General Weight Loss, Low Carb, and/or Primal Paleo Tips

Interested in going low carb &/or paleo/primal?

This is my experience. Everyone is different so don’t hold me to any of this as “fact” or that it is best for everyone. I have just done a lot of research, spoken with many many people who have had awesome results from this and altered my life and this is what seems to work for me and what my opinions are on it all. I truly wish I had known all of this my whole life, but you live and you learn and I wanted to spread the word in case it is something that changes your life as it has for me! If you are losing as is, then keep doing what you are doing! But if you are looking for a boost, it is worth a try. I was a vegetarian for about 4 years and at first I did lose weight and maintained it fairly well. But over time I was adding more and more carbs and didn’t realize it was a bad thing since I only really focused on calories. I started working out like crazy most days and was not losing really any fat or weight. I got beyond frustrated and did not understand what I was doing wrong. I finally became fed up from feeling bloated, lethargic, working extremely hard, and not seeing ANY results at all. After researching a lot and asking people what worked for them, etc, I decided to first go primal/paleo, then low carb. I already had a healthy diet, but it was high carb, low fat & pretty low protein. I started by cutting out grains completely, including corn, then began eating meat again (shockingly!!-truly felt this could change all of my frustrations though) and worked my net carbs down to 100g, then 75g, then 50g, now 35g which is where I will stay on my regular days until I get to my goal, which is only a few pounds away now. I eat mostly meat & veggies and some cheese (which is not in the paleo diet), with occasional fruit and potatoes. On my free days I eat literally whatever I want – though this is far different from when I started all of this! So here are some random tips/ideas/things that I do that you may want to consider:

This is what I do: 6 days on, 1 day off (Saturday): Usually only eat from 11am-7pm or so on the on days. About 1200 cals, >100g protein, and <35g net carbs. On my free day I consume about 2000 calories and about 150 net carbs, sometimes even more (though I don’t really gain much because my body is a fat burning machine still during that day!). When I crave something during my on days I usually tell myself I can handle waiting the couple days til the free day.

--6 days on, 1 day off --- or you could do it differently. Atkins doesn’t have days off. Research is varied so nothing is fact. I just worry that my body’s metabolism, etc will be changed if I am constantly low carb. But I also feel that maybe having more days on before the free day could help in the case of ketosis (see below). I also notice the day off helps to spike my weight loss significantly. I only gain about a pound and lose that within a day, but my weight goes significantly lower following that. Without the day off I seem to lose much much slower. One important thing is to make sure you don’t have more than 1 free day back to back. I have done this, and that is when significant weight gain can kick in – I have gained up to 5 lbs in just 2 days, but usually only 1 lb when its 1 day at a time).

--Net carbs are what is important, not total carbs really (which is carbs minus fiber basically).

---protein is very important not only for muscle recovery (I no longer get sore no matter how strenuous the workouts are!!) but also for fat burning and energy.

---lots of water is very important for fat loss among everything else for your body to function – please take my word for this, this is FACT and dehydration is nothing to mess around with. If you feel thirsty at all then you already are way too low on water.

---the big misconception: the idea is to find your maintenance level by starting low (to lose weight) and slowly work your way up – adding about 5g net carbs per week until you stop losing – then you know where to maintain --- so this is for life!

---work your way down to low carb, you don’t have to just jump right into it

---cutting grains while going low carb is the best bet (see http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-grains-are-unhealthy/) – some disagree – but this has had a enormous impact on my life! I occasionally have them on my day off as I am now closer to my goals, but I still try to avoid them as much as possible as they make my body feel bloated and lethargic. I would much rather get the carbs from potatoes or a more natural source.

--paleo/primal is eating the way our long ago ancestors would have – meats, veggies, fruit, some nuts, etc – even if not followed strictly this helps significantly in the low carb diet as this and low carb help you to make better decisions by looking at what is in products & avoiding processed foods, etc.

--by eating paleo/primal & low carb, you likely do not even need to focus at all on calories. I notice it is hard to get in enough cals as I feel full, but not bloated, and I rarely ever go over, and when I do it does not seem to matter.

-ketosis – when your liver’s glycogen stores (from carbs) are depleted so your body resorts to burning fat stores as a source of energy: (Wikipedia: If the diet is changed from a highly glycemic diet to a diet that does not provide sufficient carbohydrate to replenish glycogen stores, the body goes through a set of stages to enter ketosis. During the initial stages of this process, blood glucose levels are maintained through gluconeogenesis, and the adult brain does not burn ketones; however, the brain makes immediate use of ketones for lipid synthesis in the brain. After about 48 hours of this process, the brain starts burning ketones in order to more directly use the energy from the fat stores that are being depended upon, and to reserve the glucose only for its absolute needs, thus avoiding the depletion of the body's protein store in the muscles.)

Some resources that helped me along the way:
The Atkins diet --- even though I did not follow this it helped to teach me the main ideas of low carb
PRIMAL LIFESTYLE:
** http://infographic.paleolithicdiet.com/
marksdailyapple.com
http://everydaypaleo.com/
http://paleodietlifestyle.com/
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/246360-low-carb-primal-grain-free-sources
http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/
http://arthurdevany.com/
http://freetheanimal.com/
http://drbganimalpharm.blogspot.com/
http://www.archevore.com/panu-weblog/?currentPage=2
http://robbwolf.com/
http://paleohacks.com/#axzz1QndiZAoN
RECIPES:
http://paleopot.com/ & just search low carb recipes on google – there are tons of sites