- Fact Checked
Last Updated: November 17, 2021
If you’re vegan and interested in the latest nutrition trends, you might have heard about the fruitarian diet. You might wonder if you can still keep in shape as a fruitarian. This is where we come in.
This article will tell you everything you need to know about the fruitarian diet, whether you can still keep in shape as a fruitarian and answer many other exercise-related questions.
Spoiler: You can keep in shape as a fruitarian, but it’s hard, and this is really not a diet for everyone. In fact, we don’t recommend you trying this diet if you’re prone to a lot of health problems, have an eating disorder history, or have diabetes.
Keep on reading to find out more about this specific diet and how to keep in shape as a fruitarian!
A fruitarian is someone who is on a fruitarian diet, which, as you can tell by the name, is a type of vegan diet that mostly consists of fruit and a bit of nuts and seeds. It can also consist only of fruit for the more purist fruitarians.
The percentage of foods you eat will depend on your beliefs, and what your body tells you will be good for you, as it’s a diet that applies the principles of intuitive eating.
So some fruitarians usually eat around 50 to 75% of raw fruit, and then have nuts and seeds. The more purist fruitarians will eat up to 90% of raw fruit, with only 10% or fewer nuts and seeds.
If you want to be a fruitarian, there are seven fruit groups you can eat. These include:
As for what a fruitarian can’t eat; they can’t eat grains, animal products, dairy products, starches, beans, legumes, or any type of processed foods. Some fruitarians don’t even want to eat seeds or nuts.
So you can see this diet is pretty restrictive and cuts out a lot of important food groups, but it has many advantages.
There are a lot of advantages to being a fruitarian, despite the health risks. Plus, it’s only dangerous if you don’t inform yourself of the nutrition your body needs and if you don’t follow the recommendations of a nutritionist.
The first advantage of being a fruitarian is that you eat a very nutritious whole food group packed full of vitamins: fruits. Also, it will help you stay hydrated. Fruits also keep you satiated for longer.
So, if you’re looking to eat healthier, a fruitarian diet is a great option; it can even help you lose weight since fruits have very few calories in them.
Also, since fruits have natural sugars in them, they will keep you satisfied for longer, especially if you have a sweet tooth. If you want to satisfy your sugar cravings, you could start incorporating more and more fruit into your diet until you switch to a completely fruitarian diet.
This way, you don’t shock your system by only eating fruits and cutting out all the other food groups at once.
Usually, a fruitarian diet consists of 50 to 75% of raw fruit. You have a higher risk of being malnourished on a fruitarian diet, despite having lots of vitamins from the fruit. Some of the more purist fruitarians don’t even eat seeds or nuts.
That’s because a fruitarian diet restricts you from eating most food groups, which can lead to nutrient imbalances. This wouldn’t happen on a vegetarian or vegan diet since more food groups are allowed, and it’s easier to get the nutrition your body needs.
Also, nutrient imbalances can lead to health complications if you don’t inform yourself about the fruitarian diet or if your body rejects that diet. A fruitarian diet can also promote tooth decay since fruit has lots of natural sugars in them and are naturally very sweet.
There are other side effects apart from tooth decay, and this is a truly scary list: weight gain, diabetes, starvation mode, and cravings. If you have a history of eating disorders, you should keep away from the fruitarian diet as far as possible.
So it’s not good for you to eat a lot of sugar and not balance it out with at least some grains or nuts. So when you start switching your diet to a fruitarian one, don’t exclusively eat fruit. Try to balance things out with nuts and grains at first.
Then, you can raise the fruit amount progressively if you feel comfortable with that. It’s certainly not a diet that will fit every vegan person, but if it works for you, that’s amazing, and that’s all that matters.
If you want to be a fruitarian, please talk to a nutritionist or your doctor first to make sure that this is the right type of vegan diet for you, your body, and your exercise regime. Don’t start any new diet plan without consulting a professional first.
You might wonder how to maintain your protein intake if you’re a fruitarian since you’re cutting a lot of food groups. Eating nuts and seeds can help with your protein intake, but unless they constitute a lot of what you eat daily, that won’t be enough.
Also, fruits have no protein at all in them. They do have a lot of nutrients and vitamins like vitamin C as well as fiber. They also keep you hydrated, but unfortunately, there is no protein in them.
And protein is essential in any diet. It helps repair and build your body muscles, your skin, blood, and body organs. It also is important for hormones. Especially if you work out, you’ll know how important protein is to stay fit and bulk up.
What you could do to keep your protein intake as a fruitarian is to make sure that you eat a lot of nuts and seeds. And maybe drink protein shakes, add protein powder to your food, or take protein supplements.
Or, if you’re fine with sometimes eating foods that don’t go with your regular fruitarian diet, that will keep your protein intake up. Try to eat beans once in a while, for example, as they’re naturally very high in protein. You should also eat grains from time to time, just to keep your body healthy.
To see what would fit your ethics and your diet goals, you can talk to a nutritionist. They can come up with a personalized plan for you to make sure your body gets all the nutrients it needs and that it gets enough protein.
You might wonder how you can exercise if you’re a fruitarian. Well, oftentimes eating only fruit doesn’t give you enough energy to exercise, at least not any intense exercise. That is unless you plan on eating all day.
If you eat all day, you’ll have enough energy and calories to keep you going through your day and your exercise regime. Otherwise, it will most likely be dangerous for you to take up exercise as a fruitarian.
If you want to exercise, start with very mild exercise such as walking or yoga, and eat more than what you’re used to. Then, you can progressively reduce how much you eat and augment your exercise regimen.
Long-term fruitarians will tell you that actually, the fruitarian diet helped them exercise more after a few months. After two months, some fruitarians will feel very motivated to exercise and will have even more energy than when they were eating another diet.
So as you can see, this will really depend on you and what your body needs. If you’re someone who likes to work out every day, you might want to cut back a bit during the first months of your new fruitarian diet.
You should talk to a personal trainer or your fitness coach so they can help you build an appropriate exercise regimen during the first months of your new fruitarian diet.
Just remember that every person is different and that the fruitarian diet will only work for a very small percentage of people. So don’t feel bad if being a fruitarian doesn’t work for you, your body, or your lifestyle.
If you feel hungry all the time, don’t have the energy to do anything, and do not feel well in general after being on a fruitarian diet for a while, you should stop immediately.
Don’t feel bad if it doesn’t work for you. There are plenty of ways of being healthy. Most times, being a fruitarian is very unhealthy.
There are plenty of plant-based diets out there that will help to keep you in your top shape. You just have to find the one that will fit you, your body, your exercise regimen, and your overall lifestyle.
And now, for the most important question: can you still keep in shape as a fruitarian? As you saw above in all the different sections, it’s very difficult to stay healthy when you’re on a fruitarian diet.
Sure, some people might say that it completely changed their lives, that they have more energy than ever, that they can work out more efficiently and for longer. They might tell you that they’re in the best shape of their life.
And if that’s true and if that works for them, that’s great. But you don’t have to follow every new diet trend out there. Especially if it can damage your overall health.
Unfortunately, on a fruitarian diet, especially a purist fruitarian diet where you basically just eat fruit and nothing else, you don’t get enough nutrients. You also won’t get enough calories. This can also lead to a lot of health problems and complications.
So unless you intend to eat all day long, it will be very difficult to keep in shape as a fruitarian. There are people out there who love being fruitarians, and it works great for them.
What I would advise you to do is to talk to a nutritionist or a doctor and ask them what they think and if they believe a fruitarian diet could be appropriate for you. You can then craft an eating plan together to make sure all your nutritional needs are fulfilled as best as they can.
Also, you should consider taking supplements or even incorporating different food groups from time to time to make sure that your body gets all the nutrients it needs.
Now you get that there are more disadvantages than advantages of eating an exclusive fruitarian diet.
However, it is possible to keep in shape as a fruitarian, even though it will take a lot of work. Some fruitarians swear that it changed their lives, and others said that it created a lot of health problems.
So the only way you can see if you would manage to keep in shape as a fruitarian is by trying the diet for yourself. Don’t do anything drastic at first, and simply start by incorporating more and more fruit into your regular diet.
Then, you can remove some food groups progressively. You will see pretty soon if the advantages are worth the disadvantages. And if it works for you, that’s amazing! Otherwise, don’t force yourself into a diet that doesn’t work for your body.
Whatever you do, when you decide to try out a new diet, you should talk to a nutritionist first.
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