I agree with the comments about increasing fat. I think one of the things that is difficult to accept with a Paleo diet which is different than most other diets is that fat is OK, in fact a necessary part of the diet. Eggs, cream, fatty meats, avocado, oily fish, etc. should all be in the heavy rotation. You should be dressing your vegetables with plenty of butter or olive oil. Fat is better for your digestion and keeps you satisfied longer, not to mention tasting delicious (there is a reason our bodies find eating fat extremely satisfying), and will probably decrease your feelings of being bloated. Fat is not bad!

You are eating a lot of vegetables and lean meats, but no fat, you even mention taking the yolk out of your eggs. The yolk is where all of the fat is, and also all of the nutrients. Egg whites are nothing but protein and aren't satisfying. I personally find soft-cooked eggs (either soft boiled or fried over easy) a lot more satisfying and easier to digest than hard boiled eggs, the creamy-delicious yolks are great.

You are eating a lot of snacks, which means that your meals are not satisfying. You should focus on your meals keeping you sated for at least 3-4 hours. I eat one full-sized meal per day and the other two meals are more like snacks for me, and I have absolutely no desire to eat at other times, except sometimes at around 4-5pm I'll get a little hungry if breakfast and lunch were small. This works because the meal has plenty of fat and is delicious and satisfying.

Really, your diet looks more Weight Watchers than Paleo. It is possible to lose weight on Weight Watchers (lots of people do), but it's very difficult because you're constantly hungry and under-nourished, because you aren't eating any fats. You can read through other messages here to see what people eat in a typical day. Many eat as much as half of their calories in fat, sometimes more. This may sound strange at first, but it works.

Your meats should be beef (grass-fed if possible), lamb, dark meat chicken, oily fish (salmon, blue fish, mackerel), fatty pork (belly, sausage, chops with the fat attached). At some point (maybe not initially) you should incorporate some organ meats, I think that calf's liver is the easiest starting point for that. You should only be eating chicken breast, pork loin, turkey, and other ultra-lean meats if you are eating them with a lot of fat (i.e. hollandaise sauce, dressed in bacon or bacon fat, etc). If you do this, you'll naturally eat smaller portions and stay satisfied longer, which will lead to eating less and having more energy.

As far as the cheats, I personally would not worry about a few alcohol drinks during the week, as long as they aren't mixed with sugary mixers. I would worry a lot more about the sugar in your coffee in the morning. This will spike your blood sugar first thing in the morning, which will put your body in a bad state for the rest of the day. It also sets up the habit of having something sweet every single day which will make you more prone to snacking, cheating, and craving sweets.

Try dropping sugar completely for a couple of weeks. You'll be surprised at the change -- all kinds of things that you never thought were sweet will taste sweet. Fruit is very sweet, even tomatoes, and the fat on meat (for example the rind of fat on a good beef steak) is also sweet. You need to make your body a lot more sensitive to sweet tastes so you won't be eating any of the refined sugars.

Good luck!

Hey Cavegirl. I think cortisol and stress are the issue for you. The fact that it's really hard for you to go to sleep means that cortisol is too high late at night (when it should be the lowest) and then you're hitting both a high dosage of caffeine and sugar upon waking, when cortisol should be highest to wake you up.

On top of that, you're Crossfitting 3-4x per week. That's a lot of cortisol releasing beatdowns, if you ask me.

Also, eat all your egg yolks. And you're eating about 6-7 times per day... I think your systems are short-circuiting a bit.

Back off on the Crossfit stuff, go do some relaxing stuff for a bit like walks, yoga, meditation, massages, or whatever, and ween yourself off the sugar and caffeine... really focus on getting some quality sleep in. Read up on cortisol and stress and how to effectively manage those things. You could try some 5-HTP or maybe melatonin but try to do this naturally first.

Good luck!

What sticks out to me is that the few cheats you have, you claim are really hard to give up. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that those things are your problem and most likely what is preventing you from losing weight. If your body had a healthy relationship with those foods, then you would have a healthy relationship with those foods. You dropped fruit, but you eat sugar, alcohol, and diet drinks? Even in moderation those things can throw you off.

I think Jon's answer pretty much nails it, but I'll add a little.

There's a chapter in The Paleo Solution that describes this exact type of situation you're in as it relates to sleep and cortisol (specifically, read the example in the book about Charlie; you'll be surprised at how much it relates to your situation). The author speaks specifically of uppers (caffeine) in the AM and downers (alcohol) in the PM and how that's a train wreck for your sleep cycle because it causes an inversion in your cortisol balance throughout the day.

Cortisol should start somewhat high and steadily decline throughout the day, but caffeine will cause it to rise in the AM and alcohol is going to mess things up in the PM. That's not to say one should never have caffeine or alcohol, but you don't want them as part of your daily regimen.

As for specifics, start reducing your dependency on your morning and evening beverages. Here are some tips:

• Start watering down your coffee in the morning. If you can, drink it black; otherwise, water-down your condiments until it gets to zero.
  • You can start with 3/4 coffee + 1/4 hot water for one week, then go to 1/2 + 1/2 for the next week, etc.
  • Coffee might not be as enjoyable during this period, but you're trying to kick a drug addiction, so it's not going to be puppies and sunshine.
  • Once you kick the habit, you can reintroduce coffee occasionally. The key difference is that you'll exclusively be drinking coffee to enjoy it and not because you have to to avoid getting a headache.
• Ditch the PM vodka drinks from your regular routine.
  • Both the alcohol and the "diet" lemonade are not doing you any favors at the end of the day. Sure, they might help you feel sleepy, but they're certainly not helping you get quality sleep.
  • You could try "scaling back" as I suggested with the coffee, but I don't think it will matter. Just give it up as part of your routine and be done with it.
  • Again, if you want to enjoy alcohol occasionally in a social setting or even at home, that's not going to kill you. However, if you want to consistently get quality sleep, cut it from your routine.
• If the above tips sound scary, try them for 30 days and see how you feel. If it ended up being a waste of time, you can always introduce it back.

You are just twisting yourself up and stressing and stress is very negative. Relax, remember nothing will change overnight, or in 3 weeks, in a big way. If one is serious about wanting to lose weight then one will do what is needed, ditch all sugar, alcohol, etc. The only thing stopping anyone from doing anything is themselves. This lifestyle can take dedication, self responsibility, willpower and self control, esp at the beginning, then it just gets easier. If one has some metabolic derangement that can take many months or even years of good eating habits before it becomes resolved. We don't mess up our bodies in 2 months and it certainly will not take 2 months to fix what is wrong.

Setting expectations just because it's what we 'want' can be negative as well as our bodies will do what is best and natural for it and sometimes this is not the preconceived notion we have in out minds. This lifestyle will make one healthy if we don't stress over it and be patient.

Your aggressive use of exclamation points indicate a high cortisol level (lol).

For me snacking doesn't work well. We're not built to eat so frequently anyway. You want to eat three meals and, as someone smarter than me said, (Devany???) let your snacks come from your liver.

I think that any measurable amount of fat burning happens during sleep, the most from 4 am to waking. If you eliminate the nighttime snack - don't eat after dinner - and especially the alcohol (which turns off all other metabolic processes as the liver works to detoxify) - you'll give your body a fighting chance to get at the body fat during the night.

Alcohol can drive down blood sugar making it harder to sleep well. The creamer has got to go too. Your taste buds will adjust, but, just like working out, you have to train them.

What really stands out to me is that YOU NEED MORE FAT, and if your list is accurate you need lots of it.

It's supremely unfortunate that the word for dietary fats and being overweight ("fat") are the same - because they are completely different biologically! Food fat gives you nutrition and energy (even the energy required to lose weight) and it's sugar - and starches - that make your body divert the resulting glucose into your adipose tissue. Eat significantly more fat (while keeping carbs low to very low) and you'll lose weight.

Dig into this on the paleo sites - it's a real eye-opener!

Some ways I get fat: spoon it in! If I have a craving I'll scoop out a tablespoon or so of coconut oil, butter or beef tallow. I cook with them too. I eat the fatty parts of meats. I eat two to five eggs a day.

On the creamer - perhaps try heavy whipping cream instead? I had - have - my weaknesses still. Way too many nuts at a time, or indulge in cheese - but those are nothing compared to the crap I used to eat! Oh - there are some foods that seem 'paleo' but aren't very helpful. Salami is usually made with a lot of sugar for example. You have to pay attention to the ingredients of processed foods.

On the alcohol, I'm still drinking quite a bit of red wine in the evenings. In terms of weight loss dry booze doesn't seem to have a big impact - but sugary drinks are a disaster. If your mixer is made with sugar, look for a substitute.

And do the weighing: I've really noticed that my subjective sense and the objective reality are way off on that. I've lost 30+ lbs but I still feel stuffed and chunky too-'fat' feeling pretty often. And it's fun to compare now to then. Oh - remember there's a daily/weekly weight cycle of several pounds, and AM is usually the lightest.

Maybe cut down a little bit on the protein and add some more fat in. you seem to be eating low-carb, low fat (with a lot of protein). protein is good, but you dont want it be your main source of fuel. Try fasting in the morning, until 10-11 ish. the more fat you eat the easier this will become. HIIT training and low impact training such as walking will help to burn fat.

Ditch the vodka. I did a couple of drinks a week, thought it was OK as per Mark Sisson. I stopped last week, and I can already see the difference. I feel less bloated. If you've got to have the booze once in a while ( who doesn't?) go for red wine instead.

And honestly... I think your expectations for your body are way too high. I'm 140 lbs too, and I feel I could lose 10+, but I'm only 5'5"! At 5'10" 140-150 lbs sound just right to me for a female. Besides, if you're doing strength training, you're probably gaining muscle. WEIGHT by itself means nothing. Check this out: http://everydaypaleo.com/2011/06/22/attention-scale-addicts-part-2/

"I really have been eating very clean minus the nightime drinks and the morning coffee..."

Could be the...uh...nighttime drinks and morning coffee.

Seriously.

may sound rather holier-than-thou'ish, but what you wrote in a post reads nothing but a complete gluttony, dissipation and a lot of wishful thinking on your part that just eating 'paleo' (or, perhaps, pretending doing so) gives you a complete indulgence to do whatever you like, and yet to get good results (bodylook-wise) and feel good as well

i would thus advice to... well, for a starter, to stay away from any food for while (to say nothing of alcohol) - yes, just stay away (=fast for couple of days) - and then start all over from a clean slate: less fat (=that is added fat; don't get brainwashed by 'fataholic' propaganda), less useless veggies (some roughage is good but overdo it, and... - want a gorilla's belly?) and less overall general obsession with food - feels quite liberating

I can't add anything other than give up the Sugars as hard as it may be, 155lbs later I rarely exceed 10G of sugar a day. It wasn't easy, but then again what good things come easy! Also 2-3 week isn't enough a sample to really go on, It took me a few months to really see the impact of a true lifestyle change!

try you coffee with coconut milk and a little honey, just by that you will see the difference.

Try IF (intermittent fasting). I started IF three weeks ago and the weight is falling off. The best thing about IF is that it is sooo easy!

My daily routine: Breakfast: nothing Lunch: noonish (paleo) 5pm Crossfit M-T-W-F-S (Thurs is CF Endurance, Sunday is off) Dinner: 7pm (paleo)

No foods before noon or past 8pm! No snacks...nothing except water.

I am fasting for 16 hours (8pm - 12pm) and then have an 8 hour feeding window. This took some getting used to, but was fairly easy. I get some hunger pangs in the mid morning, but nothing bad (I would get them anyway when eating breakfast!). My workouts have not suffered. In fact, I continue to increase in strength! I feel less lethargic during the day and sleep like a baby at night.

In the past 5 weeks since getting back on paleo and then starting IF 3 weeks ago, I have dropped 17.5 pounds! Water weight? Maybe some, but not all.

Are you sure you aren't gaining muscle? But in my opinion I would suggest: No booze. No sugar. Lay off on the bulk of the nuts, back down on the snacking - you can build all these back in later. Eat your three big meals, drink a ton of water and sleep your ass off. Seriously. July is around the corner so you should totally make July your uber clean month and I guarantee that you will see a shift. If it helps, I made big pitchers of green/herbal tea and kept in my fridge to drink - I added seltzer, herbs, etc. and it helped me out, gave me some fun things to drink besides water. Good luck!

My little sister is 5'10" 130 and a beanpole size 0-2. I don't think you have any cause to feel fat, or worry about getting fat.

You're 'feeling like a fatty' and are bloated, but you haven't weighed yourself? Are your clothes fitting differently? Do you measure yourself? I can't tell from your OP whether you have in fact gained any weight at all! If you're eating high-protein paleo and doing lots of crossfit, you are probably going to gain significant muscle weight, and yet get slimmer by measurements.

I'm naturally thin too and I've been VLC, same deal, a diet based on protein, fat and too many vegetables makes me bloated, and insatiably hungry no matter how many calories I eat. Ketosis vastly reduces my desire/need for sleep (too many carbs have the opposite effect, it's a delicate balance). Add in some starch and I feel great. I have no idea why people are recommending you drop every tiny source of sugar in your already VLC diet. You need more sugars IMO.

I'd recommended a moderate paleo-style diet with some veg, some meat and seafood, plenty of fats, and also some starches and fruit (100-200g of carbs daily). I feel by far my best eating this way.

Don't drink too much, but nothing wrong with moderate alcohol intake, in my book.