Alicias Goin' Primal page 2

[ChocoTaco369]

I am frustrated today! Here is my intake:

Calories: 1038
Fat: 74.2 grams - 64%
Protein: 60.9 grams - 24%
Carbs: 35.8 grams - 13%

So, those are not good!! My cals are way low, my fat is WAY high, and my protein is low!! I don't know how to fix this with what I have in my fridge, freezer, or pantry!! I know this is awful but I am considering just making a protein shake. Is that a good idea?

Your fat isn't way too high. For ideal fat loss, your fat intake should be 60-75% of your total calories. Your calories are far too low in my opinion, though. I would assume at that level, most weight loss would be due to muscle loss. I would skip the protein shake unless it's immediately following a workout because both whey and casein protein spike insulin levels far higher than even sugar. It won't elevate your blood glucose (assuming it's mixed in water), but I'd stick to post-workout only to maximize the chances that your insulin is shuttling amino acids to muscles and not glucose to fat cells.

I would think you'd want to consume more like 1500-1700 calories a day, but high calories matter little at very high levels of dietary fats and low levels of dietary carbs. I'm 5'7", 145lb and I consume ~2,800 calories a day. Any calorie calculator will tell you I'm eating too much and should be gaining weight. However, I'm down 3 pounds and fell from 14% BF to 12.4% BF in 2 months. Under a normal American diet where insulin levels are highly elevated, your body is constantly processing glucose and fat isn't oxidized, so calories matter. Excess food will go into fat storage. However, high calories matter little on low carb/high fat because your body is constantly oxidizing and processing fat and insulin levels are low, so your body doesn't efficiently shuttle fat into fat sells. You CAN get fat off of a primal diet because there is always insulin in your blood shuttling nutrients around, but since levels are so much lower, it's much more difficult to accumulate enough excess calories to be stored as fat.

So, in short, eat more to preserve your muscle and as long as you're eating 60%-75% fat and 10% carbs or less, you should be fine. I'd say try to get 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, but a 60-75% fat intake ratio should have so much meat, it should eliminate the need to count protein grams or take protein shakes.

[alicias]

ChocoTaco369 - Thank you SO MUCH for your input. That was the help I was needing. I do need to get more calories in. For breakfast today I added a chicken leg to my usual meal, so that was a good start. I am going to add a little more to lunch and supper as well. Thank you again for your input. I checked out your 12 week primal challenge by the way. You look great!

[ChocoTaco369]

WTH!!! I just got in from running sprints, took a shower, and while I was blow drying my hair a bunch fell out!! What??!! That has never happened before.

Eat more calories. Start taking a B-100 pill. Start taking a biotin. I take them every day and my hair is thicker than when I was in high school.

I really think you're starving yourself. Your calories are terribly low. Note that eating very low carb severely impacts your intake of vegetables, and if you don't take a vitamin supplement, you could fall into malnutrition. Hair will be the first thing to go. I take this every day:

1 multi-vitamin
1 vitamin C
1 green tea
1 fish oil
1 flax seed oil (I'd like to take 3 fish oil a day but I'm sensitive and it makes me break out)
1 biotin
1 B-100
1 zinc
1 acetyl L-carnatine
1 L-arganine
1 vitamin D-3
1 stinging nettle leaf
1 resveratrol

You should try and get a green salad (I do 4 cups of lettuce, 2 cups of spinach, a whole green bell and a jalapeno at least) a day in there for your carbs and vitamins/minerals. I doubt you're eating organ meats, and while kidneys, liver, hearts and brain are full of nutrients, muscle meat like roasts, chops, loins and breasts are practically all protein with little vitamins and minerals.

[ChocoTaco369]

ChocoTaco369 - Thank you SO MUCH for your input. That was the help I was needing. I do need to get more calories in. For breakfast today I added a chicken leg to my usual meal, so that was a good start. I am going to add a little more to lunch and supper as well. Thank you again for your input. I checked out your 12 week primal challenge by the way. You look great!

Haha, thanks. I like this lifestyle. I do miss pasta, but I eat like a horse and lose fat. Go figure!

[climbergirl]

+1 on what ChocoTaco said. Definitely up the fat and calorie intake (coming from someone who used to have an ED; and don't be afraid of having a "fatty" diet lol - mine ranges anywhere from 65-75% fat on a daily basis and I haven't gained an ounce)

Your pictures look awesome and it's great that you are feeling awesome as well. With a little experimentation in customizing your foods for what makes you feel the best, you'll be golden

[alicias]

Thank you climbergirl!

ChacoTaco - I know I have to start eating organ meats, but I am so scared! I looked at liver in the grocery store last time I was there and just couldn't put it in the cart. I AM going to buy some this weekend. Do you have any favorite ways of preparing it??

[ChocoTaco369]

+1 on what ChocoTaco said. Definitely up the fat and calorie intake (coming from someone who used to have an ED; and don't be afraid of having a "fatty" diet lol - mine ranges anywhere from 65-75% fat on a daily basis and I haven't gained an ounce)

Your pictures look awesome and it's great that you are feeling awesome as well. With a little experimentation in customizing your foods for what makes you feel the best, you'll be golden

I'm personally stunned on the pregnancy pictures vs now. Very impressive! And you did that without going primal? I'm very curious how.

Thank you climbergirl!

ChacoTaco - I know I have to start eating organ meats, but I am so scared! I looked at liver in the grocery store last time I was there and just couldn't put it in the cart. I AM going to buy some this weekend. Do you have any favorite ways of preparing it??

I've never had it either. I've only been doing this for 2 months myself. I intend to eventually buy a meat ginder because ground beef is disgusting but I still eat it (the ground beef you buy is probably from parts of 10 different cows). I want to be able to just buy a cheap chuck roast and grind it up myself, so maybe throwing in a kidney or liver into that would be a good way to sneak it in. You can make burgers, meatloaf, meatballs, chili, etc with organ meats and never know. Not to mention you can mix in pork, veal, chicken, turkey...not just beef, so you can make some awesome meatballs. Just a thought. You can get a good meat grinder off Amazon.com for well under $100 shipped.

I eat so many vegetables and take so many vitamins that I feel I don't need to eat organ meat, but I also eat twice as many calories as you. If I were only eating ~1,500 a day, I'd be more concerned about my vitamin intake, so organ meats may be a great compromise for you.

[alicias]

Thanks ChacoTaco. I breastfed for 5 weeks, which took off 30 pounds of the 40 or so I gained. 5-6 weeks after delivery I started lifting weights using a program called Chalean Extreme from Beachbody (the creators of P90X). I had used that program before with great success. I exercised about 3-4 times a week and ate a protein, carb (usually a whole grain), and fat at every meal. I am also blessed with very resilient skin, which you can see because I have no stretch marks or saggy skin, thank goodness!! I have lost about 4 lbs from going primal, but as you said, it's probably from muscle loss. I need to take care of that asap and get more calories in!!

ETA: I also stayed pretty active during pregnancy, and some will say that the weight comes off faster if you do stay active.

[ChocoTaco369]

I'm very impressed. Just another reason to throw away that baby formula! Your 4 pounds in a week is probably almost entirely water weight. When you eat carbohydrates, you store 3-4 grams of water for every gram of carbs you eat. So yes, if you eat 100 grams of pasta, you store 300-400 grams of water! I highly doubt you can lose 4 pounds of muscle that quickly. However, prolonged calorie levels like these could do more harm than good.

You already look damn good, but there are still benefits of going primal. There are a lot of people out there that look great on the outside, but are unhealthy on the inside. Just look at all those skinny type 2 diabetics out there. Your cardiovascular system and especially your pancreas will thank you for going primal!

[alicias]

Thanks!! And if you have any tips on preparing liver, it would be MUCH appreciated!