Paleolithic diet.

[EricK]

I follow Michael Pollan's advice, "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." Seems to work for me, and as long as I stay active.

And I follow the opposite advice eg as expressed by L. Amber Wilcox-O'Hearn at www.empiri.ca - "Eat Meat. Not too little. Mostly fat". Seems to work for me whether or not I stay active.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I follow Michael Pollan's advice, "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." Seems to work for me, and as long as I stay active.

And I follow the opposite advice eg as expressed by L. Amber Wilcox-O'Hearn at www.empiri.ca - "Eat Meat. Not too little. Mostly fat". Seems to work for me whether or not I stay active.

Okay now I'm curious. Would you tell me everything you ate today - or yesterday - 24 hour thing?

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Consume more fruits/vegetables, healthy fats, legumes/beans, less meat, some dairy, and you'll be fine.

 

[EricK]

And I follow the opposite advice eg as expressed by L. Amber Wilcox-O'Hearn at www.empiri.ca - "Eat Meat. Not too little. Mostly fat". Seems to work for me whether or not I stay active.

Okay now I'm curious. Would you tell me everything you ate today - or yesterday - 24 hour thing?

Yesterday I had a 4 egg cheese omelette for breakfast (this is very unusual as I normally have meat for every meal), for lunch I went to Nando's for lunch with my work colleagues. I ordered half a chicken and 3 chicken wings, but they messed up my order and I ended up with 3/4 of chicken and 3 chicken wings. For dinner I roasted a loin of pork, and ate some of that (not sure of the amount I ate - maybe 3/4 of a pound).

The day before that I had just over a pound of minced beef (or ground beef, as I think the Americans call it) for lunch and just over a pound of sirloin steak for dinner. That was also slightly unusual as I would normally have 3 meals.

Today I will continue eating the pork loin. It was over 4 1/2 pounds so will probably last until tomorrow.

On most days (i.e. if I'm not constrained by imposed mealtimes) I try to follow my hunger signals - when I'm hungry I eat meat until I'm full. Then I wait until I'm hungry again. I don't particularly measure how much I eat, but it probably averages out to between 2 and 3 pounds per day. Towards the higher end if I have been exercising.

I've been eating this way since May 2015.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Okay now I'm curious. Would you tell me everything you ate today - or yesterday - 24 hour thing?

Yesterday I had a 4 egg cheese omelette for breakfast (this is very unusual as I normally have meat for every meal), for lunch I went to Nando's for lunch with my work colleagues. I ordered half a chicken and 3 chicken wings, but they messed up my order and I ended up with 3/4 of chicken and 3 chicken wings. For dinner I roasted a loin of pork, and ate some of that (not sure of the amount I ate - maybe 3/4 of a pound).

The day before that I had just over a pound of minced beef (or ground beef, as I think the Americans call it) for lunch and just over a pound of sirloin steak for dinner. That was also slightly unusual as I would normally have 3 meals.

Today I will continue eating the pork loin. It was over 4 1/2 pounds so will probably last until tomorrow.

On most days (i.e. if I'm not constrained by imposed mealtimes) I try to follow my hunger signals - when I'm hungry I eat meat until I'm full. Then I wait until I'm hungry again. I don't particularly measure how much I eat, but it probably averages out to between 2 and 3 pounds per day. Towards the higher end if I have been exercising.

I've been eating this way since May 2015.

Thank-you very much. Definitely heavy on the meat.

My food yesterday:

Lentils, Quinoa, Whole wheat pasta, Brown rice mixture
Apple
Carrots, celery with black bean/caper dip
Pumpkin seed, cashew, raisin mixture
Dried Mango
Red leaf lettuce


Started out today with my giant whole wheat pancakes stuffed with black raspberries and apple, topped with pawpaw/honey. Butternut squash on the side.

I don't think our eating habits could be any more different. I would normally have meat/dairy in my diet but am going vegan since the start of the year. Just for the hell of it actually and to drop a few pounds. Never tried it before.

 

[EricK]

Yesterday I had a 4 egg cheese omelette for breakfast (this is very unusual as I normally have meat for every meal), for lunch I went to Nando's for lunch with my work colleagues. I ordered half a chicken and 3 chicken wings, but they messed up my order and I ended up with 3/4 of chicken and 3 chicken wings. For dinner I roasted a loin of pork, and ate some of that (not sure of the amount I ate - maybe 3/4 of a pound).

The day before that I had just over a pound of minced beef (or ground beef, as I think the Americans call it) for lunch and just over a pound of sirloin steak for dinner. That was also slightly unusual as I would normally have 3 meals.

Today I will continue eating the pork loin. It was over 4 1/2 pounds so will probably last until tomorrow.

On most days (i.e. if I'm not constrained by imposed mealtimes) I try to follow my hunger signals - when I'm hungry I eat meat until I'm full. Then I wait until I'm hungry again. I don't particularly measure how much I eat, but it probably averages out to between 2 and 3 pounds per day. Towards the higher end if I have been exercising.

I've been eating this way since May 2015.

Thank-you very much. Definitely heavy on the meat.

My food yesterday:

Lentils, Quinoa, Whole wheat pasta, Brown rice mixture
Apple
Carrots, celery with black bean/caper dip
Pumpkin seed, cashew, raisin mixture
Dried Mango
Red leaf lettuce


Started out today with my giant whole wheat pancakes stuffed with black raspberries and apple, topped with pawpaw/honey. Butternut squash on the side.

I don't think our eating habits could be any more different. I would normally have meat/dairy in my diet but am going vegan since the start of the year. Just for the hell of it actually and to drop a few pounds. Never tried it before.

Yes - totally different!

One question I have for you is how you decide how much to eat?

To expand on what I said above, one of the things that makes me think I am on the right lines with what I eat is that my body naturally regulates the amount it wants to eat. Living organisms are incredibly complex systems with lots of feedback loops etc. It seems logical to me that being hungry is a signal that you should eat; and being full is a signal you should stop. And if you follow these signals and you gain weight, then there is something wrong with your diet - i.e. you are not giving your body what it needs, so it gets hungry again too soon, in the hope that next time you do give it what it needs.

Any diet which involves deliberately restricting how much you eat, or carefully counting calories just can't be necessary (IMO) - no other animal ever seems to need to do it, and I doubt humans are exceptional in this regard.

 

[rousseau]

There's no scientific evidence that carbs have any detrimental health effects, but to play devil's advocate the appeal of a paleo diet is that a diet rich in lean-meats and produce is about as healthy as it gets.

I don't follow paleo, but I do pack as much produce and a sensible amount of lean meat into my diet as I can, and I always feel pretty good.

The paleo diet has always seemed to me to be about eating more produce/protein than eating less carbs.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Thank-you very much. Definitely heavy on the meat.

My food yesterday:

Lentils, Quinoa, Whole wheat pasta, Brown rice mixture
Apple
Carrots, celery with black bean/caper dip
Pumpkin seed, cashew, raisin mixture
Dried Mango
Red leaf lettuce


Started out today with my giant whole wheat pancakes stuffed with black raspberries and apple, topped with pawpaw/honey. Butternut squash on the side.

I don't think our eating habits could be any more different. I would normally have meat/dairy in my diet but am going vegan since the start of the year. Just for the hell of it actually and to drop a few pounds. Never tried it before.

Yes - totally different!

One question I have for you is how you decide how much to eat?

To expand on what I said above, one of the things that makes me think I am on the right lines with what I eat is that my body naturally regulates the amount it wants to eat. Living organisms are incredibly complex systems with lots of feedback loops etc. It seems logical to me that being hungry is a signal that you should eat; and being full is a signal you should stop. And if you follow these signals and you gain weight, then there is something wrong with your diet - i.e. you are not giving your body what it needs, so it gets hungry again too soon, in the hope that next time you do give it what it needs.

Any diet which involves deliberately restricting how much you eat, or carefully counting calories just can't be necessary (IMO) - no other animal ever seems to need to do it, and I doubt humans are exceptional in this regard.

Well, my son has two dogs and the food sits out all day. Neither one is fat or food aggressive. But I have been around dogs and cats that eat everything in sight and get obese. I think both are exhibiting natural behavior. Nature serves up lots of different behaviors, shades of different behaviors, and the environment does the selecting. Natural selection never goes away, and not with people either, despite claims to the contrary.

Personally I wish I didn't have to eat at all. As such eating is just a maintenance chore that I have to perform in order to have the parts of life that really matter. So my best knowledge is what determines what, when and how much I eat. I can gain weight very easily and will if I simply eat what tastes good (to me) and what is available. But doing that will prevent my having the things in life that I deem important. Hunger may mean I need to take on fuel and it may not. Whether I eat, what and how much depends on my state of health given an environment. You may be right that it doesn't seem natural to be hungry again too soon, but maybe that's our genes telling us to take on extra fuel because it's available. Take on too much, however and that extra fuel becomes a liability that costs you your life. There's that environmental limitation again.

That's probably more than you wanted but that's how it works for me. Thanks to natural selection I have my "fighting weight" and a healthy enough dose of vanity that hunger isn't much of a consideration when it comes to food and eating. Seems weird I know.

 

[fromderinside]

There's no scientific evidence that carbs have any detrimental health effects, but to play devil's advocate the appeal of a paleo diet is that a diet rich in lean-meats and produce is about as healthy as it gets.

I don't follow paleo, but I do pack as much produce and a sensible amount of lean meat into my diet as I can, and I always feel pretty good.

The paleo diet has always seemed to me to be about eating more produce/protein than eating less carbs.

I'm pretty sure coastal peoples, especially coastal Asians, would disagree on the idea of lean meat at the center of paleolithic diet unless you describe fish including such as Salmon as being defacto lean.

 

[EricK]

Personally I wish I didn't have to eat at all. As such eating is just a maintenance chore that I have to perform in order to have the parts of life that really matter. So my best knowledge is what determines what, when and how much I eat. I can gain weight very easily and will if I simply eat what tastes good (to me) and what is available. But doing that will prevent my having the things in life that I deem important. Hunger may mean I need to take on fuel and it may not. Whether I eat, what and how much depends on my state of health given an environment. You may be right that it doesn't seem natural to be hungry again too soon, but maybe that's our genes telling us to take on extra fuel because it's available. Take on too much, however and that extra fuel becomes a liability that costs you your life. There's that environmental limitation again.

That's probably more than you wanted but that's how it works for me. Thanks to natural selection I have my "fighting weight" and a healthy enough dose of vanity that hunger isn't much of a consideration when it comes to food and eating. Seems weird I know.

I used to put weight on very easily too - although to be fair I could generally lose it fairly easily too. However the former is what naturally happened, and the latter required conscious effort. However, for the first time in my life I no longer have to worry - I've been at my ideal weight for over 6 months now, without any effort on my part.

I hope you have as much success with your diet as I've had with mine. But even if you do, I don't think I'll switch - mine seems a lot less work

 

[skepticalbip]

I guess nature has been very nice to me. I have never worried about diet or about what I eat. I only eat when I'm hungry and stop when the hunger is satisfied (well except on special occasions like a family thanksgiving dinner when I will over-stuff myself). This has worked for me quite well, my weight only varying about five pounds for the last forty years, up to about 150 lbs during the winter and down to about 145 lbs during the summer. I eat what a paleo-human would likely eat if dropped into our times - whatever is available and handy whenever I notice a hunger which means lots of fast foods.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I guess nature has been very nice to me. I have never worried about diet or about what I eat. I only eat when I'm hungry and stop when the hunger is satisfied (well except on special occasions like a family thanksgiving dinner when I will over-stuff myself). This has worked for me quite well, my weight only varying about five pounds for the last forty years, up to about 150 lbs during the winter and down to about 145 lbs during the summer. I eat what a paleo-human would likely eat if dropped into our times - whatever is available and handy whenever I notice a hunger which means lots of fast foods.

Fast foods make me ill - literally, so taking on fuel is more of a chore. But I'm trying to stay healthy until the day I drop dead, and don't want to do it with pills everyday like so many of my friends. Food is still the best medicine out there.

I used to put weight on very easily too - although to be fair I could generally lose it fairly easily too. However the former is what naturally happened, and the latter required conscious effort. However, for the first time in my life I no longer have to worry - I've been at my ideal weight for over 6 months now, without any effort on my part.

I hope you have as much success with your diet as I've had with mine. But even if you do, I don't think I'll switch - mine seems a lot less work

It certainly is more work being vegan, but then I'm new at it and learning. And my weight was pretty much the same until I hit maybe 50ish, then it started to creep up very easily. Looking to hold at 180 tops and am in my early 60s. But weight is not the main reason for my diet. I still believe it is the best path for optimum health, which I define as having the lowest medical costs, highest life expectancy, and the highest level of physical activity.