You CAN NOT do endurance exercise and weights on a calorie deficit. End of story. You need to eat fat and you need to eat starches. Sorry Masochist, but your plan is bad and you are going to feel shit. 1) eat enough carbs for you running - sweet potato, potatoes, rice (if you have to) etc. 2) eat some fat. Fat is filling and good for you. Eating fat will not raise you cholesterol. Please read this

http://www.cholesterol-and-health.org.uk/dietary-cholesterol.html

Specific line of interest -

"The evidence is clear and unequivocal: Eating a diet high in cholesterol, does not increase blood levels of cholesterol or the numbers of heart attacks."

When you say you feel nauseous from protein, what source of protein are you talking about? You say you eat tuna and chicken. They both have protein. Do they make you sick? What's wrong with grass fed beef?

Sorry if I sound harsh but your diet/weight loss/cholesterol reduction plan is far from paleo and I don't think very healthy at all. I think you need to do some more reading, try Marks Daily Apple. Also That Paleo Guy has some great resources for endurance athletes. He is a cyclist (like me) but the principles are the same.

Good luck

You've introduced a lot of variables into this equation. Under eating, new workout regimen, quitting caffeine, and overtraining at a calorie deficit all while you're body is learning to become fat adapted is a recipe for pain, and possibly injury.

Is there a reason your are making all of these changes at once? To be cliche - this is a marathon, not a race.

My guess is that you aren't eating enough to support you energy expenditure. You need to eat, a lot. Everyone is different, but I try to make sure and eat about 40% fat, 40% protein, and 10% carbs from greens and sweet potatoes. I lift / Crossfit pretty hard 3 times per week and eat somewhere around 2500-3000 calories per day (I'm 5'6", 145).

Short story: you are over training and under eating. Eat some more and allow your body to rest!

1) you're overtraining in a period of keto-adaptation, which is not a good idea. 2) you must consume fat on a diet like this, or it will not work. period. 3) you must consume more salt! your kidneys will excrete sodium on a low-carb diet, and your balance is probably way off, especially given the running you do. eventually, if you don't consume a lot more salt, you'll throw your potassium levels off too.

just cutting carbs out can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. please be careful.

You will start feeling better as soon as you stop overtraining. I'm also pretty sure your diet lacks some key nutrients.. Also, eating little to no fat can lead to something called rabbit starvation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_starvation

Trying to have some crazy calorie deficient to lose weight is probably just gonna harm you in the long run. You for sure need to eat fat and more food, stuffing yourself with greens and working out is recipe for disaster. You don't even do supplements? What is the goal with that?

I would start eating fat with every meal at the very least, maybe some fruit pwo. Maybe you won't lose weight as fast but you'll probably be more likely to not gain all the weight back once you go off the diet and you'll feel way better.

How much weight are you trying to lose?

Start eating fat, starchier veggies. More protein if you're going to be training that hard. And read this book: http://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Challenging-Conventional/dp/1400040787

As other have said : stop over training. Eat more, esp good fats and beef. Do not restrict calories. Not sure about your sleep but getting enough sleep is very important. Eat some starchy veggies. Also you are asking your body to adapt to some big changes give it a few weeks, nothing will change over night.

I must say, I feel like you are putting all of us on to see if you can work up a good lather here. "Masochist"...really? This is a hoax, right?

If you are for real you seem woefully ignorant of the basic tenets discussed on this board with your dietary choices and the reasoning behind them. If paleo is your inspiration for this, you seriously are not getting it. There are 7000+ questions to peruse, that would lead you to smarter choices than this. It would especially behoove you to follow the link about "rabbit starvation" in Ginnungagap's answer. People have died on protein liquid diets that were low fat.

If you are sincere, here's the dealio. Your stomach hurts because you are asking it to digest more protein than you have stomach acid for. It is not a coincidence that many of the fast track weight loss people on here eat a ratio of 60+% fat, 25-30% protein, and the rest as carbs. Guess what makes stomach acid? Fat! Fat eaten to satiety doesn't make you fat, but excess protein can, so you aren't doing yourself any favors trying to force endless cans of tuna down your gullet. If your stomach needs a jumpstart, you could try adding Betaine capsules and digestive enzymes at the beginning of your meals. I'm guessing undigested food is being forced through your digestive tract, so you aren't even benefiting from the food you are eating. You are grumpy and feel like crap because you are starving.

I spent 8 weeks eating exactly as you have described, at the direction of my now fired doctor. It nearly killed me, I was suicidal by the end of the 2 months. So please take this seriously. I don't care how much weight you lose, it isn't worth destroying your mental health and your relationships.

As far as cholesterol goes, my numbers seem to come back inversely proportionate to the common wisdom about dietary fat. The whole reasoning behind the high protein/low carb/low fat diet my doc put me on was to reduce cholesterol. It did no such thing. My numbers only came down after I said, "To hell with this lowfat BS!" and started eating a significant amount of my calories as saturated fat, mostly from cows. So don't make me come over there and slap some sense into you!

Also don't worry so much about the calorie deficit thing, I was shocked and amazed when I started plugging my intake into Fitday. If I keep fat at 50%+ of calories, I have to struggle to eat more than 1800 calories a day. It is super satiating, so you end up eating less and feeling better.

Sorry for the dressing down, but I am seriously worried about you. I've already done this experiment and can look in the crystal ball for you.

Eat more fat!!! Because...

Your body can only absorb a limited about of protein at a time. So if your not eating much in the way of carbs, and not much fat, then you have no energy.

Once your eating enough fat, and your body is used to using it as fuel, it will use any available fat stores you have as a fuel source.

Also, I've found the best way for me to feel satisfied is fat + protein. If fills me up and I'm not hungry for 12 hours.

Go for the beef. It's really tasty.

Thanks for everyone's contributions and for your concerns. I do realize that this is not exactly kosher paleo but paleo is my inspiration for this.

Answers for contributors who asked further questions:

• Both tuna and chicken have induced this stomach-clenching response. They are currently my only protein sources. I eat 6-7 cans of tuna per day along with 3 boneless chicken patties. I'm all for eating more protein, so would welcome suggestions - just haven't eaten this way before and don't know what other lean protein sources there are.

• When you say the diet won't work with no fats - meaning, I won't lose weight? That's #1 for me. If I have to choose between losing weight and retaining performance, I'll throw performance out in a heartbeat.

• What is "fruit pwo"? I'm trying to lose 30 lbs (currently 5'9", 190 lbs, down from 200 lbs., 20 more.) I recognize that how I'm eating right now isn't sustainable and plan to restart starches in four weeks regardless what weight I'm at.

• Not eating supplements = no evidence that the vast majority do anything. If there's evidence please send and I will take into account. Same goes for potassium and sodium. There is potassium and sodium in all food. Ion channels in renal tubules take care of balancing that for us and are capable of much more extreme work than what I'm asking of them.

• I'm doing this all at once because I find making big changes is more successful for me when I go cold turkey; otherwise I don't stick to things. After four weeks I do plan to reintroduce starches. Right now I'm trying to force my body to adapt as fast as possible.

Thanks again