Paleo 'Diet' Your experiences and reviews

from those i have talked i sure sounds like a good diet, could go that way except one thing.... I aint given up my cheese.
though technically i should not eat cheese lactose intolerant, but see that wont even make me give up cheese

WHY EAT PALEO - it's a long read but full of great info and links to supported scientific data:

http://www.fitbomb.com/p/why-i-eat-paleo.html

Thanks for posting this--this guy and his wife (fantastic recipes on her blog!) do a good job of explaining. Easy to point to friends and family who think you've lost your mind :-)

Again I don't want to attack anyone for their diet choice. I'm just saying be careful, and drink tons of water because metabolism of proteins produces uric acid, which is carried in the blood to your kidneys.

Hydrostatic pressure forces solutes + water across a nonselective membrane into the tubule system. Water + essential solutes necessary to maintain homeostasis are drawn out through a combination of selective membranes, active transport, and a solute gradient on the inside of your kidneys (in the afferent tubules + loop of Henle).

The one solute that is always excreted is uric acid- nitrogen waste. When you consume a lot of protein, and your water intake does not increase proportionally, the mechanisms for purifying urine in your renal system are not sufficient. Uric acid can precipitate into a solid. Because the urea raises the molarity of ur urine, it'll promote calcium binding to oxalate which can form kidney stones also.

We watched a kidney operation (due to insolvable stones) in Physio last week, and those rocks were not pretty. Just make sure you're drinking plenty of water to dissolve the excess urea, if you do choose to do paleo. Good luck.

I am currently undergoing medically supervised weight loss through a hospital and all of the M.D.'s and nutritionists tell their patients the same thing - "there are no essential carbohydrates" - period. I was actually surprised to find this out.

The eating plan that I am following is quite similar to a paleo diet - though with dairy if one chooses (though I guess that would make it more South Beach rather than tru Paleo.) I have a long way to go to get to a healthy BMI and I have just begun but my daily recommendations are 120g of protein, 50-100g carbs, and 50-60g of fat spread out over 5-7 meals, eating every 2-3 hours. So far so good - If I adhere to the nutritionists guidelines, I am rarely hungry...though I do have moments, I am still trying to break the carb habit and that can be rough some days.

Thinking about starting a paleo lifestyle, with "cheat" days one or two days out of the month (I live near a really good Mexican restaurant, and their homemade tortilla chips are great!). What were some of your struggles when you started? And is almond milk an okay drink?

This lifestyle (Primal/Paleo) is very interesting to me. So today my Hubby and I went to the Bookstore and bought $100.00 worth of books & cookbooks on this life style. I have made my mind up to do it. However, I have a question for you guys that have been living this life style. I noticed in a couple of the cook books I purchased, the nutrional facts (calories) are over the top. How do you control your calories on this? Are you even watching your calories, carbs, etc?

I am asking because I am a diabetic, high cholesterol, stage 3 hypertension and to top it off failing blood vessels in my left eye. Causing me to go blind. While I am a bit over weight (20 lbs.) I am not obese by any medial standard. I do believe that the type of food I eat is causing all this now that I am middle age. But I must admit that I am concerned about the calorie levels in the servings.

Please help me understand how you are losing weight and not worrying about how much you eat. I am truly interested in eating as clean as possible but I have to get the 20lbs. off asap and it must stay off forever. So how are you doing it? Do you log your calories?

Well, we all come to paleo/primal for different reasons. Some people feel okay on their previous diets, and do it because of the promise of better long term health. I came to it because I gave all the other healthy diets the good college try (basic balanced, regular vegetarian, low-fat vegetarian, vegan, whole foods), and I found it very hard to lose weight, sometimes gained weight (I gained weight being vegan!), and sometimes just felt vaguely unwell.

I then tried Atkins and felt pretty wonderful...but the 2 weeks of induction and the scientific counting of carbs and all the rungs were too complicated for me. I'm a bit of a simpleton, I have to admit. But the one thing I took from Atkins was the realization that I was wheat intolerant, and that I generally felt better without all those whole grains, and that I am at my best running on fat (I'm actually not much of a meat person, oddly enough).

I eat primal because it is so simple...the simplest thing in the world. Not always easy, but simple. And I am good with simple. I'm not exactly a bikini model, but I'm at a healthy weight. And I do not spend an hour and a half on the elliptical machine. The only time I gain weight is when I start sneaking grains back into my diet...when the occasional splurge starts to happen all the time. When that happens, I cut them out, and the weight goes away. Simple.