Fitting into your new shirt with the paleo diet

Hi all,

This topic arose on the Techfit shirt thread, but I didn't want it to go too much off topic. Hence a new thread!

Basically, the premise is this: I think wearing Techfit shirts is awesome, but I also think you need to look the part. Not that you need to be overly muscled to make it work, but being overweight in a tight shirt won't make anyone happy. If anything, I think Techfit makes you conscious of your own body, which is only good if you can concentrate on the benefits that provides.

Anyhow, in the thread I mentioned a way to lose some weight, without restricting yourself too much in terms of amounts of foods. I recommended the paleo diet. I started following this diet myself over half a year ago, because of some food intolerances (mainly gluten, although I didn't know that at the time).

I was just trying to find a way NOT to kill my wife every night with gas attacks, really. Or my buddies at evening futsal, for that matter.

In short, the paleo diet goes by the premise that humans evolved to eat certain foods (meats, vegetables, eggs, that sort of stuff) and that we haven't adapted, at all, to the diet based on grains that we've been eating the last 10.000 years or so. The result is a screwed up hormone balance, overweight and a host of what we call 'welfare diseases'.

I scratched everything from my diet, apart from meats, vegetables, eggs and fruit. Didn't take me long to feel tons better: no longer those huge energy dips during the day, which spring from high blood sugar levels from eating lots of carbs. Those of you into nutrition will notice carbs go on the back burner when you start eating like this. Protein and fats and your new staple.

Now, get this: I wasn't doing this to lose weight. I was almost 80 kg and for a 1.80 m (5'11") guy that's ok-ish. I was in the starting phases of developing gut-fat, as a lot of guys do at my age (27).

Half a year later I'm down to 71 kg. And I'm telling you, I stuff my face daily with meat, greens, eggs and fruit. But there's the thing: it's eating a lot of carbs (sugars) that causes your body to store fat, NOT fat in itself. I chuck in a good chunk of butter every time I prepare meat, because fat, contrary to what we've been told, is GOOD for you.

So there you have it: if you want to lose some weight easily and feel better, I can hearthily recommend this diet. It's not really a diet, because there's no starving involved (well, our ancestors did skip a meal now and then, so that's fine, too).

Now, a question from Guarda-Res from the other thread:

Two very good sites to get you started are:

Mark's daily apple

Rob Wolff.com

The sites may look a little cheesy and, well, American (*dodges incoming tomatoes from American BigSoccer readers*), but I've got books from both these guys and they're trustworthy and sensible authors. They've got some practical stuff on their sites to get you started.

But it really is that simple: clean out all processed stuff from your house, especially if it includes grains. Ideally you only eat clean cuts of meat and biologically produced vegetables and fruit, but that may not be in your budget (I know I struggle with it). Paleo will probably cause you to spend more money on food (but it's worth it, because you're generally eating the stuff you should have been eating all along).

For you as a fellow Dutchy I'd say get your vegetables at Lidl and roam the other stores for sales. I stock up on poulty and beef whenever I can.

What I usually eat:

Morning: 500 gr soft curd cheese (or cottage cheese, I don't know what it's called in English. Guarda: "volle kwark" ). None of that skimmed stuff, remember: fat is good. Alternatively I eat eggs and bacon, about 4 eggs and 4 slices of bacon. This will easily get me through the morning (protein and fats will keep you feeling satisfied for much longer than carbs). Oh, and as you've notice I do eat dairy: I have no lactose problems and it's still a great source of protein. If you can't handle the cow-protein stuff though, don't try it.

Lunch: sometimes the eggs & bacon go here. Other times I eat leftovers from dinner the day before. And otherwise I go for a piece of meat (fish or beef, mostly - they are easy to prepare in a short time, considering I'm allowed to prepare meals at work - my boss does paleo as well, hehe), some tomatoes and basically mixing it into a salad.

Dinner: anything vegetables and meat. I personally do eat potatoes, but in moderation (my wife fries them in cocosoil, it's the best fries you'll ever have AND much healthier than plantoils). So we'll eat chickenlegs with a salad, or broccoli with a piece of pork. Anything like that. Just eat as much as you need, there is NO need for moderation when it comes to these foods.

I find I have no need for anything in between my meals, but you can go for nuts or some fruits. I don't eat many nuts myself, I can't handle many of them (which was the point of me starting to eat this way in the first place).

Those are some tips.

 

Just to be clear: I am NOT into diets. The only reason (and I mean the ONLY reason) that I got into this was because of my intolerancies. Little did I know there was more to be gained.

So let me stress that this is not a fad diet, simply because it's not a diet at all. OK maybe it is, if you consider a "diet" to be a way of eating.

@Elbulio: you're on the right track, but I got some points.

This is very untrue. Vegetables and fruits both contain carbs. Fruits are actually pretty much carbs. It matters a lot WHAT KIND of carbs you eat, though. Most processed foods contain fast sugars, that are absorbed quickly and screw up your bloodsugar levels. Which leads me to your next comment...

If you work out or are very active you DO need to eat a lot of carbs. Let's be clear about that. Fruits are good, as are the carbs in vegetables. There's a lot of good protein shakes out there that have good sugars in them to help you after a workout.

About the energy part: the fact that you're so tired starting out, is because your body needs to adapt to the fact that it's no longer saturated in sugar! If you continue to base your diet on carbs, you'll notice you'll need to keep eating them to stay fit. Once you break that chain, you can suddenly do without all those snacks.

This is all very true!! I did not notice that much of the transformation myself (but then I was never much of a sweet tooth, although I had a lot of problems not touching bread, which I LOVE).

But yes, surprisingly you body runs better on fat than it does on carbs. Interesting.

 

When you think about it... if you take the idea that we evolved eating certain foods, it's also logical we didn't do that squarely three times a day. People will have eaten what they could lay their hands on. So skipping a meal isn't bad for you, at all. Working out in the morning is another one of those things some people will say it's unhealthy, but I find it a great way to get started (provided I got enough sleep, hehe...).

As far as I know, red meat is not as much a problem as some people make of it. The problem, as far as I am concerned, is how it's produced. I'm a huge opponent of the bio-industry and I would want everyone to switch to local produce. There IS enough to go around, if we stop piling all the resources on a big heap. If local farms produce for local communities (in an animal friendly way) there's really no reason not to eat meat (I've had a job at the Netherlands' central research centre for everything concerning the environment and they were working on theories on how to decentralize the bio-industry, i.e. get rid of it completely).

That is, unless you simply don't want to eat animals. That's a whole different story (which I understand). I personally don't have a problem with it, but my wife (who also eats paleo... most of the time ) does eat a lot less meat than I do, out of principle.

@JoseP: I would throw in potatoes now and then. The thing is simply that when you eat too much, you get spikes in your bloodsugar, nullifying the effects of not eating so many carbs in the first place. But once in a while (say once a week) shouldn't be a problem. My wife deepfries potato chips (chopped up potatoes, none of that processed stuff) in coconut oil, it's amazing and not at all bad for you.

 

Starting out I would totally recommended going as low-carb as you can. This will allow your body to enter a state called 'Ketosis'. Basically it means you'll switch from burning sugar to burning fat. Which is good, because everything runs better that way.

This is good for the first 30 days or so (yes, I know, that's a bitch: I did it too).

After that you can eat more carbs, especially after workouts. Nowadays I pretty much eat whatever I feel like, within the limits of the paleo diet + dairy.

 

Of course the best advice would be to simply try this diet on for size. Give it a 30-day run and it's likely you'll feel the benefits.

Last weekend was Eastern weekend and that means tons of food! Normally not a problem, but... I was staying with friends. I didn't want to get TOO much in my friends' way, so I thought I'd try and see what would happen if I reverted back to 'regular' eating (except for eating peppers, my bowels can't handle those) for a weekend.

Biggest thing? The general feeling of drowsiness. Regularly eating a lot of carbs, I'll say it again since it was in my face all weekend, will make you slow. I was feeling tired all the time and I had HUGE dips in energy.

Back on paleo and feeling much better already.

 

First off: mods, care to clean those two SPAM posts up? Thanks!

Stick with it, dude. Quite simply you're in withdrawal. You'll clear up soon (I can't say HOW soon though, that's different for everyone).

Be sure you eat enough, btw. You'll probably need to eat more in terms of volume than you did in your old diet. For me, eggs and soft cheese (again that word... "kwark") help a lot.