Paleo Diet?

It is healthy, but fairly restrictive, which bring up compliance long term as a cave bear bone of contention.......

I've been working with what I call "semi-Paleo". I keep my eating clean and mostly carb free, most definitely refined sugar, artificial sweetner, preservative, and wheat free. I include limited dairy (lowfat milk and greek yogurt mainly) because I think that the calcium and vitamin D is good for you. You're right when you say its fairly restrictive but after a while you learn to eat creatively. Especially when you have a toddler and a picky hubby like I do. They don't follow a Paleo lifestyle, and nor do any of my other family members, so I have to get really creative going out to eat when and where they do so I joke that I eat a lot of chicken and lettuce. The hard part is keeping your calorie count up, but high calorie foods like avocados and nuts like almonds help with that. I know that most restaurants probably don't use preservative-free, antibiotic-free, free-range organic chicken and hand corn fed fish, but you do what you have to do sometimes, and most of us can't afford a lifestyle like that, hence the "semi-Paleo". I guess it could also be called a "working mom's Paleo lifestyle". Either way, its worth it. I've lost almost 30 lbs in the past 3 months and I feel wonderful! I think tweaking the diet/lifestyle to meet your needs but keeping the underlying roots is a pretty good route to go when starting out, and I know, the hardcore Paleo's will choke when they read that but it really does work for me that way. There are lots of websites with great recipes and guides on how to keep up the lifestyle on a budget, just google. Hit Pinterest and search "Paleo" if nothing else! Eating this way takes some getting used to, I won't lie, but once you are used to clean eating, fried food, rich sweet foods, and the like aren't even good anymore! GOOD LUCK!

I lost 150lbs on WW. Because it was "tried and true" for me, I was petrified to switch to anything else. However, I have been up and down and not making anymore progress since losing that initial 150 since August 2010.

April 15 I started the Whole30 challenge, which is essentially Paleo but no sweets, grains, dairy.
http://whole9life.com/2012/08/the-whole30-program/

Like I said I was mortified to try anything else because there is no tracking, weighing your food or weighing yourself on this program. Another "hard to let go of" habit because journaling and tracking is so so so important in WW. 15 days into this though I am completely sold. I admit I had to weigh in becasue of a work contest (biggest loser buy in) and I was down 13 lbs in 11 days. For once in my life I also feel SATISFIED and let me tell you I can put away large amounts of food (You don't get to 387lbs eating like a bird).

Even though the Whole30 is extreme, come May 15 I plan to keep Paleo mostly and reintroduce some things and see how they truly affect me or not. Before going on it, I was a frozen yogurt junkie....also love wine and beer. My first thing I am pretty sure will be a glass of wine

Anyway, I also love how the design the program to be realistic - saying that they know you're not going to eat like that all the time. "regular" paleo you can use almond or coconut flour to make paleo friendly desserts and stuff so I'm diggin it.

Good luck whichever way you go. You may not want to go Whole30 obviously, because I just personally needed that extreme to jumpstart me back on track, but I am wholeheartedly a believer in this way of eating even if it's 90/10.

If you already have to cut dairy why do you want to cut out other things as well?
For example then you would cut out soy milk.
It's much easier to eat clean without restricting food groups. I was Paleo for like 2 days.

Paleo is a diet filled to the brim with great ideas... and then taken to bat-crap-crazy extremes.

Lower your gluten and carbs? Good idea. Minimize the dairy on top of it? Swell... we Americans tend to eat way too much gluten and dairy (it is, after all, a national pastime to put cheese on anything that sits still more than 5 minutes).

But paleo takes that to levels it doesn't need to be at. A little gluten isn't bad, and dairy can actually be downright good for you.

Paleo is a diet filled to the brim with great ideas... and then taken to bat-crap-crazy extremes.

Lower your gluten and carbs? Good idea. Minimize the dairy on top of it? Swell... we Americans tend to eat way too much gluten and dairy (it is, after all, a national pastime to put cheese on anything that sits still more than 5 minutes).

But paleo takes that to levels it doesn't need to be at. A little gluten isn't bad, and dairy can actually be downright good for you.

I agree with this generally. While I'm doing Whole30 I do feel it's a bit extreme, but honestly like I said I'm sold and it works. I intend to reintroduce a bit of dairy, grains and alcohol when it's over separately to see if it truly affects me, kind of like an experiment. But I can say right now I feel really good and am having fun finding new foods and recipes to try and I'm seeing results. So I would say just try it for a few weeks.

If it's called "The ________ Diet", I'd advise against it.

Primal and Paleo are two different ball games, Paleo is quite restrictive, but if you eat the Primal Blueprint way, its far less restrictive, and in fact you can eat dairy, the recommendation is just not to eat breads, pastas, rices, noodles, etc. hardly that restrictive, thats one group of foods.

I agree that Primal probably makes more sense for the long haul. I would have a quite a bit of difficulty going without dairy, as it is a major source of protein for me (red meat aggravates my arthritis). I use the cleanest kind of dairy I can find--organic raw milk cheddar from grass-fed cows, organic yogurt and New Zealand whey protein. I do eat organic eggs (every day) and a bit of chicken and fish. I eat a lot of vegetables and some low-fructose fruit every day. Never get any cravings other than for really healthy things. Believe it or not---I actually crave spinach.

I think that it is likely that sugar (and perhaps gluten) creates appetite distortions that keep us from responding to what our body actually needs. A friend of mine, who enjoys great health, teaches that it is important to listen to what your body "hums" for. She says though, that it is impossible to hear it "humming" when "the band is loudly playing the sugar-song" I do find that there is an inverse relationship between sugar consumption and the desire to eat nourishing food. The more sugar you eat, the less desire you have for nourishing food. (Ever notice, during the holidays, how the healthy foods sit in the frig and rot while everyone is busy noshing on cookies?)

Going Primal was a bit of a process. I never eat ADDED sugar (sucrose) and haven't for three years. I don't ever miss it and am happy just to eat a serving of fruit when I get a desire for something sweet. (I figure it is my body's way of letting me know that I need something in the fruit.)

Then I cut out all wheat about two years ago (I have something of an intolerance for gluten anyway). But I was still eating one piece of organic whole-rye sourdough bread a day. Then, a few months ago, I decided to stop that to see if going completely gluten-free (rye has gluten) would be good. My arthritis improved immediately, and now it is so much better that I decided to stay gluten-free for life. I still eat a serving of steel-cut oats (they are gluten-free) on my heavier exercise days. And I eat starchy vegetables like potatoes and carrots, etc. for my carbohydrates. Works for me, I am completely satisfied with the diet I eat, and I feel better than I have felt in a very long while.

So you only eat fruits that don't contain any sucrose?

curious as well

Since the beginning of the year, I've alternated between eating completely grain- and dairy-free, and falling back to just gluten free. Cutting out gluten has been amazing for my skin and seasonal allergies. Cutting out dairy helps my voice (important, because I'm a singer), and my skin and allergies, too, to some extent. I've lost a little weight and an inch all around, and I wasn't that big to begin with.

I have read the Primal Blueprint (Mark Sisson) and the Paleo Solution (Robb Wolf) and while there's probably some level of speculation in both cases with regards to the details of nutritional and fitness advice, the inflammation/insulin/Omega-3 fatty acid information presented is based on a number of rigorous scientific studies, cited in both books. I'd be interested to know what specific objections people have.

I do think different solutions work for different people. It has to be the right combination for your psychology, personality and genes.

Personally, I find that a high fat/high protein/low carb diet satisfies me on fewer calories, so it makes it easier to stay under my calorie limit on MFP (just under 1600). I have more energy, more consistently throughout the day, without big peaks and crashes. I think if you carefully watch how your body feels and reacts as you track what you're eating, you'll find the strategy that works best for you.