Paleo Diet

I'm on day 50 of a 60 day challenge. Most people do it as a challenge (30, 45, 60, or 90 days) rather than a diet. It isn't really sustainable in the long run.

It is going back to the basics, fruits, nuts, vegetables, and lean meat. No starches, grains or processed foods. Some versions of it allow for green/black tea and black coffee. Others are strictly water.

I've enjoyed it as a challenge. It really is clean eating but, without any grains or starches I couldn't do it long term. Coming out of it after day 60 I'm going to slowly add back the foods I've been without.

I tried the Paleo Diet and ended up gaining weight from all the nuts and meat.

I've lost about 15 lbs. on it but, have limited the nuts and stuck to lean meat, veggies and fruit. That being said, I'm always full and have a really difficult time getting enough calories in.

I'm on day 50 of a 60 day challenge. Most people do it as a challenge (30, 45, 60, or 90 days) rather than a diet. It isn't really sustainable in the long run.

It is going back to the basics, fruits, nuts, vegetables, and lean meat. No starches, grains or processed foods. Some versions of it allow for green/black tea and black coffee. Others are strictly water.

I've enjoyed it as a challenge. It really is clean eating but, without any grains or starches I couldn't do it long term. Coming out of it after day 60 I'm going to slowly add back the foods I've been without.

I agree. I, personally, don't think that a Paleo lifestyle is maintainable for a lot of people (some, yes... most, no). I've been thinking about doing a Paleo Challenge myself, but I'm really worried about what will happen when I start eating carbs and dairy and whatnot again... So, I haven't done it.

PS. The downside is that it's more expensive than the typical diet. Grains are extremely cheap per calorie, so when you cut them out you pay more to eat the same number of calories.

Once I sat down and calculated the "price per 300 calories" for the foods I usually eat. I won't lie - it's expensive. My food costs pretty much doubled. I'm still on the diet after a year and a half because the health benefits I experienced were worth the extra cost to me. I have a better quality of life on this diet.

I've heard of Paleo dieters with more reasonable food costs than me - sometimes buying food directly from farmers in bulk helps. Unfortunately I live alone and can't eat a half CSA share all by myself, and I also don't have the freezer space to buy half a cow and freeze it. :P So I still just buy food in the meat, fish, and produce sections of the grocery store.

Nuts are the cheapest thing per calorie that I eat, but I don't want to get too many of my calories from nuts because they're very calorie-dense and not very filling!

Hope this helps ... and anyone curious about the Paleo diet is welcome to friend me and browse my food log if you're curious.

Does it work? Do you have to cut all your wheat, rice, pasta, etc out? How hard is it to stick to?

If done correctly, ANY diet will work.

You just have to find out which will work for you.

I prefer not to cut anything out of my nutrition plans which means I don't do paleo. I find that cutting out anything completely means I will just have outrageous cravings that lead to binging.

As far as the OP's original question "how hard is it to stick to?" It's not. Initially you may get what some refer to as "carb flu" (kind of a withdrawal) but after that it's pretty smooth sailing. Cutting out sugars, wheat, grains, etc I have no cravings for these things and don't miss them. From what I've experienced, WHEN you have these things in your diet you crave them more.

This is true for me as well.

This has truly been a lifestyle CHANGE for me.
I won't go back to my old way of eating.
Very sustainable way of eating for me.

my son has celiac which means he has to eliminate all gluten. He lives off the concept of this diet. He feels great. I chose to follow the same diet and I also feel great. Its alot like eating clean. Well its really eating clean because you are not eating processed foods which our bodies are not designed to eat. More and more people are finding themselves gluten intolerant and diabetic because our bodies were not designed to eat the way we do now. So our bodies are fighting back and not reforming to this unnatural diet. I feel its a great lifestyle and not a diet that you would follow 30, 60 ,or 90 days because I am very much against those fad diets that restrict you. I feel one should choose a healthy lifestyle and live it and love it!

Been on Paleo/Primal since the first of the year, down 46 pounds, and there is no, none, nodda cravings for junk like grains and sugars, THIS IS THE BEST DIET OUT THERE, PERIOD

As far as the OP's original question "how hard is it to stick to?" It's not. Initially you may get what some refer to as "carb flu" (kind of a withdrawal) but after that it's pretty smooth sailing. Cutting out sugars, wheat, grains, etc I have no cravings for these things and don't miss them. From what I've experienced, WHEN you have these things in your diet you crave them more.

I eased into it slowly and managed to avoided the carb withdrawal but I did get really bad cheese withdrawal.

Before I tried the Paleo diet, I had already cut out all refined sugar and junk food, because sugar has always given me headaches and made my skin feel icky. So my pre-Paleo diet consisted of whole wheat bread, cheese, milk, Shredded Wheat, peanut butter, fruit, eggs, and occasional chicken.

At first I replaced grains and milk with more meat and vegetables and different kinds of nuts, but I continued to eat cheese. A few months later, I removed cheese because it was giving me withdrawal headaches if I went more than a day without eating it. I had to phase out cheese very gradually because of the withdrawal headaches.

Cheese was definitely the hardest for me to give up! My withdrawal headaches were migraines bad enough to bring me to tears. It was horrible. But I haven't had a single headache since then.

I think Paleo plus gluten-free grains would be a good option for people who want to try it but don't want to give up grains just yet. Lots of people are sensitive to gluten grains without even realizing it - but non-gluten grains tend to be less problematic.

I personally had no idea that I was sensitive to gluten until I stopped eating it. Depressed, anxious, and needing 10 hours of sleep per night ... I thought that just me and the way I was. It wasn't ... it was from gluten.