Eat All You Want?? page

[GUN5LING3R]

Hello everyone. I am a newbie here and after reading Primal Blueprint (at the advice of some very fit co-workers) I am sold. I absolutely LOVED the book and have been Primal for a week now and I feel AMAZING already. I have always been active and ate relatively healthy (so I thought =( ) but I have been reading alot of the threads here and it seems like alot of members advocate portion control yet the book seems to tell you to eat whenever you want and as much as you want. Now, I am not eating any grains at all and I pretty much just eat when I am hungry but I have noticed that I am going heavy on the nuts and seeds. I am 6ft and 194lbs. and am in pretty good shape. I want to be in Primal shape though and can see myself losing another 10lbs of fat. I am going pretty low on the carbs at appx. 30grams a day right now. Can anyone clear up my confused melon head? Thanks alot.

[primalrob]

eating whenever you want and how much you want is sort of ok as long as it's primal. part of the idea is that it would be hard to over eat on the right foods because you would simply be too full. that's not exactly right, because you can still eat way too many calories and you will gain weight. obviously, loading up on carbs (potatoes, some winter squash types, even nuts and seeds) will also cause weight gain.
just eat when you are hungry--real hunger, not psychological or it's-time-for-dinner hunger--and you'll do just fine.

[GUN5LING3R]

Thanks for the quick response Rob. I am doing the right thing buddy. =)

[Patrick]

Also, don't go too nuts... on nuts and seeds. It's good fat, but also quite high in fat. It's really easy to retard or stop fat loss by being too free with those.

[kennelmom]

I don't specifically recall the "eat whatever you want/whenever you want" message from PB...but it has been a while since I read it cover to cover. The bigger message I took away is that eating primal foods will lead to greater natural satiety so you won't be compelled to eat too much, like can happen with grains and carby foods. It's not an excuse to be gluttonous...eat to satiety knowing your hunger/fullness queues will be accurate with primal foods and primal living. The biggie is that you shouldn't have to calorie count....

[rocknroll]

Here's my recommendation. Try eating whatever you want, within the restrains of the primal diet, until you are satisfied. Don't stuff your face until you're full all the time.

Once you've been primal for ~6 weeks, start tweaking what you eat and how much you eat based on your goals.

[Noctiluca]

Here is my take on that.

Give it a couple weeks and see how you are doing. Are you losing any weight? How do you feel? etc. Then you can start to fine tune. In addition to that just be careful of how much you eat in the way of nuts and seeds. They are very concentrated sources of nutrients and are VERY easy to overindulge in. One way to help tone it down is when you feel 'hungry' and reach for the nuts, make your self a bowl of sliced veggies or leafy salad. If you are ACTUALLY hungry the veggies/salad should be edible to you. If not then you are probably just snacking!

Also most nuts are high in Omega 6 fats and we tend (on a Standard American Diet, SAD) to eat to much Omega 6 fats already. So just keep that in mind as you begin to adjust your Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio in your diet!

[john_e_turner_ii]

My experiment early on with PB was to see if changing from a CW diet which was high in complex carbs to PB which is higher in fat would make any difference. I consumed an equal number of calories over 6-8 weeks, and there was no change in my fat or weight either way. Once I dropped my calories down on PB, I began to lose weight. However, the main difference with PB was that dropping calories didn't make me feel like I was sacrificing. The food I was eating provided much more satiety. So for me, it's basically calories, for others it's more about carbs. I would suggest as others have to just follow the PB list of foods for a while and eat when you are hungry and stop when you are not. See how it goes, but give it at least 6 weeks or so. Don't expect any major changes after a few weeks. Give it time. The main thing for me was that I felt so much better and still do. That has been a bigger plus than any weight loss. I could lose weight on a CW diet, but I never felt very good. I feel great now.

[fufonzo]

As others have stated, you may want to watch your consumption of nuts and seeds since it's easy to overeat those. Another thing you may want to watch for is your intake of fruit (though it already says that in the book I guess).

Like others, I've found I needed to eat less food and less often to be full. I eat nuts and seeds, but only one or two servings a day. I know that if I wanted to though, I could easily eat a whole bag of pistachios every day and that I'm sure would make me fat.

[fufonzo]

Here is my take on that.

Give it a couple weeks and see how you are doing. Are you losing any weight? How do you feel? etc. Then you can start to fine tune. In addition to that just be careful of how much you eat in the way of nuts and seeds. They are very concentrated sources of nutrients and are VERY easy to overindulge in. One way to help tone it down is when you feel 'hungry' and reach for the nuts, make your self a bowl of sliced veggies or leafy salad. If you are ACTUALLY hungry the veggies/salad should be edible to you. If not then you are probably just snacking!

Also most nuts are high in Omega 6 fats and we tend (on a Standard American Diet, SAD) to eat to much Omega 6 fats already. So just keep that in mind as you begin to adjust your Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio in your diet!

Very good point re: salad. I need to do this.