To your last question, the body doesn't cling to fat forever. People just dont burn it and it stays put, until they do something to change it.

I didn't lose weight, but I lost inches. I was underweight to begin with but I was starving myself. Now I eat without fear, don't have to buy new clothes and am never ever hungry. Exercise is fun now thatI can keep up too! :)

I noticed some slight body composition improvement when I started doing intermittent fasting with fasted low-intensity exercise in the morning. I've lost about 5 pounds on a paleo-ish diet over around 10 months and I was already around ideal weight when I found it. What it did allow me to do, though, is stop going to the gym 5-6 times a week and stop being hungry 24 hours a day. So the convenience was the best thing for me but my body composition did improve a little bit.

To answer your question, you will probably have to try to lose the weight but I think a paleo approach can definitely help you. Some people don't think calories or exercise are all that important, but in my experience it pays to exercise and to also avoid consuming too many calories.

I've not lost weight, but I've developed a bit more of a waist, and the flabbiness at the belly seemed to resolve a bit. I wasnt trying to lose weight though-I'm 5'7" 130#, so your results may vary if you're trying to drop weight.

I was in really good shape (still am) before I started eating paleo. Though, my weight has stayed about the same since I lost a little extra fat and put on a little more muscle. It wasn't just about my body composition though. I FEEL way way better than I ever have in my life. I don't have gas/bloating problems anymore, my skin feels healthier, I don't feel hungry all the time, and I'm significantly more clear headed. All those reasons were well worth it no matter what weight/bodyfat% I was at before.

I was a dedicated paleo eater for nearly three years before losing weight -- at 5' 4.5" I was never over 125 lbs, usually around 120. I'll turn 43 in April and have "carried" that weight for most of my life, never fluctuating more than four or five pounds.

This is difficult for me to admit and I'm sure I'm opening myself to criticism and downvoting and whatnot, but I am currently eating disordered. I decided last year that I wanted to lose ten pounds, started restricting calories and doing daily intermittent fasting and lost the first ten. It wasn't enough, so I've just finished losing another ten.

Oddly, at 99 pounds I don't feel (physically) unhealthy. I walk my dog about 4.5 miles every day, rain or shine, and keep a careful watch on my energy levels. The only impact I've noticed was the expected amenorrhea.

Anyway, to answer your question, yeah. If someone wants to lose the fat there's nothing inherently "permanent" about it. In my experience the amount of caloric intake matters just as much as the types of caloric intake. Quantity and quality.

I was at a good weight, 125lbs (5'4" female) when I started Paleo, yet I wound up inadvertently losing an additional 10 pounds within just a few months. I now eat starchy foods every day in order to maintain my weight, and currently vacillate between 115-118lbs depending on what stage I'm at in my monthly cycle.

I didn't start Paleo to lose weight (I am technically 'underweight' already according to the BMI) but I did notice a definite loss of body fat, everywhere. My exercise is a 30min daily walk, that's it. I wasn't going to any effort to achieve either weight loss, or a change in body fat %, it just happened.

So in answer to your question, yes it is possible to lean out on Paleo even if you don't have much weight to lose.

Getting a baseline %BF is always a good idea, just to see what goes where. It's worth the $ to head to a school and get hydro-statically weighed. Myself, and others I know who were lean to begin with, eliminated the last causative factor in maintaining stored fat and/or systemic inflammation. For me, the last was hummus, believe it or not. -Billy

Even though I didn't start paleo for weight loss, I lost about 5 pounds during the first few months. I don't weigh myself regularly and only realized I'd lost weight when I had to make a new hole in my belt.

I second the "eating without fear" thing. It's such a relief. I've always been lean, so weight wasn't really an issue for me. I haven't lost much weight (if any), but I've definitely gained some of my teenage-gymnast-muscle-mass back since starting a paleo-ish diet. I like it, but the amount of squats I do has given me glutes for days. I've contracted gymnast butt! They're all muscle, but still... Time to throw on the Sir Mix-a-Lot and start lovin' big booties.

I Messed around with paleo while doing cross fit in April of last year and saw improvement in my athletic performance. Then, after going on a one month backpacking trip where I ate a very in-paleo diet, I was back to the primal lifestyle in August. I went to college shortly thereafter and put on serious weight and fat thanks to awful portion control of guacamole, dining Hall food, and nuts. Too much quantity of paleo foods left me fat, and an awful lifting regimen didn't add as much strength as I wanted to. 5'6 and 155. I cut my calories back and nuts completely out, and dropped down to 140 in about a month. Now I lift five to six times a week because I legitimately enjoy it, and though my weight is still at 140, my strength numbers are shooting up and my body fat is dropping steadily. Having only seriously lifted for six months, I'm thrilled with a 315 pound deadlift and 145 pound power clean. 2 months ago I started an experiment of re-feeding weekly with a three hour cheat meal and that's been working wonders for my social life and gym time, but am cutting it out for the next two weeks just to see what happens. I eat low carb: no fruit, few nuts, green tea, ocassional accidental fasts due to sleeping in, and an unholy amount of spinach (thanks, dining hall.) I don't eat this way to lose fat, but it's happening all the same. Oh, and a 29 inch waist and the ability to crush weight in the gym doesn't hurt either.

I started paleo about a year ago and stopped weighing myself. :) I was not overweight when i started (5'8" and 145lbs), I had the 'skinny-fat' thing going. I now look leaner everywhere, which i attribute to lost body fat. And I pretty much have all my body fat in one place: hips and thighs (which I have read is where women store all their wonderful omega-3s). I am now shifting from bikram yoga to crossfit to see if a more intense strength training routine will help me shed some more body fat than I can do with diet alone.

I started a strict Paleo Diet in November of 2011. I was overweight but active. To date I have lost 30 lbs following the Paleo diet and doing crossfit 4 times a week.