Skinny Health Care

There are two basic tenets of raw veganism. The first is the inclusion of only 100% plant-based foods, which means no meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, dairy, or any ingredients derived from animal sources, including honey, gelatin, and components of aforementioned foods, such as dairy-based whey protein. The second principle of raw veganism is that no food is heated above 118ºF.

Apart from excluding all animal-based foods, veganism generally extends to a lifestyle that involves not using any materials derived from animals, including leather, fur, wool, and silk. Household products, such as cosmetics and soaps, are also excluded if they are made with or tested on animals. This is also true of raw veganism, but the food is also raw. In other words, a traditional vegan may eat piping-hot vegan pizza, cooked veggie burgers, warm vegan chili and soups, and other foods that have been cooked at higher temperatures, including grilled, baked, and oven-roasted dishes. For this reason, a raw vegan diet is much more limited.

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There were 1,474 exclusively vegan restaurants in the US in 2020, according to foodservice industry publication Total Food Service. Of these restaurants, many served raw dishes or are entirely raw vegan establishments. Meals you might find on a raw vegan menu include a variety of salads and marinated veggie dishes; smoothies and cold-pressed juices; açaí bowls; chia pudding; and even raw versions of nachos, pizza, and pad Thai.

In addition to being a registered dietitian, I have two plant-based culinary certifications that required practicing raw vegan cooking. In these courses, I prepared a range of fun raw vegan dishes, including cashew sour cream—made from soaked raw cashews blended with water, lemon juice, and seasonings—and raw vegan chocolate tart. You can also use a dehydrator to make some foods fit into a raw vegan diet. A dehydrator is a machine that takes the moisture out of food, allowing you to make raw forms of foods like flatbreads, crusts, and crackers.

One major pro of a raw vegan diet is that it eliminates processed foods. A 2020 meta-analysis published in the journal Nutrients found that a higher intake of ultra-processed foods is linked to adverse health outcomes, including overweight, obesity, heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, and depression.

Proponents of raw veganism prioritize whole plant foods and believe that cooking food at higher temperatures destroys nutrients, as well as enzymes that aid digestion. But studies are actually mixed on this. While it's true that some nutrients are diminished when vegetables are cooked, research also shows that heating also improves the availability and absorption of some antioxidants.

Overall, there aren't many studies regarding health outcomes tied to a raw vegan diet. One older study asked people who had attended a raw vegan institute for one to three weeks to complete questionnaires upon arrival and 12 weeks later. The researchers found that a stay at the institute was associated with improved mental and emotional quality of life. Anxiety decreased by 18.6%, and perceived stress was reduced by 16.4%. In addition, participants' ratings of how well they were taking care of themselves improved.

“It's understandable to think that a bodyweight workout might not be challenging enough for you, especially if you're used to lifting weights—but you might be surprised,” says Adam Rosante, CPT, CSCS, strength and nutrition coach and creator of Gym Class with Adam, a free online gym class for kids K-6. “From adjusting reps and sets, to tweaking the tempo of the moves, to creating timed challenges and changing the angle of your body, there are plenty of ways to ramp up the difficulty of bodyweight exercises—or dial it back if you're just starting.”

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Whenever you’re trying a new workout, you want to first focus on nailing your form on each move, says Rosante. Performing bodyweight exercises allows you to tune into body alignment and what you should be feeling—so really pay attention to the muscle groups you're working as you go. Once you master each exercise, it's time to take them to the next level.

To get you started on a no-weight workout at home, Rosante breaks down the form on 12 of the best bodyweight exercises, plus how to regress and progress them, and the ideal way to turn them into a sweaty exercise session.

How to do it: Start standing, feet shoulder-width apart. Lower your hips down and back, like you’re sitting in a chair. Go as low as you can without losing the natural curve of your lower back. Drive through the feet to return to standing. Repeat.

Form tip: Think about pressing the floor away from you as you stand up, keeping your weight in your heels. Make sure your chest stays tall and your core stays tight. You should feel your entire lower body and abs working.

Turn it down: If you’re new to squats, try standing in front of your couch or a chair. Tap the chair with your butt at the bottom, then stand back up.

Turn it up: To make the move more challenging, increase the tempo. Make sure you maintain strong form as you go fast and still drop it low—don't cut the move short.

How to do it: Start in a plank position, shoulders over wrists, creating a straight line from shoulders to heels, core engaged. Bend elbows back 45 degrees and slowly lower toward the ground. Then, press yourself back up, maintaining strong plank form. Repeat.

Form tip: Make sure your elbows hit that 45-degree angle, and avoid sending them out to the sides like a goal post—that’s rough on the shoulders, says Rosante.

Turn it down: Perform the same movement, but with hands on a couch, chair, or the edge of a table to elevate your upper body.

Turn it up: Perform a regular push-up, but keep the lowering phase super slow. Aim to count to five or six before you touch the floor.

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Overall, the question of whether muscle weighs more than fat hinges more on the size of what's being weighed—taking it back to the bricks versus feathers example, a pound of feathers will look much larger in size than a pound of bricks.

That's what's really at the root of this question: size—and for people, this centers on body composition, the proportion of fat versus non-fat mass in your body (which actually includes muscle, bones, and organs). While it should be said, first and foremost, that body size or weight is not necessarily an indication of health, there is some truth behind the saying that muscle weighs more than fat—here's what you need to know.

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The short answer: Yes, to a certain extent muscle does weigh more than fat; if you simply take a bowl of fat and compare it to a same-sized bowl of muscle, the muscle will weigh more. But that's only an explanation in the simplest of terms—there's much more that goes into that question, particularly how your body responds to these two tissues, body fat and muscle.

Muscle can weigh more than fat because it’s denser, says Joel Seedman, PhD, neuromuscular physiologist and owner of Advanced Human Performance in Suwanee, Georgia. So, as previously explained, if you hold a fistful of muscle it will weigh more than the same fistful of fat because you technically have more of the compact tissue in your hand. The catch: That number on the scale shouldn’t really matter here, because the benefits of having more muscle tissue in the body outweighs having more fat tissue.

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Muscle is a star player in keeping your body happy and healthy in the long-term, for several reasons. For starters, lean muscle mass can help manage blood sugar, keeping type 2 diabetes at bay. In fact, one 2017 cohort study published in PLoS One found a negative association between muscle mass and risk of developing of type 2 diabetes—specifically that a higher muscle mass meant a lower chance of type 2 diabetes. “The number one consumer of blood sugar in the human body is skeletal muscle,” says Tim Church, MD, MPH, PhD, professor of preventive medicine at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University. So, the more muscle you have, the greater your potential to metabolize blood sugar. As an added bonus, the blood sugar-regulating effect is instant and lasting after exercise. So if you do a workout today, your muscles will utilize blood sugar better over the next 72 hours, Church says.

Also, as you age, you’ll want a healthy amount of muscle, rather than fat. “Muscle is a commonly overlooked marker of healthy aging,” Church says. You lose about 1-2% of muscle mass starting around age 40 or 45, he adds. This age-related decline in muscle is known as sarcopenia, and it’s one of the biggest reasons many older adults can no longer do simple tasks without help. “You can’t put your jacket on, you can’t push yourself off the toilet, and you can’t get yourself off the ground after you fall,” Church says. “It all comes down to strength and muscle mass.”

What’s even better news is that muscle can further help you maintain a healthy weight by raising your basal metabolic rate, or the number of calories you burn at rest. Exactly how many extra calories you’ll burn by adding muscle is unclear: “That number has been widely discussed and argued over the years,” says Seedman. “But we do know the more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism.”