It's not about calories or meal plans. It's about getting to know your body and your needs. My advice would be to start eating Paleo -- I'd recommend the stricter "30 day plan" to start. Then, eat when you are hungry and don't eat when you are not.

The last part of that question is mildly confusing. More fat is good, but carb restriction caused by limiting complex sugars is where it pays off. Ideally, you can incite ketosis by keeping carbs to a minimum and making certain to get plenty of fats. It's the quickest way to change body composition. Paleo is not really about meal plans so much as understanding your needs. If you have "hardly any muscle" just changing your diet won't cut it. You'll just end up "skinny-fat" which is skinny, but still deconditioned. Take up some weight lifting (or body weight exercises) as you alter your eating habits. Might even check out a crossfit box. You'll see major changes from such adjustments in no time.

I'm barely 5'2, small boned as well and had a high fat %. I've managed in 6 months on primal/paleo to loose a high percentage of body fat. (about 6% which is about 27lbs worth)

At first I wasn't eating as high fat, maybe around 40%, but loosing was slow going. So I tweaked it to about 65% fat and the fat just started melting off my body, I now look longer and leaner, well, as long as a 5'2" person can look!

This does take time, you should allow yourself about 2-3 months of fine tuning the program for you, don't put undo pressure on yourself to do it in a few weeks. I average a 1/2 lb a week.

I take in about 1200 calories a day and you could start there or higher if that's where you are comfortable. Its lower than suggested since i don't exercise a lot anything higher stalled me.

Use fitday.com to track your food and see your %'s per day, I wasn't at first but then started using it and was shocked at how far off I was from where I needed to be.

I am currently working on the exercise bit, as @Joe Brock said, you really can be skinny fat, I believe anything will help. The key is to keep moving, don't sit down, work standing, keep moving in all tasks.

hope this helps! aim for 65% fat, max 25% protein, <50g carbs per day (tweek every 2 wks as needed to see results)

OP, you've gotten some good answers so far. I'm going to give you a more proven method. My wife was once 450lbs and is only 5'2" tall. When I met her at 170lbs and very soft and squishy she was lovely to me...but really at an unhealthy body fat percentage. Now she's a 140-150lb lean and hard bodybuilder.

Three Things to do...

Resistance training (lift weights, full boy workouts) 3 times a week Cardio training (walk every day, High intensity intervals like Tabata) 2 times a week. Nutrition. Find your LBM and eat 10 calories/lb of LBM... 60% fat, 35% protein, 5% carbs. If your protein is below 35% then you will lose muscle and although you will lose weight, nearly half will be muscle loss...

Good luck and if you need more... let me know. I"ve also put articles explaining this in more detail on my web site if you are interested in reading more.

As other people have mentioned, the Paleo ideal is to lose weight without counting via intuitive eating. Calories are far from the be all and end all of weight loss, although they are more important for some people with broken metabolisms.

When starting out it is useful to become more aware of your intake and needs anyway. I suggest that you use a Basal Metabolic Rate calculator to establish the calorie intake for someone of your weight and height.

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

As for macronutrients, a general rule of thumb is 0.5-1g of protein per lb of body mass and less than 50g of carbohydrate for weight loss. Keeping your carbs low should depress your appetite enough that you can safely eat until satiety. Remember that this is not a green light to stuff yourself; over-consumption of calories on a low-carb/ketogenic diet is unlikely to cause fat gain, but will stall fat loss.

I'm a small boned, short guy. I can eat fat calories all day long and not gain a single fat cell on my waist so I wouldn't concern yourself so much with the number of fat calories than the type of fat represented in that calorie. All fats are not created equal.

Paleo emphasizes the Omega 3 fats from (and this is strict) wild caught fish and seafood. You can eat salmon, tuna, any kind of fish. You can also derive Omega 3 fats from wild caught shrimp. As for mollusks, you can buy them farm raised since they only survive on zoo plankton regardless of their environment. They cannot survive on Omega-6 drenched feeds high in corn oil and soybean oil. So you can eat clams, oysters, mussels and scallops even if they are farm raised in a controlled environment.

Your saturated fat should come from (and this is also a worthwhile Paleo ideal) grass-fed animals like cows, pigs, chicken and turkey. Organic DOES NOT MEAN grass-fed. Organic just means the feed is organic soybean oil and organic corn oil-based, BOTH dangerous omega 6 fats. Eggs from grass fed chicks are another option for saturated fats and cholesterol. Free-range DOES NOT MEAN the eggs were laid by grass-fed chickens. It means the agribusiness bad guys sprinkle Omega-6 feeds on an open barren pasture.

Think more about where you shop and that will help you get what you need faster than if you walk into a supermarket and attempt to piece together a good meal plan. If you shop at the right places like local farmer's markets you can find more of the food you need much faster and without the hassle involved with investigating confusing food labels.

Veggies are the most preferred form of carbs. I think fruits are fine as well.

I've been leaning towards buying beef tallow (cow fat) and lard (pig fat) to use to saute veggies and use for stir-fried shrimp and pork. You can fry sweet potatoes in beef tallow. It makes a great side dish for your meats. In your stir fry vary herbs, spices and sauces using lemons, limes, oranges, different kinds of berries and variations of them all.

Stir fry is a preferred method of cooking because you retain a greater proportion of the vitamins, minerals and amino acids in these foods.

Good luck!

PALEO POWER!!!

I am neither female nor small-boned :-) but I have recently had good success losing the fat I've been trying to lose, and I think I can boil it down to:

1) Stop eating all grains and sugars
2) Replace some of those calories with good fats, but limit overall calorie intake to be about 10-20% below what is needed to maintain weight (i.e. slight calorie deficit)
3) Skip 3-4 meals per week (for me usually breakfast or lunch) and think of calories in terms of the week, not the day
4) Stop or limit cardio exercise (i.e. running), do only brief, intense strength exercise
5) Have a small cheat once every week or two

Each step took me down another notch on weight and girth and I feel great. I am not sure why but a small cheat every now and then seem to knock off a pound or so.

Step 4 took a while to figure out, I was running about 10-11 miles per week and thought that would be good for weight loss, but apparently it was keeping the weight on. Switching to kettlebells, Burpees and push-ups (intense work-out about 30 minutes every other day) was like flipping a switch in terms of fat loss.

Since you asked for a meal plan, my usual day is:

Breakfast: Coffee or tea with 1-2 Tbsp of heavy cream, sometimes with one fried egg and/or a small amount of fruit (i.e. one slice of peach or 5 grapes)
Lunch: Salad from the grocery store with crunchy and leafy vegetables, hard boiled egg, chicken breast, bleu cheese, olive oil and vinegar. OR, meat-oriented leftovers from the previous night
Dinner: Fatty meat such as steak, lamb, or dark meat chicken, if the meat is lean I add fat with bacon, avocado, or have 1-2 Tbsp flax seed oil after dinner. As much leafy / crunchy vegetables as I want dressed in plenty of butter and/or olive oil, and a glass or two of red wine.
Snack: 3-4 macadamia nuts OR 1-2 tsp of coconut cream concentrate with hot water and cinnamon (a beverage) OR about an ounce of cheese

My portions would probably be about twice yours (I'm about 212 pounds), but you can eat the same things in lesser quantities.

When eating this way, I have very little appetite until late in the day, even when I'm working out, I have to force myself to eat lunch sometimes. It's easy, in fact feels more natural, to restrict calories, so it's easy to maintain a calorie deficit.

Eating too much could hamper shape of your body. Increasing weight is not a difficult task but it should be done in such a manner that you look healthy and fit. So for this you have to start with a diet plan consisting of weekly meal plans,specific calorie plan,etc along with daily exercises.