I have been following the paleo diet for five weeks and have seen no change at all in weight, energy levels, or recovery times. How long did it take for you to see benefits from eating paleo? I already ate very healthy prior to going paleo, but I am still about 20 lbs heavier than I would like to be. The only things I really had to change to go paleo was eliminate whole grains and fat free greek yogurt from my diet. I was already eating a lot of fruit, meat, and veggies, now I am just eating a little more of those things.
FWIW, I am 27, 5’"11 and 185-190 lbs. As it stands I can put up a 3:11 marathon and a 4:45 HIM. Needless to say, I am frustrated because if I weighed 165 like I should I think I would be able to put up some truly monster results. I thought paleo might be a good way to go since everyone seems to rave about it, but I am not seeing any difference at all.
Are you following Paleo for Athletes by Cordain and Friel or trying to go full on Paleo ie Robb Wolf? I wouldn’t recommend the latter if you want to get faster. I think Paleo for athletes contains the key to performing well on a grain free diet by maintaining carb intake around workouts to allow full recovery. That said, if you are eating a lot of fruit, nuts and tubers all the time on your Paleo plan there is a chance this could be ruining any weight loss. The weight loss from Paleo generally comes from cutting out extra refined carbs as a rule and going more low carb in general when not in workout windows. In general it is hard to overeat on Paleo but if you add nuts and fruit to every meal its a possibility. As for improved recovery times, I don’t think Paleo will really help you a lot there given your previous diet and that you weren’t suffering any autoimmune issues. I would be interested to see your daily food but my bet is on the excess fruit/nut issue.
I’ve been basing it off Friel’s book. I do eat a lot of fruit and nuts - I wouldn’t mind replacing them, but I am not sure what I would replace them with. Here is what a typical day looks like for me…
Wakeup at 530am, chug 24oz gatorade, workout for an hour while also drinking gatorade or eating a gel, recover with 350 cal bottle of Ensure (650 cal)
930am - 2 apples sliced with 2-3 tbsp almond butter (400 cal)
1130am - lunch - giant pile of spinach, kale or other green with 12oz of chicken or flank steak and 1-2 servings of nuts mixed in w/ balsamic dressing (800 cal)
2pm - bag of baby carrots w/ 2 tbsp almond butter (350 cal)
4pm - 2-3 oranges or a half a melon (200 cal)
530pm - workout w/ bottle of gatorade, recover with 350 call bottle of Ensure (500 cal)
8pm - 12oz chicken or salmon w/ greens (500 cal)
Works out to about 3400 calories for what is usually a 2.5 hour day of training. What of the above would you advise cutting/replacing?
It doesn;t matter what diet you are using…take in fewer calories during the day than you burn and you will lose weight.
Try cutting your menu by 10-15% off the top and see what happens. have you ever had your resting metabolic rate tested? This will help you dial in the amount of calories you should be consuming if you want to lose weight.
This is so absolutely not paleo. Just because someone wrote a book, claiming there is “paleo for athletes” that consists of sport drinks, gels and Smoothies stone age people do not change theire history. Facts:
Stone age people rarely drank gatorade
Stone age people rarely had cancer, diabetes and heart attacks (being killed by a bear at age 15 helps …)
Stone age people did not ride a bike for a couple of hours
So I doubt, that triathlon and paleolithic living have much in common. But if (for whatever reason) you want to emulate a stone age diet, throw out that overpriced crap (gatorade, gels), that replaced the cheap crap (Coke and mars bars?) in your diet.
The almond butter and nuts stick out to me. Your eating them throughout the day. Try replacing them with less calorie dense protein and fat (some more meat, eggs etc) or even with some yam or sweet potato if you want to up your carb%. I’ve heard a lot of paleo athletes say that cutting the nuts was the key to early success. You may be able to add them back later.
The almond butter and nuts stick out to me.
Shouldn’t he just replace all the gatorade/gels/ensure with water? For one hour workouts he doesn’t need all that crap.
This is because you are doing the wrong paleo. You need to try Mojo’s new “Lower Paleo - Hot Hula” diet and exerise program. Essentially, it is a pre paleo (paleo before paleo was cool) diet and a fun new and exciting dance workout incorporating easy to perform movements set to the sounds of traditional Polynesian drum beats fused with funky reggae music.
I had the same reaction when I saw your breakfast. That is hardly following a paleo diet, at least from my understanding of it.
I’ll also echo the calories in vs. calories out thing. It really is the key to weight loss. If you are maintaining your weight right now with your caloric intake take it down by 300 cals/day and you should see the scale drop.
This is because you are doing the wrong paleo. You need to try Mojo’s new “Lower Paleo - Hot Hula” diet and exerise program. Essentially, it is a pre paleo (paleo before paleo was cool) diet and a fun new and exciting dance workout incorporating easy to perform movements set to the sounds of traditional Polynesian drum beats fused with funky reggae music.
I’ve done some reading on the Paleo for Athletes as my family has made the switch to the “regular” paleo. I tried the Paleo for Athletes approach and if I followed the guidelines, there was almost never a time period where I wasn’t allowed carbs! Anyway, to offer some advice…have you added bananas to your diet? Also, I don’t see any eggs. I got into the practice of making a good protein shake, too. I buy almond milk, which I actually like better than regular milk now. Some almond milk, frozen blueberries/strawberries, and protein powder and that’s a pretty filling breakfast for me.
What I ended up doing was taking the parts of the diet that I liked and keeping them. Really, I’ve taken out dairy and all not natural sugars and added more fruits and vegetables (especially spinach). I have a busy schedule and trying to plan every meal was a huge annoyance. It’s easier to have some type of sandwich for lunch instead of something “paleo.”
Good luck, though. I know plenty who have seen great results.
It doesn;t matter what diet you are using…take in fewer calories during the day than you burn and you will lose weight.
Try cutting your menu by 10-15% off the top and see what happens. have you ever had your resting metabolic rate tested? This will help you dial in the amount of calories you should be consuming if you want to lose weight.
As others have stated, for an hour work out, you do not need any carbs…water is just fine - the extra 3-500 calories from Gatorade is the weight you cannot lose.
Joe Friel’s book specifically recommends Ensure after workouts for recovery. The paleo guidelines don’t apply during and immediately after workouts, at least according to his book. He also recommends having a sports drink during all workouts since during the rest of the day you aren’t getting a lot of carbs. I am not saying this is right, but my diet follows what he recommends if you go and read the book.
FWIW, I think you are consuming WAY too many calories, especially if you goal is weight loss.
A good average for calorie burn during exercise is 600 cal/hr. I use that as a rough estimate and it always seems to be pretty close to what my PowerTap or HR monitors calculate. (Obviously things vary with more or less intensity…but it is decent estimation).
Seems like you are doing about 2 hours of workouts, one in the AM and one in the afternoon. That is about 1200 calories of burn and you are taking in 3400 calories during the day. Still leaves you with 2200 calories in your diet. I don’t know too many people that can lose weight consuming 2200 calories a day.
When I had my metabolic rate tested, I was given a goal of 1660 calories / day if I wanted to lose weight. This assumed no exercising and losing 1 lb. per week weight loss. Your metabolic rate is extremely individualized, so my numbers are just used as reference.
