New to Primal; Former Distance Runner page

[fleet_fox]

Hey everyone,


I've been extremely busy the past few days reading the forums and Mark's posts. The book is on the way from amazon. I have been primal since Sunday and am doing pretty well with it. I have one main question:


As a former distance runner (I ran through college, graduated in June, and haven't really been running since) I am fairly skinny. (5'7, 135-140 lbs depending). In other words I don't really want to lose weight. My former diet included lots of carbs (pasta rice or couscous every night etc).


At the same time, I am finding it hard to eat as many calories as I think I might need. I am feeling pretty full at the end of meals and very hungry by the next meal time with intermittent snacking on raisins/almonds etc. But I don't think I have broken 2000 calories since starting the primal diet on Saturday.


Should I be worried about this? I would like to add some lean muscle mass to my lanky runner frame if possible and I definitely don't want to lose too much weight (I am lucky and don't have much fat to lose)


Thanks for your help!

[Geoff]

Congratulations and welcome. I'm a "recovering" marathoner, so I can understand where you're coming from. Sounds like you've been living on the typical runner's diet, and it may take you a while to transition to a real "fat burning" mode. I wouldn't worry about the amount of calories you are consuming right now - just eat Primal foods (focusing on fat) when you're hungry. If you're really making fat your focus you'll automatically increase your caloric intake. Also, almonds and (particularly) raisins may be a little carb heavy - experiment with lower carb alternatives (hard boiled eggs, veggie sticks with baba ghanoush).


Have you read Mark's post on building muscle here?