Hi TD, As a man that was once as heavy as 430lbs, but now much lighter, I can tell you that Paleo works.

There are a few things I would suggest, and this last time around I've incorporated them into my own plan with some great success.

First - Log your intake through fitday, cronometer.com, or PaleoTracker. This allows you to see "Oh, I weigh X pounds more today, and day before yesterday I ate Y". It also helps you keep your calories in check. I find it useful as well when I get any sort of gastric upset, I can look back and see exactly what triggered it. By this same token I strongly suggest you keep your carbs low initially, under 10% or so of your daily intake... as you progress you can try a little more carbs.

Second - Be aware of binge impulses, and avoid even the "Paleo" foods that you eat that trigger binges (for example, I no longer eat nuts besides as an occasional salad topping, and I rarely eat Plantains anymore). If you are anything like I am, starches might trigger you to overeat. Anyone can eat a pound of potatoes in one sitting, but it takes a bit more to eat that much pot roast.

Third - Get outside and get plenty of sunlight. Your body needs to repair itself, and it sounds like you are well on your way given the improved sleep and other things. The extra vitamin D from sunlight will improve your mood which will help your quality of life, and it plays a bigger part than most people understand.

Four - I understand that you have a broken foot, but this works out well for the purpose of exercise. Too many people see a stall and then add insult to injury by being excessive in their play and gym. I suggest you clear off some space in your floor, work on flexibility and maybe some yoga. Take it small, 20min at a time, and gradually improve your mobility and flexibility. As your foot heals, you will be able to get outside and get some real playtime in, taking advantage of this newfound flexibility. As far as the sedentary job goes, try and make sure you are getting a standing-break every hour or so, just to stand and stretch. I am a IT engineer, so I might spend 12 hours a day sitting at a desk. I do my best to get up on a regular basis, even with my headset on (conference call hell), and stretch my legs. I also sit on an exercise ball at work, but I don't suggest this until your foot is healed.

Good luck! It's a hard journey, and it's not as short as say, surgery, but it does work. With these little "hacks" I feel you will be well on your way.

My number one recommendation is to QUIT weighting all the damn time. Once a month is plenty at first. I'm down to 215 from 324. It will work if you quit watching the scales like a crazy person. Let it go!

Welcome to the world of being an outlier. Anyway there is no single prescription for paleo. You could be high carb low fat or low carb high fat. or anywhere in between.

Now the important point is to experiment.

And calories do matter.

Try out different ways of eating that are sustainable, and still result in reduced consumption without effort. Maybe fat is very rewarding for you, and maybe potatoes will not be so rewarding. You have tried high fat low carb, try low fat high carb, with only paleo foods, including potatoes, squash and other starchy vegetables.

Try to find what makes you an outlier. Any hormonal problems, in particular Thyroid, Cortisol. Or maybe the problem of being post menopausal.

Paleo isn't about losing weight. It's about healing your broken body. If you weigh 300+, it means to me that you've been overweight for a while. Which also means that you're body is in poor health and malnourished. It's going to take a while for your body to heal, and for a while it's going to hold on to all of that good food that you give to it. So just try to be patient with it.

A few other things you can look at is the quality and type of paleo food you are eating. Where is your protein coming from? Your best source of healthy protein is either fatty fish or grass-fed beef. Believe it or not, grass-fed beef is much better than chicken. If you're having trouble losing, it can mean that your omega3/omega6 is out of balance. Grass-fed beef has a very good ratio, while chicken (skin and fat mainly) is way out of balance on the omega6 side. Also, try sticking with just coconut oil for a while and see if that helps.

Another tip. If you eat a gargantuan breakfast (something like 4 eggs cooked in CO along with a pound of grass-fed beef), it's likely that you won't be hungry for lunch until later in the day. Eat your veggies at this time, along with more CO and protein. The fat should sustain you into the evening. Then for dinner just have something small. Like maybe a blueberry smoothie made with berries and almond or coconut milk and a shot of liquid stevia.

Heavy food in the morning, very light in the evening. If you're thinking about nothing but eating at night, go to bed early. And while you're in bed think about the great breakfast you're going to have in the morning.

You're really doing a fantastic job, and you shouldn't let that damned scale dictate your mood for you. Ignore the lack of weight loss and enjoy the new found freedom of being able to eat until you're full.

You have gotten a lot of answers so far, so sorry to repeat anything...

But first let me say YOUR ARE AMAZING! For taking the first step, for trying something different. Hang in there.

It will take your body time (maybe many months) to adjust and get on track. Your hormones and metabolism are shifting.

I also think your fat/oil intake does not sound excessive, especially if you are just using it for cooking and feeling well after you eat. The danger of decreasing your fat to much is that you wont feel satiated, so you over eat or fall of completely.

There is some disagrement about protein, what makes the most sense to me is to eat the amount of protein that your IDEAL body weight would require, since the extra fat we carry does not need protein, only our muscles do.

And definitely don't weigh daily, that will make you crazy. Your weight can change by a pound depending on if you weigh before or after going to the bathroom, or drinking a big glass of water, or skipping a meal. So daily weigh ins are not reliable. Go by how your clothes feel. Find a tight pair of pants, try them on every few weeks to see how they feel.

If nothing else, I am guessing that your Paleo diet is much better then the diet you were eating (that is the case with me!) so you are headed in the right direction even if you do make some tweaks here and there in the future.

You can do it!

The posts in this thread so far have given you a lot of good recommendations of things to try. Let me first say that I lost no weight on paleo for the first few months. I've only gone from 285 to 265 in a year and still have a paunch. So believe me, I understand your frustration. But some things you can do to perhaps help you out:

• Try The Quilt's Leptin Reset Protocol. You're doing most of it already, but the big change to make is to eat within 30 minutes of waking, at least 50g of animal protein. Only eat when you're hungry, don't snack between meals, and give yourself 4 hours minimum between meals (5 hours or more is preferable).
• More Quiltiness: optimize your circadian rhythm by turning off bright overhead lights and dimming your monitor at night. Put yourself under bright full spectrum lights in the morning, especially in the fall and winter when there is less natural light. Also read up on his latest work on cold adaptation.
• People are telling you to not eat so much, or less fat or whatnot. I have a counterproposal: listen to your body, which will almost certainly signal for you to eat less once you have built up a store of EFAs/EAAs and micronutrients. Don't force yourself to eat the same amount as now if you start becoming less hungry.
• Fasting. I do intermittent fasting, which means I go at least 18 hours without eating 3x per week -- I really try to do 20-22 hours. The research suggests that 18 hours is the bare minimum necessary to see a benefit. Some people here on PH are also trying alternate-day fasting, where a whole day of fasting sits between late-day fasting and early-morning fasting on adjacent days (up to 48 hours). This is not going to kick down your metabolism; it takes a minimum of 60 hours of caloric restriction before your metabolism lowers. Try the leptin reset before you start a fasting regimen.
• Build muscle. Lean mass is one of the keys to fat loss. You're at a good age for getting benefits from lifting. While your foot is injured, maybe start with the upper body. Curls, bench presses, pulldowns, crunches, etc.
• You said no chemicals. Are you using stevia at all? I'd drop anything that tastes sweet, whether natural or lab-created, as it was the first thing that helped me start losing. If you do drink tea or coffee, drink it black. If you don't, you can try starting it to see if it gives you a boost to the metabolism.

You don't mention your age. I found that in my 50s and also being very sedentary that I required far less calories than I thought. I was over your weight when I started and was barely losing 2 lbs a week on a 1200-1400 calorie diet.

I'd experiment with cutting back on the fat. My approach is to eat healthy fats for their nutrients (e.g., pastured egg yolks, liver) and go pretty sparingly on the added fats as long as I want my body to use up its stores. I'd also use FitDay or SparkPeople or NutritionData and actually see how much you're eating.

And I would cut out the weighing every day. Or if you're going to do that, you need to plot it and do a rolling average so you stop paying so much attention to water weight swings.

Re exercise, I have had major back issues so walking was hard for me too. I was able to find a pool and started doing water walking (aka aqua jogging). If the thought of wearing a bathing suit in public is frightening, Junonia sells rash guards and swim shorts for plus sized women. They are pricey, but well made. I love mine!

I am just throwing this out there, Are you taking any medications?

I recently started coaching a woman who had been eating a strict paleo diet for months. She felt great but wasn't seeing the typical body composition changes you normally see when going strict paleo. She was taking multiple medications, I cross referenced the foods she was eating with her meds and it turned out she was eating foods that inhibited her body's ability to absorb her thyroid meds. I tweaked her food intake accordingly and the following week she lost 3.5 lbs and is having continued success. (A good reason to keep food logs, they are very helpful in troubleshooting dietary issues and triggers)

Just a thought- maybe you are eating too much fat? If you can get into ketosis, which you should from the amount of carbs you are eating, your body will end up using some of your own fat instead of fat you have just eaten.

With you getting lots of good sleep you are ahead of a lot of people. Once your foot is healed, walk as much as possible before and after work.

And the scale will make you crazy- try to only weigh yourself once a week or even for a month like Whole 30 recommends.

Are you drinking lots of water? Sometimes that gets things going.

Hi, TD! Good sleep is a sign you have some good things going on.

I agree that once your foot allows it you should walk as much as possible; that's good for both overall health and back trouble. I also agree that if you're taking any meds they could be part of your problem. They're chemicals, just like the food additives we're all trying to avoid, so even if they're needed they can have side effects and weight gain is a common one. You might check with your doctor to see if a dosage or med change is possible.

I don't use a scale and frankly I don't think we need one at all. I can tell you that t-shirts and pants that were too tight to wear last April hang loosely now. Last night, I zipped a demin jacket that had about a 4 inch gap last spring and I could flap all the extra cloth. So it can and will happen if you hang in there.

If you like to track your progress, why not use a tape measure? On the first of every month I measure my waist and hips so I know I lost abotu 6" off my waist since November. I actually measure 2 days in a row when I first get up and average the 2.

As others have mentioned, it's all about energy balance. There may be some guys who can eat vast quantities of meat/fat and lose but I doubt there are many women who can. And let's face it we didn't become 50 or more pounds overweight because we are picky eaters. I plan my meals very carefully, starting with a piece of fruit and a large leafy salad so my stomach can feel nice and full. Then I have some cooked vegetables and 4-6 oz of meat. I don't avoid fat--I butter my vegetables, use olive oil on my salad and eat any fat that comes with the meat--but I don't drown in it either. I also vary the meats so it's not always the same thing; one day I'll have beef but the next time fish. I eat little poultry or pork.

My best strategy of all is fasting. You may not be ready for that yet and that's okay. But my best way to break through any hint of weight loss plateau is a fast. Sometimes it's just eating one meal per day which means you go 20 hours or so between meals. As I'm nearly a year in and very well adapted to fasting I also use ADF (alternate day fasting) going 40 hours or more without solid foods. I then eat a nice large meal on the eating day and feel wonderful.

Keep experimenting and about every 2 or 3 weeks feel free to try different rotations of foods, different meal times and different portion sizes. Try to monitor and even write down what you eat and how you react so you can watch for deficiencies and excesses while you learn to find your best balance of foods.

I strongly recommend you read Primal Body Primal Mind by Nora Gedgaudes. I do not agree with others about too much fat. I think it is more likely that you are eating too much protein and that it is being converted to glucose. You may benefit from monitoring both your protein and Darb intake more carefully and bringing both levels down a bit further depending upon what you find out after monitoring. Hang in there. Sometimes when the metabolism is very screwed up it takes some fine tuning.

true, fat doesnt make you fat, however an excess WILL still be stored. paleo is not a prescription to gorge on fat.

so technically, if you overeat on fat(as with anything), it will inevitably make you fatter.

TD. You made a good choice, stick with it.

I was over 300 too, and was 198 this morning (m, 51). With that much weight, it's going to mess up hormones. You may, or may not see things sort out soon, but I wouldnt count on it.

Without detailed blood tests, everything is guessing at this point. Paleo is going to be your best guess, so hang in there.

I think you probably shocked your body in the carb department and it is trying to hang on to all calories you put in there. I think a more gradual decrease of carb consumption is helpful. Also, eating FAT doesn't MAKE YOU FAT! To the person who wrote that above I have read numerous Paleo articles touting this information. Eat fat to maintain satiety, eat good carbs and have a sweet potato or some brown rice at first, then slowly back these things down. Make sure you are getting enough protein and steering clear of all artificial sweeteners...I know for me...this can throw everything off. Your body is probably in some shock and needs some time to get in the groove. Best of luck and stay positive. The right mindset is worth a million bucks!

I have been on Paleo for about 7 months now and have lost 58lbs. I find for myself, I have to eat no wheat or starches (no bread, crackers, spaghetti, potatoes or rice and such). If I do slip and have any of that, I gain 2-3 lbs, swell up and it takes a day or two to get back on track. I am still eating the fat as usual and losing but the key seems to be staying away from anything carb (non vegetable/fruit source) or starch. I think that is why weight watchers and LA weight loss never worked for me.

Weight loss has been very slow for me too - I started at about 194lbs and in 4 months have only lost 7lbs. However....my body composition has changed quite a lot so I look as if I have lost way more weight than that.

When I got fed up with plateau-ing, I cut back on the fruit, cut right back on nuts (a few macadamias only if I was caught hungry on the run) and increased my fat intake. And surprise, surprise, I started to drop the lbs again...although only a few lbs and then I seem to have plateaued again.

I think there's definitely something to be said for being patient - I yo-yo dieted for years so reckon my body is pretty 'broken' and will take a while to correct itself. I'm also perimenopausal so my hormones are all over the place, which doesn't help at all.

For me, I think it's important to just relax - I feel better than I have in a long time, and I figure I'll get there in time. I reckon it's pretty vital to enjoy the journey. I don't track calories or macronutrients as it makes me feel as if I'm dieting and for me, paleo is not what this is about at all.

We're all different - calorie counting and macronutrient tracking works for some, very low carb, lower fat or lower protein for others. Enjoy it, experiment a bit - and find out what works for YOU.

Good luck x

Increasing your muscle mass will make your body burn calories more efficiently. Try doing some basic upper body weight lifting with low weight dumbbells. You can do these while sitting in a chair or on the floor and not applying any pressure to your foot. Here is a good link to show you how to do exercises correct: http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/

Hi there,

You didn't mention what types of vegetables you're eating, so if you're not already eating lots of leafy greens, that might be a good start. Watery vegetables with your meals seem really helpful. You mention that you're following a strict Paleo program. Does that mean no processed food at all? Yucky ingredients are often hidden in what looks like clean food, as you likely know.

I'm sure you know, too, that muscle weighs more than fat, so it's also possible your body composition is changing.

Good luck, pamela

Are you on any medications? I couldn't lose weight no matter how hard I tried. I knew I was insulin resistant and asked several different doctors to let me try metformin. I kept going until I found one who would listen to me (I have worked in the medical field for many years, but it was hard to find a doc who would actually listen to what I was telling them).

Anyway, I started taking metformin and that made a big difference. I still have to work hard, but when I do I see results.

Also, are you eating enough protein? I read recently that inadequate protein is actually what triggers the starvation response. When we eat enough protein, our bodies assume that hunting is good and there is no need to store fat. When we don't eat enough protein, our bodies assume we are bad hunters. The reference I was reading stated you should eat at least 1g of protein for every pound of lean muscle mass you have. I'm 5'6" and about 221lbs and currently about 40% body fat (yuck!) which means I should eat at least 132g of protein per day - not that easy to do!

Best of luck to you!

If your weight is shifting up and down that much, it sounds like you're having some water balance issues. Have you tried taking some salt? It usually helps me...

I too took a long time to lose weight. I am now up to nearly 2 years on paleo and just have 9kg to go. I think I am an exception to the rule but after a year of not great results I went to see a naturopath - low fat ketosis diet with plenty of vita d and b , good solid sleep and some help with estrogen I am getting there. I would never of thought I was sleeping bad but I was. It is as simple as the nights I get great sleep I lose about 400 gms when I dont I lose nada!

So in short if you are struggling after a few months go get help its not always just about the diet.

I have to chime in, I'm a woman well over 40, had significant weight to lose. Paleo was clearly better - but didn't equate to weight loss for me. I think there is a significant difference between men/woman as well as severe obesity, vs 30 lbds over weight after being athletic in youth. Those small-fatties tend to think their way works, when it just doesn't work for all. A strong paleo diet will help get your mind right and your body a healin.

1) Start reading the Quilt, jackkruse.com

2) Work on making the good dietary changes a permanent part of your life.

3) Figure out a way to get your move on. You do NOT have to Jillian Michaels it, just move a bit everyday. Even if you are hobbling around the workplace every hour - it will snowball. Soon your body will WANT to move.

4) jackkruse.com

I am in the same boat as you (same weight), slow progress. Everyone has given you great advice. One thing Rob Wolff said that stuck with me is that when you are our size and been out of shape and eating poorly for so long, it takes a lot longer to get your body back to metabolizing and utilizing healthy food the way it's supposed to so the weight starts coming off. He said it's like moving a barge. Progress is slow, but it's happening and eventually you get there. :)

Another way to look at it is like a dried houseplant. When you finally give it the water it needs, the water usually just sinks right through the soil and leaks out the bottom. But once it gets used to being watered, it starts to absorb more of it and it flourishes. Our bodies are learning to absorb right now.

I am experiencing the same thing so I appreciate your post. I do eat dairy and have removing some of that but not all since about to enter menopause and don't want to lose bone mass. I have noticed major good hormonal shifts and I'm hoping that my body is just adjusting. Can you get a stationary bike for your living room? Try mat Pilates? You aren't alOne.

I agree with Spuggygirl that you may need to consider lowering your protein rather than your fat, or perhaps your calorie intake and I agree with others that meds need to be assessed. In addition, physical activity can make a difference to some although others feel it feeds appetite. Tracking calories in total may be necessary and weighing and measuring. I am a slow loser too and because I am short, it is sometimes a challenge for me when I don't track things carefully.

Try to look at eating Paleo as a progression. Rome wasn't built in a day. You didn't get overweight in a day and it is going to take some tweaking to make it work for you. The biggest thing to focus on is the benefits of a healthier diet. It may take your body time to adapt. Hang in there.

Hey...okay there are too many things to read in these responses.

Just something to encourage you with. I'm 30yo, about 156 pounds. I've been eating paleo / primal for about 5 weeks now. i haven't seen MUCH weight loss...for one...i don't weigh myself. That's cos I don't have a weighing machine anyway!

HOWEVER, I feel more alive and more energetic than ever. I can do heavy lifts first thing in the morning without having anything to eat. Maybe a cup of coffee with some milk. Previously, even a cup of coffee with milk would leave me lightheaded the moment I start any activity.

I was actually expecting weight loss 2 weeks into the programme. However, I didn't. Felt a little down but then realised that different people adapt differently to the change in eating habits. I eat HUGE amounts of veggies. With the lunch I bring to school everyday, my classmates usually gawk at the bag of lettuce in my lunchbox..together with the meat I have.

Personally I try to consume 200 to 250g of meat in each meal...together with a heap of veggies. like...filling my whole plate type. (plate size = bigger than face). LOL.

5 weeks in and my clothes feel looser, my friends have commented on me looking like i've lost weight. Honestly I don't know. I just know I look leaner. And this is all with having cheat meals like ICE CREAM and FRIED CHICKEN...Once a week. I was never into eating sweet stuff but oh boy did that ice cream tasted so good.

I work out about 3 times a week...crossfit style in the gym. I'm usually done in an hour. And I do walk to school and back (sometimes). each trip takes me around 30 minutes.

I dont' sleep enough although I've found that i do need at least 6 hours of sleep a night.

Anwyways, cut the long story short, KEEP GOING!!!!!!!!

oh. and the water. I drink at least 3 litres a day. of water.

"Good weight" will replace "bad weight", such as bone density, muscle mass. Weight is irrelevant, measurement is essential. Also, with the suggestions above.