Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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Hey everyone,

Allow me to appeal to your immense body of paleo knowledge:

good god i'm eating a lot. no, for real though. like so much. For background, I'm 23, exercise a ton, and I'm really fit, i.e. skinny, all lean muscle, very little body fat.

I've been in the process of going full "paleo" for a year or so now. At first, I was just eating carbs less, but still tons and tons of fruit, nut butters, nuts, etc. then even less carbs, still tons of fruit, naturally sugary stuff, etc. Now I'm at a point where I really do not touch carbs, at all. Once a week I might eat a sandwich or a bowl of cereal or something, but other than that, never, and very little fruit.

My issue is that I am never full. Ever. I eat a ton of different stuff, and I eat pretty much all day, and I'm still not full. generally on sunday, i'll make a massive batch of chili/stew, wherein I'll simmer 15 tomatoes, 5 red onions, 5 bell peppers, jalapenos, butter, tons of spices, pounds of ground meat (beef, bison, lamb, turkey), and 4 eggs. And I'll eat that over the next week. A typical day might look like this:

In the morning, wake up, eat a plate containing a mixture of 5-6 scrambled eggs, an avocado, 4 pieces of bacon, and a few spoonfuls of natural salsa spooned over the top.

Between breakfast and lunch, snacking on 2 hard boiled eggs, maybe more bacon.

Lunch is a big bowl of my chili/stew with 1-2 hard boiled eggs and an avocado in it.

For dinner, a big steak, and a huge side of broccoli fried in butter, with a fried egg on top of it.

And before bed...something else. more eggs, more broccoli, more bacon, more stew, more SOMETHING.

Basically, when I'm not at the gym or at work or sleeping, I'm eating. and i'm STILL NOT FULL. What the hell is wrong with me? Do I just have an absolutely savage metabolism? I understand that's probably a good thing, but honestly, I'm getting kind of sick of eating. And I love eating. I love it. But I'm just always hungry, and I'm always eating and it's becoming a pain in the ass.

So in general my questions are: 1. does anybody have any suggestions regarding why this happens to some people (me) over others? 2. How much does this have to do with my elimination of grains and fruit? 3. Do you think I should reintroduce some carbs to try to combat this? Is this combatable in general? 4. Are you going to tell me to replace some of my protein with specific kinds of veggies to promote fullness? I bet you are. That's cool, I like vegetables. But is that actually going to have any effect? 5. is there anything I can do with regards to my eating schedule, rather than what I'm actually eating?

thanks yall.

flag	asked Aug 1 2011 at 0:57 Benjamin 31●2

Jester · Answer 1 · 2011-08-01 01:23:29Z UTC

Are you hungry when you wake up in the morning? If not, you may be able to get away with some Intermittent fasting. Simply dont eat until late morning or early afternoon when you first get hungry. I shoot for an 8 hour eating window myself, typically from 1-9pm give or take. When you train yourself to go prolonged periods of time without food, you typically dont get hungry as often. Results may vary.

Sounds like your getting lots of fat and protein, which are typically very satiating. Maybe your exercising too much and/or not resting enough?

yer mama · Answer 2 · 2011-08-01 01:27:00Z UTC

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Good grief! Eat some potatoes, for goodness sake!

answered Aug 1 2011 at 1:27

yer mama
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ben61820 · Answer 3 · 2011-08-01 01:34:03Z UTC

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Why the hell are you avoiding starch? You're young and fit man, eat your carbohydrates! And just eat more food. Don't make more out of it than it is. Eat a lot of food all the time; protein fat and carbohydrates from potatoes sweet potatoes, etc; drink a bunch of water.

answered Aug 1 2011 at 1:34

ben61820
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And if you are still worried track your intake for s full week on live strong or some site and tell us what caloric intake you're at. You're prolly not taking in as much as you think. – ben61820 Aug 1 2011 at 1:35

I've been accused, at times, of being an extremist, an "all-or-nothing" type, if you catch my drift. Incorporating potatoes, sweet potatoes is probably the right thing to do. Now I'm kind of salivating thinking about baked potatoes... – Benjamin Aug 1 2011 at 1:47

cliff · Answer 4 · 2011-08-01 01:48:09Z UTC

It may feel like you are eating a lot(because protien and fat are very satiating) but from looks of it your calories aren't that high. You could potentially only be getting ~2500 cals according to my rough estimate, which is probably too low in your circumstance. I also notice that anytime I restrict a certain macronutrient I get ravenous, low carb is definitely not optimal in my experience as a very active 22 yr old male.

Bottom line replace some of the eggs with more fruit, tubers and fat preferablly from animal origin. If you can tolerate milk that might be a good option for some extra cals.

Albert · Answer 5 · 2011-08-01 02:16:02Z UTC

Sounds great to me. Wish I had your metabolism! Only thing I can think of is maybe you're not getting enough fat. Add in an avocado each day, and some olives. Cook with bacon fat, coconut oil, lard or ghee. Eat some almond butter with a banana.

And count your blessings! You're lucky!

JayJay · Answer 6 · 2011-08-01 02:19:00Z UTC

You say "exercise a ton". I'd say some clarification on what type of exercise you engage in and to what benefit your seaking? Are you collegiate athlete? Bodybuilder? Endurance? IS it just for good health or to look good at the beach? Why are you working out. That would have a lot to do with how you should tweak you nutrition. As for now all I can say is if your hungry eat. Obviously stick with good (read paleo) food. But you could stand more sweet potatoes and rood veggies/fruits if your really hitting it that hard.

Nat · Answer 7 · 2011-08-01 05:18:19Z UTC

Girl that might be a metabolic issue. Personally I like natural medicine and have a naturapath dr but I oils for sure check your blood and mineral levels. A grown man could eat what you mentioned and be stuffed. It sounds like something more significant than a high metabolism.

David Moss · Answer 8 · 2011-08-01 08:59:56Z UTC

I don't know at what point precisely the idea that starch was satiating became the new Paleo Conventional Wisdom, but for the sake of diversity I'll suggest the old one: you need more fat. Personally I don't find starch at all satiating- it's like an unappetising appetiser, in that faced with a plate of rice or potato, I won't find either particularly enjoyable, but eating some will just stimulate my appetite for more. Still, there's doubtless some individual variation here. Indeed I read recently about (but can't get the full article) that the press releases claim suggest that Europeans are more inclined to crave/only be satiated by fat, rather than carbohydrate, which would explain a lot.

As to why I think you might need more fat specifically. Most of your calories seem to be coming from: scrambled eggs, bacon; hard boiled eggs, bacon, hard boiled eggs; steak, fried egg; eggs, bacon mince.

Of course, it's possible that the couple of occasions you mention adding fat you're really adding gallons and gallons of fat to your meals, but I suspect not. There's a limit to how much fat you can imbue a fried egg with. Both your avocados are, together, about 5-600 calories, which, if you're young and active might be only 20% or less of your daily calorie needs. Eggs are pretty fatty, but they're still around 35% protein which, in my view, is far too much. Protein is very satiating, but if you have no fat stores of your own, then I imagine your body will demand some source of fat (or, indeed carbs, which are an indirect source of fat). Simply piling protein upon protein won't work. After you've had a good portion of your protein needs (whatever they are) for breakfast, why don't you simply eat a large dose of fat (butter, cream etc.) until you're full and see what happens. I imagine it'll be much more filling in the long term than topping up your proteiny breakfast, with a proteiny snack a couple of hours later.

Help me stay full!

8 Answers