Help Appreciated: Giving Low Carb Paleo a Try.

Z

zere0wn

Green Belt
Joined
Jun 9, 2007
Messages
1,103
Reaction score
0
So my basic diet plan is Low Carb paleo. But I don't really know what I'm doing so there is a good chance I'm doing something wrong. Also I am culinarily-retarded. So any quick easy recipes you know would be awesome.

Here's what I currently try to do:
-Eat 3-4 meals a day to satiety, 2 of them to satiety and then some (wouldn't mind adding some weight, but not concerned as long as I don't lose tons)
-Each meal a piece of meat and a vegetable and try to get in some fat
-2-3 grams of combined EPA/DHA daily
-Recently started taking ZMA at nights

---

Been on this about 9 days now, energy levels, performance, and recovery all SUCK!
I also dropped about 8 pounds within the first 7 days which was kind of crazy. Weight may have leveled off some now.

Starting Weight: 184, current 176.

I'm 6'2. Goals are to get healthier, stronger, and get better conditioned for my sport (surfing). Would like to not lose any weight. I wouldn't mind putting on some weight as long as it's good weight, but its not really a goal.
 
Last edited:
Yesterday:

Breakfast:
Bacon and Eggs

Post Workout:
Tuna (in a pack)
Some sugar snap peas
Coconut Milk
Fish Oil

Dinner:
Some Spinach
Meatloaf

Snack:
Spinach
Salmon (in a pack)
Fish Oil

ZMA before bed (3 caps of the ON)
 
The Tuna and Salmon I have that comes in a little packet says it contains small amounts of Soy. .
 
I'd like to add that even though my energy levels have been down, the past 2 days they may be increasing some and I've noticed that I seem to be in a better mood and more sociable. But there are other things that may be a result of the better mood/sociable thing such as not drinking right now (which means no hangover and more happy).
 
Breakfast: -Been in grazing mode this morning and went for a surf so didn't really have an actual meal and none of this was consecutive
Eggs
(went surfing for 90 min)
Bacon
Spinach Salad with Apple Cider vinegar and Olive oil
Fish Oil
Coconut Milk
Downed a little olive oil
Couple more eggs


Dinner:
Some kinda of tuna salad thing with tuna, mayo, and pimentos.

Snack:
Spinach salad with vinger and olive oil
meatloaf
fish oil
 
Breakfast:
Bacon
Eggs
Olive Oil
Broccoli
Fish Oil

lunch:
meatloaf
spinach + olive oil + vinegar
fish oil
coconut milk

Dinner:
Hamburger

Snack:
Salmon
 
How many calories are you getting in a day? Grams of fat and protein? Most of the time people go "low carb" or "paleo" they're eating a lot less than they think they are. I think this accounts for a lot of the energy levels, performance, and recovery suckage. That, and people read that it will make them feel like shit at first, so it does.

I personally like unweighed unmeasured paleo diets. But it seems as if counting calories the first few days really allows people to understand just how much they're actually eating.

Also, unless you've noticed negative effects from dairy, keeping cheese in will help keep you sane. If it comes to a point where you think dairy may be causing an issue (Allergies, Not allowing you to get down to a lower BF%, etc...), then cut it out and see how you feel.
 
Dono said:
How many calories are you getting in a day? Grams of fat and protein? Most of the time people go "low carb" or "paleo" they're eating a lot less than they think they are. I think this accounts for a lot of the energy levels, performance, and recovery suckage. That, and people read that it will make them feel like shit at first, so it does.

I personally like unweighed unmeasured paleo diets. But it seems as if counting calories the first few days really allows people to understand just how much they're actually eating.

Also, unless you've noticed negative effects from dairy, keeping cheese in will help keep you sane. If it comes to a point where you think dairy may be causing an issue (Allergies, Not allowing you to get down to a lower BF%, etc...), then cut it out and see how you feel.
Click to expand...

Appreciate the post. Calorie intake is something I've been thinking about. I heard I think it may have been from robb wolf that you want to get 13-21 calories per pound of bodyweight. I weigh 180 and I'm to some extent shooting for the 20. Comes out to 3600 calories. While I'm more or less doing unweighed un-measured I try to get about a thousand calories per meal to make sure I'm getting enough. Also some people say you don't need as many calories on this because your digestion is better. Not real sure on anything. So like yesterday for example I put the first one in nutritiondata.com (it was 8 slices of bacon, 4 eggs, drank 3 teaspoons of olive oil, cooked with 2, cup of broccoli, and the fish oil) comes out to like 950 calories. The second meal was half a pound of meatloaf+an entire can of coconut milk (which is 630 calories per can) so I'm guessing that came out to like 1200 calories. The second two meals were certainly short on calories.

So from thinking this through seems like you are right I need to get some more calories somehow.

I can't eat dairy it bothers me I have some kind of minor allergy.
 
Yesterday afternoon and this morning I've been feeling a little more energetic, hopefully this keeps up.
 
Let me just get this out of the way and be totally honest; I'm not a fan of paleo. Some people just don't do well on an extremely low-carb diet. Others do great.

Now I cannot really give you any advice unless I know what your goals are; are you trying to lose weight?
 
Well I guess it could be higher carb if you add in fruit?

I'm 6'2 175. Goals are to get healthier, stronger, and get better conditioned for my sport (surfing). Would like to not lose any weight. I was 182 when I started this and quickly lost weight. Weight loss has kinda stopped now. I wouldn't mind putting on some weight as long as it's good weight, but its not really a goal.
 
I'm going to start adding quantities to my food log to make sure I get enough calories in
 
When you are truly eating clean, getting enough calories can be tricky sometimes. Personally, for your goals, I would go for a generally healthy diet and not a specific one. Like I said above, I'm not a huge fan of paleo, and if I said how I honestly felt about it, a lot of people would get pissy. So basically I'm going to recommend that you shoot for several aspects of a healthy diet and not something specific.

I have a rough guideline of what I consider healthy dietary living.

  • Adequate protein - at least 1g per pound of body weight daily.
  • Adequate veggie intake - 3-5 cups daily.
  • Adequate fruit intake - 2-3 cups daily.
  • Have a couple servings of dairy daily.
  • Bulk of food comes from unprocessed sources.
  • Having calories in check - eating to maintain a healthy weight.
  • Take fish oil and a multivitamin

Other then that, nothing else matters on a meal to meal basis, **including carb intake**. And by following these guidelines, there is simply no room for excessive carbohydrate intake. If you try it out, and actually track your calories and protein, you will understand that very quickly. It will end up being low to (possibly, but not often) moderate carb intake depending on how you choose to eat, without all of the excess bullshit paleo has to offer.

Outside of this diet talk; exercise regularly and lift heavy. IMO, that's all you need.
 
I'm giving paleo a 30 day try because I've been listening to Robb Wolf's podcast and he is pretty convincing guy.

I'm curious how you feel about paleo (would you mind pming me if don't want to post? lol).

What amount of calories do you think I should shoot for?
 
zere0wn said:
I'm giving paleo a 30 day try because I've been listening to Robb Wolf's podcast and he is pretty convincing guy.
Click to expand...
Haha... I bet.

I'm curious how you feel about paleo (would you mind pming me if don't want to post? lol).
Click to expand...
Sure, but you'll have to give me some time to type it up. I got shit I need to do at work, currently.

What amount of calories do you think I should shoot for?
Click to expand...
That's dependant on a couple things. I can get you a link to the formula for figuring out your maintenance calories. Or if you don't want to wait, check pezzle's diet log; I posted the link in there.

Basically, figuring out maintenance requires things that I cannot answer for you. Such as height, age, weight and activity level. Although, I believe Lyle McDonald has a set amount he usually recommends. Something like 13 calories per pound of body weight can be a pretty close estimate, but depending on activity level, that could vary a good bit.
 
2800 sounds about right for someone your size. I would aim for 3,000-3100 for a little while and see where that gets you. You don't want to gain fat, so I'm assuming you want to gain some muscle. I would stick with a 300 calorie surplus as the first trial and error period and then go from there. I'd imagine that will still net you the gains you want without the excessive fat storage.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,236,647
Messages
55,431,767
Members
174,776
Latest member
kilgorevontrouty

Share this page

Back
Top