Paleo - 2 months in

[wasabi]

2 months of fairly strict Paleo now and it is really working well for me overall. Have combined with fairly strict calorie control too so cannot claim all results are from carb reduction, but I've dieted strictly before and weight never came down as well.

Not eating pasta / rice / bread / potatoes is only really a pain when eating out. Most cafes only do sandwiches / jacket spuds / cheap filler non-paleo food. OTOH my cooking has improved immensely. Forced me to use a lot more vegetables and meats more creatively, and end result is tastier with a high wife approval factor.

Weight - have lost almost 10KG - down from 87 to just under 78. And I look fairly shredded although I do a lot of kettlebells and callisthenics too. Did notice a definite lack of energy for first 4 weeks when exercising - it probably isn't the best diet for cardio freaks. Better for strength and conditioning type stuff. Roughly ideal weight now so will start to eat a little bit more till it stabilizes.

Am type1 diabetic and it helps so much in this respect- much more predictable blood sugars. Best it has ever been. Only gotcha is before going to gym I have to go very unpaleo and eat some sugars or if I'm feeling semi-paleo eat a lot of fruit to get the carbs. I can't fully force my body to eat body fat - it wants carbs NOW.

Feel well overall.

Paleo gurus say it takes several months to fully retrain your body to use fats first for energy rather than going to -easy' carbs so hopefully things get even better.

[jackvdbuk]

im type one aswell and would never touch a no carb/low card routine, how do you control your sugars with such diets?

[wasabi]

im type one aswell and would never touch a no carb/low card routine, how do you control your sugars with such diets?

Pretty much gone back to controlling it the way I did 30 years ago before all the fast acting insulins. Two doses of long acting insulin / day (8 units lantus at am and 9pm), i.e. 16 to 20 units insulin total per day most days. 2 units novorapid since i generally eat a banana for breakfast, 2 units more before evening meal as there will probably be a bunch of carbs in among the leeks, carrots etc. Don't need more as i generally have done some sort of sort so body burning carbs till 3am due to increased heart rate. Only time I need more is if I eat too much fruit or if I overshoot on the amount of sugars I preload b4 going to gym. Total daily insulin is under one third of what it was a few months back.

Initially I was cynical and had a fixed carbs = fixed insulin mindset. Get rid of most of the carbs and it all balances out amazingly well for me on mostly just Lantus. I should say for legal reasons see a doctor etc before starting etc, but I'd be a hypocrite if I did.

[wasabi]

6 months in now and still at it.

Have become even more strict in some respects. Had been eating a banana for breakfast but have dumped that and gone to a 2 free range egg omellette most days, with bacon and cabbage stirfry as occasional treat. Pretty much eat no fruit now apart from a few berries or the odd apple to spike blood sugar before going to gym. Nuts from the cookery section of the supermarket are now my main snack. Noticed I need a loss less carbs from fruit than I used to pre workout - suspect my body is getting more efficient at burning fats.

Feeling much better overall than I ever have. Doing some reading on slightly faddy American books like Grain Brain I wonder of the gluten intolerance / inflammation thing had been messing with my head a little for years.

[Zak33]

the human bodies ability to alter and then act with a certain diet never fails to amaze me

the only question you/I/we must have is ... WHICH is best for long life?

(and.. is that long life a HEALTHY one .. or one where you live long but suffer for the last years)

I certainly would struggle to lose fruit from my diet... truly would struggle.
]
I just read one site that said avoid legumes too! whats that about?

[wasabi]

I certainly would struggle to lose fruit from my diet... truly would struggle.
]
I just read one site that said avoid legumes too! whats that about?

Legumes (beans / peanuts) mostly need to be soaked, to varying degrees to be edible by humans at all*. The reason they're soaked/cooked is to get the worst of the poisons out. They're still poisonous though, just less so. Lectins aren't good for you. There are worse things out there for you, yeah, but they're not good, especially in the large quantities many people consume.

*Yeah, I know about peas. A grey area.


As for fruit, just eat more veg. Pepper or carrot dipped in home-made olive oil mayo with a jot of wasabi. Or nuts. Berries are okay to if not consumed in massive quantities. Basically though most fruit is a fructose bomb. In nature we'd have access to fruit for maybe 8 weeks a year, fattening us up for winter. Nowadays with supermarkets = too much of a good thing.