Well I said that I may not have been on it. I wasn't sure. The website that I went to that had example of the meals that you eat were examples of meals that you would eat on the paleo diet. So, I would think that if I were eating those meals then I would be on that diet. I can't seem to find the diet online to know exactly how it goes. This is probably the wrong place to post those questions anyway I should probably be asking a doctor. I don't think it's that simple it may work for some and not others.

Hi, I would suggest you do some more research and check out more websites. There are a lot of them out there and not all of them agree. A couple sites I like are Mark's Daily Apple and The Paleo Lifestyle. I like them because they are less restrictive in terms of dairy, and even potatoes and other root-type veggies.

I tried Atkins previously, so I know the feeling you are describing and feel the same way when I restrict carbs too severely. I can't function like that, but it hasn't been a problem while I've been eating paleo. I only started about 12 days ago, and have lost 6 pounds (though I expect that to level out at some point). I am including cheese and yogurt, some fruit, some honey, some whey protein for smoothies, and some store bought salad dressings that are not paleo, but that I don't want to waste. When the dressings run out, I will make my own paleo dressings, but I am still easing in to this. :D

Have you red the book? If you do so then you will know whether you are on it. It works for everyone as everyone is genetically predisposed to be on this type of diet.

WOW. I did more research on the diet and added the nuts and fruit and I'm doing it differently this time and it's only been a couple of days but I am really liking it and I never like diets..lol. I feel great so far. I'm not hungry and I'm not craving other food right now. I hope it stays this way. I think this is something I could actually stick to for a while. I just hope the scales tell me what I want to hear in a week. Since I don't feel deprived it makes me worry that I won't lose weight but that shouldn't be the case. I am excited!! :D

That sums up your major issues. You know you will stick to it for a while then go off and eat other stuff. That won't work. You want progress this week... good luck with that. It takes a while to get fat and it takes a while to get slim. You either knuckle down or just stay lardy. Harsh but true.

Me Sept 1st 2011 194.6lbs, male 6 ft 4. Not bad really but up due to US holiday weight. Today, 9 weeks later 175.2lbs eating as much as I like within the Paleo diet. I have a six pack.

It is up to you the results you get.

Wow some people just come on this page and nit pick at little details in what you say instead of looking at the main point of your post don't they?

I have been having that feeling for 2 months now but I just keep getting leaner and lighter on the Paleo lifestyle and I never count calories. It is like a revelation. On top of that I am more active mentally and just feel full of life.

Here is my 2011 graph. Up and down through the year, then away in the US on a roadtrip then Paleo from beginning of September.

http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/...16at084627.png

The Paleo/primal approach to eating is anexcellent, common sense way of staying healthy, improving your health and losing the fat. It's probably been mentioned already, but it's a lifestyle rather than 'a diet'. I don't get these folk who 'go on a diet'. It's a lifestyle change they need to make, something which they can continue for the rest of their days.

I combine this approach to eating with intense, brief and infrequent weights and cardio workouts and plenty of walking. Works a treat in keeping me in shape and it's very sustainable.

The goal is health improvement, not re-enactment. I eat primally because I feel more energized and stronger when I'm on it. I'm eating the best I can with the food that's available to me. If that means grass-fed beef from the supermarket, organic fruits and vegetables, and occasional full-fat dairy then I'm doing a pretty good job. Add to that a few trips per year to a pick-your-own farm and now I'm getting involved in my own food sourcing. Not bad!

Also keep in mind that there is no one "paleo" diet. It's preposterous to think that our globally distributed ancestors all ate the same stuff. The keys are no processed foods, highly limited grains or none (try plucking wheat off a stalk and see how much you can eat, even modestly prepared), and minimal added sugar. Then you still have free reign to experiment with high/low carb, high/low fat, high/low protein, according to what your body thrives on. Don't be afraid to self-experiment. By the time the nutritional authorities come around to validating the success people have had with this approach, we'll all have passed on.

Sasha, please read my above post. The paleo plan is a framework, not a prescriptive diet. There's nothing to feel bad about experimenting within the framework. Some people get dogmatic about a particular program because it worked for them. Ancestrally speaking, my Indian ancestors likely ate a very different natural diet than, say, Nordic European ancestors. Ultimately, it's about finding what works for you. The paleo framework is simply, in my opinion, the best place to start.

Good luck! :)

good luck!!!!!!!!!!!:)

Sashabound:

What you felt orignally is known as the "carb flu". Its your body fighting because you have had a carb addiction. It passes in a few weeks to a month. Keep up the good work - I've lost 59 pounds in 4 months on the Priaml Blueprint. Good Luck!

Primal Mama
 

Hey every one! It's great to see that there is a group for us here! My whole family are Paleo/Template and Crossfiters! We have 2 children ages 6 and 3 myself I am 27 and my better half is 34.

We made the lifestyle change 4 years ago.. My partner he started first, then the kids ad I followed a few years later. We are not "PAF" we cook our meat, ha ha. I love baking using almond meal I make myself and coconut flour. I am part of IPMG on facebook. It's a great group that is full of experienced long time Primal's and a nice flow of Newbies each week :D
See you there if not here!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/116409718456748/

I couldn't agree more with you!


Primal -Crossfit'n Mama

I've been following the primal blue print since the beginning of October. I've lost 24 pounds, am getting nicely defined, have great energy levels and feel great! All my clothes are baggy on me. Some of them are getting to the point where they look like clown clothes. I'm holding off on getting a new wardrobe until my weight levels off. It just keeps coming off, slow and steady.

I'm a little better than 80/20, probably more like 90/10. Exercise wise I'm following the primal blue print to a tee: sprinting once a week, intense weights once or twice (following the Primal Blue print Fitness pdf you can get from Mark's site), long walks 3 or 4 days a week, and play with my 6 year old daughter as much as possible. Oh, and I usually go to a one hour yoga class once a week, which is not PB, but hey, I like it!

I tracked my diet on fitday.com for 10 days. I was pretty meticulous about it, even measuring the individual components of my dishes before I mixed them together, and then recording each component. I also included my supplements: 1 fish oil pill taken daily, and then on alternating days a Vitamin D pill and a multivitamin (for example, vitamin D on Mon, wed, fri, and the multivitamin on tues, thur, sat, and so on). Check it out:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...espiechart.png

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...lNutrition.png


I also tracked my exercise over the 10 day span. For this first one, disregard the dates prior to 1/23. 1/23 was the first day I started recording the data:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...envsburned.png

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...riesburned.png

Please critique. Thanks!

toledodba25 - how did you create the total nutrition over time graph? Is that a premium feature? I don't trust the nutrition numbers all that much. Paleo versions of foods such as pastured eggs, 100% grass-fed beef, and organic veggies are more nutrient dense than the USDA database would lead you to believe.

just placed my order for 2 of mark sisson's books... i hope that i can make this change cuz it sounds pretty much spectacular!

@ toledodba25:

If you're averaging 40 grams of saturated fat a day, which is about double the recommended amount, you should at be eating more fiber. You're average is only 25 grams. I'd recommend upping that to 40 grams a day.

Why? Neither Mark Sisson or Barry Cripps appear to agree:

Fun With Fiber: The Real Scoop | Mark's Daily Apple

The Paleo Diet and Fiber Paleo Diet News

"Generally speaking, we would be looking at getting the bulk of our fiber (pun intended), from some low-glycemic fruits, and preferably some green, cruciferous vegetables. Regardless, I don’t believe that obtaining a significant amount of fiber from these sources is realistic, and therefore probably indicates that our Paleolithic ancestors didn’t actually get or NEED a large amount of fiber in their diets."

I would have to agree with VitoVino on this one. Four points...

1. Remember that both Mark and Barry are selling something, so information from them should be taken with grain of salt.

2. Basing a diet on what our Paleolithic ancestors needed or didn't need can be detrimental towards long term health. They may not have needed as much fiber, but they also ate far less saturated fats (and meat in general) then we do.

3. Barry seems to be contradicting himself here: Why I Recently Gave Up Eating Bacon on the Paleo Diet Paleo Diet News

4. The cave men were lucky to live to be 35.....so probably not as concerned about long term health as we should be.

In general I like 90% of what the paleo diet offers...any plan that starts with getting ride of processed carbs is a good thing...and that alone is usually enough for most people to loss significant weight and feel better. But I have never seen any great evidence that avoiding multigrain carbs is detrimental in either the near or long term while there is ample evidence that increased saturated and omega-6 fats can have very negative health effects.

Just my 2cents

Well stated, clarkslp.

It's only wise to take in more fiber as the saturated fats go up. Since toledodba25 posted his macros it's certainly fair to comment on them. Advice can be taken or not. ;)

Don't get me wrong, I want feedback. I even asked for a critique! I just don't understand why you need more fiber if you eat more saturated fats. What is the correlation?

I've seen two purposes for fiber:

1) keeping you regular
2) slowing down the processing of high glycemic index foods so that your blood sugar doesn't spike

I've never had a problem with 1, either before or after the paleo diet. 2 is not an issue on the paleo diet.

So what am I missing? What is the relationship between fiber and saturated fats?

Thanks for your feedback!

I had a thought this morning that I'm not 100% sure I've heard anyone address before about the theory of evolution weeding out the weak. It seems to me that conditions of weakness are *only* filtered out through natural selection when they occur during or before the breeding years. For humans this would be what, 15 to 40? It makes sense that natural selection ensures that our anscestors diet was near ideal to get us through the breeding years, but I'm having a hard time seeing how natural selection would have any role in weeding out conditions that occured beyond the breeding years. What this means is saying "Well, Grok did it, thus it must be good for us, for it's part of our evolution" may not hold for conditions that don't surface until 50 or 60 years of age. At that point, you're done having kids so those weaknesses would already be passed on to the next generation.

So Grok's diet might be very good for getting us to 50 or 60, but it may not be the ideal diet to get us to 90.

I'm not a genius or anything, so I'm sure some one some where has thought of this before, but it was an interesting light bulb that went on for me this morning...

And fiber lowers cholesterol. So it's not the saturated fat per se, it's the cholesterol you're taking in with that 40 grams of saturated fat every day.

How Fiber Helps Lower Your Cholesterol

OK, I’ve been doing some research on fiber and cholesterol. It looks like soluble fiber is the only type that helps with cholesterol. Insoluble does nothing for it:

Dietary Fiber: Insoluble and Soluble Fiber

Here are the sources of soluble and insoluble fiber:

• Sources of soluble fiber: oatmeal, oat cereal, lentils, apples, oranges, pears, oat bran, strawberries, nuts, flaxseeds, beans, dried peas, blueberries, psyllium, cucumbers, celery, and carrots.
• Sources of insoluble fiber: whole wheat, whole grains, wheat bran, corn bran, seeds, nuts, barley, couscous, brown rice, bulgur, zucchini, celery, broccoli, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, green beans, dark leafy vegetables, raisins, grapes, fruit, and root vegetable skins.

It’s obviously not 100%, but it seems like the bulk of the insoluble comes from grains, which are not part of my diet. While I’m only getting 25 grams of fiber, is it likely that the bulk of this is soluble fiber?

If a more traditional diet yielded 40 grams of fiber, how much of it would be soluble? 50%? If so, that is 20 grams. If the fiber I’m getting is predominantly soluble, I could be near 20 grams right now. So maybe I’m ok?

I should also mention two things I noticed after doing this 10 day analysis of my diet via fitday:

1. I was getting less than the RDA of potassium
2. My calories burned regularly exceeded my calories consumed.

Part of the reason I meticulously tracked my food intake on fitday was out of concern over getting enough vitamins and minerals, since I’d cut out one entire food group (grains). I was pleased to see that I was doing well on all the micronutrients but one, potassium. Falling short in one category shouldn’t be too hard to fix, right?

Point 2 above is a concern for I’ve lost all the weight I care to lose, I love this weight, yet I keep getting lighter! Clearly I need more calories. Mark Sisson recommends 100 to 150 grams of carbs a day to maintain weight, but for more active people they might need closer to 200. (I’m pretty active.) If you need more, he recommends working in some starchy tubers. I looked up the stats for a sweet potato, and if I add it daily to what I’ve been in eating, in addition to bringing up my carbs, it brings my potassium intake up to the RDA almost to the milligram, and low and behold it is one of the best sources of fiber to boot, weighing in at 13grams! This brings me up to 38 grams of fiber a day. The link above recommends 30-38 for men, so I’d be at the upper range. Since I don’t eat grains, I’m guessing a larger proportion of that 38 is soluble, so 38 should be enough to regulate my cholesterol, hopefully.

The last week or so I’ve been adding a whole sweet potato each day to my diet. It’s been a little difficult to do this in addition to all the food I’d been eating, as opposed to in place of some of the food I had been eating before, as sweet potatoes are very filling and I was not going hungry previously. I ate as much as I wanted, so long as it was a paleo approved food. I’ve managed to do it though, and at least so far my weight has become stable. We’ll see where it’s at in a few weeks.

Smart! I eat a sweet potato daily as a source of potassium and fiber. It really helps a lot in both departments. I use non fat sour cream on top and it's simply delicious. For an added boost of potassium (if needed) I'll add some "No Salt" KCl alternative salt.

Good to see you've got a handle on everything. Best wishes for your continued success!

Just thought I'd mention that when on the paleo diet it is acceptable to top with butter, full fat sour cream, or full fat (plain) yogurt...

toledodba,

Sounds like you are really researching and adapting your food plan, which is commendable. I think a lot of people tend to get on a specific diet and refuse to budge and think theirs is the only way to loss weight.

One more thing to share...nicely written article on the benefits of fiber..

Fiber: Start Roughing It! - What Should I Eat? - The Nutrition Source - Harvard School of Public Health

I agree. I've seen this, especially from folks who have read a book and have decided that they've got to follow it to the letter.

I try to always be open to new evidence. (This is a good practice for all areas of your life, not just nutrition.)

With that in mind, have any of you checked out this series?

Primitive Nutrition 1: The New Barbarians - YouTube

It's always good to hear what the "other side" has to say, and this guy has a great deal of scientific data supporting his case.

Here is some return fire from the Paleo community:

"How to win an argument with a vegetarian" by Denise Minger on Vimeo

I'm curious what others think about this debate.

Thanks for all the feedback!

Thanks for the tip, toledodba25. I'll check out the links. Like you say, it's always good to keep an open mind to new evidence. There's only one area that I'm closed to "new evidence", but I'm not going to mention religion here. :cool:

New to Paleo
 

I'm very new to the Paleo way of eating, started 3 days ago. I braced myself fully expecting to feel horrid the first week, but I've felt the opposite so far. I know I'm still very early into my journey, but if I feel this great now then I have very high hopes. I plan to start CrossFit once I lose a little weight to feel comfortable going to the gym (it's a girl thing).

Great to find this thread. I have been doing great on paleo 2.0/primal; but have now hit a sticking point at around 200# (I'm 6'0") and want to get down to around 175. I think I'm eating too many almonds and other nuts. I also used to do well when I first started dieting with a cheat day every weekend, so I am incorporating that again also. One more thing, anyone tried intermittent fasting (skipping breakfast and/or lunch, eating just pm meals). While traditional diets recommend you not skip breakfast, the paleo approach suggests we do just fine skipping some meals, and that hunger is part of our evolution. Just curious if anyone has any experience with any of these, not really looking for all the well-meaning "you need to eat breakfast" responses.

First of all, what are your daily carbs looking like? Keep em below 100. You will get more mileage out of that than you will cutting back on nuts or skipping breakfast.

Are you doing sprints? If not, start. If so, take it up a notch. I've found that nothing gets you over those humps like sprinting.

There is no need to supplement fiber on a paleo diet. None. You have to take several large leaps of faith to believe you should increase fiber intake when you eat more saturated fat or cholesterol. It's a ridiculous idea.

Hey Johnny Come Lately, the situation has already been taken care of. And I think "Paleo" is a ridiculous idea, so there. :rolleyes:

The whole fiber/ fat talk is hog wash.
Soluble fiber gets fermented in your intestines/colon and the result is butyric acid, a short chain fatty acid. So feed your gut bacteria and get saturated fat. WHAT? Fat reducing cholesterol? The lipid hypothesis is just that, a hypothesis, not fact. Lots more research is needed.
I have had success eating lots of saturated fat, butter and coconut oil. When I work nights and don’t have to worry about excess gas I supplement with a FOS and probiotics. My cholesterol is better now than before I started paleo.

Paul Jaminet, author of Perfect Health Diet, stops by UW Radio to discuss how you can consume a diet that gives you all of the nutrients you need to optimally nourish your body while minimizing dietary toxins:

Perfect Health Diet with Paul Jaminet Ph.D. 01/19 by Underground Wellness | Blog Talk Radio

Great podcast. I have Jaminet's book sitting on my shelf unread. I can't wait to read it, but I think I have at least 5 books ahead of it, so it's gonna be a while. So many great books, so little time...

In your opinion it's "hog wash". And the hypothesis has not been proven wrong, has it?

Good for your cholesterol being lower now. Do you know that for a "fact", i.e. you've done blood work? How much lower? And what is your ratio of LDL to HDL and what was it BEFORE?

HDL cholesterol: How to boost your 'good' cholesterol - MayoClinic.com

This++

Also, blood cholesterol is a marker for heart disease, not a cause.

If you have an hour to spare, this is a great presentation:
How Bad Science and Big Business Created the Obesity Epidemic - YouTube