You and me both!!! Ive begun to track calories on myfitnesspal. Unfortunately i think paleo is a great way to have great internal health but for weightloss you have to create a caloric deficit.

Calories in < calories out = weightloss

Paleo just means you'll be getting the most nutrients out of those calories.

Looks like you are eating fruit at nearly every meal. Fruit is not eliminated on paleo, but that is an awful lot depending on your activity level.

I 'tried' paleo several times with mixed but generally disappointing results. I treated this too much as a 'diet' in a strict sense that I tried to deny myself the food I was craving. Your sheet looks very similar to mine at the time, get your sugar fix through more fruit, cheat meals to give in to your cravings, alcohol...

Went to the Whole9 seminar http://whole9life.com/ and got an entirely different outlook on nutrition. Started to cut out paleo-fied food, including all sugar, intra meal snacks etc. It made a huge difference. Weight loss is not spectacular but body composition has changed dramatically and energy levels and clear headedness are through the roof.

I considered Whole9 to be nutritional zealotry but now am a firm believer in their approach. Check out their website as it has some very good insights.

Agree with all comments above!

Looks like you are from Belgium - what box do you go to?

This should work..It's called intermittent fasting. I do all of my eating (every calorie) within a small (6-7) hour window. I eat two meals a day and eat till I'm satisfied (no snacks). I also limit all fruit intake to 2-3 days a week and have a fairly high fat diet. I eat like this when I want to get very lean without having to spend a lot of time training. I also do very short intense training sessions, several times a week.

I would be very surprised if something similar to this doesn't work for you.

You should eat less fruit and less nuts. Keep the berries, but no more than three times per day. Also, I would reduce the amount of fat (no more than three times per day) and no paleo pancakes.

Meal: vegetables + one starchy vegetable + protein + fat + berries

Three meals per day.

Try it and see if it helps.

Do away with all the snacking. Perhaps combine breakfast and lunch, and have a large dinner? And when hunger sets betwixt the Lunch-Dinner interval, look to the glory that shall be dinner, whose meat upon plate potato mounts and satisfies!

Which is to say, replace most of the snacking with something that can be added to the dinner (or the lunch, though your dinners seem particularly sparse). And if you're at the point where fruit can satisfy a sugar craving, then you're on the right track to defeating that addiction.

I would also maybe try not mixing sweets/fruits/starches with fats (in the same meal or close together). Something I read about high fat levels in your bloodstream blocking the absorption of glucose into your cells and therefore having it stored as fat.

Back off the fruit and nuts if weight loss is your goal, and stop snacking. Eat good meals and let your bodyfat carry you over until your next meal. If you eat a good breakfast, why do you need a snack before lunch? If you feel that you do, then you are still suffering from insulin spikes and subsequent crashes. Lowering the fruit will help with that. And eat protein at every meal. Paleo pancakes aren't a weight loss food, now they are healthier than regular pancakes, but they aren't terribly satiating.

More fat, no fruit until you break the sugar addiction.

Something that really helped me "reset" my system and start to eat a lot less sugars and starches was a zero carb, high protein breakfast (for example a couple of eggs). Almost all breakfast foods are sugary and starchy and I found that this caused me to start every day on an energy roller coaster. Eating a zero carb high protein breakfast instead gives me steady energy and keeps my appetite in check during the day. I found this more effective than skipping breakfast too.

For me, eating anything sugary on the regular is a sure way to keep and gain weight. I definitely had problems with snacks and munchies while adapting to the paleo diet but now 15 months later I eat almost no processed sugars at all, to the point that they don't really even taste good. I feel a zillion times better than i did.

Here are some ideas from glancing at your sheet: You are eating a lot of lean meats (chicken and steak). Try adding in some other cuts, like roasts, that have more fat (grass-fed if possible). I find they fill me up faster.

Stop eating when full, but make extra; if you find yourself to be hungry before the next meal, pull out the leftovers from the previous meal and eat that before you reach for snacky foods like fruit and nuts.

Limit fruit to ONLY after exercise to train your body to not always reach for it when feeling hungry. Limit nuts to only a sprinkle to add interest.

Cut the lettuce - I know the big paleo salad is a mainstay, but there's not much nutrition in lettuce, and then you have to deal with the excess oil in the dressing (even if it is EVOO). Replace salad greens with dark leafy greens, like kale, chard, etc, cooked in bacon fat or beef tallow. Nutrient dense foods help cut the cravings that make you feel snacky.

Looking at Day 1 of your menu, here is how I would tweak it:

Breakfast - chicken (dark meat) + avocado - ADD dark greens (kale) sauteed in bacon fat

Lunch - tomato + cucumber + cabbage + carrot + avocado - ADD hard-boiled eggs (1 or 2)

Snack - apple (or better: berries) OR banana (ripe), and only after WOD

Dinner - Mixed vegetables, REPLACE steak with slow cooked beef roast

Other snacks - sip homemade beef or chicken broth if you are feeling cravings. Allow yourself one extra serving of berries if you are really craving sweets (I like to eat frozen blueberries with 1 Tbsp heavy cream on them).

You might find it helpful to use a website like www.cronometer.com to keep a food journal for a while. You can choose Paleo as your goal, and it will help you see your carb/fat/protein ratio. One change I made after using it was to eat a lot more veggies cooked in animal fats, which really made a difference in my cravings.

I moderate one of the more popular paleo forums, and there have been various people starting threads talking about a lack of weight loss.

The most common reasons have been:

Reliance on fake paleo foods like paleo pancakes, and various other baked treats.

Dairy.

Lots of fruit, lean meats only.

Those three account for basically 90%+ of those experiencing weight gain or slow weight loss.

Honourable mention would be not checking ingredients carefully enough. Sausages made with wheat thickener, commercial stock (almost always has wheat), almond milk sweetened with processed sugar, soups with various kinds of thickeners etc.

I have to agree with those in favor of cutting out the high amount of fruit, stick to 100g strawberries or 100g kiwi or 100g watermelon, allowing another 50g-100g as a snack before exercise. I never eat any other fruits aside from blueberries and blackberries on the rare occasion. I haven't seen any comments about the alcohol though! Surely this would have caused you to plateau?

I am feeling very sad and stressed about gaining weight since starting Paleo and Crossfit. I eat at least 90% to 95% Paleo with the occasional dairy product or small treat. I started Crossfit a little over a year ago. I was already in good shape, but the Crossfit has definitely taken me to another level. For years, I have eaten very low carb, sugar and grain, and since having my last child was able to maintain my weight(staying in a two to three pound range). About six to eight months ago, I decided to go strict Paleo and I quickly (within 3 weeks) gained 5 to 6 solid pounds. I have not been able to take the weight off no matter what, and it seems to be getting worse. My pants are not fitting anymore. I am a relatively small woman. Any advise out there? Please help! Thank you!

cut out dairy, dairy's highly anabolic and in many of us susceptible individuals it causes weight gain. doesn't matter if its high fat or low. it's the hormones.

cut down on nuts/fruit (bears use this combination to fatten up for winter, just a random note lol). i wouldn't necessarily eat super low carb bc i think some carbs are helpful for mood/energy and effective fat burning. so maybe replace some of the fructose with tubers? my 2 cents

i gained 20 lbs going from high carb low fat to paleo. i was always very skinny on high carb. i realized my body does better on low fat high carb. paleo is a good template to cut the crap and eat from a whole foods perspective. but i will be high carb low fat from now on. very low fat until i lose this weight. i went paleo to fix digestive issues not to lose weight but i ended up gaining 20 lbs so i am trying to lose it now and i am very unhappy as my digestive issues only got worse on paleo not better. i love the weight i used to be and how i used to look. not so much now. all i can wear now is just giant sweaters and leggings because none of my old clothes fit me. as a girl its nice to feel pretty and dress up nice but i cant like this. im not buying a new wardrobe im just gonna lose this weight, im determined to lose it.

I lose weight unless I exceed about 100g of carbs each day. Turns out, you don't really need to be in ketosis, or put stress on your liver, to lose weight. If you want to lose weight fast, pursue ketosis. But for the average paleoite, I recommend keeping the carbs moderate for energy, performance, and fuel to combat life's stressors.

Me: +2 years on Paleo. Winning against MS daily.

Someone might have said it already, but check your BF%. If you're CrossFitting four times a week, you've likely gained muscle or are retaining water. After a month of CF 6 days a week, I gained three pounds, but I went from 17.8% to 17.5%. But yeah, eating a lot of bananas, like someone said initially, isn't great for weight loss, but it isn't going to make you gain a ton of weight either.