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Just curious--when did most of you start noticing a the weight/fat starting to fall off after starting Paleo? From what I gather, after a couple of weeks the body really starts to learn to burn the fat vs carbs, so things should be rocking and rolling by then.

I know everyone is different. Just looking for the average.

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13 Answers

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When I started eating Paleo, I was very careful about how I ate due to the fact that I had multiple digestive issues. This may or may not have caused what excess weight I had to dissipate faster. Even eating relatively high calories, I lost 26 pounds in 2 - 3 months. I wasn't "fat" by any means, but now I am lean and feel quite good. I only know this because I was going to the doctor regularly at the time.

In then end I don't think weighing yourself is an optimal measurement. Percentage of body fat is probably better, but I really just don't care about the numbers so long as I feel great and look healthy!

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I started losing weight immediately - literally within a week the change was noticeable.

However, my loss has been SLOW AND STEADY. I don't know if other people had a big drop off or change; mine is just a sliver a week of loss, consistently for months. I'd be curious to know the pattern of other people's weight loss - if it is consistently slow and steady like mine or if the curve slopes differently?

BTW, I've lost 21 pounds in 6 months! Went from being slightly chubby to 100% average! I never thought I'd be so happy to just be an average guy, heh ;)

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Slighty chubby to average these days would indicate a weight gain. – Travis Culp Jan 4 2011 at 1:13
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Took a couple of weeks. After six months, down 35lbs and 5" off my waist. Kind of stalled lately (I also stalled for weeks after losing the first 25lbs) at 160lb, still fat, but much less so.

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lost like 2 pounds a week, sometimes stalled for a week. got to my present weight in 3 months- at 11/09. have been holding steady since then. leaned out in some areas, but not relfected on the scale.

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5lbs a week in 7 weeks then slowed down. Saw my abs at 8-9months and 105lbs lost now total now I'm putting more muscle on(which I'm fairly certain happened during the loss too)

felt like Superman since after week 3

under 100g carb strict many days less than 50g

now my carbs cycle based on activity

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What type of workout's were you doing when you first started? – Jason Jun 21 2010 at 12:06
30min slow cardio replaced by 15 min HIIT – Stephen-Aegis Jun 23 2010 at 13:54
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I've been doing very low carb for nine months. There were periods of 1-3 pounds per week, then stalls for a month, then more weight loss, then stalls. The more weight I lose, though, the lower the average lost per week and the more the stalling. What I thought would take a year may end up taking much more. But at least I look "normal" for the first time in years.

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How does your body know which fat supply to use, your stored body fat or the fat that your consuming? Doesn't really make sense to me...

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Curious about this as well – Todd Nov 26 2010 at 23:54
When you eat meat and fat to satiety your body will first use the eaten fat and then the stored fat. You do not spike your blood sugar from the fat and only a small amount from the protein and therefore you store very little of the energy you ate in your fat cells. Fat is far more satisfying and supresses ghrelin-the hunger hormone- so you are not ravenenously hungry most of the time...as is the case of carb eaters. – Dexter Jan 4 2011 at 1:51
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I had already lost 100lbs with calorie counting a fairly healthy diet. I switched to Paleo to get leaner and lose the last 15lbs. It only took 3 weeks with some IF and I also lost 5% body fat in that time. Now I'm working on maintaining that loss while eating Paleo. I still calorie count, which I know isn't typical Paleo behavior.

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Started very overweight at 280 pounds and lost 15 pounds in the first 14 days. Then suddenly stagnated for about two weeks. Have been losing between 2 and 5 pounds per week since then. All in all, now down to 255 after 7 weeks.

When I found myself stagnating I switched it up to basically no nuts and less fruit. Also experimented a few times with fasting, which came quite natural as my appetite changed. In those first few weeks of crazy fast weight loss I was snacking more throughout the day. I'm not implying causality, just noting.

Perhaps a more likely factor for my brief plateau is sleep-related. The first two weeks I was caffeine free and sleeping more but as I needed to keep up with my freelancing I reintroduced caffeine into my life around the two week mark.

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I've been eating paleo for about 4 years, more for its anti-inflammatory benefits than weight loss. Having said that, I dropped about 25 lbs in the first six months (from 195 to 170 - I'm 5'9"). For the past year and a half I've slowly allowed crappy food and carbs back in, mostly in the form of beer (and the things I eat after drinking beer...). I put 15 pounds back on doing that and woke up this summer wondering what was wrong with this paleo thing (king of denial). About a six weeks ago (and with a month left of my thirties) I lifted the veil of self-deception and cleaned EVERYTHING up. Strict paleo, adequate sleep, basically no booze, and some strength training. I've lost about 12 pounds and an inch-and-a-half of belly since. I seem to have stalled out this week and am bouncing up and down by a couple of pounds here and there, but I've played two pretty intense hockey games and am sure it's messing with my metabolism, hydration, and cortisol levels. My hope is another 5-10 lbs, but am happy to see where things settle out by maintaining this strict approach.

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Started at about 163-164, I'm a 5'9" male. I started losing 2 pounds per week on Paleo without trying (or eliminating milk), but made myself eat more after 3 weeks or so, because I am on a lifting program and want to make more progress! This was after not losing much on low-carb (again, not trying to). My weight has been roughly constant since then. My most recent weighing was 158.

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I had been doing intermittent fasting for a few years before going Paleo.

I did have a period of rapid fat loss the first few months of IF, but I think that must have been the fat that was easy to catabolize, because all my progress later on Paleo has been slow and steady.

Slow and steady means that I am adapting my body to my new ways, not swinging the wieght pendulum in a way that it could swing back upon me.


Edit for additional thought:

I suppose the early/ easy to remove stuff could be called 'low-hanging fat' to play off the low-hanging fruit idea, but then my brain started shouting Ewwwwwww!

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happened really fast for me.. in 26 days im down almost the same amount of lbs.. obviously im in calorie deficit though..trying to lose weight. going well so far..and enjoying it too.

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