Are my nuts making me fat? page

[wilberfan]

(Wait. That came out wrong...)

I went primal 5 weeks ago (after 17+ years vegan). My weight dropped at first--just a couple of pounds (I was already where I wanted to be, weight-wise), then came back up to where I started.

For the last week or so, my weight has been slowly creeping up. (I got used to weighing myself every morning for the last few years of being vegan--it was the only way to catch unwanted weight-gains early.)

I'm NOT cheating with "bad" carbs, and it seems unlikely I'm adding muscle--not working out to any extent at all--just walking the 30 minutes to work this week a couple of times...

My go-to snack of choice are the almonds, walnuts, and pepitas I keep in the fridge. I might have a couple of handfuls 2 or 3 times a day.... Being new at this, I've forgotten whether we need to moderate our nuts/avocado intake (for example) to NOT gain weight.

Can anyone clarify this for me? Any guesses what the weight increase might be about? It's only a couple of pounds at this point (!), but, again, as a vegan, I had to nip those half-pound, one-pound gains in the bud quickly--or it became 3 or 4 pounds before I knew it!

[Katie82]

Actually, it could be muscle now that you're giving your body enough protein and nutrients to build muscle with, those 30 min walks could be doing more for your body than previously. Ditch the scale, only start to worry if you can't button your pants anymore.

[New Renaissance]

It is possible that the Nuts cause you to retain weight. The best thing to try would be to omit the mindless snacking and see if it makes a difference. Try dropping them for 2 weeks. If you notice a difference, there may be a correlation.

But ditch the scale

[PrairieProf]

Nuts can certainly make a person gain, but I agree that if you just stopped being a vegan five weeks ago and are now eating significant amounts of high-quality protein you are almost certainly gaining muscle mass (replenishing what you lost). You could try dropping the nuts -- and might find you don't lose weight at all.

[elwyne]

dude that title made me lol...

[carlh]

Try replacing the nuts with something else (chopped celery and carrots about the same size as your nuts) so you can still snack...?

[lev96]

I am not quite in your situation, as I am not yet at my ideal weight. I am still on the way down. Like you, I also weigh myself regularly - though I've been primal long enough that I don't take the scale as gospel, just a general guide kinda thing. Also, like you, I really enjoy my nuts and could eat them all day whether I am hungry or not.

On days where I ate a ton of nuts, I was much more likely to have a gain or be neutral on the scale, than on the days where my nut eating was minimal. I did need to curb my nut eating to continue on the weight loss path. Nutritionally nuts are higher in carbs than most people realize. And they are very calorically dense. For me, I do not find them to be very filling/satisfying for the amount of calories they have packed in there. I believe if you search through Mark's blogs about nuts, that he is also mindful about the volume of nuts that should be consumed. When you speak of eating a couple handful of nuts 2 or 3x/day, you could be packing in a huge amount of calories/carbs - depending on the size of your hands.

As for avocados, I have found them to be incredibly satisfying. I probably average eating about 3/4 an avocado a day, so I haven't found them to be as bad. But then again, I've never absent-mindedly just pounded down the avocados while sitting in front of the boob tube, as can easily happen with nuts.

To sum up, I think nuts could be contributing to your weight gain, so you should mindfully consume them. But that being said, I would also recognize that it could be a gain in lean muscle mass, like some of the other people think. And if you are at your ideal weight already, I wouldn't worry too much about a few pounds either way on that scale. Just take stock in how you feel and how you look in mirror.

[lev96]

Try replacing the nuts with something else (chopped celery and carrots about the same size as your nuts) so you can still snack...?

I second the celery/carrot thing. My favorite snack is celery and carrots with some guacamole. More volume of food, without being as calorically dense, a better fat, and much more satisfying.

[Piscator]

Try replacing the nuts with something else (chopped celery and carrots about the same size as your nuts)...

Ahaahahahahahaha. I'm just picturing trying to make the comparison.

[lev96]

between elwyne and piscator this thread is really going in an immature direction... AND IT IS FUNNY!!! LOL!