This is my second attempt at the Paleo Diet and I seem to be doing better this time around. It's only been a week but I was suffering from insomnia and I'm now sleeping through the night, my energy has picked up, headaches have gone away and I'm not craving sweets as much.

The problem is that I've gained 4lbs. I've read a lot of weight loss stories from people on the Paleo Diet and most loss a good amount of weight in the first week. Has anyone else had this problem? I would love to hear thoughts and feedback.

Thanks

can you give us a food log of what you ate?

I'm not keeping a food journal, but yesterday I had:
Breakfast: 4 oz. of roast with cabbage and a hard boiled egg
Snack: Lara Bar
Lunch: Burrito bowl from Chipotle/ no rice with steak, guacomole and veggies
Snack: couple of handfuls of almonds
Dinner: Meatballs and lettuce leaves

Another day I had:
Breakfast: 2 salmon patties, 1 hard boiled egg
Snack: Meatballs, a banana
Lunch: taco filling with lettuce leaves
Snack: Almonds
Dinner: Pot Roast and cabbage

I don't have your physical stats, but Paleo alone wasn't helping me to lose weight because I was still overeating calories. It's only just now that I've gotten very-nearly strictly Paleo and have cut calories that I'm losing weight. But I have issues such as food sensitivities, type 2 diabetes and PCOS. Oh, plus impending menopause!

But I am feeling really amazing eating like this! Give this time and be patient with your progress. You are succeeding at finding better health!

is too much salt intake and retaining water be the issue?

Over the years, I've tried countless plans that claim that no calorie counting or portion-limits were necessary to lose weight on their plan. I learned that for me, there is no such thing. I can gain weight or at least stall on virtually every plan out there. Even Atkins induction, South Beach Phase I, Paleo, Primal Blueprint, Neanderthin....

As a result, I now "translate" every WOE I want to try, into an exchange plan. No matter how I eat, I translate it into a 1500 - 2000 calorie exchange plan.

Over the past 105 lbs that I've lost, I've followed many WOE's, and probably will continue to try new ones, or experiment with those that have worked for me in the past, but I always try to keep the exchange plan format constant. If I want to include non-paleo foods, or have a high-carb day, I still try to use my exchange plan so that I don't turn an off-plan day into a free-for-all-binge-until-I'm-sick day (occasionally that still happens, but much less often now that I have not only an official "back up" plan, but even have a back-up to the back-up in place.

For example, my plan A is always lower-carb paleo. However, I have a back up plan for when paleo isn't going to work easily (say I'm invited to dinner or for some other reason want to go off my main plan). Plan B is to follow the same lower-carb plan, but not worry about non-paleo foods as much (so I might fill my starch exchanges with white potato or rice, rather than a more paleo-friendly choice). And Plan C, is a higher-carb exchange plan. I can't rely on Plan C very often, because high-carb eating makes me hungrier, to the point that I'm hungrier on 4,000 calories of high-carb than on 1,000 calories of very low-carb.

However, by having three plans in place, having a back-up plan, and having a back-up to the back-up, I always feel prepared, and I almost never let myself feel like "I've blown it so I might as well keep eating."

Occasionally I find myself not following either A, B, or C perfectly, but just by having "back up plans" it makes it natural to continue to focus on "damage control." Even if I make mistakes on my main plan, AND then my back up plans, I don't panic and binge. Just having plans A, B, and C in place makes it easier for me to improvise a plan D if C hasn't gone as planned.

I don't know if that makes sense, but it essentially means that I'm never entirely without a plan or at least the sense of preparedness to improvise a plan when the situation calls for it.

In the past, I never had a back-up plan (let alone a back-up to the back-up and the preparedness to continue making contingency plans as I went). I had two plans.

Plan A "eat perfectly" on plan.

Plan B "eat absolutely everything in sight, usually until I literally made myself feel physically ill from the bingeing."


One poor choice always led to hundreds of poor choices, now I aim for damage control. No matter how poor a choice I make (and whether I planned for it or not), I'm much less likely to fall into the "I've blown it so I might as well make my mistake even bigger so I can start fresh tomorrow."

Even if I make ten poor choices in a row, I try not to let myself use those mistakes as an excuse for making choice number 11 just as bad or worse. I remind myself that every choice is an opportunity to make a better choice.

Keeping track of the calories (or in my case, exchanges), even when I've gone off plan, really helps remind me that every choice counts. And that "starting fresh" is a myth. There is no starting fresh, there's just moving on.

Thanks for the feedback, ladies. I'm going to give it another week then make some changes. I've never been a calorie counter but I may have to start.

I was up another pound this morning. I've never gained weight this fast before. I'm starting to doubt if this way of eating is for me. I'm not eating a whole lot and my diet has drastically improved over how I've been eating the past few months, but I'm gaining more weight and faster now then I have before.

Hi there, I am new here, but not new to dieting.

I have tried everything in the paleo/low carb world including zero carb.

I have come to the following conclusions.
1. many people loose a lot when they go paleo because they give up sugar for the first time in their lives.
2. as above for bread.
3. paleo is good for you, but not if you eat too much fruit/nuts
4 sadly the amount you eat does matter. Like the above poster i find that as soon as I eat high carb I get hungry, however zero carb is not necessary or desirable.

So now I dont count anything...I hate counting, it ruins my life...but I dont eat much either. I had a major disaster on eat all you like as long as its paleo...it works for 20 something men only I think....but i feel so much better off sugar and grains, so i got a smaller plate and cut my portions in half. I tell myself if i am still hungry in an hour I will eat again. I never am! But I do eat paleo and I do still have cream in my tea (thank you Dr Atkins!) I don't eat any fruit, except berries in season from my own garden. This is not a hardship as i would rather eat cabbage than an apple anyday! But it helps keep the sugar down.

I hope some of this helps

Autodidact

You should also think about how you are feeling. Are you feeling really good? I'd say continue! Also, you do have to watch out for the processed meats. Have you tried coconut oil? I use this everyday. They say it works with weight loss but I've doing so many different things lately. I've lost around 20 lbs in 2 months giving up the processed foods, white sugar, potatoes,and all wheat products. I think you should give it some more time. Getting off of wheat and processed foods is such a great thing for your body. I wouldn't get discouraged....keep it up It's much better than adding processed foods back in your life

I also agree with the above poster. I don't count calories. I just eat until satisfied and I find I can go a lot longer without eating. Also, I still include things like Paleo fudge and cookies in my diet. This has to be something you can live with for the rest of your life.

I find that, regardless of what I eat - except for fatty sweets/white carbs - I am surprised at how little food one really needs at a sitting. I have been paying close attention to eating slowly and enjoying my food, and stopping when I feel I have had enough. I am surprised to find that I'm usually feeling a little overly-full about 15-20 minutes after I've finished eating. So I think I have to stop a little before I think I should and see how that works.

The Paleo diet isn't obesity-proof. After all, paleo people did know what fat people look like (as indicated by their obese goddess figures such as the Venus of Willendorf).

Obesity was still possible, it was just less likely.

The symptom improvement you're reporting regarding your sleep, headaches and energy levels suggest that you're on the right track, you will just have to keep tweaking to find your own perfect combo.

Not all paleo-eating people (even in paleo times) were the same weight, or ate the same foods. You still have to experiment within paleo to find the foods, exercise level, and perhaps even portions that suit you best.

If you read the paleo thread here, or on other paleo boards and websites, you find that there are many variations of paleo, and largely people find what works best for them through experimenting.

Some paleo dieters eat potatoes (at least sweet potatoes) without problems.

Some include small amounts of dairy (or fermented dairy).

Some include eggs, others avoid them (Some nutritional anthropologists believe that allergies are connected to the "newness" of a food in the human diet. Since eggs are a common allergen, they believe that eggs were not a common part of the paleolithic diet).

Some paleo diets eliminate certain fruits and vegetables (either because they believe nothing similar was found in paleo times, or because of the carb count) such as tomatoes, eggplant, bell pepper, carrots... Some even eliminate all fruits other than berries (and some even limit berries to only very small amounts)...

Some paleo diets recommend eating low-fat others recommend a high-fat diet (because some paleo hunter-gathering diets were low in fat, others were high in fat - such as the Inuit/eskimo diet). Others argue that high-fat diets are only recommended in cold climates.

There are so many factors involved in how we should eat, that we probably will never find a one-size-fits-all diet. We'll always have to tweak our diets based on our own individual needs.

Personally, I find exchange plan dieting helpful for portion control, but I use paleo principles for most of my food choices. Others might suggest giving up the higher-calorie or higher carb paleo foods, or trying one of the stricter forms of the paleo diet.

Wow! This is really great feedback. I'm feeling so much better, I'm going to continue for a while longer. I'm also going to cut out nuts over the next week and see if that makes a difference, but I do need a little fruit each day. It sounds like this is just going to be trial and error until I figure out the right combination for me.

I was up another pound this morning! But I measured my waist and lost inches there. This is the wackiest diet experience I've ever had. I'm cutting out the nuts after today, not sure what else I'll have to try. I just don't know that anything this nuanced in terms of what I can eat is going to be right for me long-term. Usually, any time I change my eating habits just a little bit from the processed foods, I manage to lose a few pounds almost right away, so this may not be for me.