Paleo Diet?

PaleoPath4Lyfe

"...if you already have an unhealthy relationship with food it can sometimes worsen it."

I think I did clarify that well enough.

ETA: Nowhere did I tell her to NOT do it. I said that it is unnecessary and not some magical way to lose weight. Calorie deficit yields weight loss, plain and simple. I also said that it's a good way to figure out if you have a food intolerance. Heaven forbid I voice my opinion and personal experience with the diet in question.

Its the condescending and I am better than you attitude with "your suggestion......."

The poster said they were happy eating that way and wasn't looking to change their WHOLE FOODS eating habits.

Greytfish

If you believe the pro and anti- paleo diagrams floating on the internet, you might start to believe this "diet" stuff is garbage but, clearly absolutley eveyone uses the toilet completely naked - all the time.

PaleoPath4Lyfe

Sure thing.

What makes you assume (and that is quite the assumption) that anything I wrote was fabricated?

I believe this poster was stating that orthorexia is a fabricated disorder as I also believe it is. It is just a way to try and make people that are paying attention to what they put in their mouth to seem as if they have something mentally wrong with them when there isn't.

FredDoyle

Sure thing.

What makes you assume (and that is quite the assumption) that anything I wrote was fabricated?

I believe this poster was stating that orthorexia is a fabricated disorder as I also believe it is. It is just a way to try and make people that are paying attention to what they put in their mouth to seem as if they have something mentally wrong with them when there isn't.

Kinda like fibromyalgia then?

SwedishMel

I have a friend that's been doing the Paleo diet off and on for over a year. She grows her own veggies, makes EVERYTHING from scratch, even mayo. She's really great for food advice, or exercise tips. The woman has done triathlons before. Considering she's in such healthy shape I had asked her about the diet before...to see if it'd be good for me. She recommended it, of course, but also said that unless I plan on being a lot more active (crossfit style, training for marathon, etc...) then it probably won't be good for me. Considering that I only have time for the gym a few days a week & I'm too busy with my personal life at the moment to be able to spend a few hours each day exercising, then it's not really for me. Instead I'm doing the Atkins diet. I started the 2nd week of January and have lost about 13 pounds. They're kind of similar (kind of not), but Atkins restricts your carbs more..which is perfect if you're only moderately working out.

Find what works for you, and research the heck out of it before you dive right now. And good luck!!

Greytfish

Sure thing.

What makes you assume (and that is quite the assumption) that anything I wrote was fabricated?

I believe this poster was stating that orthorexia is a fabricated disorder as I also believe it is. It is just a way to try and make people that are paying attention to what they put in their mouth to seem as if they have something mentally wrong with them when there isn't.

Correct.

Kinda like fibromyalgia then?

Actually, no. Fibromyalgia has both medical diagnostic criteria and a differential diagnosis with Rheumatoid disorders and somataform disorder, as well as a medical diagnositic code. It's actually more than a few tick more legitimate.

Ferrous_Female_Dog

Also, OP, you've lost 65lbs... why would you change what you're doing? That's an incredible success.

*nods*

a_stronger_me13

"...if you already have an unhealthy relationship with food it can sometimes worsen it."

I think I did clarify that well enough.

ETA: Nowhere did I tell her to NOT do it. I said that it is unnecessary and not some magical way to lose weight. Calorie deficit yields weight loss, plain and simple. I also said that it's a good way to figure out if you have a food intolerance. Heaven forbid I voice my opinion and personal experience with the diet in question.

Its the condescending and I am better than you attitude with "your suggestion......."

The poster said they were happy eating that way and wasn't looking to change their WHOLE FOODS eating habits.

Sorry you chose to be offended by what I wrote, it was in no way condescending. It was a suggestion. :shrugs:

PaleoPath4Lyfe

I have been following the paleo/primal way of eating for over a year now and I will never go back. I was severely obese when I started and I have since lost 100 pounds. At first it was daunting giving up things like sugar and grains but now I don't miss that stuff at all. If i'm craving bread or cookies then I will make it, I just tweak the recipe to make it paleo. Even if I hadn't lost weight on paleo I would never go back to anything else because paleo isn't about weight loss for me, its about cutting out processed chemical laden foods and eating naturally. I would definitely recommend you give it a try.

Rethink the definition of a chemical... everything is made of them...

OP, it's a good way to figure out if you have any intolerances to food, but it works on the same premise as any diet, calorie deficit produces weightloss. If you can adhere to it, good for you, but it's not necessary to do a highly restrictive diet to find success and if you already have an unhealthy relationship with food it can sometimes worsen it. There's no magic behind it and there's plenty of people you'll find on this site doing "paleo" and "primal" and doing them half assedly, like paleo-fying existing food... the reason for eating that way isn't to cram the SAD into a pimal/paleo mold.

My suggestion, meet your macro nutrition goals, specifically protein and fat minimums, and enjoy some treats in moderation while staying within your calorie goal.

There someone goes from the "eat everything in moderation" bandwagon trying to tell someone that they need to eat treats and such....................Not everyone wants to eat that crap that was made in a factory.

Why do you care how someone else is eating?

doing things in moderation isn't a bandwagon. It's a concept that's been around for millenia. I believe some ancient greek philosophers taught that concept.

great if you never want to eat factory made foods. Most people want to eat them, and as it's possible for them to be healthy and lose fat while eating them in moderation, and a lot of people will find it a lot easier to stick to this in the long term than avoiding so many foods, there's nothing wrong with telling people they can do that.

What is moderation? There are just as many answers to that question as there is to What is Clean Eating. That is where the problem lies.

Most of the time when someone says moderation, it meant to say I eat this on occasion.

Other times I see people take moderation as I can have treats everyday and then they come onto MFP whining and crying asking people what is wrong with the way they are eating as they aren't losing any weight.

Personally, I can't really eat treats or I blow up like a balloon in water weight. Sometimes as much as 10 or 12 lbs overnight and then it takes weeks to take the weight off.

Fun living with Lupus, Hashimotos Thyroiditis, Diabetes and Adrenal gland issues.

Not everyone can eat treats and not everyone wants to either, especially after coming off years of not feeling well to find out going back to the way they were raised to eat Whole Foods and not eat crap alleviates the joint pain, muscle aches, twitches and spasms, etc.

Weight loss quickly becomes secondary to feeling well. I told the Dr I didn't care if I didn't lose 1 pound, I feel so much better cutting the processed crap that weight loss isn't a concern..........my well being is.

There are many people that feel the same way I do.

PaleoPath4Lyfe

Sounds like people can't even come to a consensus on what "Paleo" is, and even created a "primal" diet so they could try and feel superior while still eating foods they didn't want to cut out... eat whatever fuels your body for the task at hand, be wary of how you feel and get a few servings of fruit and veggies in a day.

Yep^^

Paleo isn't set in stone....................it is changeable and adaptable to a person's needs. And as someone else mentioned, it wasn't meant for weight loss...........it is for healing the body of modern day chronic illnesses while eating whole foods.

There is no way anyone can say that the Paleo lifestyle isn't healthy. Most people that adopt this lifestyle eat far more vegetables than the average person and the fats and proteins they intake are higher quality also.

J72FIT

Sounds like people can't even come to a consensus on what "Paleo" is, and even created a "primal" diet so they could try and feel superior while still eating foods they didn't want to cut out... eat whatever fuels your body for the task at hand, be wary of how you feel and get a few servings of fruit and veggies in a day.

Yep^^

Paleo isn't set in stone....................it is changeable and adaptable to a person's needs. And as someone else mentioned, it wasn't meant for weight loss...........it is for healing the body of modern day chronic illnesses while eating whole foods.

There is no way anyone can say that the Paleo lifestyle isn't healthy. Most people that adopt this lifestyle eat far more vegetables than the average person and the fats and proteins they intake are higher quality also.

Certainly not going to argue the health benefits of eating a diet consisting of nutrient dense foods... that said, the OP was looking for a way to "jumpstart" her stalled weight loss.

neandermagnon

I have been following the paleo/primal way of eating for over a year now and I will never go back. I was severely obese when I started and I have since lost 100 pounds. At first it was daunting giving up things like sugar and grains but now I don't miss that stuff at all. If i'm craving bread or cookies then I will make it, I just tweak the recipe to make it paleo. Even if I hadn't lost weight on paleo I would never go back to anything else because paleo isn't about weight loss for me, its about cutting out processed chemical laden foods and eating naturally. I would definitely recommend you give it a try.

Rethink the definition of a chemical... everything is made of them...

OP, it's a good way to figure out if you have any intolerances to food, but it works on the same premise as any diet, calorie deficit produces weightloss. If you can adhere to it, good for you, but it's not necessary to do a highly restrictive diet to find success and if you already have an unhealthy relationship with food it can sometimes worsen it. There's no magic behind it and there's plenty of people you'll find on this site doing "paleo" and "primal" and doing them half assedly, like paleo-fying existing food... the reason for eating that way isn't to cram the SAD into a pimal/paleo mold.

My suggestion, meet your macro nutrition goals, specifically protein and fat minimums, and enjoy some treats in moderation while staying within your calorie goal.

There someone goes from the "eat everything in moderation" bandwagon trying to tell someone that they need to eat treats and such....................Not everyone wants to eat that crap that was made in a factory.

Why do you care how someone else is eating?

doing things in moderation isn't a bandwagon. It's a concept that's been around for millenia. I believe some ancient greek philosophers taught that concept.

great if you never want to eat factory made foods. Most people want to eat them, and as it's possible for them to be healthy and lose fat while eating them in moderation, and a lot of people will find it a lot easier to stick to this in the long term than avoiding so many foods, there's nothing wrong with telling people they can do that.

What is moderation? There are just as many answers to that question as there is to What is Clean Eating. That is where the problem lies.

Most of the time when someone says moderation, it meant to say I eat this on occasion.

Other times I see people take moderation as I can have treats everyday and then they come onto MFP whining and crying asking people what is wrong with the way they are eating as they aren't losing any weight.

If it's causing them to gain weight, or to fail to lose weight when they need to (not even slowly) then it's not moderation.

Moderation is doing something within healthy limits. Just because some people get that wrong and go OTT and fail to meet their fitness goals because they think they're doing something in moderation when they're not, doesn't mean that there's no such thing as moderation.

People don't have difficulty defining moderation in other contexts, e.g. alcohol consumption. Someone who drinks a glass of wine most evenings, or someone who has a few glasses at a party every now and then is drinking alcohol in moderation. Someone who gets drunk every night is not. Someone who thinks they're drinking in moderation but frequently comes to work with a hangover, isn't actually being moderate at all. No-one's going to argue that there's no such thing as moderation based on one person's deluded idea of moderate when it comes to alcohol. So why throw out the whole idea of moderation with food because some people eat too much, believing that they're being moderate when they're not, then complain that they're fat?

Personally, I can't really eat treats or I blow up like a balloon in water weight. Sometimes as much as 10 or 12 lbs overnight and then it takes weeks to take the weight off.

Fun living with Lupus, Hashimotos Thyroiditis, Diabetes and Adrenal gland issues.

Not everyone can eat treats and not everyone wants to either, especially after coming off years of not feeling well to find out going back to the way they were raised to eat Whole Foods and not eat crap alleviates the joint pain, muscle aches, twitches and spasms, etc.

I've never argued against restricting certain foods for medical reasons, but it's illogical to say that because some people have issues because of certain foods, no-one should ever eat them, which is exactly what the "paleo" diet does.

It's certainly true (for example) that many ethnic groups have much higher levels of lactose intolerance because their populations have had no natural selection in favour of the ability to digest lactose as adults due to having no cultural history of dairy farming/herding, but that doesn't mean that people who are able to digest lactose shouldn't eat dairy. That's pretty much the basis on which the "paleo" diet was invented, i.e. "many people can't digest lactose because it's a recent addition to the human diet, therefore it's a bad food and should be avoided.... ditto with wheat etc." - this way of looking at it ignores the fact that natural selection in dairy farming/herding populations has resulted in people evolving the ability to digest lactose. Not only has this happened, it's actually happened at least twice, because the origin of the lactase persistence gene in the Masai people of Africa is totally separate to the lactase persistence gene in Europeans, i.e. this trait has evolved separately in two separate dairy farming/herding populations, and it's all happened in the last 10,000 years. So just because not everyone has that particular gene, it doesn't mean that those that do have it should never eat dairy, and it doesn't make dairy toxic or bad either.

I'm sure there's a similar thing going on with genes for digesting large quantities of grains and carbohydrates (versus smaller quantities similar to hunter-gatherer populations would have eaten) - but again the same thing applies. Natural selection didn't stop when humans invented farming, it actually sped up due to a) the change in diet and environment and b) increase in population size (which leads to more variation for natural selection to act upon). It probably is the case that genes that lead to inability to digest certain foods are older/more archaic than genes that code for the ability to digest those foods, but as before, there's no reason for people who *can* digest those foods to avoid them, and these foods shouldn't be universally considered to be bad and harmful. They're bad for some people, but not everyone. And no need to avoid things that are *not* making you ill.

Weight loss quickly becomes secondary to feeling well. I told the Dr I didn't care if I didn't lose 1 pound, I feel so much better cutting the processed crap that weight loss isn't a concern..........my well being is.

There are many people that feel the same way I do.

I'm sure there are, and I'm not going to argue with anyone who doesn't eat specific foods because of medical reasons. My argument is against those who then extrapolate this to the entire population, i.e. because they feel better avoiding certain foods, that no-one should eat them and/or that said foods are toxic. They're not toxic or harmful to the majority of people. Unfortunately the paleo diet sells the idea that a whole long list of foods are "not paleo" (without there being any actual scientific evidence for this in most cases) and that those foods are harmful to everyone, which is not true.

joan23_us

The caveman diet, I heard its SUPER difficult to keep with but has any one had success? I have hit a plateau and cant seem to lose weight, thought maybe changing the way i eat could help jumpstart my metabolism any suggestions or advice?

1. what's your calorie intake now
2. how much carbs are you consuming per day
3. how much workout resistance are you doing, days per week, duration, intensity, rest periods, sets, reps etc.
4. how much cardio are you doing, intensity, duration, etc.
5. how much sleep are you getting each night

IF ALL THIS THINGS ARE ALREADY OPTIMISED IMHO then its time for the paleo, at this point looks like you are losing enough not to warrant paleo, not that its not gonna work but it is extremely hard, you might only need to drop 30 grams of carbs from your daily intake to initiate fat loss again, or maybe cut down rest periods to 60 secs. instead of 90 secs. etc. there are plenty of variables you can play around before resorting to paleo. Try dropping carbs first to a further 10-20 grams and see if it works, goodluck.

I BELIEVE IN PALEO DIET, I think its great but i think its not necessary YET if you are seeing great results, if you are dropping carbs, essentially you might do a paleo diet style in the last stretches of your journey when there's no more carbs to cut down to anyways.... hopefully you dont reach that ;P

Whambam087

There is a lot I like about paleo/primal. The food is much more nutrient dense and filling and I really do feel better when I strive to eat this way. That being said I find I can still reap most of the benefits eating that way 80/20 so that's how I eat because there's no way I'm giving up yogurt or the occasional sandwich, pizza or treat completely.