Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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Sorry...another weight loss question. Annoying, I know. I'm just so frustrated.
I'm 32, 5'4" and weigh 145lbs. I have been at this weight forever. I've had two babies, gained and lost 45lbs with each pregnancy. I've weighed 145lbs since shortly after getting married. I started eating a whole foods diet in Nov. '11. I started eating paleo Feb. '12. I have lost about 7lbs since January (got up to 152 after holiday). I do xfit class 2x a week and do weight training and intervals 4x a week (xfit style). I feel like I'm burning out and my weight loss has stalled. I know my body has changed somewhat....I'm stronger and I look a little bit better, but I'm nowhere near where I want to be. I feel like I have a layer of fat that just isn't going away, especially my arms and stomach. I know you're going to ask what I eat, so I'll give you an average day.

Morning: Coffee w/ heavy cream. 2 eggs scrambled with ghee and spinach afternoon: leftover dinner....cobb salad (greens, egg, avocado, almonds, chicken, bacon) snack: piece of fruit, maybe a piece of dark chocolate, maybe decaf w/ cream, maybe an avocado or hard-boiled egg, just depends dinner: chicken and tomato soup with coconut milk (a paleo recipe)

That's pretty much an average day. For full disclosure, I do have SAD binges. Every weekend my husband and I go out to dinner or get together with friends. I will have wine and some other crap. This is about 1x a week. Lately I have also binged on wine and chocolate chips. While I know these things are crappy to eat, I wonder if they could completely stall my weight loss or inhibit me from losing this fat regardless of all my other hard work.

Two more things....I do not eat any red meat except for bacon. Long story. It might change in the future, but not anytime soon, most likely. Also, I have had my thyroid, progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone checked and I'm fine.

Any insight into this would help me! Thanks!!

Edit- I wanted to add that I did very well with paleo in the beginning. I was eating a lot of fruit in the beginning and felt great. At some point I started to feel tired a lot and it was suggested that I add more fat and cut out the fruit. I think I went a bit overboard with that advice looking back on it. I think losing the fruit made me feel deprived. Maybe dropping some of the fat and adding fruit in moderation would help...

edited May 9 2012 at 23:45

asked May 9 2012 at 17:44

twochickadeez
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If your serious, drop the cream and be somewhat careful with other fats until you've reached your goal. Look at the weight loss tag at Robb Wolf's site. I like cream and bacon too, but not when I'm dropping body fat. I'm male and much bigger than you. It sounds like the weekend binge is important to you. I suggest you sacrifice a bit more during the week so you can have the treats and still reach your goal. – Don May 9 2012 at 23:29

Thank you! I think you're right. I have the RW site up now. – twochickadeez May 9 2012 at 23:35

Your question seems to follow a common pattern here: female who isn't losing weight, very low carb, lots of chicken, overtraining. – Dangph May 9 2012 at 23:36

Definitely common. – twochickadeez May 9 2012 at 23:46

amplify · Answer 1 · 2012-05-09 17:54:31Z UTC

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Drop the metcon stuff for a while. Weight training is plenty of stress to deal with while trying to lose fat. Your stated typical foods sound great.

And stop eating crap. You know better. One day a week can easily wreck what you're otherwise working so hard for.

answered May 9 2012 at 17:54

amplify
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I do know better! It's like I am looking forward to Friday night so I can have a binge. It's ridiculous. My Xfit class ends in two weeks. I'm going to continue with some weight training and go back to my kickboxing class, I think. It's fun. – twochickadeez May 9 2012 at 19:08

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Just because someone "knows better" doesn't mean they aren't struggling with urges that are very real and tough to resist. Have some empathy. – JeezLoise May 9 2012 at 19:41

GurlzLuvSteak · Answer 2 · 2012-05-09 18:00:01Z UTC

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Stop the cheats, stop the wine, stop the candy, stop the dairy. Count calories. once you've had kids, your metbolism's forever changed. Check your calories.

answered May 9 2012 at 18:00

GurlzLuvSteak
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	Personally I think the cream any heavy fat dairy is ok.strict Paleo? who cares..you care about a diet that works for you and that you can actually maintain. It is possible if you cut out the junk food/binge items you may actually not be consuming "quite" enough fat or carbs. I agree with giving up the gym and at the least wait until you know you are in fat burning mode. 2- 6 weeks strict low carb no processed/junk/ etc.. – jo60 May 9 2012 at 19:09
	I cannot live without wine. I can live without it 6 days a week, however. – twochickadeez May 9 2012 at 19:10
	I meant consuming not enough fat or protein..sorry..not carbs. – jo60 May 9 2012 at 19:10

Caveman Bob · Answer 3 · 2012-05-09 18:26:25Z UTC

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It's been 3 months and you've made some progress. That's awesome, but weight loss comes in spurts. If you continue eating well and exercising hard for the next year and are at the same place, then you might have a real problem. But I don't think that will happen. Keep it up and the weight will come off.

answered May 9 2012 at 18:26

Caveman Bob
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Thanks for that! You're probably right. – twochickadeez May 9 2012 at 19:11

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This is how my pregnancy weight came off -- in little 3-5 pounds spurts then a month or two stall, then another 3-4 pounds. It drove me crazy at first but it did come off. – Heidi May 9 2012 at 19:31

My pregnancy weight is all gone, it's really my post-wedding weight that is causing trouble. Apparently, my body really likes this weight! I weighed 130 at my wedding and then gained 15lbs over the first year of my marriage. I got pregnant shortly after our first anniversary. Congrats on losing your baby weight! – twochickadeez May 9 2012 at 22:23

tronathan · Answer 4 · 2012-05-09 18:30:17Z UTC

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Overall

Toxins. Read about Dave Asprey's work and the Bulletproof diet. The general idea is that our standard diet is laced with molds from the food supply.

Here's a good post including easy-to-follow graphics:

http://www.bulletproofexec.com/the-complete-illustrated-one-page-bulletproof-diet/

For Binges

Come home and drink a quarter cup or a half cup of MCT oil. You body will favor the fats in the MCT oil over the other fats, and less of the bad stuff will become a part of your body.

For serious weight loss

If you're upset, and committed to losing weight - if you really want to loose weight, you can also start doing Intermittent Fasting, where you drink only coffee (with fat from coconut oil or unsalted grass fed butter - no cream) until about 2pm every day, then eat as much as you want until 10pm.

The fats in the coffee help your brain and body function during fasting, its really not so bad.

answered May 9 2012 at 18:30

tronathan
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Translation MCT = coconut oil = medium chain trigycerides – jo60 May 9 2012 at 19:11

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I had to look up MTC oil. Interesting...I'll look into that. I was doing IF awhile back. I liked it, then stopped doing it because I heard it can raise cortisol levels. I started doing it again today though. I just had cream in my coffee. Once I got past the morning hunger, I was fine! I'm going to try Ghee or coconut oil in my coffee...it actually sounds pretty good. Thanks for the insight! – twochickadeez May 9 2012 at 19:13

jo60- you and I keep posting at the same time! – twochickadeez May 9 2012 at 19:14

More coconut would be a good idea if you were just starting out and obese. But you're fit and don't have a fatty liver. You don't need MTC oil. You don't need coffee with butter either. – Don May 9 2012 at 23:33

@Mandy, I think cortisol with IF is really only an issue if your body starts exhibiting signs of starvation (hunger pangs, weakness, irritability, etc). I generally find doing my own version of IF (starting the day with two cups of coffee lightened with full-fat coconut milk) I am not hungry most days until 12 or 1, and I get up at 6:30am. YMMV, but the coffee & coconut milk in the morning has kept me going 'til lunchtime most days. It's usually only after I've had some indulgences the night before that I find I get hungry sooner, so on those days, I eat a sensible breakfast when I get hungry. – ambergarrett May 9 2012 at 23:34

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Paul R · Answer 5 · 2012-05-09 18:33:25Z UTC

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The food sounds good, though maybe a little high in fat. Track your calories (weigh and measure) and drop you calories by 10% (preferably from the fat portion) and see how that goes after 6 weeks. Yeah , and if the cardio is > 30 mins long or is really intense then drop that. Get plenty of rest and enjoy the positive changes you are making inside :-)

answered May 9 2012 at 18:33

Paul R
11●1

Thanks, Paul! This way of eating is a bit tricky because I've read so much about not counting calories and eating only until full, getting lots of fat, etc. That is the complete opposite of how I've been eating for 20 years and it was hard to get used to. Maybe I just went a bit too far with my portions and calories. I'll track it and see. Thanks. – twochickadeez May 9 2012 at 19:17

Hillary · Answer 6 · 2012-05-09 19:02:24Z UTC

I had the same issue! I worked out all the time and ate well but was not loosing any weight. I too was slipping up about once a week and bingeing on crap. I finally started intermittent fasting and counting calories and am doing so much better. I stopped doing P90X and took up running instead. Also replacing some of the animal fats with coconut fat helped me personally.

MeepsIsWellfed · Answer 7 · 2012-05-09 23:13:26Z UTC

I agree with what Paul R said about tracking but I don't think you have to do it long term. I had started gaining weight (not just not losing!) after losing 10 pounds. So after a freaky month of my pants getting tighter and tighter I decided to track my food intake for a week to check in on what I was eating. I was sort of shocked at just how much I was eating. My full-o-meter must be broken! So once I had a baseline and knew what I was consuming I was then able to tweak my diet. I decided to stop adding fat to my already naturally fatty meals, I stopped snacking on nuts all day, and now focus on 3 solid meals and a snack. It feels right and even feels more 'paleo'.

I also didn't quite drinking all together. I think that is bogus advice. This diet should be livable not a torment and drinking is a small but valued part of my life. So I have a drink approximately twice a week and try and make it as 'healthful' as I can by keeping it to a gluten free low glycemic reaction booze choice like wine or potato vodka with soda and lime.

So basically I recommend looking at your food over all and maybe chilling on the exercize a bit. It sounds like you may be over doing it. Go and enjoy your life, don't spend it all in the gym. Just my 4 cents (inflation).

pbo · Answer 8 · 2012-05-09 23:27:56Z UTC

I'll keep it short and simple: If your weight loss has stalled, then you have reached a point where you caloric intake combined with your activity is at level that maintains your weight. You need to get yourself back into a deficit. Cut back on the calories. Looks like an easy way for you to do that is drop some of the fat.

As an example, in your leftover salad, drop the bacon or the avocado, you don't need two sources of fat (and that is not counting the dressing).

I would definitely not do more w/ the exercise. In fact, I would probably dial that down a bit. May help with your stress levels, and may be doing more harm than good.

If you still are not losing any weight, than you are gonna need to log your food, and see where are you. You list your food, but who knows how much... Easy to be eating way more than you think, so you might have to start measuring.

LianeMJ · Answer 9 · 2012-05-09 22:46:05Z UTC

I'm in the same boat - just starting Paleo - have done lower-carb for years. I feel like it depends what book you read on Paleo as to what's OK. I'm having a tough time giving up coffee (1-2 cups a day) with a little cream and 2 sweet n lows. I know - toxins in the Sweet & Low - trying to cut back. I also cannot live without a little wine a few nights a week.

My day today:

Breakfast: Leftover chicken w/spinach & mushrooms in a lemon sauce Lunch: Mixed garden salad with light dressing (not paleo but I was out so I did the best I could) and grilled chicken Snacks: A few nuts, blackberries, an orange. Coffee with cream & 2 sweet n lows Dinner: Paleo Meatloaf & Veggies & maybe a little white wine

Is this horrible for a newb?! I'm counting about 1200-1400 calories here.

I also workout at the gym 3x a week with weights and cardio for about an hour total each time.

Alexis · Answer 10 · 2012-05-10 04:00:25Z UTC

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Have you had your thyroid and cortisol levels tested? Not just TSH, but T3 & T4?

answered May 10 2012 at 4:00

Alexis
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I haven't had my cortisol checked. I planned to when I recently went in, but they said I needed to come in no later than 9am and then again in the afternoon. I didn't have time to do that. I plan to at some point though. I had my thyroid checked, and TSH, T3 and T4 sound familiar, but I'm not positive I had all that checked. My Dr. is pretty much on the up and up though, so I'm assuming. I'll check with her...I have to call there today anyway. Thanks! – twochickadeez May 10 2012 at 12:34

MiMintzer · Answer 11 · 2012-05-10 04:13:46Z UTC

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Sometimes weight doesn't mean anything. You can lose fat and gain muscles and see no net change in weight. How do your clothes fit? If they are looser then you are on the right track.

A better way to track progress is by determining your fat percentage. My trainer measures me with calipers every time my program changes to see how I'm doing and where changes need to be made.

It sounds like you are doing great. Just keep the binges under control and good luck!

answered May 10 2012 at 4:13

MiMintzer
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Thank you! My clothes were getting a little looser, but now I feel like they're getting tight again. I actually stopped weighing myself for a while because it makes me kind of nuts. I have had my body fat checked. When I started xfit in Feb, I was at 30%. Last I checked, I'm at 28%....still high, but no where near where I want to be. I am definitely stronger and I can feel my muscles, but I feel like they are under a layer of fat (especially my arms and stomach)! It's discouraging because I compare myself to other people I know and it seems so much easier for them! Frustrating! – twochickadeez May 10 2012 at 12:37

Why am not losing weight?

11 Answers