Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

2

6'2"

27yr old male

184lbs

I'm curious to see if other people have experienced this kind of situation: Yesterday I woke up, ate breakfast. Went to the gym and rocked a quick WOD (Fran). Ate lunch. Later I did a 2 mile run in which I incorporated 100 pushups. Ate dinner. Daily intake amounted to:

Cals 2524 Fat 138 g Carbs 196 g Protein 184 g

This morning I hit the gym and did a strength WOD with some lungewalks and wall balls. After breakfast and lunch, my totals were

Cals 2394 Fat 155 g Carbs 154 g Protein 156 g

(I know the whole calorie thing is either smiled or frowned upon. Just depends on which camp you fall under. I tend to track my calories every third week to see where I'm at macronutrient-wise)

Have any of you had this happen? I felt like I started eating at 8am and didn't put the fork down until Noon. And I can defnitely say I'm looking forward to picking that Fork back up in an hour or two for dinner :)

flag	asked Mar 9 2012 at 23:14 Clint 1,444●3●12

PaleoVenus · Answer 1 · 2012-03-09 23:44:45Z UTC

From what I understand, this is perfectly normal. And yes, some days I will eat what I'm sure is a large amount of calories (I don't count), and the next I won't be hungry and I will inadvertently complete an IF by not eating until 2 or 3p and then have a normal dinner. It tends to cycle, though I don't pay as much attention.

Seems like you do a pretty meticulous job of tracking your macro intake and making sure you've got your glycogen stores up for intense workouts. If you don't feel lethargic or sick and you aren't having trouble sleeping, then no problem!

This is by no means scientific, but if you think about it, paleo peeps would probably not have a clockwork-like caloric intake anyway, so we should be well-adapted to it and it may even be beneficial to alter caloric intake--think IF or hormesis.

JayJay · Answer 2 · 2012-03-10 03:01:13Z UTC

1

Yeah, I cycle. Some days I skip breakfast (OK most), others I eat all day long. If you have no reason to mistrust your satiety signals then go with it.

answered Mar 10 2012 at 3:01

JayJay
18.6k●6●28

The only time I don't trust my satiety signals is the rare occasion that I catch myself with the spoon in the almond butter. "I swear the jar was full 5 minutes ago! At what point did I reach the bottom!" – Clint Mar 10 2012 at 13:12

Ralph Furley · Answer 3 · 2012-03-10 03:09:20Z UTC

1

I have had it happen, but I intentionally cycle my calories. The difference between a high day and a low day for me is about 400-500 cals. I feel good on high days and low days. As for the difference in calories that you consumed over two days, it appears to be only 130 cals. That's a small variation and I wouldn't worry about it at all. Tracking calories is not a perfect sceince anyway and involves a margin of error. For me, I would call 2500 and 2400 "close enough", especially if you're not trying to lose or gain weight.

Most importantly, how do you feel?

answered Mar 10 2012 at 3:09

Ralph Furley
2,065●3●9

	Well...he hasn't eaten dinner yet on day two (and he plans to). Either way I agree with you though. – JayJay Mar 10 2012 at 3:16
	I didn't catch that on my first read, but you're absolutely right. Variance will go in the other direction and will be much greater than 100 cals. I was thinking that both numbers were total daily intake. – Ralph Furley Mar 10 2012 at 3:43
	I think the daily intake was somewhere between 4 and 5,000. But I'll tell ya what, I'm not hungry at all this morning. We'll see if I get hungry at lunch time. I'm trying an approach to where I'm intentionally undereating throughout the week keeping my intake at 2,300(ish) regardless of workouts and then having a refeed on Fridays to where I eat to satiety. I felt great all week, but I was definitely ready to eat on Friday. It looks as though I'll be fasting at least until noon on the day after my refeed. And after a couple of weeks we'll see where strength gains/weight loss play into it. – Clint Mar 10 2012 at 13:05
	And when I say that I'm trying this approach, I came up with the idea after thinking about why I was so ravenous. I had been undereating most of the week. But I tend to feel better a little underfed than overfed if that makes sense. Life's an experiment :) – Clint Mar 10 2012 at 13:08
	I completely agree. It's an interesting experiment. I would be interested to hear how this goes after a couple of weeks, if you care to update your post. I tend to experiment as well. I also feel a little better slightly underfed and part of why I cycle calories as well. – Ralph Furley Mar 11 2012 at 14:02

cerement · Answer 4 · 2012-03-10 03:59:32Z UTC

Robb Wolf and Mark Sisson (and others) tell us to look at a larger picture. How are you averaging out over a week? over a month? If you have a cheat day or grab some junk food one day, eat better the next couple of days, and let things even themselves out. And whatever happens, don't worry about it, the worry will do more damage than overeating or undereating for a day ...

Undereating one day, Overeating the next?

4 Answers