Paleo Help Needed

I have an auto-immune disease & my doctor recommended I switch to a Paleo diet. Unfortunately, I'm struggling with getting started for two reasons.

First, I'm a calorie counter & have been for several years. My weekday calorie intake is very low compared to most. This is necessary for me to keep my weight down, because my health condition prevents me from exercising. (I can exercise in water, but I don't have access to water aerobics.) The idea of eating more calories scares me. I don't want to change my diet, then gain weight. I realize most people lose on a Paleo diet, but most people also eat quite a few more calories than I do.

Second, I've been trying to research the diet & the amount of info is overwhelming. There are so many blogs. I don't know which have useful info & which are off base. Some people have good intentions. They're just clueless. :p I don't want to follow the wrong advice.

To my questions... have any of you switched from a low calorie diet to Paleo with success? Not gaining weight is a high priority for me. Extra weight also has a negative effect on my health.

For those who have switched to a Paleo diet, would you mind sharing some links with info you've found helpful. I'm looking for quick breakfast & dinner ideas, plus lunch & snacks on the go. We mostly eat out for lunch & dinner & I'm thinking that won't be Paleo friendly. Feel free to correct me, if I'm wrong.

Thanks in advance for anyone willing to help.

I have found a ton of recipes and helpful information using Pinterest just search for Paleo.

I have found a ton of recipes and helpful information using Pinterest just search for Paleo.

Thanks for the reply. I've never used Pinterest & wouldn't have thought to look there. I'll give it a try.

Any other tips you'd like to share? :D I thought quite a few CC members were on the Paleo diet. Apparently, they don't post on this board.

Where did you get the idea that you can't count calories on Paleo? Some paleo people don't count calories, but it's usually because they aren't concerned about their weight, or they exercise so much that they require a very high amount of calories. If I lifted weights five times a week I probably wouldn't need to count calories either. There are a lot of people in the Paleo community who don't count calories, but I assure you there are also many that do.

I'm a short, petite female with a very low resting metabolism (1000 calories) and I count calories as well as try to stick to specific macros. I've been experimenting with different macros but currently I try to stick to 1400 calories (was doing 1200 when I had more weight to lose), 50g net carbs/80g protein/100g fat. I am not strict Paleo, personally, but I do eat a lot of Paleo recipes and generally model on Paleo/low-carb. I still eat white rice, white potatoes, sugar, and limited amounts of soy, and peanuts and beans. I'm not allergic to any of those and I think they are okay in small portions. I have gone to a completely grain-free diet (no wheat, corn, or any other type of grain or pseudo-grain apart from rice).

I got into Paleo because of my health as well, I have IBS-C, Type 2 Diabetes, and hypothyroid, as well as other conditions. I've lost 50 pounds and am currently try to maintain while I put on a little more muscle before I try to lose another 10 pounds or so. I don't do autoimmune Paleo, I feel like it's just too restrictive for my personal eating tastes, but I might consider it in the future. Just going low-carb and not being overweight anymore has really improved some of my health conditions a lot - particularly my Diabetes. And I've never had such an easy time losing weight, going low-carb, although it's been slow since my metabolism is slow and I also have limited ability to exercise. I mostly walk, and also try to do some bodyweight exercises, and weights occasionally.

I also do a lot of Pinterest for food ideas. This will lead you to a lot of blogs. (me - https://www.pinterest.com/spikedlorelei/) And I recommend Mark's Daily Apple (he strongly believes in science-backed recommendations).

I don't know what your diet is now, but mine used to be really awful. The idea of going without bread and pasta, and restricting so much seemed utterly impossible to me when I first started. I just made changes a little at a time, and it got easy eventually. Frankly, in some ways I think it's good I got so sick, because now I have a very strong incentive and reward for being healthy. I can stick with it forever because now my guts don't ache 24/7 and I have tangible evidence of my diabetes reversing.

Some advice on eating out - it's all about the pre-planning. I try to eat out only once a week because it's easier for weight loss. But it may not be as hard as you think to find places. I am lucky in that I live in a major metropolis in the west, it's more of a challenge when I am, say, visiting relatives in small town deep south.

If you are going with super strict Paleo, your best bet is a burger or steak place where they don't use a lot of additives (some places use spice mixes or sauces that are full of no-nos), or a salad bar place. Like Chipotle or In n Out or Five Guys. You can eat burgers without a bun, or with a lettuce wrap. As I mentioned, I'm not strict and I eat at a ton of local asian restaurants. Just avoid battered items and wheat-containing sauces - go for clean stir-fries, pho, sushi, stuff like that. BBQ can be really great. Indian food. Greek and Mediterranean without the bread.

Read the Primal Blueprint, and try not to let go of the calorie phobia.

Ah, I just remember coachcalorie.com is another great source of science-backed fitness advice.

Perditax - it's true that some people don't need to calorie count. And that some people undereat and starve themselves because of bad diet advice. But there isn't a way of eating, or of dieting, that is perfect for everyone. I think everyone should try it both ways and experiment with different calorie levels. One of the first things anyone trying to lose weight should do is get a BodPod reading and figure out what their body fat and metabolism is. And you have to factor your exercise into your calories - obviously if you are working out you need to eat more. There isn't some magic number that works for everyone.

But I've been working on my health for 18 months straight and doing a ton of research, as well as a ton of experimentation. I have a very poor ability to discern whether I'm full (so I can't just "listen to my body"), high body fat and hormone problems that cause low metabolism, and sometimes am very sedentary depending on how my chronic fatigue is doing that week or month. I suspect the OP also has hypothyroid or chronic fatigue, and may also have severe metabolism issues. Some people truly have very low calorie needs and tracking food helps us to keep our weight from drifting upward.

There's little harm in attempting to not calorie track for say, a month, to see what happens. And it's good to try 200 more calories day for a week or two, or 200 less, see what happens. Or try calorie cycling, where you eat different calories on different days and aim for a weekly average (example - you might eat 1200, 1600, 1000, 1450, 1700, 1375, 1600 one week, instead of 1400 every day). Calculators based on stats aren't always 100% accurate.

Ok.

I lost 75lbs by ignoring calories and doing low-carb (with a few tweaks) after much much reading, and and have kept it off for about six years now. This was after being the obese (all my life) child of a morbidly obese father. The first 50lbs came off without any exercise while working a desk job.

I've long since learned not to argue with people about dietary dogma (and I won't be posting in this thread again, because yeah, had this conversation too many times). That said ... it pains me when I see someone distressed about trying something new because they believe that 'calories in/calories out' is the beginning and end of the equation, so I'm going to offer a little gentle input in those situations.

p.s., a stint of intermittent fasting (not calorie restriction; meal-frequency restriction) fixed my inability to tell when I was full. Whacked hunger signals were my main problem.

I actually do intermittent fasting myself :) I fast for 16-18 hours every day, and only eat 2 meals a day. This is what works for me. Fasting can worsen thyroid problems, but in general, I feel it is helpful. I was actually doing it before I'd even heard of the concept - I have hypersomnia, so fasting is very easy for me naturally LOL. A change I did make, though, was to switch from never eating breakfast, to usually making breakfast (or meal 1, as I like to think of it, because I don't eat typical breakfast foods) my biggest meal of the day, and trying not to eat for a couple of hours before sleeping. I used to eat giant meals right before going to bed.

I guess we both felt compelled to reply to this post for the same reason coming from different directions - I was distressed to think that someone wouldn't try Paleo because they think they are required to eat more. The Paleo community can seem very hardline to a newbie, especially if they come across it first from certain blogs. For example, I did a Whole 30 earlier this year, and it was useful, but I also feel like that group is very cult-like and rules-focused. I don't think dogma is good for any community.

Personally, I think 'calories in/calories out' and 'calories don't matter' are both too simplistic. But I am also tired of arguing about it. I guess I'm am just too defensive from listening to people in the paleo and bodybuilding communities who don't seem to understand that a 250lb healthy man with 12% body fat who regularly lifts weights and runs, and a 110lb woman with hormone problems who can't workout the same, can't eat identical diets. Even if both of them are healthy and fit, there are still fundamental differences. For example, I am always having to remind myself that I need to "step down" supplement requirements to match my size because all the guidelines are for larger people. I think the medical community is just starting to realize that dosage needs to be based on size more. Sorry, getting off topic. :)

Truly, everyone is different. Diet and exercise should be personalized to YOU. It's awesome that you had such good results just from going low-carb. It's been much more difficult for me due to my metabolism issues. Natural metabolism and body type makes a huge difference. Without more details, it's impossible to know exactly what has worked and not worked for the OP in the past.

This is kind of a silly example, but I have two cats. A 15 lb male moggie and a 6 lb female Bengal. I feed them exactly the same amount of food, and they both eat premium grain-free high protein food (kind of like Paleo for cats LOL). The first thing you would probably think is that the male cat must be skinny and the female must be fat. But it's the exact opposite - the male is mildly overweight and the female is skin-and-bones, quite a bit underweight. I try to get the female to eat more, but she won't do it. She exercises on her own quite a lot (hours, literally, every day), and she sleeps less than average for a cat. I try to get the male to exercise more, but he is inherently lazy, and sleeps a lot. So he exercises maybe 5-15 minutes/day. He would probably benefit from eating a little less (but he's a vicious bully when he's hungry and I don't want to deal with it). They have notably different body types. Just eating the same amount of calories had totally different results and free-feeding them would not result in anything better. Their bodies and natural tendencies are according to their genetics, and they are both very healthy from good food and regular exercise. With cats, of course, food is much simpler to figure out, since they are obligate carnivores and universally benefit from a super high protein diet. Humans are much more complex and have the luxury of being able to eat different kinds of food.