Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

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My diet will consist of lots and lots of sweet potato, green plantains and taro coupled with huge amounts of coconut oil and suet, beef, egg yolks, gelatin, lots of vegetables, canned sardines and frozen salmon. I want to see how much weight I can gain while on this diet. It is very similar to my previous diet, but I want to experiment with coupling high fat with high starch. I have ate like this since Wednesday and so far I have never felt better. Should I expect any complications besides weight gain, if there is any weight gain that is. My diet by definition is still high fat with about 60% of my calories coming from fat, but I am now consuming close to 300 grams of carbohydrate from starch.

Edit: I'd also like to say that for the first time since starting Paleo my body is no longer cold, and my legs no longer feel chronically sore.

flag	asked Apr 1 2011 at 15:28 ROB 785●5●14

	Sweet potatoes have 13g of starch (per 100g). You plan of eating ~ 3kg of sweet potatoes per day ? – Ikco Apr 1 2011 at 15:36
	Hmm...I guess your right. My damm nutrition tracker must be off because I put down 900 grams of cooked yams and it put it down as 250 grams of carbohydrates. I must say though that I am still a bit confused on what a yam really is. I am currently consuming a brown skinned yam/sweet potato with yellow flesh. It's not as sweet as the orange variety, but I have no idea if it's a sweet potato or a yam. – ROB Apr 1 2011 at 15:41
	More info for the yam question: huntgatherlove.com/content/… Your yams are probably not true, African, yams, but sweet potatoes. ("Garnet yams" and "jewel yams" both are sweet potatoes.) Here's another site: sweetpotatoawareness.org – Paul Apr 1 2011 at 16:58
	How is this high fat?...I thought beef was a lean meat? – Joey Apr 1 2011 at 18:23
	@ WCC Paul thanks for the info @ Joey...high fat from suet, coconut oil, and fatty ground beef. I never said the ground beef was lean. – ROB Apr 1 2011 at 21:22

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Jack Kronk · Answer 1 · 2011-04-01 15:34:48Z UTC

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ROB,

I was low carb for about 4 months, lost 13 pounds. Then added starches back in (potato, white rice, some sweet potato) and continue to pound weights 3x week with very heavy training, drinking the highest quality whey protein, eating like a king, all with the intent to gain muscle mass.

After 3 full months on high fat, mod prot, mod carb (almost all starch and some fruit), I might have gained about 2 more pounds of muscle, maybe. But seemingly zero fat gain, which is good.

High fat plus high starch on a healthy person doesn't seem to add weight, at least that's my personal experience. YMMV.

answered Apr 1 2011 at 15:34

Jack Kronk
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Hoping to see where this experiment takes me. High fat and high starch is one of the most satisfying combinations for me. It makes me feel extremely good. – ROB Apr 1 2011 at 15:43

i'll second that. i really like my diet right now too. – Jack Kronk Apr 1 2011 at 15:56

"On a healthy person" being the key words there. I tried going high-starch for a while, Matt Stone style (man, it was nice to eat a plate full of mashed potatoes again!) and packed on 20 (unwanted) pounds fast. But later I realized I probably had a lot of inflammation from eating way too many nuts and artificial sweeteners on LC, causing leptin resistance and who knows what else. Now I'm staying LC enough to keep my weight from climbing any more, while trying to get healthy otherwise. I look forward to eating a plate of potatoes again someday -- after getting healthy. – Aaron B. Apr 1 2011 at 16:10

JML · Answer 2 · 2011-04-01 21:44:10Z UTC

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If 60% of your calories are coming from fat, it's a high fat diet, not a high carb diet. It sounds more like you're experimenting with a high fat, moderate carb diet to me. If you really wanted a high fat and high carb diet I guess you would need to eat 40% fat, 40% carbs, and 20% protein, eh? Maybe on that you'd gain weight.

answered Apr 1 2011 at 21:44

JML
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	further to that... doesn't 300g carbs (which seems quite high btw... even for starch) equal 1200 calories? If that represents... say 25% of your diet (I'm guessing 60F/25C/15P), wouldn't that mean that you need to consume 4800 calories? I think your math is off either on the fat% or the carb grams. And FWIW to you, you definitely don't need 300g carbs, not even from starch. – Jack Kronk Apr 1 2011 at 21:53
	"you" being the OP (ROB) – Jack Kronk Apr 1 2011 at 21:54
	300 grams is a trivial number as I don't know how much I am getting due to my confusion with my nutrition tracking program, the point is, I am consuming a ton more starch, equal to about 7 sweet potatoes/yams a day coupled with a large fat intake. I was always hesitant to do this before because I had read if carbs go up, fat must come down, but on the contrary I find I am highly enjoying my sweet potatoes with spoonfuls of coconut oil. – ROB Apr 2 2011 at 1:05
	Unless you are force feeding yourself, I doubt that messing about with carb amounts will make much of a difference assuming you are metabolically healthy. It's the type of carb that matters more and since you are eating tubers, you're golden. – JML Apr 2 2011 at 1:19

Goose · Answer 3 · 2011-04-01 21:39:19Z UTC

I have experimented with many different variations.

I used to eat fruit and nuts- felt gross and got fat. At the same time, I ate no potatoes and no rice.

I now eat potatoes and some rice and lots of butter and meat, a little dairy, plus a few vegetables. I think I have at least 200 g of carbs a day.

I have lost a few pounds in a few DAYS so far. Mostly, I attribute it to the incredible energy that the starch gives me. It makes me want to go outside for hours and work. My metabolism feels alive for the first time since before I ruined it with vegetarianism.

I am going to experiment with a high starch/high fat diet?

3 Answers