Paleo Question

NinaSharp
NinaSharp Posts: 101 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been following the Paleo model for about a month now, and I have a rather ironic question. Ironic because I think about two weeks ago, I posted that I was starving during the night. After a few diet tweaks, I have a new problem...I'm almost never hungry. It's almost like my hunger alarm never goes off, so I eat when I'm tired of waiting or rather because I think I should. The reason this is a problem, is that I'm trying to build muscle. I've heard that with Paleo, one should generally eat when hungry. I generally feel like I'm forcing myself to eat, because quite frankly, I'm worried that I'm not getting all of my calories. I've currently set myself to eat 1800 in a day, but most days, I get 1300, or 1500. Is this a problem with anyone else? Should I just ignore it and keep eating all of my calories (forcing myself to rather) or just let it go and eat when hungry? I'm worried that not eating enough will hurt my ability to gain muscle.

Replies

  • kgeyser
    kgeyser Posts: 22,505 Member
    Bumping because I saw jof around a few minutes ago, he bulked while doing Paleo and would probably be able to answer your question. Hopefully he'll see this.
  • tk101259
    tk101259 Posts: 4
    Typically the Caveman went without food for days at a time, when they couldn't find food. Maybe your fuelling your body efficiently and you should just go with it. Good luck
  • IllustratedxGirl
    IllustratedxGirl Posts: 240 Member
    Well if you're trying to build muscle you need to eat at a calorie surplus.. And that just won't happen at 1300-1500 calories a day. I'm not sure what the number should be for gaining muscle, but it has to be over 2000
  • princessbride42
    princessbride42 Posts: 67 Member
    Before I started Paleo I was always hungry or at least feeling like I needed to eat. Since I've been doing Paleo (2 years) I often can go 5-6 hours before needing to eat. It's awesome. I do find that when I get hungry finally I get VERY hungry. I generally still love eating food so I just eat at regular meal times. And yes, I do eat about 1800 a day.
  • lindsey1979
    lindsey1979 Posts: 2,395 Member
    I think there are quite a few people that feel this way when bulking --- that they have to force themselves to eat more than they want to or feel hungry for. I'd say go with what you feel, so long as you're getting a minimum number of calories. Like if you started to go below 1000-1200, then I'd be worried. But since you said you want to bulk, you'll need to eat more. To get in the extra calories, look to some of the starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes or calorie dense foods like nuts, nut butters, coconut milk, coconut oil, etc.
  • wwwsam
    wwwsam Posts: 10
    Bulking and strengthening are two different things. For the most part women who bulk up are bodybuilding professionals who want muscle on top of muscle. When you Bulk up sometimes up to half the weight you gain is fat and the rest muscle depending on how many calories you eat over surplus. What I'm assuming is you want is to increase your strength. You can still acheive that by eating below a surplus just make sure you are receiving enough Protein to feed your muscle. I'm not sure of your workout routine but lifting heavy weights will increase strength. Lifting heavy will also drain you and your body will tell you when you will need to eat more. Also as the previous commenter said, taking in calorie dense foods my personal favorite is Coconut oil. Not only will adding a tablespoon to each of your meals give you an additional 360 Calories. It's fat content is about 60% MCT (Medium-chain triglyceride) which the body uses immediately as fuel for energy to give you a nice boost!

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