You should eat when you are hungry.

Paleo isn't a low carb diet, although a lot of people use it to eat low carb.

Don't eat when you aren't hungry.

Pretty simple!

Are you sure you're getting enough calories? It's easy to get a LOT of calories eating processed foods like cookies; you might just not realize how low-calorie something like chicken is, in comparison.

Are you getting enough fat? Since you're decreasing your carbs, you need to increase fat to make up for it - butter, olive oil, fatty meat, avocados...fat makes you feel full and satisfied, so if you're constantly hungry it might be a sign that you're not getting enough.

The more I read the "newbie" posts (mine included), the more I think the newcomers are getting hit with the "grains are bad" from the paleo side, and "fat is bad" from the traditional side.

Fat is your friend, particularly in the beginning. When making the transition, having enough calories to run the body is more important than n-3:n-6 ratios, CAFO vs. grass-fed or PUFA and MUFA ratios. Get the body used to the non-crap calories, and then tweak for optimum performance after a month of adjustment.

N=1 (or maybe n=2): every time I, or my wife, felt crappy during the first thirty days, I forced an avocado. That generally lead to "I don't feel as bad, and now I want BACON." We kept boosting the fat bit by bit, and the feeling crappy went away.

This is the appetite suppression triple threat in my opinion:

• Bacon
• Avocado
• Coconut Oil
• oh yeah, more bacon

If you ♥♥♥♥ bacon check this out!

If you're hungry, EAT. Eat good fats (butter, coconut oil, olive oil, fattier cuts of meat) with every meal and eat till you're full. Not sure if you're full? Eat more. Your body is used to carbs, so keep feeding it good quality carbs (not processed, grain based crap). Grain-free does not = low carb. Paleo isn't low carb unless you want it to be.

Stop snacking to stave off hunger. In fact, stop snacking at all. It's like constantly feeding kindling to a camp fire. Eat a satisfying meal, then let yourself get truly hungry, and fill up again with plenty of protein, good fats and good carbs.

If you're only 6 days in, your body is probably in withdrawl and screaming for the crap it's used to.

First of all, welcome!

Carbs (especially white ones) have a lot of volume for a fairly low amount of nutrients, so you end up eating a lot of food (by volume) in order to get enough energy to go about your day. With paleo, you get the nutrients in a much more available form, so you can keep up with less food by volume, but your stomach will still be looking for more food because that's what it's used to. Be patient, make sure you're eating enough calories (check out paleotrack.com), and you'll start feeling better.

Are you tired, or just hungry? If your energy is down, definitely eat more. Don't worry about macronutrient ratios at this point, just get comfortable eating paleo foods.

PS—I thought your old food list was what you were eating now. I was gonna say...

When you knock out or lower carbs from your diet, you have to compensate with fat. You're probably just not eating enough of it. The problem with going from a traditional diet, or a crappy one, to paleo is that it takes some acclimation to figure out just how much you need to eat. When I first started on paleo, I was used to eating 3 smallish meals a day and then a couple snacks, and when I tried that mindset on this diet, I was STARVING. The guy who got me into it kept telling me to each more. He broke down what he eats for me - which is the equivalent of about 3lbs of meat a day - and I thought, "There's no way I can eat that much food!" Instead, I had to find ways to add more fat to my meals. Now, I pretty much always throw in a handful of nuts, top a dish off with a fried egg or two, or add a few slices of avacado to every meal. And I'm not afraid to snack when I'm hungry. I'll grab a high-fiber piece of fruit (apples and pears are the best) and some nuts or a hard-boiled egg.

You may want to check out Mark Sisson's book "The Primal Blueprint". It's a great reference guide for beginning paleo dieters and it answers a lot of questions that you'll come up with.

If you're dizzy, you may need electrolytes. Try drinking bone broth 2x a day and taking some magnesium. Eat 1/2 an avocado every day.

Also, eat more fat. As Dr. Volek says, "When in doubt, eat more fat." That should squash the hunger. I highly recommend coconut butter!

You are transitioning from carb-burning to fat-burning, and that takes two weeks or so. For some people, the first two weeks are hell, and eating more doesn't always help if you don't have the enzymes to burn the fat yet. You'll be there shortly.

A trick I learned from Protein Power was to take like 300mg of potassium for the first two weeks or so. You lose it when you lose some of the glycogen when you are converting from carb to fat burning.

Half way there!

You have been eating paleo for 6 days! Relax. It takes time to ease in to. In my opinion you are starting off too low carb for a comfortable transition. Add in mashed sweet potatoes with coconut oil for a great snack or banana with almond butter. As you get more accustomed to this way of eating then you can tune down the carbs and snacks, but it was a hard adjustment for me too!

I'm 16 days in and went through two weeks of feeling like crap. This time last week I was so hungry and craving sugar so badly I ate what felt like my body weight in dried fruit (I paid for it later!)

A week on, having stuck to my guns (and stopped eating fruit) and I feel much better. My advice would be - if you're hungry, have a glass of water. If you're still hungry 15 minutes later, eat. I really struggled with the fear of fat, but have gradually been getting more liberal with butter and lard/tallow for cooking, plus more avocados, a few nuts/seeds and yesterday discovered how nice coconut oil is in black coffee.

I agree wholeheartedly with the above. During the first couple of weeks, don't think about calories / volume of food, just get rid of the crap from your system. Once you feel better (and man alive you'll know you feel better) you'll be surprised how easy it is to listen to your body and start to realise what it's asking for (i.e more fat, food in general, water etc).

Good luck and stick with it, you won't regret it. Look forward to seeing a follow up post in a few weeks :)