Primal Fatso - my experiment with living Paleo to lose weight

[Chapel]

http://primalfatso.wordpress.com/

I'm gonna start a Paleo/Primal diet using the Primal Blueprint.
I'll be chronicling everything on this wordpress blog.

[kryptonik]

If going Paleo is what it takes, more power to you. But, just by reading your first blog entry, it seems that your real issue is the fact that you are sedentary, and eat like ****.

Going Paleo, may be what makes you consider what you put into your mouth, and I hope it works. But, really all you need to do, is stop eating like ****, and start being active. A lot of us here work sedentary jobs, with snack foods everywhere, but aren't overweight. Get in the gym. Start lifting weights. Start doing cardio. You are the only one who believes your excuses.

I really hope to follow a series of inspiring changes for you.

[Chapel]

If going Paleo is what it takes, more power to you. But, just by reading your first blog entry, it seems that your real issue is the fact that you are sedentary, and eat like ****.

Going Paleo, may be what makes you consider what you put into your mouth, and I hope it works. But, really all you need to do, is stop eating like ****, and start being active. A lot of us here work sedentary jobs, with snack foods everywhere, but aren't overweight. Get in the gym. Start lifting weights. Start doing cardio. You are the only one who believes your excuses.

I really hope to follow a series of inspiring changes for you.

well, there's no excuses... just truths. I ate ****ty and I didn't work out.

I've slowly gotten off junk, so I don't think this will be as drastic a change as it would be say 3 years ago.

I've done the past 3 days by the book (with the exception of one bit of flatbread the first day because I hadn't decided at that point to start the process).

But, I'm not done with the book, so I won't start the 21 day challenge until then. I'm just going on everything I've read so far.

So far I've done no grains or dairy since about 10am on Tuesday. No cravings yet. I already am starting to feel a bit better... I'll post an update tomorrow. tonight we have crustless quiche.

Luckily we've been buying food from farmers markets and meat CSAs, so all our food is organic and grass fed already. the 'purge' wasn't quite that big of a deal.

and I'm not nearly as sedentary as I was a year ago. I'll go into more detail about that. My initial blog entry sets up my old way of thinking. I've done a lot of healthy things over the past year and a half that I'll explain tomorrow.

[spoolin215]

If going Paleo is what it takes, more power to you. But, just by reading your first blog entry, it seems that your real issue is the fact that you are sedentary, and eat like ****.

Going Paleo, may be what makes you consider what you put into your mouth, and I hope it works. But, really all you need to do, is stop eating like ****, and start being active. A lot of us here work sedentary jobs, with snack foods everywhere, but aren't overweight. Get in the gym. Start lifting weights. Start doing cardio. You are the only one who believes your excuses.

I really hope to follow a series of inspiring changes for you.

You should really read "Why We Get Fat" by Gary Taubes. It will (or at least should) change how you perceive overweight people, and why they get that way.

[Chapel]

I got fat because I would eat a bag of chips, a box of cheez-its and then finish it with 2 litres of soda... I know why I'm fat...

I started this week at 297 (Tuesday morning)
today I'm 289 (Friday morning)

blog post soon.

[kryptonik]

You should really read "Why We Get Fat" by Gary Taubes. It will (or at least should) change how you perceive overweight people, and why they get that way.

I will definitely check it out. Always enjoy a good read. My response to the OP was based off his blog entry. Not sure if this book goes with or against what I said. But it was pretty much formed from this:

I would eat a bag of chips, a box of cheez-its and then finish it with 2 litres of soda... I know why I'm fat...

which he eludes to in his blog.

[SurferbobGolf]

Whatever lifestyle changes you make, be sure it's something you can stick with long term.

Come back with any questions you have, or for any encouragement. There are some knowledgeable people on this forum that can help you out.

Good Luck

[Chapel]

New Blog post
http://primalfatso.wordpress.com/201...-are-my-goals/

Please like, share, upvote, etc...
I really could use an audience to answer to. I respond well to positive reinforcement

[TigerinColorado]

Did you take any (other) beginning numbers? Bloodwork? BMI? Body Fat percentages?

If you do, then you'll be able to tell what you are losing. Exactly. Then, if you don't like what you see...you can make changes. Like activity level, diet, focus, etc...

Good Luck!

[Chapel]

Did you take any (other) beginning numbers? Bloodwork? BMI? Body Fat percentages?

If you do, then you'll be able to tell what you are losing. Exactly. Then, if you don't like what you see...you can make changes. Like activity level, diet, focus, etc...

Good Luck!

going for bloodwork on Monday.

[pops]

Good luck, I'll be following your thread and blog. And congrats on making the decision to improve your health.

[Chapel]

*ding*
10lbs
new post

[XiaoNio]

Keep it up! Be wary that your progress will hit a plateau after the easy weight is lost. Cutting sugars, sodas and refined carbs will make you drop a ton of water pretty quickly. The hard work comes after that.

[Rob Cote]

This is awesome man! Congratulations to you for making a wise decision. I think it's great that you haven't a goal weight. Too many people are hung up on an arbitrary number (unless you compete in events that require you to be in a certain weight bracket....different story) but you're focused on losing fat. Good choice. It seems you're very self-motivated as well. No one else is gonna do it for you, so that's great. Keep up the good work.

I've read the most efficient way to burn fat is to gain muscle. Not sure if it's true, but it seems to be working for me. You may consider weight lifting once you've become comfortable with the changes you've recently made to your diet and the added walking. As stated above, there's several people here that are very willing to help point you in the right direction. The progress thread (stickied at the top) I find to be very motivating.

[Chapel]

new, slightly graphic, post

thanks for the support so far. I'm trying not to muddy up reddit

[Chapel]

I've read the most efficient way to burn fat is to gain muscle. Not sure if it's true, but it seems to be working for me. You may consider weight lifting once you've become comfortable with the changes you've recently made to your diet and the added walking. As stated above, there's several people here that are very willing to help point you in the right direction. The progress thread (stickied at the top) I find to be very motivating.

the work out plan on this diet is very specific. it basically involves a lot of slow movement, lifting things, basic movements and occasional sprinting.
Basically the work out of an early human:
be a nomad and go for a walk
lift heavy things occasionally
run for your life once in a while

[AxEgRyNdEr]

good for you going on a Paleo WOE, here are a few tips if you don't already know them:

-don't worry about what the scale tells you. this is a lifestyle change rather than 'lose x lbs in x weeks'. Your body will shed the fat on its own schedule.

-keep track of your carb intake but don't obsess over calories. eat until you're satisfied. a high fat, low carb diet will prevent you from overeating.

-exercise has many health benefits but weight loss is not one of them. exercise does not contribute to long term weight loss, and if eating the wrong diet it will cause weight (fat) gain. 'energy in = energy out' is a myth; weight gain is caused by hormonal imbalances and genetics, not an energy imbalance. If you don't have time to exercise don't stress out, just keep up the diet.

-whether you're on the Primal Blueprint, Atkins, or any other variation the important thing to remember is that the common factor between all of them is cutting out grains, sugar, and starches. Stick to that foundation and you can tweak your diet to suit your needs. From your blog it looks like you have a pretty good handle on replacements for high carb foods.

-your doctor may express concern for your cholesterol levels, but remember that cholesterol is misunderstood by a large portion of the health community (links below)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8SSCNaaDcE
http://youtu.be/YCBMV6d9HSg
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~samoore/nutrition.html useful links

[spoolin215]

Not to mention cholesterol tends to spike with weight loss due the cholesterol trapped in your fat cells, but usually returns to normal once your body fat stores have been returned to a healthy level.

[Egilbe]

Something I read that I thought was kind of scary. A lot of hazardous chemicals we eat are stored in fat cells. They are safely kept away from the rest of our body that way. As the fat cells are used up and depleted, those nasty chemicals get released. Eventually they get flushed out, but still.

[Rob Cote]

Something I read that I thought was kind of scary. A lot of hazardous chemicals we eat are stored in fat cells. They are safely kept away from the rest of our body that way. As the fat cells are used up and depleted, those nasty chemicals get released. Eventually they get flushed out, but still.

This is why cardio can be awesome. Or horrible. Depends what the chemicals are that are being released.

[Egilbe]

This is why cardio can be awesome. Or horrible. Depends what the chemicals are that are being released.

maybe I should have used Toxins instead of chemicals

[Saintor]

Mmmm... I love Bacardi and bacon too.

Except that I don't understand your overall 'guidelines'. How exactly you intend to do it this time.

We’ve tried Weight Watchers, calorie counting, no-fat, all-fat, certain carbs, no carbs, all carbs… you name it, I’m pretty sure we’ve tried it with little to no lasting results.

I am sure that you never tried this method. This is the best one to me *by landscapes*.

Learn precisely about calories and stop approximating; measure when you can.

When I was at 240, I was losing weight with 1800cal/day, then at 190, I lowered at 1650 and at 170, I continued at 1500. Also when I do medium cardio, I allow myself the equivalent calories. Like 200-300cal for a 30-45 minutes ride on the cycle. I love and eat often at fast food restaurants; light cola and one burger/sandwich, no side things.

I do this only 13 days and 1 day off. The 14th is ONE full cheating day. Anything goes, including getting drunk with a Bacardi bottle. A typical 5000cal/day. Extremely convenient for social happenings. But not two+. Force yourself to take that day even if you don't feel like it.... no necessary to eat 5000cal though, but why not going out at a nice restaurant. Motivation is fragile *over the months* and this part is essential.

Repeat forever; it is a kind of caloric restriction for life. If you do the math, 13x a deficit of 650cal is about 8400cal., substract the 5000 and you are still losing every month a pound or two if not more. In your case it will be initially much higher.

2-3 non consecutive weeks a year, on vacation, I am not really on this pattern. In an all-inclusive resort in Caribeans, better forget it.

The goal here is to LAST, before any consideration of SPEED.

I have been doing since fall of 2008, after both my oldest brother and my mother had a stroke. I now weight less than I did at 14 yo!!!!! My blood pressure is at a minimal 109/73 (the minimum of the normal range for teens 15-19yo). BTW, I'll be 45 in August.

I value resistance training but I hate gyms and will never go there. In addition of frequent cardio activities, I also do push-ups up to fail, 3-4x a week. That helped me to feel much better.

Avoid that stroke.... you know how to do it.

[Chapel]

How exactly you intend to do it this time.

by blogging and being honest. I was lucky enough to be featured on a big paleo blog the other day and I suddenly got a lot of followers.

also, this way of eating is VERY easy for me.

[spoolin215]

I wonder what Saintor is going to say when he has a heart attack.

[Egilbe]

I wonder what Saintor is going to say when he has a heart attack.

ERP! ACK! Herp...pffsss.....Plop!

[Saintor]

http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsde...rt-young-.html

Washington, June 10 (ANI): People who restrict their calorie intake in an effort to live longer have hearts that function more like those in people who are 20 years younger, a new study has revealed.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that a key measure of the heart's ability to adapt to physical activity, stress, sleep and other factors that influence the rate at which the heart pumps blood, doesn't decline nearly as rapidly in people who have significantly restricted their caloric intake for an average of seven years.

[osiris]

The article you linked doesn't mention what the specific number of calories was, just that it was "30% lower than normal". If normal is 3500 calories a day and you eat 30% less, are you really getting to the absurdly low calorie numbers you always post? Also of note, the study you linked specifically utilized subjects that not only have a lower calorie diet, but also one of "optimal nutrition", not the "eat whatever junk you want, just not more than 1500 calories of it" you often spew here...and, most importantly, the researcher herself admits at the end of the article that it calorie restriction alone can not be conclusively tied to all of the benefits the article is expounding.

[Saintor]

The article you linked doesn't mention what the specific number of calories was, just that it was "30% lower than normal". If normal is 3500 calories a day and you eat 30% less, are you really getting to the absurdly low calorie numbers you always post? Also of note, the study you linked specifically utilized subjects that not only have a lower calorie diet, but also one of "optimal nutrition", not the "eat whatever junk you want, just not more than 1500 calories of it" you often spew here...and, most importantly, the researcher herself admits at the end of the article that it calorie restriction alone can not be conclusively tied to all of the benefits the article is expounding.

Of course, as professionals they have a disclaimer since thet work with stats and stats are never 100% founded. However they reach a reasonable conclusion that have been repetitive along decades and never refuted. There comes a point when if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck.

Do your math right. By my age and weight, my baseline is 2200cal and 13x1500 and 1x5000 mean an effective average of 1750cal or -20%. There is nothing absurd, just good science accumulating for a long time and pointing in a conclusive direction. Caloric restriction works and optimizes bio-markers in a way that heavy exercising & normal eating can't do. I understand that people in their 40s+ are more receptive to this than the ones in their 20-30s.

I don't recommend specifically junk food, I just say that despite eating a lot of them, I still get great results. No matter the hairplitting naysayers will do (trying dismiss the whole case just because... ) science just goes through.

[XiaoNio]

Coincidentally, we just had a lecture on weight loss based on a colonel/flight surgeon's experience implementing programs with troops. It went as follows:

- The "calories in/calories out" model is flawed and not backed by animal or human studies. It also tends not to work in practice.
- Metabolism is highly regulated and can outsmart calorie modification
- The research behind high carb and low fat diets was inappropriate and caused us to have poor dietary recommendations for the last century
- Glycemic load/index drives up insulin. Insulin induces fat storage. You can't lose fat if insulin is up.
- Saturated fat isn't bad

He quotes this from the Framingham study:
"In Framingham MA, the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower the person’s serum cholesterol… We found the people who ate the most cholesterol, the most saturated fat, the people who ate the most calories, weighed the least and were the most physically active.”

If anyone wants the powerpoint, just shoot me a PM. It's got some interesting dietary examples in it.

[spoolin215]

Coincidentally, we just had a lecture on weight loss based on a colonel/flight surgeon's experience implementing programs with troops. It went as follows:

- The "calories in/calories out" model is flawed and not backed by animal or human studies. It also tends not to work in practice.
- Metabolism is highly regulated and can outsmart calorie modification
- The research behind high carb and low fat diets was inappropriate and caused us to have poor dietary recommendations for the last century
- Glycemic load/index drives up insulin. Insulin induces fat storage. You can't lose fat if insulin is up.
- Saturated fat isn't bad

He quotes this from the Framingham study:
"In Framingham MA, the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower the person’s serum cholesterol… We found the people who ate the most cholesterol, the most saturated fat, the people who ate the most calories, weighed the least and were the most physically active.”

If anyone wants the powerpoint, just shoot me a PM. It's got some interesting dietary examples in it.

All of these concepts are talked about in depth, in the book I mentioned above.

[Chapel]

Coincidentally, we just had a lecture on weight loss based on a colonel/flight surgeon's experience implementing programs with troops. It went as follows:

- The "calories in/calories out" model is flawed and not backed by animal or human studies. It also tends not to work in practice.
- Metabolism is highly regulated and can outsmart calorie modification
- The research behind high carb and low fat diets was inappropriate and caused us to have poor dietary recommendations for the last century
- Glycemic load/index drives up insulin. Insulin induces fat storage. You can't lose fat if insulin is up.
- Saturated fat isn't bad

He quotes this from the Framingham study:
"In Framingham MA, the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower the person’s serum cholesterol… We found the people who ate the most cholesterol, the most saturated fat, the people who ate the most calories, weighed the least and were the most physically active.”

If anyone wants the powerpoint, just shoot me a PM. It's got some interesting dietary examples in it.

this is all part of primal too.
Gluten and sugar drive up insulin which ****s your **** up.
they also mention that gluten makes the bad cholesterol stick to you while pushing out the good cholesterol.

to me, the primal diet makes so much sense. We're designed to eat meat and veg and fruit... grains, not so much

I'm down 15lbs now in less than 2 weeks. 297-282. I can't remember the last time I saw the bottom end of the 28xs

[Egilbe]

this is all part of primal too.
Gluten and sugar drive up insulin which ****s your **** up.
they also mention that gluten makes the bad cholesterol stick to you while pushing out the good cholesterol.

to me, the primal diet makes so much sense. We're designed to eat meat and veg and fruit... grains, not so much

I'm down 15lbs now in less than 2 weeks. 297-282. I can't remember the last time I saw the bottom end of the 28xs

That will slow, but don't get discouraged. A good, healthy weight loss is around 2 pounds a week. That's still 100 pounds in a year.

[Chapel]

That will slow, but don't get discouraged. A good, healthy weight loss is around 2 pounds a week. That's still 100 pounds in a year.

oh yeah, I'm ready for the slow down. I expect to start seeing it around 20-25lbs. at that point I'll step up my exercise and work on pruning more things out and doing more intermittent fasting

[kenny301]

I am glad that I'm not the only one here doing paleo! I technically started around November but I didn't get serious about it till a few months ago. My weight loss has been slower than yours mainly because I haven't been exercising enough and I follow the 80/20 rule most days. I started out around 200-205 and now I am under 190 for the first time since high school.

My energy levels are way up, my digestive system has never functioned better, and I don't get nearly as tired on night shifts anymore.

It has also had benefits that I didn't expect. When I dry my hair after a shower I don't leave a bunch of hair behind in the towel anymore, wounds definitely heal faster, and I feel more mentally alert at work with a better memory.

Maybe I should start a blog to keep myself on track. I have been cheating a lot the last week and I am going to the ocean for a few days starting this weekend. I imagine it will be impossible to find paleo foods in the sea of pizza, candy, french fries, and pretzels that is ocean city.

[Chapel]

new post.
energy levels are up and consistent for sure.