Advice

asoeung

Greetings! I know you probably see these posts a lot, but I'm looking for some second opinions. I've been eating Primal for almost two months now - about 80% of the time. When I started I was 130 lbs. I was really encouraged a couple weeks ago because the scale got down to 126 lbs, but now as of this morning I'm back up to 128.8 lbs. It's not dramatic enough for me to think "OMG I'm gaining weight" (could just be a weird fluctuation as I seem to do) yet, but I figured it would be a good time to have some others weigh in on my eating. I'm struggling mainly with figuring out how many carbs I need to be getting.
My diary is public, I am very dilligent about logging everything during the day, but sometimes don't always go back and put in dinner, however Monday 8/20 and Tuesday 8/21 of this week I logged everything, so those two days are a good example of how I'm eating throughout the day.

A little bit about me - I'm 5'5", and I'm a fitness instructor teaching a spin class, a cardio weightlifting-type class, and a mixed martial arts class, teaching about 5-6 classes a week and that's usually the extent of my workouts. I used to be one of the "chronic cardio" people who would workout twice a day for at least an hour each time, but I'm cutting that back quite a bit. I started Primal at 130 lbs, so I don't really have a LOT to loose, I just have that visceral "spare tire" fat around my belly that hasn't budged after years of exercise.

Thanks, all!

samcorvus

I took a look at your diary and everything seems ok. Personally I have my carbs set to 5% or 19g/day because I want to be in ketosis. I have a ton to lose. When you do not have a ton to lose ketosis is not perfect at decreasing weight so it is not something you should force yourself to do if you're comfortable without.

Primal/paleo, while being relatively low in carbs, is not really about losing weight but rather building a healthier body. The increased protein consumption does wonders for packing on lean body mass. There are some on here who claim you can only gain muscle with a calorie surplus. This is from a misunderstanding about the processes involved. It is not the calories being in excess but rather the presence of surplus protein as the body stores protein in the muscles. Though, if you've been reading the forums, this will sound utterly cliche, it is highly possible you are burning fat, gaining muscle, and retaining water in the fat cells.

If it was me, and I still wanted to lose weight, I'd reduce the sugars and replace them with fat or fiber.

I hope this helps you,

S,

Edited because of auto correct.

mehaugen

You seem extremely active and going VLC could make your body think it is under stress. It has been shown that only extremely overweight women benefit the most from a VLC diet. In a normal weight female, it messes up hormones. It definitely messed up mine. 100g of carbs in the form of glucose would be a good goal, and eliminating fructose would probably help with your belly fat. 100g of carbs is still "low carb" compared to the SAD. Search for "safe starches" and cut out the fruit, except bananas and berries. Even though your carbs are higher, a small calorie deficit (1/2-1lb/wk) should still give you some fat loss, in addition to strength training and a moderate protein diet. You can check out my journal, I aim for high fat, ~75-100g protein, ~50-100g carb.

asoeung

Thanks for your input, both of you! I was, at first, trying to keep it around 100 carbs/day and that's when I got down to 126, and then about 3 days ago I tried to lower it a bit to around 70g carbs/day, and that's when the scale started to creep back up. I will try and up my non-fruit carbs just a little bit throughout the day.

Thanks, again!