Please Help Me Shed Pounds! - PaleoHacks.com

Please Help Me Shed Pounds!

2012-09-11T03:24:23Z

Hi folks. My wife and I have gone Paleo. This is week 5 or me. Week 3 for my wife. First, I will say I feel MUCH better. My lpid profile improved DRASTICALLY in my first 3 weeks:

HDL from 27 to 45 Triglycerides from 296 down to 106 LDL up from 112 to 166

I am 5' 8" and 196. I've lost 2 lbs in those 5 weeks.

My wife is 5' 4" and 156. She lost 1 lb.

Here is what i am typically eating:

4-6 egg omelette for breakfast (if 4, it's been 2 whole and 2 white. If 6, all whites). I throw, onion, red peppers and tomatoes in the omelette. I've gone cheese and no cheese. Recently 2 slices of Swiss. I'll eat 4-6 slices of bacon.

Lunch: spinach salad (raw) with grilled chicken or flank steak. Maybe some grilled red peppers and some lack olives. No dressing.

Snack: A cup of blueberries, and a cup of strawberries, or an apple and a banana. Sometimes a 1/4 cup of macadamias.

Dinner: steak, chicken or pork. Some form of salad (not a big veggie guy). Meats are usually grilled.

Evening snack: 3 squares of 88% organic dark chocolate in a cup of coconut milk ( warmed) and 2Tablespoons of coconut oil.

I drink water all day and 4-6 oz of pomegranate juice.

Supplements and Rx:

1500 mg of Niaspan (before bed) 4G of Lovaza (2 with breakfast, 2 with dinner) 81 mg aspirin (before bed) 15g of Vitamin C - split equally with meals 2 G l- proline 6 g of l-lysine 400 mg of CoQ10. (200 breakfast, 200 dinner) 2000 iu of Vitamin D 400 mg of magnesium (dinner) 100 mcg of Vitamin K2 (dinner) 1000 mg of Vitamin E grape seed extract (can't remember how much) Green tea leaf extract (can't remember how much)

I walk 3-5 times week for 55-60 minutes.

Please help us!!! I have not cheated. Aside from cheese and the small amount of juice, everything I've ingested has been REAL food.

Again, we feel better, but we want to get down to normal weights. I am also under the care of a cardiologist, so losing lbs, and reducing BMI is not a bad thing.

I haven't lost inches either.

Frustrated,

Karl and Heather

Answer by Kelleil for Please Help Me Shed Pounds!

2012-09-11T03:53:16Z

I'd drop the fruit, nuts, chocolate, most of the cheese, coconut milk. I'd also weigh your food, if for no other reason to know your nutrient breakdown. Also, leave the yolks in. Don't be afraid of fat.

Also now, it does take a while. It's not usually fast. As you haven't seemed to drop much water weight you may be having more carbs than you realize. It took going less tan 20g of carbs for me to get moving.

And your age? Sometimes an influence.

Answer by Paleo Dieting for Please Help Me Shed Pounds!

2012-09-11T04:02:07Z

I've lost 100 pounds on Paleo. I would suggest no cheese, no juice, no coconut milk, no chocolate, and no fruit. I know that sounds drastic but you're eating a lot of carbs. I eat a cheat meal once a week but that's it. Try entering the food you eat at myfitnesspal.com it is free. I think you're eating more carbs than you realize and that will slow your weight loss. Do you take one tablespoon of liquid fish oil before each meal?

Answer by PhysiqueRescue for Please Help Me Shed Pounds!

2012-09-11T04:04:37Z

Karl and Heather,

My wife and I were both in a similar situation except we were in a lot worse shape:

Me - 5'10 255, now 193. My wife 5'4 175, now 124 (and deadlifting a small car). This happened in a span of about 6 months. There were a lot of variables to how we did it (training, diet, etc.) I would do a around a 30 day sugar cleanse if you will from your system. With what your food choices (the fruit and the chocolate daily) it seems that glucose is still your primary fuel. Not necessarily a bad thing, but your activity level isn't intense enough to burn that off. From a dietary perspective I would incorporate more grass-fed beef and some fish.

Why walk for 55 minutes when you could sprint for 10 and get more benefit? There also needs to be some resistance training worked in there somewhere several times a week as well.

Just a few notes to get you started, if you have some more specific questions don't hesitate to ask.

Matt
PhysiqueRescue.com

Answer by Zachary Taylor MA for Please Help Me Shed Pounds!

2012-09-11T05:54:40Z

Thanks for the question - you're obviously passionate people when it comes to making healthy changes. The body holds on to fat for lots of reasons including toxicity, inflammation, gut disorders/poor nutrient absorption, nutrient deficiencies, food reactions, thyroid, stress, and lots more reasons. It would seem your plunging cholesterol levels means you're doing something right.

I just have a few general comments:

A good multi-vitamin? I didn't see that in the list.
Good probiotics or eat fermented foods? Didn't see that either.
I'm not sure why you need pomegranate juice - try raw milk with stevia for a sweet drink.
If your meats are not grass-fed/finished, there may still be a strong omega 6 / omega 3 imbalance - this creates inflammation and can cause you to hang on to fats. Either go grass-fed/finished or up the long-chain omega 3's from supplements (i.e. cod liver oil, fish/krill oil - but good quality as they can easily oxidize. Many recommend they be taken with a mixed tocopherol vitamin E to protect them).
I might look into not grilling meats or cooking them at too high a temperature. This also leads to more toxins and oxidation.
I would add a bigger variety fresh vegetables - raw or lightly steamed. If you don't like veggies, they are good in smoothies (especially the leafy greens such as spinach, kale, swiss chard).
You might even consider (some won't like me for this) gluten-free steel cut oats, some healthy grains like red or black quinoa, sweet potato, or sprouted legumes - I've found some people do better with a few of these here and there.
I am not a fan of a lot of pork. The jury is still out on this one though.
Never stop experimenting! Keep enjoying the ride and celebrating the progress and tweaking your lifestyle as you listen to your body. There's endless tweaking, but I hope these suggestions help. Good luck!

Answer by mgm for Please Help Me Shed Pounds!

2012-09-11T06:04:18Z

Hi! First of all, good for you both for deciding to make a change in your lives.

As for help, I can only really echo what has already been said here. With the fruit especially you're getting a fair amount of sugar, which will probably throw a spanner in the weightloss works! To be picky about details, you probably want to stay away from bananas, as they can seriously mess with your insulin levels as they are very sugary. If you must have a little fruit treat then stick to just a small portion (perhaps half a cup or even less) of berries a couple of times a week max. Ditto for coconut oil and the nuts; they have good nutrients but aren't great for weightloss. Finally, lay off the fruit juice - looks like your nutrient intake is pretty good, so why drink your calories when you can save them for something yummy like, ooooh, a piece of lovely dark chocolate?!

A 'cheat day' can work well; it doesn't mean eating crap food, but have one day a week where you can perhaps have a bit of fruit and those couple squares of chocolate or handful of nuts. Kicking sugar can be tough, but you could try the 21 day Sugar Detox, which you can google for more info.

You sound like you need some snack ideas too, as your snacks are generally sugar-heavy. Try: beef jerky (NOT the commercial chemical-laden crap, get either home made or find a natural source, there's tons of stuff on the internet)

hard boiled eggs/crudités with homemade mayo (I love eating one with a piece of cold bacon :-)

olives, (some people say they're not paleo, but they're a great snack, just check what oil they contain and avoid the vegetable oil ones)

Dried coconut flakes - unsweetened!

As Matt wrote above, why not rethink your exercise too? Sprinting/lifting is very helpful, and will make you feel great. A really good non-intimidating book is The Primal Blueprint, which has lots of great information and advice about both food and exercise, so if you don't have it already it's worth a look. Also you could think about getting a Paleo cookbook (if you haven't already!). There are a million available on the internet, plus some wonderful cooking blogs (check out http://beta.primal-palate.com/ and http://everydaypaleo.com/category/food/ Both these blogs also have fantastic cookbooks). Even if you keep it very simple during the week, you could incorporate a cooking session on your cheat day - spend some extra time making a delicious meal, and experiment with a paleo dessert as a treat.

Anyway, after all this, good luck, stick with it, and you really will see a difference. Oh and one more thing, when you start exercising try not to rely too much on the scales, instead pay attention to how your clothes fit and how you feel!

Answer by Karl for Please Help Me Shed Pounds!

2012-09-11T16:00:19Z

Thanks for all of the comments! We do appreciate it!

A couple of answers:

I am 43, my wife 36. (Yeah, that's right....I robbed it!:)

I stopped with a multi when the cardiologist told me it was no value. This is of course the same cardiologist who wanted me to eat all plants, and advocates Low Fat, High Carbs, etc.
I walk that amount, because stupid me, that's what the doctor said to do.
Cutting sugar is really NOT a problem. You're talking to someone who eliminated a bottle of sugared iced tea AND a bottle of Coke / Day habit overnight. Not really that hard to be honest. I do like fruit though.
The Pomegranate Juice is a really good anti-oxidant. Trying to cure some potential heart issues. (High CAC score)

QUESTION: I thought fruits and veggies are encouraged. These are things that our ancestors had to eat, as a berry had be easier to acquire (at least in spring, summer, fall) than killing an animal.

QUESTION 2: What should our Target Carbs be / Day?

QUESTION 3: Why no pork? Everything I have seen encourages bacon.....so where does no pork come in?

QUESTION 4: Coconut Oil......Yes or No? I'm more confused than ever. Everything I have read said that this will be good for weight loss, and my lipid profile.

QUESTION 5: I can't eat one square of Dark Chocolate a night, which has gobs of flavonoids and antioxidants?

Mind you, I LOVE EATING fat. My cardiologist was SHOCKED at my lipid profile improvement after what I was able to do in 3 weeks. I REALLY want to continue tweaking this, and weight loss is going to drive these numbers down even further.

Thanks,

Karl

Answer by raydawg for Please Help Me Shed Pounds!

2012-09-11T16:48:24Z

Fruits are encouraged when you're not trying to lean out - their fructose is used as a signal to put on fat in preparation for the lean times in winter.

Berries are fine in limited amounts, but apples and bananas, and all juices should be limited, except maybe an hour or two after a big glycogen depleting workout. If you do a cup of blueberries, don't add another of strawberries for example.

Pork cooked in an acidic medium is fine, otherwise some folks have issues with it. If you want to lose fat, under 100g/day, preferably 50.

Dark chocolate is fine, the darker, the better. I started off 75%, went to 95%, 90%, then on to the hardcore stuff: 100% Baking chocolate. I find eating the sweetened stuff made me want more, where as less than 1oz of the baking stuff and I'm good for a couple of days, no cravings... was craving the sugar after all.

Coconut oil - yes, especially if you go low carb as they're a source of ketones and can help you kick start ketogenesis.

Your food is fine, but kind of on the low fat side, add more sources of fat. Butter, avocado, bacon, coconut oil. Go low carb and medium-low protein and you'll be fine.

Skip the aspirin, or at least don't take it all the time, it can cause leaky gut issues.

Add in a good form of Magnesium. Use seasalt, get lots of seafood for the n3's and iodine.

Vitamin E in large amounts is probably not a good idea. Maybe get it from red palm oil instead - it's really good for cooking curries and such as it's a very strong oil, but an awesome source of full spectrum Vitamin E as opposed to the stuff in the vitamin store.

The fish oil thing is good for a short while so you get your n3:n6 ratios closer to 1:1, but don't make it long term, just a few weeks or it can cause issues - eat more fish/shellfish instead - stick to wild caught stuff, the farmed stuff is like eating CAFO chicken, or worse.

Cheeses can be ok, but maybe come back to them after you've leaned out - the proteins in them can be problematic if they're from A2 cows, and they can help you gain fat too. Maybe try a raw sheep/goat's milk cheese if you can get it.

Eat whole eggs - it's a bad idea to eat just the whites as just the whites can cause issues:

http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/view_news_item.cfm?news_id=3543

http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/f-w99/vascular.html

http://www.nutritiondata.com/foods-000084000000000000000-1.html

However, if you do eat the whole egg, you're getting the B-vitamins you need to offset the too much methionine. Infact, the yolk has more nutrients than the white, so if anything you're better off eating just the yolks. Yeah, that's another one where conventional wisdom about egg-whites has shat the carpet. Don't be afraid to eat them raw either if they're pastured eggs.

Get in some organ meats, bone broths/marrow. Liver, tongue, etc. Maybe some cod livers.

Answer by Karl for Please Help Me Shed Pounds!

2012-09-11T18:12:09Z

Thanks for all of the assistance. My tweaks will be:

Ditching the Pom juice
Ditiching fruit (at least for now)
Ditching nuts (at least for now)
Ditching cheese
Ditching Dairy
More butter
More bacon!!
Eggs WITH yolks

What doesn't appeal to me:

Organ meats
Fish

QUESTION: Can you tell me cuts of meats that you would consider high fat, and worthy of intake?

QUESTION 2: Is there any reason to believe my lipid profile will not continue to improve? Will my LDL come down? While I am THRILLED by my overall progress, if my LDL didn't spike, I would be doing flips.

WE TRULY APPRECIATE THE HELP.

Answer by Karl for Please Help Me Shed Pounds!

2012-09-11T19:57:53Z

WayfinderAli - Ummmmm, not sure what to say. I'm not against fish, I think they are very kind. I just don't like the way they taste.....lol:)

So in this order, given what I do like, grass fed beef is my best choice, correct?

Answer by jared for Please Help Me Shed Pounds!

2012-09-11T20:08:17Z

Cut the juice and fruit for a while. Fruit it okay for most of us once we fix our metabolism but I would cut that out and see if that changes anything.

The walking is great, but you may want to add some short, high intensity exercise. Remember, walking will burn some calories but it doesn't raise your metabolism and lean you out like high intensity exercise will. I would try 3 rounds of tabatas per week. (google it)

Utilize full body exercises like burpees or squats. Each tabata interval is only 4 minutes in length, but you'd be surprised what three of those a week will do.

You didn't mention your sleep. If you're shortchanging your sleep, you are throwing a major hand grenade into this process. No diet or exercise advice will lean you out properly if you have cortisol issues.

Answer by Happy Now for Please Help Me Shed Pounds!

2012-09-11T21:14:49Z

I know you are looking to please your doc, and get those numbers in line fast, but slow and steady wins the race here. There are a lot of things that have to happen under the hood before lipid storage will start to stabilize. You have to give your body time to heal your organs that led to the improper hormone signaling and inflammation to begin with. If you've been eating vegetable oils and transfatty acids (which pretty much everyone has), it can take a long time for those to leave the body.

5 weeks is essentially an introduction, set your sights on these being long term lifestyle changes to maintain your health over the next 5, 10, 20 years, not a quick diet to drop weight and look good on the BMI chart.

I agree with the others about the POM juice. Juiced anything is evolutionarily novel, it can be a way of getting in nutrients fast, but the problem is it is too fast, that bolus of sugar without the accompanying fiber from the fruit itself causes a blood sugar spike, which is worse for your heart than the antioxidants are at protecting it. More and more in the literature it is showing up that antioxidants, though helpful, more isn't always better, you want enough to provoke a hormetic response, but when taken in excess they may actually become carcinogenic. The answer: eat whole pomegranates (preferably when they are in season), it takes time to work through a whole piece of fruit so there isn't that kind of spike, and there is a ton of fiber from the seeds and cell walls further mitigating the blood sugar spike.

You can speed up the healing process by adding broth and gelatin to your diet, seeking out herbs that will help with liver function like dandelion and milk thistle to help increase your insulin sensitivity. If you suspect the extra weight could be the result of environmental contaminants like exposure to BPA from plastic food containers or can linings, saunas and a supplement called NAC can help, it also has a similar effect to the drug Metforin, and will help control blood sugar and improve insulin sensitivity.

Keep the walking, that is a good amount, but while you are out on your walks, (if you have the capacity and fitness level for it) every once in a while run like you are being chased until you are out of breath. And then just add in some sort of weight lifting exercise (don't need weights for this), pick up a big rock, do some push ups, do curls with gallon size water bottles, help someone else with their suitcase or groceries, push against a tree trunk or door as hard as you can, pretend to lift your car, try to do pull ups on playground equipment, anything really, just try to work those muscles until they give up 2-3 times/week.

Answer by Diane for Please Help Me Shed Pounds!

2012-09-11T21:21:50Z

You need to eat more of your calories from fat percentage-wise, but less calories overall. You are eating way too much to lose weight.

Answer by Karl for Please Help Me Shed Pounds!

2012-09-11T22:23:17Z

Wow, Lots of information to process. Now I just feel like a loser:(

While it may seem like it, I am not trying to please the doctor at all. I dropped those numbers in 3 weeks. I suspect they will go lower. My primary reason for adapting this way of eating was to get away from sugar.

I consider this a lifestyle, and NOT a diet. I do however want to drop lbs.

The information I have received is really valuable.

A word of caution......when people are new to this, and REALLY trying to improve themselves, try not tear them down too much. I've lived a certain lifestyle for 35+ years. Changing.......literally overnight is NOT easy. We are trying, and we want to succeed. Many of you have provided us great information, which we will most certainly incorporate.

There is an element of frustration inherently built in here, because EVERYONE has a different spin on Paleo. Some say lean, some say fat. Some say pork, others no. Some say dairy, some no. Some say chicken is inflammatory, others no. Some say only grass fed beef, some say grain fed is ok. Some say calories don't count, others say count them.

It's very frustrating.

Todays meals:

4 egg omelette with onions, peppers, and tomatoes 6 pieces bacon 12 pieces chicken wings 3 pieces canadian bacon cooked in butter 80 oz water so far.

Is this better?

Karl

Answer by Hayley for Please Help Me Shed Pounds!

2012-09-12T22:56:39Z

Eating way too much. Try 2 meals a day and one snack. By having 3 meals a day and 2 snacks you aren't allowing your body to get hungry again before eating. Also, with all of the snacking your body can't get to your fat to burn it and it's only working On burning food consumed.

Answer by Felix Szyszka for Please Help Me Shed Pounds!

2012-09-25T07:25:20Z

as hayley said, you are eating probably too much, just stay to your 3 meals, the are just fine, and dont do any snacking at all! 4-5 hours between each meal, use whole eggs, skip the aspirin, get some good fishoil instead!

Answer by tracker1950 for Please Help Me Shed Pounds!

2012-12-22T19:49:07Z

I'm afraid I'm going to answer with a question...I drink highly diluted (4 oz to 28 oz) UNSWEETENED cranberry juice (like Knudsen's Just Cranberry) to keep my urinary tract happy. I can't see this as a problem, can you? I used to add a little stevia for sweetness but don't even want that anymore (I think I may have kicked the sugar habit). I'm wondering if this might be a solution for the questioner here. Maybe some Just Pomegranate juice, high diluted, with a little stevia would give that fruity taste without the price.