I think your assumptions come from believing that there is only one way to eat "paleo". I even hate using the word 'paleo' to describe my diet. I've studied lots and lots of different ancient cultures. I've done research on many paleolithic sites. All of the information I've read or gathered in no way what so ever did paleolithic humans eat one particular way over another (considering carbs). If lots of fruits and veggies were available in a season then they ate more carbs, if not then it simply didn't get as many carbs that day, week, month... you get the idea. Your diet should be as varied and as seasonable as possible, as this reflects the dietary conditions that humans evolved under much more so than naming off percentages that you should eat everyday. Sorry you had to feel like crap so long to learn that carbohydrates (from fruits and veggies) and the nutrients that come with them are not evil.

Trendy to be VLC?

You must be new here...

Two things.

1) Not everyone is an active 20-something year old athlete.You already were in great shape so your goals and reasons for being Paleo are very different than what I dare say are MOST of the Paleo eaters out there.

2) You may want to read Paleo Diet for Athletes. The book talks about how athletes, especially endurance athletes, need to modify their Paleo diet to fit their active lifestyle. It helped me reconcile a lot of things in my diet.

I agree with the first responder that you need to create a Paleo diet that fits you.

VLC makes me feel like a blob of nothingness with absolutely no concentration. I honestly think that it works for some people, and not for others though I've heard such a wide variety of people leading a wide variety of lifestyles that have had amazing success with VLC, that I don't know exactly what it is. I thought I wasn't doing it "right", but after several runs at it with terrible results following word-for-word what the pros said, I figured why push myself to do something that didn't make me feel good when I had something else that made me feel great? Now I eat moderate to low carb with a healthy portion of fat, and not too much protein (something which I've tended towards in the past).

However, I wouldn't qualify myself as "low fat" paleo, just "moderate amounts of macronutrients in general" paleo. I think actively seeking low fat is ridiculous for me because my satiety just disappears and I become ravenous.

There are other paleo-ers who like a high-fruit or higher-carb style of paleo, most distinctly I think Denise Minger: http://rawfoodsos.com/

I agree. Being young and active the VLC thing did NOT work for me. It made my body temp lower wayyy too much and I was constantly thinking about food. I would over-eat on fat to compensate and that just made me gain weight. I am doing much better with carbs from squash and sweet potato and have the energy to get through amazingly tough work-outs. I don't think fat should be added in, but naturally included in your diet like, "Hey it's in my burger, or let me put some oil on this salad (but not heaping) or hmmm I really want an avocado" versus going out of your way to eat EXTRA fat..not a good idea for me...I just put on weight.

I don't know a lot but the metabolic typing theory/way is about protein & carb types, & mixes either way of those types. So maybe you're a carb type.

I started with a higher-fat version but found it aggravated my IBS. Fat triggers bowel motility, so I was finding it worsened my colon spasm. I'm now finding lower-fat, higher-carb to be better, although I am still tweaking.

Forever...what are your macros?

I have heard that VLC can make you lose weight pretty fast so that is almost tempting (being 350lns when I started). However I thought about it and I didn't want to lose weight fast, that means losing muscle. I wanted to lose weight steady, and the right weight. So personally I never count a carb or for that matter fat or protein. I just eat. I eat what is paleo, I eat what makes sense and I am happy. I am losing weight, steadily. I always have a ton of veg and meat both. I don't like most fruit so I usually only eat bananas or grapes. I don't want low carb I want no grain.

If your weight dropped dangerously low then it seems likely that either you or your body weren't handling the fat increase right. And I'd be pretty confident you didn't lose and regain 20 pounds of muscle - most of that will just be a change in water retention. It doesn't even sound as if your normal diet is low-fat, or even high-carb. I wouldn't be surprised that you took a step back while moving away from a balanced, whole-food diet.

Its hard to imagine how low fat would be good for mental clarity, fat is essential to the brain, and the majority of nutrients for neurotransmitters come from meat.

Endurance, energy I can understand, and I suppose if your carb intake was insufficient for your high energy output, that might starve the brain of glucose a little.

Paleo folks would have eaten tubers when they could, and especially in the absense of game, and they probably did a different style of excercise from you (what activity would be even vaguely similar to light weights in the stone age? Long distance walking, yes, heavy lifting yes, sprints and high intensity bursts yes....light weights? Cant think of anything natural thats like that)

Sounds like your just doing everything by extremes. How about a 30-35% carb intake rather than VLC? Why so extreme?

VLC..failed. Okay, ill go high carb, low fat. When that doesnt work, perhaps you could try eliminating all food, and living on sunlight!

LOL!!! You could always just use more fruit or carbs when before u work out? And you could always have had some carbs, rather than oscillate between none and a whole lot....

Mind you, its up to you, of course. Just consider how reactive your behaviours seem, to me, very extreme and black and white. Carbs are bad? Okay, no carbs. Doesnt work? Okay, carbs are good, fat is bad.

Whole thing sounds very weird to me, adjusting your diet personal macro levels should be a gentle fine tuning, not a flip from one polarity to another..Whats more, the nutrients you get from food take ages to effect your body sometimes, so you need that patience to notice the differences.

And as a student and excerciser consider this

• actyl-choline is required for memory and attention. Its only whole food sources for the precursor, choline, are primarily meats and eggs. (There is one rare rice called amaranth which has it though, and concentrated soy has it, lol...)

-dopamine and noradrenaline are motivational, and connected to arousal and pleasure - they also relate to energy. l-tryrosine, their precursor, primarily occurs in meats.

-saturated fat is very important to the brain. 25% of the bodies cholesterol is used for the insulation on the neurons to prevent cross-talk and mental confusion.

-A number of areas of the brain also run on lipids, including the endocannabinoid system which is connected directly to endurance excercise, and inflammatory adaption.

The runners high itself is largely endocannabinoids, which are lipid based. Studies show that the endocannabinoid precursor Arachidonic acid, something found in meats only, improves endurance performance in athelethes. (Its also inflammatory, so you should used omega balanced sources)

So, you may want a higher carb level, yes, for your excercise regime, but limiting meats and fats could be a huge mistake. Where would you get your extra wind from without sufficient lipids? Or your insulation for your neurons? Your motivational neurotransmitters without meat? Your attentional and memory neurotransmitters without proper levels of animal products?

My advice - fine tune further. Look into the aspects I mention, and eat some more foods high in sat fats, choline, l-tryosine, and a resonable amount of balanced meat omegas, over time, along with a sufficient (not excess, but sufficient) level of carbs, and see what that does to your performance in school and the gym...

edit: if you are eating 30% protein, less than 30% fat, then your carb count is not that high, nor your fat that low. I would suggest perhaps tho, that unless your bulking hard/building muscle, that your fat to protein ratio is maybe a bit out. Then again, while I understand some nutrition (not alot), I have little clue about body building etc...

Low fat paleo...like..on purpose?

Truth.