Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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I am an 125 lb male who went on the paleo diet to fix certain skin issues and digestive problems. I have been on an "optimal diet" type regime for four months, with no dairy, starch, fruit and nuts. My diet mostly consists of low starch veggies and lots of coconut oil, 6 eggs, and about 400 grams of any kind of meat daily.

All this hasn't helped much, plus I am getting weaker, skinnier, and less capable of performing intense athletics. If this diet won't fix my skin, I at least want to be able to gain 15 lbs and perform in soccer once again.

This is what I plan on doing, but before I do, I need critical analysis of what I am going to do, and whether or not my approach is the correct one to take.

Diet:

-I plan to decrease my egg consumption (due to high Omega-6) and increase my consumption of grass-fed meat, maybe up to two pounds a day.

-I am going to experiment with adding starch back into my diet in the form of sweet potato, and squash.

-I will consume fish about twice a week, previously I was consuming loads of it everyday, and noticed my PUFA intake to be quite on the high side.

-I am still hesitant about adding in fruit, deathly scared of fructose, but I might add a handful of blueberries.

-No dairy or nuts...to inflammatory.

-Calories, is a tough one to figure out, because on the "optimal diet" I was consuming about 3200 and just lost weight, instead of gained. Pre-Paleo, I followed a conventional bodybuilding type diet, with about 400-600 grams of carbohydrates almost daily, and I also only managed to gain about a pound in the whole year I followed the diet. I just cant gain weight, but I am tired of being skinny, and weak.

The Plan:

I plan to take a new approach to my training, in hopes of gaining muscle and improving my performance on the field by incorporating a "leangains" type approach with an occasional carb refeed 2 days a week to replenish my glycogen stores, seeing as how soccer is highly glycogen depleting, and my performances always felt better in a fasted state, to some extent, in the first few weeks after going off carbs, but it has all been downhill from there.

I also plan on incorporating a 20 rep squat routine for quick results.

Sample routine:

Fast the whole morning until, noon, do 20 rep squat or soccer practice depending on the day.

Have all my calories after the workout.

Then on Saturdays and Sundays, I plan to carb load, with paleo carbs of up to 200 grams a day.

Does this sound like a good approach or am I approaching this incorrectly?

My idea is that consuming all calories after a workout will feed all the muscles the necessary nutrients to grow, and carb refeeds will allow me to replenish my glycogen levels for the week.

flag	asked Dec 25 2010 at 16:26 rob 1,566●10●23

	6 eggs and 400 grams of meat totals 1500 calories.(I used fit day) Try 12 eggs and 800 grams of meat to get 3000 calories. Just up your omega 3's and keep eating the eggs. Eggs are the most perfect protein for mass. I am in a similar situation as I am a true hardgainer. – Aaron Curl Dec 25 2010 at 17:19
	Yeah, most of the rest of the calories are filled by fat. Sucks being a hardgainer though because it gets expensive, especially if you want to only eat high quality meat. – rob Dec 25 2010 at 17:43
	20 rep squat is not really great for mass gain. 5 rep heavy squat + deadlifts = ultimate mass gain. Also check out starting strength. Its the best, but not really suitable if you are going to do IF. – Ivan Dec 25 2010 at 20:19
	Ivan: quads tend to hypertrophy at higher rep ranges, and 20 rep breathing squats are more like 20 singles. – Chris Dec 26 2010 at 9:02
	Chris - what are you trying to say? that 20 rep squats aren't good for mass gain? – Josh Dec 27 2010 at 5:29

wjones3044 · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-25 19:30:51Z UTC

I would aim to fix the skin and digestive issues first, and see if the energy level and mass gaining follows.

I had skin and digestive issues, too. Fixing these by adjusting diet also helped me fix energy and weight goals. Just to check that we're defining things similarly--by "skin issues" are we taking dermatitis herpetiformis type rash? By "digestive issues" are we talking excessive gas, almost immediately post-meal, with IBS (multiple bowel movements, incomplete digestion)?

To rectify the skin and digestive issues, I recommend eliminating vegetables as an elimination challenge. I suspect a small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). If you eliminate the bacteria food (vegetables) and find a rather immediate improvement in skin and digestion, then SIBO is a likely candidate. A clear cut sign of SIBO is that you will do very badly with starches.

As for the athletics, consider taking a more liberal definition of "fast." I, too, played soccer on a 12-16 hour fast and ate my main meal an hour or two post-game. Now, I'm eating a minor meal four hours pre-game and a major meal post-game. I am getting better results this way. (Better game performance.)

Just my $0.02.

Stephen-Aegis · Answer 2 · 2010-12-25 22:23:05Z UTC

Grass Fed Steak and Sweet Potatoes is a good way to get adequate calories with a true minimal amount of potential allergens. plus its crazy tasty to boot.

To make sure I get adequate calories I eat 1-2 times a day. Only when hungry.

To make sure This happens, I wait until mid afternoon, then I feast like a champ. 1-2lbs of meat, and whatever sides I want, in this case, sweet potatoes. Then, a couple hours later, if I feel hungry I eat a little more. If not hungry, I dont.

The size of this second optional meal is directly proportionate to how I feel hunger wise.

When I switched to mass gain and put on muscle, the second meal had to be pretty large as well.

Id wild guess my calories around 4k+ easily 2.5lbs of meat a day, plus some veggies, and a decent pile of tubers/fat.

Tom R. · Answer 3 · 2010-12-25 22:07:12Z UTC

I'm certainly no expert, and while a semi-hardgainer with some digestive issues, it sounds like you are in fact a "true" hardgainer. All that said, I think your very detailed and strict plan outlined above will set you up for a significant degree of stress and worry about food (perhaps to the point of developing a disorder).

Eat good quality food and quite a bit of it, especially after workouts. Add in the starchy carbs if you can digest them. Sweet potato doesn't work well for me, but I find that pumpkin agrees nicely. Add in more weights as suggested above. Get your presses and upper body stuff on soccer days.

My main point is don't worry about it too much. Dial in good food and lift heavy weight.

James · Answer 4 · 2010-12-25 18:03:38Z UTC

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What are you expecting out of the fasting?

answered Dec 25 2010 at 18:03

James
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Sometimes I feel better when I am fasted. It was mostly to save all my calories until post workout. – rob Dec 25 2010 at 18:15

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If you are a hard gainer, I would ditch the fasting for a while and see how things go with more regular eating. I don't think it is working for you if you're not gaining + are being tired, etc. – James Dec 25 2010 at 23:35

Actually I wasn't gaining before on a regular meal plan, so I thought maybe fasting would jump start my metabolsim in some way or another, but I could be completley off with this theory. – rob Dec 26 2010 at 3:18

Fasting does tend to help with Growth Hormone production so maybe train fasted then a while later (an hour or two to maximize GH) break the fast and pound down the protein and fat. Fasting has benefits other than weight loss as long as you keep calories at or above maintenance. – Alan Dec 26 2010 at 12:39

Thanks. Yeah that's exactly what I was aiming for. I still plan on consuming a calorie surplus, but only after my workouts to maximize muscle gains. I'll give this a try and see how it goes. – rob Dec 26 2010 at 17:19

Mass gain: Carb loading, interminent fasting and soccer?

4 Answers