The Nutrition Idea that "Saved" My Life.

Originally posted by Nephlim
I understand this diet and can see the health benefits but what if your not trying to cut weight? What if your trying to gain weight?

What about chloresterol? wouldn't eating alot of meat lead to higher risk of heart attack?

I'm just trying to understand this better.

For some reason I want to say that the rest of the world eats alot of grains and have for the last couple thousand years and their not fat.

Gaining weight works the same way with this lifestyle. You just need to up your weight lifting and protein consumption and intake more calories per day. My cholesterol levels did spike initially (within the first 15 days), but when I had them checked again they had leveled off. I'm going again in a month to have them checked again. My blood pressure actually returned to normal after cutting out grains (after being at around 158/92 for quite some time...I'm back to 131/86). Your body learns to handle the fat over time, and it won't end up in your bloodstream after about a month of strictly following a paleo/primal lifestyle, at least in my experience so far.

As far as "the rest of the world," I have a few answers:

1) Most other developed countries are so small that people can walk to work, walk to the store, etc. The US is unique in that if you don't live in a large city, public transit is almost non-existent and so is the ability to bike/walk/skateboard to work. Some people even commute an hour or more a day just to get to work by car, and once they are there, it's sitting at an office desk for 8 hours. I personally think that stress has a lot to do with it. High levels of stress releases cortisol, a hormone that promotes fat retention. America is a high-stress country. We work more days in a standard year than any other developed country, and have the least amount of vacation time compared to European countries.

2) Look at the label on any sort of food that has been processed (aka: not fresh out of the ground, off the tree, or off the slaughtered animal). EVERYTHING has either some amount of sugar or high fructose corn syrup as one of the ingredients, or derivatives thereof. Ironically, or not, depending on your view point, all of those foods are cheaper than some meats and fresh veg, fruits, etc. It's no wonder that with a crippled economy, millions of people out of work, and lost worker morale, people are going to resort to pinching every last penny in an effort to feed their families. They buy the junk, they get hooked on it due to the sugar content (in various forms), and *poof* you have an obesity epidemic.

What I'm saying is that this lifestyle change has worked for me personally. Since I'm not a nutritionist, or an expert of any kind, I can't say how it would work for others, but cutting the grains out and going back to paleo style foods has helped exponentially in my case.

Hope that answers your questions.



-TS

Great job OP and great post. Last year after playing the weight roller coaster game myself for years and years I cut out gluten and grains, and now stick to fruits, veggies, dairy and meats and all I can say is WOW. I lost all the stubborn fat that I was never able to lose with previous diets.


There is no secret to weight loss, its all discipline and knowledge, simple. Actually I should say simple IF people had discipline.

very good answers, S + F, i like that you make the point to check your cholesterol regularly.
I agree with your synopsis of cortisol, stress and inactivity being a large factor in the american obesity epedemic.

Yeah the primal diet does work, but it's rather hard to maintain for most people. I was on it and saw some results, but since then have become a vegetarian and am pretty much forced to eat carbs.

I will say this, if you're having trouble maintaining a diet, or any lifestyle change for that matter, let your motivating force be the fear of feeling sick/self-defeating after straying from the diet/habit.

Good for you dude, nice to hear an interesting and positive story like this. There can be a lot said for disregarding what the "experts" say about these types of things. You try finding one (1) "expert" who gets mainstream exposure and encourages weight loss/bodily fitness without some form of governmental or institutional support. Good f*cking luck. Since when did nature become so incapable of providing us with what's necessary to heal ourselves? Around the same time as big business came into the picture? Coincidence?

Everything endorsed and supported by the System is about profit first, people second. They sell us all this overpriced rubbish with one hand, while accepting more payment from us for telling us how to eliminate the rubbish they gave us with the other hand. What a joke! The biggest illusion of earth history is the public's belief that those two hands belong to different bodies.

You just ended up eating LESS overall calories and that's it. It didn't have anything to do with the carbs. Calories in vs calories out is what determines fat loss. Nothing else. We call people who follow the primal diet paleotards. You don't need to eat paleo to lose fat.

Me too TS 1984...

...studied nutrition for 30+ years, and have the credentials to be a nutritional counselor...

If it's a "healthy diet", then I've done it. I heard about Paleo or "primal diet" 6 or 7 years ago. Because of all the animal food, I disregarded it out of hand. Keep in mind... I have always been a "geek" for the science and research behind food and food science and energetics.

4 months ago... a guy who used to tease me for eating "sticks and twigs" who was himself overweight, and now sleeping with a c-pap machine because of his sleep apnea, started eating paleo, unbeknownst to me. At the same time, I was hitting bottom because I had become such a carb junkie. All organic, and the "highest quality" carbs money can buy... but carb-o-rama nonetheless.

After talking to my friend who had been eating Paleo for 3 weeks and lost 15 pounds, I decided to give it a go for 30 days, and if I didn't like it, I could give it up.

At that time, I had been having chronic indigestion for about 8 years, along with regular acid reflux, which would wake me in the middle of the night, gagging on the aspiration of stomach acid into my lungs... coughing for an hour straight...

By day 4, my indigestion and acid reflux was GONE. Still is.

I was eating a lot of food, but I started losing weight... weight I was unable to lose previous, despite "eating better" than 97% of the rest of the population. 4 months later, I am about 20 pounds lighter, and noticeably thinner. Clothes I thought I would have to replace, now fit me great.

I no longer have huge food cravings or the desire to be constantly munching all the time. I had constant thrist for 23 years, that I could never seem to quench. I don't have that anymore.

Of course, before I even started, I did the research I balked at before... and discovered there i9s solid sci9ence behind the premise of the Paleo/Primal/Hunter-Gatherer diet.

Grains and beans, are massively inflammatory in the human body. Talk to any doctor who bothers to keep up on the latest research, and he will tell you that is starting to look solidly like almost every major disease process is rooted in inflammation, including heart disease and cancer.

So yeppers... chalk me up as a real life example that TS 1984 is spot on!

reply to post by truthseeker1984


Good thread great post S&F! I will add You can eat grains they just need to be sprouted first. I had to eat low carb like you and had given up processed carbs and even whole grain breads for years however I discovered sprouted grains breads do not cause the insulin spike and are a complete protein low or no gluten taste great etc. Now I am back to eating toast and eggs often for breakfast and don't gain weight. You can also eat spelt which is the wheat our ancestors ate not the hybrid stuff we see today. I do not gain weight on any of this stuff. Ezekiel breads make several sprouted grains breads with all organic grains good stuff. Fred Myers carries them cheapest but health food stores have them too.

Just thought I would add that little tibit for bread lovers. I follow a program called the Diet Solution Program reviewdietsolutionprogramx.com... that is similar to what you describe...

Originally posted by strato
You just ended up eating LESS overall calories and that's it. It didn't have anything to do with the carbs. Calories in vs calories out is what determines fat loss. Nothing else. We call people who follow the primal diet paleotards. You don't need to eat paleo to lose fat.

Who's this "we"? Condescending dietary fascists with some false sense of superiority?

Good for you!!! I lost 10lbs on this in one week.

You are right, he talks about the absolute conspiracy to keep us fat.

This information was always out there it was just HIDDEN. If you read Why We Get Fat you will realize this information was the prevailing wisdom until organizations put a stop to it in the 1970's and started to promote the low-fat idiocy which only made us fatter.

I love this book more than any other on Paleo.

It is readable and it gives you what Oprah calls an "Ah-ha" moments.

I love the book Death by Supermarket also. She talks about the fact that Americans were the TALLEST people of all Western Nations. Now we are at the bottom of the pack, right along with war torn European countries. We were the best fed, and we were NATURALLY fed. Now everything we eat comes from a Box. Very interesting stuff.

If you want a conspiracy, this is definitely one you need to chew on (pun intended). There is also a direct link between degenerative diseases and our food.

I eat a bit more extreme version of what you do. The raw paleo diet. I indulge in as much raw suet as I want. (It ain't exactly tasty, but it makes me feel amazing.) Raw liver, and my favorite is raw ground beef.

All grass fed. Organic if possible. It's very healthy (balanced omega 3s with 6s).

I will not try to "educate" anyone on how this is safe, but there are thousands who eat this way, and we're not sick. On the other hand, I will get sick if I eat greasy cooked meat. So, it's very obvious to me what works.

Aajonus Vonderplanitz wrote the book I read. He cured himself of 2 types of cancer, developmental autism, and even more, and that's after doctors told him he's never eat raw foods again. Pfft!

Another person I read also sings the praises of raw suet. It just fills me up like nothing else, and yet I can stay fit and lean eating this! How backwards does that sound? But, start with frickin' ice cream or sweets, and hello gut!

The food industry wants you to be addicted to their foods because they know small farmers can sell you quality meat, which would put them out of business.

The government lies, lies, and lies. Like it's been said, if you do the opposite of what they tell you, you'll probably be better off!

ETA: I also eat green vegetable juices, but I strain them in a bag. Fiber is for animals with 4 stomachs!

Originally posted by daynight42
I eat a bit more extreme version of what you do. The raw paleo diet. I indulge in as much raw suet as I want. (It ain't exactly tasty, but it makes me feel amazing.) Raw liver, and my favorite is raw ground beef.

All grass fed. Organic if possible. It's very healthy (balanced omega 3s with 6s).

I will not try to "educate" anyone on how this is safe, but there are thousands who eat this way, and we're not sick. On the other hand, I will get sick if I eat greasy cooked meat. So, it's very obvious to me what works.

Aajonus Vonderplanitz wrote the book I read. He cured himself of 2 types of cancer, developmental autism, and even more, and that's after doctors told him he's never eat raw foods again. Pfft!

Another person I read also sings the praises of raw suet. It just fills me up like nothing else, and yet I can stay fit and lean eating this! How backwards does that sound? But, start with frickin' ice cream or sweets, and hello gut!

The food industry wants you to be addicted to their foods because they know small farmers can sell you quality meat, which would put them out of business.

The government lies, lies, and lies. Like it's been said, if you do the opposite of what they tell you, you'll probably be better off!

ETA: I also eat green vegetable juices, but I strain them in a bag. Fiber is for animals with 4 stomachs!

edit on 3-6-2012 by daynight42 because: (no reason given)

A modified paleo diet got rid of my MS symptoms, cutting out the garbage we're not built to eat cures a lot of what ails us.

eat like a predator, not like pray!!! please visit this website if you want to change your diet, body. its VERY informative.here

if you can put it in a diesel engine. its not food.
if you have to grind it and cook it to destroy the poisen and make it edible, it aint food.

OP....congrats on finding a life style change that works for you, putting forth the effort, achieving the results!

I, too, became dissatisfied, actually disgusted is a better adjective, with my poor of physical condition. My cholesterol was high, well above 200. My blood pressure was high. My weight was more than it had ever been....around 240 (I'm 6-1" and middle aged). My budda belly caused my pants to fit tight. The weight may not sound like a lot to some of you, but to me it was too much. In essence, I was in the worst shape of my life. So, last November I embarked on a mission to change it.

I began with starting an exercise program; slowly working my way, over a span of about a month, into what has become a 70-80 minute/day full body training routine, 6 days/week. That consists of 3 days of an hour's worth of cardio (walking and running), and three days of weight training, with some ab work in there as well. At the same time, I began researching nutrition and how to sensibly lose weight with out the use of stimulant drugs. I consulted my doctor on a couple of OTC supplements that I had researched on a fitness website which sounded like they would assist in my goal of dropping some pounds and toning up. What I ended up with was a change in my eating habits that consisted of low carbs, high protein, and high nutrients supplemented by multi-vitamins, and a couple other supplements the body uses to assist in fat burning and muscle recovery. I tried to structure what, and how much I ate to provide my body what it needs to function properly, and to create a CALORIE DEFICIT. All of this approved by my doc. I did not join Weight Watchers, or Jenny Craig, or spend money on any of those exercise or diet programs advertised on the infomercials. I just tried to use common sense for both the training and eating.

To make a long story short, it worked. By April I weighed in a hair below 200 and I could see a marked change in my body shape. My last blood work results, two weeks ago showed my cholesterol down to 136 ( component parts of which were where they are supposed to be), blood pressure where it is supposed to be and my weight at ~200. All other attributes for blood and urine tests were excellent. My doc is actually talking about backing off the blood pressure and cholesterol meds if my next test comes back as good as the last one.

So....with all of that said.....OP, congrats again on your results. Keep digging man. It does work!

Your post was incredibly inspiring, so thank you for sharing! The primal diet seems to make a lot more sense than a lot of the other "fad" diets (not saying this one is just a fad, but I mean in the grand scheme of the various Types of diets).

The blog you linked also looks informative, and at first glance I found lots of recipes. As someone who loves to cook, I appreciate that the recipes seem to be "regular old recipes". Not a lot of exotic ingredients to track down.

It really seems to me that the basis of this primal lifestyle is to cut out processed foods. Is that a correct assumption, or am I simplifying it too much?

I've toyed with the idea of going to a raw food diet (not meat, uck, but just fruits veggies, nuts, etc). But that's a bit too extreme for me. I like meat. Maybe this primal thing would work for me and my family, as a lot of the recipes on the blog you linked look like they could very easily be kid friendly!

I will be doing more research on this, op, because I think you have presented an option to help me in keeping my family healthy. And, thankfully we already avoid processed foods for the most part, so hopefully a transition to primal will go smoothly. I think my family and I are going to give the 30 day challenge a shot (the as-if challenge on the blog).

Again, thanks for sharing your story and this information!

Great post. Dr. Terry Wahls had MS, was so far progressed into the disease that she was in a wheelchair. Then she started eating what she calls a hunter-gatherer diet. She reversed the symptoms of the disease and now hikes and bikes and lives a better than "normal" life. The diet sounds similar to the primal one. Diet is key. The answer to good health is not to eat whatever and then take a pill to offset the negative effects. That's what big pharma teaches us.

I am not overweight, but although a grown woman, I eat like a 15 year old boy who's parents are out of town for the weekend.

This thread has motivated/inspired me to do better. Starting today.

This goes very well with what the doctors say, whom I have found to offer real solutions instead of mere propaganda for the pharma industry.

Dr. Myhill (Stone Age Diet)

Dr. Al Sears (P.A.C.E Fitness Program, and a proponent of a protein rich diet)

Dr. Shallenberger

I wish more people had the courage to follow what works instead of compulsively trying to fit in and believe what "everybody knows". Learn to look and think for yourself - the OP has done that, congratulations! A better life for oneself requires a personal contribution :-)

looking at that pyramid , the only thing i eliminated was milk and i only eat meat every 2-3 days. I eat grains for breakfast, about 3/4 a cup of oatmeal. I would say that little cup is not a whopping 30% of my meal...anyways. I've lost a ton of weight and gained muscle so, w/e works for you.

Originally posted by TheAnarchist

Originally posted by strato
You just ended up eating LESS overall calories and that's it. It didn't have anything to do with the carbs. Calories in vs calories out is what determines fat loss. Nothing else. We call people who follow the primal diet paleotards. You don't need to eat paleo to lose fat.

Who's this "we"? Condescending dietary fascists with some false sense of superiority?

The bodybuilding community. The superiority is very real as far as knowledge goes.