I just gotta say: how many people have to come on this site complaining of being miserable from low-carb before we stop making low-carb the default prescription? I realize a lot of us have moved away from that a long time ago, but the paleo most people encounter is still low-carb. Mark Sisson is still all the way there, Robb Wolf seems to endorse some carb consumption, but the recipes in his book don't contain a single starch, and a lot of other popular sites for recipes like Everyday Paleo that are the same.

The answer is simple: eat carbs. They are not bad for you.

I think you've sorted the answer on your own, too.

Classic bodybuilding thinking: the fitter you are the more carbs you can eat.

Very straight forward. I'd still prolly say that fat people will lose weight very effectively, at least for a time, on LC but for fit people it makes no sense to do low-carb while eating paleo.

I at the beginning did it too, cuz i read Sisson's book early. I did it for over six months so i was thoroughly keto-adapted as they say. Continued lifting and BJJ during that time, too. But i never felt that pep in the step, the extra oomph. Always felt...flat.

Now i eat between 200-250 grams of carb (all paleo, yes) per day, throughout the day, and feel kickass all the time.

Carbs' effect on mood is substantial and, I feel, underappreciated.

Low carb just isn't good or even healthy for some people. This goes double IMO for naturally thin/lean people. Like you, and me. Diets are not one fits all.

When I was in ketosis/ate low in carbs I felt foggy and mentally out of it a lot (I have ADD-PI so anything that makes me less present is bad!), it triggered my natural tendency towards depression, and I was often insatiably hungry no matter how I stuffed myself with fat, protein and roughage. There were some good things about it (I had zero menstrual cramps for the first time in my life VLC, and I had an easier time waking in the morning which is often hard for me) but not enough to justify the fact that I just didn't feel good a lot.

I hereby give you permission to EAT STARCH! It's not bad for you! There are plenty of harmless/'paleo' (most hunter-gatherers eat tubers) sources like white rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes and other tubers - Asian markets usually have an awesome variety of tubers and root veg.

I eat 100-200g of carbs from tubers, white rice, fruit and veg, and even some chocolate and ice cream, every day, and I feel and look (gained some weight) the better for it.

You are already lean, so I would try increasing the veggies and fruit ingestion. You could also try carbs rotations on 3 or 4 days cycle (adding fruits and tubers after training for example, increasing carbs "income" the first 1-2 days and dropping them the following days) as it's proven to work well and as far as I know (anthropology phd student) it could resemble the feeding patrons our ancestors used to. Remember that "the low carb-high fat" paradigm is fading way from the Paleo concept. Good luck, and hope to hear about your progress.

I eat pretty low-carb Paleo. No fructose aside from an occasional cheat. Maybe some starch post workout, but not too often. I notice sometimes my mood will change especially after spending hours at school/library.

What works for me:

1. Eating Dark Chocolate or making some hot chocolate using unsweetened cocoa powder (with water and some coconut milk). Cocoa contains theobromine and tryptophan. Tryptophan affects serotonin, which diminishes anxiety. With dark chocolate a little will go a long way. You can get Lindt 85% Dark, freeze it and then eat a couple squares with some tea. Hot cocoa is nice cause it will make you feel warm and fuzzy.

2. Taking some vitamin D or just going out in the sun for a bit. Just o for a walk and soak up some sun.

3. Taking some R-Alpha Lipoic Acid and maybe some Pantethene (500mg ish) in the morning.

Hope that helps!

The serotonin response to starchy carbs is no joke. I recently added white rice to my diet, and it makes me HAPPY. So strange, but the mood response is immediate for me.

Have some Haagen-Dagz ice-cream my friend. You have no idea how happy it will make you.

Try experimenting with carb cycling. I go 2, 3, 4 days on very low carb then have a day with some sweet potatoes thrown into the mix, something like that. I don't have a rigid carb schedule. See what works for you.

I get grumpy as hell when my blood sugar is low. Perhaps this is somehow related?

Low blood suger? Sometimes too much protein can be cause, does it for me. Its so easy to get too low blood suger, because there is no hunger anymore.

I don't know how much you're "cutting the carbs" but perhaps the underlying cause for your mood is cortisol (rising in order to raise blood sugar). You need a certain, limited amount of glucose daily, usually easily produced from dietary/muscle protein, for a few intransigent tissues that can't burn fats. If you aren't meeting those needs you might well suffer as your body breaks down protein to meet its needs. Unless you're getting irritable from sheer starvation, then I'd think that too little fat is probably an unlikely cause, since even though you look pretty lean, you doubtless still have quite a number of fat calories stored in the body. Hence, I would think that eating a few more carbs and not consuming excessive protein is probably the best, low risk solution.

Dairy makes my mood like a rollercoaster, and I avoid it when I'm around people (which is most of the time).