Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

1

Any help or advice would be most welcomed – so thanks in advance for any useful info. If you would like any further information I will happily provide.

I have been about 90% Paleo for the last 8 months or so. In the last month or so I have been waking up tired but once I get out of bed, quick walk about the block with the dog I feel ready for the day ahead. The other thing is I have to get up in the middle of the night to pee & I feel this is having a knock on effect to my sleep. Note: I have black-out blinds installed & no clocks or electrical equipment in my bedroom. Last drink it taken at about 7 o’clock in the evening.

So I decided since last Friday to document what I ate, drank & exercised – I know I’m only providing four days but I am eager to rectify anything that I am missing or needs to be added to help me out.

Before I start, my info:

Male 32 66.5kg 5’ 09’’ Come from an endurance training background (triathlon), but broke my collarbone racing last year which gave me time off training which in turn lead me to Paleo. Since then my 10 – 15 hour training weeks are a thing of past memory. I work at a stand up desk Monday to Friday, so stand approx 7 hours a day. Plus I own a dog that gets walked a leisurely pace for about 40 minutes to 60 minutes daily. Daily diet intakes have been calculated through FitDay. I take two supplements daily - 2 capsules of Omega3 (EPA 400mg / DHA 200mg) & 1 capsule of Vitamin D (4000 IU). I live in Ireland so we don't get to see the sun much apart from this week it seems!

Friday (Thursday into Friday morning – 8.5hrs sleep)

Cals 3336 / Fat 239g / Carbs 103.4g / Protein 191.2g

Fluid intake: Water – 2325ml / 78 fl oz, Green Tea – 700ml / 23 fl oz

Gym (some weights have been deloaded as my form was slack/poor) MS: 3*5 Squat @ 60kg 3*5 Bench @ 45kg 1*5 Deadlift @ 100kg 4 x (5 pull-ups, 10 press-ups, & 15 squats)

After gym I take on sweet potato – 370g

Saturday (Friday into Saturday morning – 8hrs sleep)

Cals 3690 / Fat 246.8g / Carbs 66.6g / Protein 167.5g Fluid intake: Water – 2500ml / 84 fl oz, Green Tea – 350ml / 11.5 fl oz, Wine (after 7’o clock) – full bottle of red, it was nice too!

Sunday (Saturday into Sunday morning – 6.5hrs sleep)

Cals 3017 / Fat 222.2g / Carbs 43.9g / Protein 196.4g

Fluid intake: Water – 3500ml / 118 fl oz, Green Tea – 700ml / 23 fl oz.

Two hour mountain hike with some good climbs.

Monday (Sunday into Monday morning – 8hrs sleep)

Cals 2689 (Olive Oil made up 411 of the 2689) / Fat 187.6g / Carbs 85.6g / Protein 167.4g

Fluid intake – Water – 3500ml / 118 fl oz, Green Tea – 700ml / 23 fl oz.

Gym MS: 3*5 Squat @ 65kg 3*5 Press @ 30kg 3*5 Powerclean @ 50kg 3*8 Assisted Dips 4*(5 pull-ups, 10 press-ups, & 15 squats)

After gym I take on sweet potato – 241g

flag	asked Mar 27 2012 at 16:43 Martin 11●1

	I'm afraid I'm not seeing where the problem is. Do you lose energy later in the day? What is the "strength" problem referenced in the title? And most nights you seem to be getting 8-8.5 hours of sleep. So I'm lost as to what we're trying to solve here. – Frugal Jen Mar 28 2012 at 13:24
	@Frugal Jen - the issue was the waking up during the night for a pee & then feeling tired when I was due to get up to go to work but on further researching & using the search tool here, I think the answer might be a biphasic sleep pattern. Plus I have enough energy to get through the day so on the whole I think my question has been answered. Thanks for the post. – Martin Mar 29 2012 at 16:05

PrimalDanny · Answer 1 · 2012-03-28 13:24:21Z UTC

Wow. Looks like someone has a healthy appetite! And having fun in the gym too. I'd guess it's only a matter of time until proper burnout unless you take a few days off. If you can afford to spend more time in bed though that's where I'd start. In fact, for the sake of experiment, I'd look to just quit unnatural light, get yourself to bed at 8-8:30pm and stay there until morning - around 7am seems good. Don't worry if you're actually asleep or not, or if you need to visit the bathroom, just don't turn on the lights.

Given the opportunity, you should be able to relax and sleep, and likely at most for 10 hours which isn't that much. Middle of winter I could stay in bed for 12 hours regularly. If you feel too 'wired' to sleep then that suggests there's something else wrong in your routine which may be disrupting you normally. If you sleep through fine then you probably just need more sleep from time to time to help with both the physical and digestive load you're under (a day fasting may work wonders for your sleep too). If you sleep and end up waking at 5am bright and alert and better than ever then, well, you might want to look at your evening routine to see why 8 hours doesn't work as well normally.

Martin · Answer 2 · 2012-03-28 09:17:06Z UTC

Yesterday's food intake:

Breakfast Lambs Liver (98g) Scrambled Eggs (3 eggs – 170g / Butter – 10g) Green Tea (350ml / 12 fl.oz) Water (500ml / 17 fl.oz)

Lunch Pork Chops*2 (274g) Salad with Olive Oil (Spinach – 20g, Mixed Leaves – 23g, Onion – 39g, Red Pepper – 98g, Avocado – 43g, Walnuts – 15g, & 3 tablespoons of Olive Oil) ½ square of Lindt 85% dark chocolate Green Tea (350ml / 12 fl.oz) Water (500ml / 17 fl.oz)

Dinner Homemade Beef Burgers*3 (Beef Mince – 196g, Pumpkin Seed – 10g, Onion – 35g, Egg – 28g, Almonds – 25g) Fried Eggs*2 (Eggs – 132g & Olive Oil – 2 tablespoons) Mustard*2 tablespoons Roasted Carrots (Carrots – 210g & Olive Oil – 4 tablespoons) Mineral Water (500ml / 17 fl.oz) Green Tea (350ml / 12 fl.oz)

Snacks Strawberries (111g) 1 square of Lindt 85% dark chocolate

Cals 3184/ Fat 240.8g / Carbs 64.1g / Protein 192.8g

Martin · Answer 3 · 2012-03-28 13:59:33Z UTC

Thanks for the reply PrimalDanny.

Burnout is something I veered into about a month ago & most of the time I was training for triathlon (forever over-reaching & not taking enough time off to replenish glycogen stores), but once I dipped my toe into that pond again recently I immediately took a week off, dropped my 3 weekly gym workout to 2 & deloaded all my lifting weights. I am lucky enough (if I can say that) that I have a give away when I am threading close to overtraining / burnout – a dripping nose like a beginning of a head cold comes on.

So apart from walking the dog twice everyday & odd hike I only do 2 days strength work in the gym (Monday & Friday). Then on Wednesday sprints (8*15 second balls to the wall effort with a 60 second rest between each one), before sprinting some box-jumps & if the playground is free I play a little on the kid’s monkey bars.

As for bed at 8-8.30pm that would be a serious push – a pregnant wife who doesn’t get home from work until about 7pm, commitments (volunteer scout leader), etc but will try a couple of evenings of the week to see how it works out.

For IF I usually do Tuesday night (dinner at 7pm) until a late lunch the following day (2pm) & I also do this for Thursday night into Friday lunch fortnightly.

Diet / Strength / Sleep Issue!

3 Answers