am like wow, I did not look like this before.

Also, I think my fitness has gone up a lot. I don’t have a way of testing this, but things that used to be hard in my dance class are a lot easier for me now. (Maybe I got stronger though)… It was definitely WAY UP when I was 100% raw.

My cramps also dramatically improved as I wrote about here.

I also feel like I am eating real food and feel really glad that I have gotten away from all the marketing  of processed foods.

Anyway, I really recommend trying 80/10/10 if you are looking to lose weight in a very healthful way that will nourish not starve your body.

To be honest, I hate telling people about ways they can lose weight because I hate the idea of implying that people should try to be thin when I know that people are beautiful at every size, but I also feel like if someone does want to lose weight anyway, and is open to making a huge but healthful lifestyle change, then I owe it to them to tell them about what worked for me.

And 1 disclaimer: remember to brush your teeth very well twice a day when starting a fruitarian diet, because all the sugar in fruit can cause cavities but not if you brush your teeth thoroughly.