Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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Hi paleo folk... I've lost a lot of weight doing Paleo/Slow-Carb and (almost) daily walking for around an hour (fast walking - i.e. working up a sweat*), around 20kg. I'm now 5'11" and 83-85kg (182-187lbs).

Anyway... I'm wondering if I'm eating enough. Here's my deal... When I was overweight, I didn't eat much/often, perhaps twice a day and only ever cooked a TRUE meal twice a week - but I did eat a loaf of wholegrain bread per week, and have sandwiches/rolls for lunch when I was out. Basically, most of my food was anything I could put on toast, or into a sandwich!

So, I ditched grains and sugary snacks, (and my almost daily banana/mandarin) started walking more (I've always walked a lot though) and moved to eggs, chicken and beef etc. eating what FELT like 3 times more than I ever have in my life, and lost all this weight.

Now I'm wondering about losing muscle-mass as well as fat, as my legs and arms are (to my eyes) looking VERY thin.

So here's what I eat most days:

BREAKFAST: 2x eggs, 1 slice of bacon (or a beef sausage) with some onion, mushrooms, green beans and some spinach leaf thrown in the pan too. (around a cup to 2 cups of total veg). And after breakfast, I usually have two café lattes per day (yes, I'm working up to ditching the milk).

LUNCH: chicken breast, some lentils (I KNOW!!) for caloric load (and to help me poo!) and whatever green veg and onions I can b bothered to throw in the pan. half the time I add coconut cream and curry paste.

DINNER: Either two chicken breasts (cooked as per lunch) or a steak with the same sort of veg as lunch. Generally, a glass (OK two glasses) of red wine afterwards (I work in the wine trade - as well as my freelance work - and have a house full of good wine).

I might snack on 6 or so almonds, or have a spoon of almond/chia butter once every two days or so.

Oh and once a week I have a cheat day and get a medium chicken pizza on a gluten-free base.

So, does this sound like enough food? Or too much?

I've tried the calorie counter on DailyBurn, but there are so many conflicting values for the same thing (i.e. a large egg) that it's confusing the hell out of me.

Thanks for your time, Cheers, Beefwalker (the anti-durianrider)

PS: *When I say 'fast walking' I DON'T mean 'speed walking' as in my neighbourhood, I'm likely to be beaten to a pulp if I was spotted doing that stuff).

flag	asked Feb 14 2012 at 5:54 BeefWalker 233●1●5

Eric · Answer 1 · 2012-02-14 06:13:06Z UTC

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It looks like plenty of food. You might try crono-meter, fitday or loseit. One of them should give you a reasonable reading. It might be time to add in some weight lifting as well.

answered Feb 14 2012 at 6:13

Eric
22.5k●1●17●68

Yep, weights have be weighing on my mind (pun intended) for a while. But for now, I can't afford them (or gyms). – BeefWalker Feb 16 2012 at 12:35

Ralph Furley · Answer 2 · 2012-02-14 13:31:15Z UTC

BeefWalker - First of all, congratulations on your weight loss. Fantastic. Second, I'm going to use a less than flattering term and I don't mean it be insulting at all. That term is skinny fat or ectomorph. Could this be you? I have a tendency toward this and it is one of the primary reasons that I stick with weight lifting as my primary exercise and have since I was about 15 years old. (Anything else, walking, running, crossfit is added to weight training). To know if you are a "skinny-fat", if you removed all of your fat, would you be skinny with little to no muscular development? Do you care? You sound healthy, so you may not care. But, since you posted a question about your legs and arms looking skinny it seems that you may care about it to some degree and the good news is that the condition is treatable. It looks to me that you are eating enough protein - 3 chicken breasts per day would feed a small body builder. You may just need to add some resistance training to your routine. A little time in a squat rack can do wonders. Here is a link to an article on T-Nation.com with 11 training tips for the skinny fat ectomorph:

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/11_training_tips_for_the_skinny_fat_ectomorph

By the way, love the "antidurianrider". That is hilarious. That guy cracks me up and I wish that he wasn't a vegan so that I could pay him some attention.

Matt · Answer 3 · 2012-02-14 14:44:41Z UTC

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I think it's mostly body image in your head. You've grown accustomed to being 220-230 pounds and you're now thinking that 180-190 is too skinny. I don't have this problem, but my family does. They see me at 190 pounds as normal, and at 150 pounds now, I'm too skinny. I grew up naturally skinny, and now I'm getting back to that level of conditioning.

Give it some time for you to adjust to your new body. If after some time you're not comfortable with X Y or Z, take action.

answered Feb 14 2012 at 14:44

Matt
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I think you're spot on Matt. I'm used to looking 'bulkier/heftier' which I mistook for beefiness and muscle. On a side note, a friend pointed this out the other day when I said I wanted to lose more weight. She reminded me that a case of wine weighs around 18kg (40lbs) and that for quite a while, I was walking around with that extra weight - and THEN some. When she asked my how far I could walk CARRYING a case of wine, I said, "probably three blocks" to which she replied "Well shut up and congratulate yourself already!" Everyday, I wonder how I got around with a case of wine strapped to me.:-) – BeefWalker Feb 16 2012 at 12:34

I think I may be eating too little…

3 Answers