Can you switch to a lower fat paleo? Does it need to be high fat for it to work? I don't count my fat, but I try to eat low fat -- while doing low carb, and it has worked for me.
Hey TripSwitch--that sucks--I'm sorry!! Not much to say, as I don't understand most of it--and I know that's your field, and you do--but, fellow New York girl--I know you've done EVERYTHING right, and hit your goal, and it sucks to have something like that happen!
I belong to another forum of women on a featherweight range who do strength training and other types of exercise. For many of them in that particular situation low carb brought some other health problems, particularly hormone related. I think low carb can be a useful strategy in some situations but if you are exercising a lot and in a low weight range it's probably not the best idea.
You can read different perspectives on the paleo diet more focused towards athletes or people on similar weight ranges as you are. I like Nate Miyaki's approach. He is 80% paleo but includes white rice to support all the anaerobic training he does. He says his diet is similar to the diet of a Japanese village. Anyway, this is just a suggestion, hope you can find something that makes you healthier and works for your goals.
I know I am living on the edge but, my cholesterol results are simply horrible. Even though I have great blood sugar, great insulin, great ratio, and great blood pressure. It is over all 240 to 270.
I am starting to think there is nothing to be done. My doctor tested me for the big and small particles and it seems the LDL is mostly the large particles.
My doctor wants me on the meds but I have refused. I just cannot see taking a medication that could have serious effects. There is a lot of evidence that cholesterol is not the problem.
I believe possibly my normal cholesterol level is what it is.. and it isn't bad. I have to find a way to be healthy with that cholesterol level. So for example... Vitamin K2 has been implicated in keeping the hardening of the arteries from happening.
I am not eating low carb but I do have a lot of eggs. I just cannot stop doing that because eggs are soooooo healthy.
What's bad? Which panels, specifically, and what were the values? The standard cholesterol recommendations are completely wonky and quite useless, especially for low carb and Paleo folks.
Peter had a great little post about this recently, and it's also a topic Mercola has a good article or three about. But basically cholesterol recommendations are extremely low for what a healthy person on a whole foods diet WITHOUT statins can generally attain. My husband, for example, has much lower cholesterol than me. But his HDL is extremely low, his triglycerides are very high, and his diet is complete crud. A diet low in saturated fat and high in sugar can actually produce better numbers by the standard recommendations than one that is far more healthful in the components but completely out of line with ADA recommendations.
My cholesterol is 'dangerously' high by the standard ratios, but the actual values, themselves, are in the IDEAL range if you disregard total cholesterol. I have very high HDL and extremely low trigs, along with an LDL profile that is very healthful, too. But at first glance the numbers are way off the normal recommendations (because they're based on a faulty premise of what actually comprises healthful serum cholesterol numbers, let alone what those numbers mean in reality).
Hey TripSwitch--that sucks--I'm sorry!! Not much to say, as I don't understand most of it--and I know that's your field, and you do--but, fellow New York girl--I know you've done EVERYTHING right, and hit your goal, and it sucks to have something like that happen!
Thank you... Actually now that I've had some more time to think about it all I'm sort of finding it slightly amusing (or at the very least I'm enjoying the irony of it all) I mean I start eating better, lose weight, and start exercising a lot more.... So of course I was expecting much better numbers... And of course my doctor, who I already mentioned is also a close personal friend and already thinks that my "diet" and all the running that I do as a "bit extreme".... But I do trust him and he does know what he's talking about.... So I definitely think that he's right and some changes are in order.... And we"ll see what happens...
I belong to another forum of women on a featherweight range who do strength training and other types of exercise. For many of them in that particular situation low carb brought some other health problems, particularly hormone related. I think low carb can be a useful strategy in some situations but if you are exercising a lot and in a low weight range it's probably not the best idea.
You can read different perspectives on the paleo diet more focused towards athletes or people on similar weight ranges as you are. I like Nate Miyaki's approach. He is 80% paleo but includes white rice to support all the anaerobic training he does. He says his diet is similar to the diet of a Japanese village. Anyway, this is just a suggestion, hope you can find something that makes you healthier and works for your goals.
Thank you.... I too am coming to believe for me that the very low carb and higher fat approach just wasn't right for me with the amount of running that I like to do....
I actually just picked up a book this week called "Feed Zone Portables : A Cookbook of On-The-Go Food for Athletes" it's got all these great recipes for making real food that you can take with you while training and a lot of the ingredients are all rather "paleo" friendly, but they also use rice as well...
And what a coincidence, but I also just bought a really beautiful cookbook this week as well called "Japanese Farm Food" that just looks amazing....
Can you switch to a lower fat paleo? Does it need to be high fat for it to work? I don't count my fat, but I try to eat low fat -- while doing low carb, and it has worked for me.
Actually, I've been looking at vegetarian "paleo" approaches.... Which I know is heresy to paleo true believers.... But I'm starting to think that perhaps if combined with something like a VB6 approach or some sort of variation on that theme from Mark Bittman.... Might be the way to go for me....
Why don't you just eat some fruit before or after you workout (or both before and after.)
Why does it have to be complicated?
Don't get me wrong... I still love a good banana or an orange... but I'm talking about 2 to 6 hour workouts.... So runs in the 2 to 4 hour range or bike rides in the 4 to 6 hour range...So I would really like to get away from bars and gels.... And all I can say is when I'm on a bike that long.... Nothing tastes as good a PB & J sandwich, even if it is all "mushed" up from being in my back pocket all day long...
Last edited by TripSwitch; 05-23-2013 at 03:23 PM.
I just wanted to take a moment and thank everyone here for all your words of encouragement.... It really has helped me gain some much needed perspective...
I really do appreciate it...
Last edited by TripSwitch; 05-24-2013 at 04:27 PM.
I'm not a doctor, obviously, but I've looked into Paleo for endurance training because I was cycling 50 miles in one go - which was easily a 3 hour ordeal.
What I learned is that we can't be afraid of carbs in Paleo, but we have to remember that Paleo is not about eating all the bacon we want and living off the fat. It's about eating a lot of vegetables, including root vegetables like carrots, turnips, even potatoes and sweet potatoes. Also, for athletes, they do recommend white rice, to supplement for endurance.
I don't know if incorporating more carbs will help your lipid profile, if you do reduce the amount of fats.
But I did want to post the reminder that veggies are our friends and should be a good part of our diet -- I know its easy to forget that part! You can lower your fat and protein intake and increase your veggies and root vegetables to make up for it, without going off Paleo. Yes, this means that you're probably eating more than 50g of carbs, but women in the Paleo community are arguing that we need between 100 - 150 grams to maintain hormonal health anyway... we shouldn't continuously be under 100 grams.
