I know vegans that are ripped. I know fruitarians that are ripped. I know people that don't do a damn thing and they're ripped (mostly my male african american friends). Explain that. I'm paleo and I'm far from ripped, in fact, I'm not thin and I'm flabby and I eat "right" and I do HITT. It's genetics, mostly, I think. But that's just what I think.

Ripped doesn't mean optimally healthy, perhaps they're storing problems for later. If they're genuinely doing what others do with different results, genetics/epigenetics must be playing a role, but for people in that physical shape there's been a lot of hard work - would a more paleo approach have been less arduous for them?

There is not one true path to optimal health... or ripped-ness. Check your egos at the door, Groks and Grokettes.

Paleo is not about how much body fat / muscle you have. Its about living a healthy live through clean eating, movement, sleep, and stress management. It's attempting to live a life that agrees with what your body wants and needs based on what we have evolved to eat/digest/adapt. Of course looking at early man is only a starting point, and what caveman ate/did not eat has its own fallacies, but you get the idea.

I can lose weight eating McDonalds, as long as I keep calories low. I could build muscle by taking steriods and eating grains. Do the ends justify the means? To me I want to do this within the paleo framework because I feel this is the healthiest scenario for my body and mind in the long term.

Remember its a framework, so you need to adapt the paleo diet to your needs. If you really want more muscle include more carbs including sweet potato's, starchy vegetables, and possibly rice if you can handle it. You can definitely get ripped eating clean and paleo, it's just not that main focus of the diet.

If all you care about is gaining muscle, then the paleo diet may not be for you.

This is observational at best. Most "ripped" people are in line with that body type. As Doug McGuff put it, 1st trials of a swim meet = variety of body types. 2nd round of qualifying, beginning to look similar. Final round, they all look like cloned swimmers. Accelerated evolution/selection before your very eyes. Alot of those ripped people have ripped/torn muscles/tendons, and injuries as well.

Being "ripped" (egads I LOATHE that term, it is the first word in the Brotology Lexicon) is not health.

Perpetuating a stereotype that having every muscle visible and no shred of fat on your body is "healthy" is damning to everyone that isn't. I know you probably didn't mean it that way, but it still comes out that way.

Most can eat a diet that is definitely NOT paleo to make them very lean, but there is a good chance that person will rebound, will not be healthy, or will be frazzled... and the dropout rate will be high, as genetics, ambition, and health filter out the non-hackers.

I can't tell you how many lean gymrats and bodybuilders I've met in my life that were the sickest humans you would have ever met outside a hospital, but by God they would have made a BEAUTIFUL corpse. Although I was never "ripped", when I ate the way those guys ate I lost tons of weight, and got sick (colds, diarrea) on a weekly basis. They were constantly hacking everything just to be "comfortable", taking 40gm of psyllium husks a day, chugging low-carb energy drinks to keep from crashing, 2gm of ibuprofen, excessive magnesium to fight cramps, etc...

I agree with Lauren. Genetics mostly. Steroids other times. However, working in the bodybuilding industry for awhile they are very strict with timing. Bulking and leaning phases--Poliquin style macro cycling. Carb depletion. Self-deprivation. The only thing you need to be ripped is low bady fat on top of muscle. I know they eat oatmeal etc. but I think that is the equivalent of our recommendation to eat sweet potatoes post-workout.

I'm thinking that ripped simply means high muscle mass + low body fat. That can be achieved through a number of processes. Paleo is more an internal health state, I think. Many paleo folks I know are not ripped-but they may be very healthy all the same--just as non paleo folks may be ripped, but not especially muscular.

CrossFit. Nuff said.