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I stalled for almost 9 months on low carb but I felt so great there was no way I was going to go back to eating carbs. I finally busted my stall when I figured out I was not eating enough! Now that I've upped the calories, weight is coming off again. And I feel so good that I want to shout it from the rooftops.

Yesterday I got up early (I am NOT a morning person) to walk around the lake before it got too warm (last week it was 90 and miserable). I just felt so wonderful. 10 months ago I was dying, literally. I wish I could go back and tell that fat, sick person I was that it was going to turn around. I didn't know that then.

This is not just about weightloss, health is first and foremost.

I kind of knew this would happen, I've been doing LCHF for a bit over a month, and needed to expand on the foods I have been eating as I tend to get in to a rut of boring meals. I bought, The Paleo Diet by: Lauren Cordain, Ph.D. yesterday and finished it today. Well, this seems to have a LOT of contrary statistics and beliefs when compared to the LCHF eating style. So confusion has once again set in as it has on all the many, many, diets, lifestyle changes, eating plans I've tried over the past 45 years. This seems to be what causes me to sabotage my efforts every time! Eggs all you want, no limit, dairy full fat, no dairy, lots of fruit, limit fruit, and oh my word FAT, bacon yes, bacon very limited, butter no, butter yes! No wonder so many of us fail.
I sure would appreciate all the comments you folks have, as I am about to dive into some other crazy diet! Some Soup thing going around my school, but folks are loving it and losing 20 lbs. in 2 weeks. YES, YES, I know from experience this is NOT healthy, but what the heck I've spent $40 bucks on two conflicting so called medically based BOOKS!
I really need some help here, I have 25 pounds I MUST get rid of. My spine is crumbling.
Thanks to everyone who has some input to help me!!

portiemom wrote:Thanks to everyone who has some input to help me!!

Not sure this will help, but here's a thought I shared with some folks the other day. Every diet guru, be it a medical professional or otherwise, and every religious teacher, be it Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or what have you, share a common characteristic - NONE of them has the absolute answer!

portiemom wrote: Thanks to everyone who has some input to help me!!

This "diet" is working with YOUR BODY. You have already said you feel better. Ignore the rest, stay on course.
You have made a lifestyle change, you are not "on a diet". This is much more powerful then cabbage soup.

Some bodies will not respond to the Paleo eating lifestyle, many will. Yours does. You don't want to lose weight fast, it is not good for the body and it will cause your body to go into starvation mode where it will not lose more.

I watched this documentary yesterday.... really interesting and thought provoking. It is a brand new film, and it is not available in stores or via streaming. I purchased my copy.... well worth it! http://www.perfecthumandiet.com/collections/frontpage

Portiemom, a couple things. First, I think both camps (Paleo and LCHF) would agree that one should reduce or limit refined carbs. 2nd, all refined carbs come from processed foods. Ergo, eliminate processed foods. If you are trying to lose weight, reduce foods high in starch and sugars like potatoes and some fruits as well. If you reduce the amount of carbs in your diet, then you will have to make up those calories somewhere. Fat seems the logical choice.
So, if you eat a reasonably balanced diet of meats, vegetables and some fruit without processed food, you should pretty much obtain the benefits of both the Paleo and LCHF diets. This is what I have done and it's worked pretty well for me. I have quite eating all processed foods except some dairy (cheeses and creams), olive oil, and coconut oil. I am no expert, I've just taken what I've read and tried to apply some common sense without putting a label on it.

Jay

P.S. I consider all grains to be processed.

Jay Aitchsee wrote: Jay

P.S. I consider all grains to be processed.

Yes and if you had to harvest and grind them with a rock yourself they wouldn't be as bad for you because it is bloody hard work.

Thanks idamtnboy, BlackSpinner, Emilia, and Jay, for setting me back on course! I have been on the LCHF, eating NO grains, very little full fat dairy some cheese, and maybe one or two full fat yogurts for protein smoothies, lots of eggs and some nitrate free bacon as well. Veggies stir fry in EVOO, and some coconut oil too. I have eaten a banana on some mornings, but all this conflicting information was and is making me crazy....not far to go either. I guess the mayo, butter, bacon thingy really confuses me. Thanks for the comments and advice, I guess I just want someone to say eat this not that, so I can feel like I'm not screwing up yet another lifestyle choice. At my age, I need to stop messing up.
Thanks again you folks!!

Keep in mind that to some people, "paleo" is more than a way of eating--it is a way of living...I've read some blogs where it seems to reach a level of a religion with the adherents. In that light, there are things that paleo adherents won't eat because it is not considered "authentic" enough, i.e., did real cavemen eat bacon? So a lot of decisions about what to eat have that thought as a foundation--it is not all based on what works well health wise and in a run-of-the-mill LCHF way of eating.

Also understand that there is a branch of the paleo folks who DO eat starches and actively promote them...but what you need to know is that regardless of the arguments they may make for eating potatoes, the people making these claims are usually young and extremely fit--they do not have broken metabolisms nor have they yo-yo dieted for years, etc. I think that some people probably can eat some starches with no ill effects; I will never be one of them because my metabolism is very broken and it may never completely heal. You may or may not be able to eat them.

Bottom line? As others have said, stay the course doing what works for you. There is no quick fix--and anything that allows you to lose weight quickly is probably going to harm your metabolism in some way. LCHF is really a lifestyle, but you need to choose what works for you and ignore the groups that are over-the-top and/or populated by people who do paleo for more reasons than feeling healthier.

I think Cordain has some very good points, but I also think that some of his advice and ideas are definitely aimed at an audience much different than me with my broken metabolism. I don't know where you fall on that spectrum, but when you read his book, keep that in mind. I get some great recipes from various paleo sites, but I don't buy into the "eat some starches" thing and I sure don't buy into the whole idea of "would a caveman have eaten that?" I like my bacon and heavy cream and no one is taking them away!

Weezy

Thanks Weezy, you have made some very interesting and observant points. I have noticed much less joint pain since I've been LCHF and that is a great advantage, and I have been able to cut way back on some of my medications. Meat is hard for me but I am tolerating it well, sometimes it's a mind over matter issue for me, so breakfast can be hard. I do not miss bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, but I miss bananas, so I may eat one every two days or so. I have made some protein powder smoothies, so I will begin to experiment with various berries. Again, thank you for your great advice!

People who do best on Paleo (with more fruits and starchy veggies than low carb) tend to be younger, healthier, more athletic, IMHO. In fact. There's a raging debate going on between the low carb and Paleo "camps" about the wisdom of including so-called "safe starches" in the diet. ("Safe" in this case refers to certain starchy vegetables that are considered "safe" because they do not have the phytates of some other plants--this is the theory of Dr. Paul Jaminet).

So called "safe starches" are not necessarily safe for everyone, even Dr. Jaminet agrees. If you have a very impaired insulin metabolism, then you may not be able to tolerate these safe starches. The best way to tell is to use them carefully in your diet if at all, and test and monitor your body's own response. I do so with a glucometer. I find I'm OK with very small amountts (eg. 1 oz of sweet potato) but more raises my blood sugar alarmingly.

What you are going to find is variances and differences of opinion. Once you get "keto-adapted" you can figure out what works for you and what doesn't. Your head will spin if you try to follow everyone's plan. I say pick one primary path to follow and if you find you can incoprorate a little here and there from others, that's fine. But don't try to skip from theory to theory--read with a critical eye and make changes slowly if what you are doing is working well for you.

I'm primarily low carb, but I've included paleo principles into my diet, for example, I mostly eat real, whole foods, avoid grains and legumes, eat grass fed and finished pastured animal products as much as possible, I eat liver, marrow, and bone broth regularly. I eat a variety of fermented foods. I don't eat many processed foods. I eat very small servings of the "safe starches" but keep my overall carb intake very low (20 to 30 grams per day). So if you asked me, I'd say I'm low carbb with a Paleo/primal bent.

Janknitz wrote:People who do best on Paleo (with more fruits and starchy veggies than low carb) tend to be younger, healthier, more athletic, IMHO. In fact. There's a raging debate going on between the low carb and Paleo "camps" about the wisdom of including so-called "safe starches" in the diet. ("Safe" in this case refers to certain starchy vegetables that are considered "safe" because they do not have the phytates of some other plants--this is the theory of Dr. Paul Jaminet).

What is interesting is that the first "Stone Age diet" books, back in the late 70's/80's, actually pushed a vegetarian lifestyle. Because depending on the temperature zone you look at the amount of meat in the diet varied from 90% (arctic) to 10% (Kalahari). What didn't vary is that in order to eat that diet you needed to walk at least 10 miles a day and carry 30-60 lbs of food for at least half of that (and if you were a woman you also hauled a baby/toddler along while breast feeding).

Thanks Jan and BlackSpinner, I feel much more confident now! Your input and advice sheds quite a bit more light on this subject and I will stay the course LCHF with some variation using some Paleo recipes. For me the pasta, rice, and potatoes, and bread are not a problem. I do have a sugar issue, so that for me is where the fruit thing does become a problem. I will experiment with berries, chia pudding and some melons to hopefully stave off the sugar temptation. The super dark 83 percent chocolate does help, but I fear I eat too much of it.
Thanks again for your help and encouragement!!!

Wow, glad to see the low-carb/paleo/grainless thing seems to be catching on. And the personal stories of trials and success are encouraging. Janknitz made a point a few posts back about stalling, and learning she was not consuming enough calories. The concept is counterintuitive, to put it mildly. That's one reason some people have a hard time with LCHF (glad to see others are embracing the LCHF description). We're all programmed to think, "calories-in = calories out." But as Taubes and others have said repeatedly, that's just not so. You've got to eat enough calories to keep from going into starvation mode, in which the body metabolism slows in order to conserve energy, and you feel horrible. Like Atkins said in his original book, eat all you want; don't hold back thinking you must restrict your intake and you'll feel fine AND lose weight at the same time.

I found what was stalling me was that I was consuming too much protein. Eating too much chicken and turkey, which are high in protein and low in fat. The protein was being converted to glucose by the liver and I wasn't losing. Switching back to ground beef and steak broke the stall because of the higher fat content. I noticed the local grocery store has grass fed buffalo; haven't tried it yet, but I think I will. Hope it doesn't taste gamey, if that's a word.

And by the way, I'm 3 for 3 this week. Three nights with 0.0 AHI on my S9 Autoset.

I went out this morning to run an errand and on the way back stopped at a grocery chain where I do not normally shop.

Got a little chuckle at one of the aisle signs.

Aisle 5
- Cold cereals
- Hot cereals
- Nutritional foods