Is this right? page

[Asmodeuskraemer]

So, I've been trying with primal for a while and its not working so well. I know one of my problems is sugar. I'm a huuuuge sugarholic. I am trying, though.
I have been cautious about counting calories in the past because I almost became bulimic with it a couple years ago but since I'm SO overweight (5'9", 307lbs) I think it might be necessary for me. I'm hoping someone can help me out with this.

Daily caloric needs: 3007 calories. This is waaaay too high and I honestly don't think I eat this much, but since I tend to lurve my sugar, fruits and periodic sweet coffee drinks, I'm sure that my insulin in through the roof, etc. I was going to aim for 2000 calories/day. What do you guys think?

Daily Protein I was told .7 grams per lbs of lean body weight. Since I have no idea what that is, I decided to use my goal weight of 180lbs. This comes out to 126 grams and 504 calories. I'm a little confused here. To make sure I have the proper amount of protein, I have to calculate out how much protein my favorite foods have? I eat a lot of eggs, pastured pork sausage (I've always been a sausage girl) and grass fed 80/20 hamburger. But then don't I have to take into consideration how many calories the food has?

Daily Carbs I would like to stick with 50 carbs/day. This comes to about 200 calories of carbs per day. I assume I'm going to get these from vegetables. I like baby salad greens (and salad fixings, like tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms), green beans (with pesto!), broccoli and cauliflower. I do NOT like zucchini (my mom had gardens when I was growing up. The abundance of this vegetable has ruined it for me), squashes or eggplants. I will eat spaghetti squash.

Daily Fat Daily fat is apparently the rest of my calories for the day. So, 2000-504-200=1296 or roughly 1300 calories from fat. How the hell is this possible? Am I supposed to drink coconut oil?

I just ordered The Primal Blueprint. I have been reading over this site for about 8 months but its obvious to me that I don't have a clear understanding of what is needed to make up a primal diet.

[Knifegill]

Lots of ways to get that extra fat in there! Coconut milk in coffee or plain (Aroy-D tastes the best and their carton is BPA-free), cooking everything in tallow, butter, etc. and drinking it out of your bowl when you're done eating. More avocados and bacon. Also, a little bacon here and there is a good idea. And bacon, that helps, too.

[MissJecka]

I'm much smaller than you and I easily get about 120g of fat daily, sometimes more! Meat, coconut EVERYTHING, nuts (in moderation), oil used in cooking, avocados... and, yes, bacon. Bacon in everything!

[Neckhammer]

The fat thing actually works itself out when you eat the right meats (read prefer the fatty cuts). For instance to get you 500-600 calories worth of protein from 80/20 beef you would automatically be consuming approximately 1000-1200 calories worth of fat. See. Easy. You just have to remind yourself that ...yes you get to eat the skin of the chicken.....yes you can eat the fat strip on the end of your strip steak....no you don't have to stick to tasteless meats....yes use good fats to taste!

[Asmodeuskraemer]

Is it possible to do without counting calories? I just googled a couple calorie things and felt all the crazy emotions come flooding back. Ive tried doing primal without counting and its kind of worked. Ive just started adding more exercise-I've been doing simple fit for a couple months-but I'm not consistent in it yet.
Im so scared of being back in that place of feeling guilty for eating, binge/trying to purge and the horrible self esteem and emotional rollercoasters that came along with all that. I guess in a way, Primal has helped me feel better emotionally but I'm still very overweight. Im not really sure where else to turn but back to counting calories..

[Neckhammer]

is it possible to do without counting calories....

yes!

[Alex Good]

(I've always been a sausage girl)

Best line ever.

Anyway though, women generally need less protein. I think those big sausages likely satisfy your needs. As for how much to eat, if you control your urges too much you'll be jumping on the first piece of junk you see. And everybody knows that strange junk can give you diseases.

[palebluedots]

You know, I've lost over 180 lbs total (150 not being primal and 30 more since going primal). The winning combination for me has been:

1) I track every morsel of food that goes in my mouth, but I do NOT worry about calories. Instead I worry about food quality. Once I got in the groove of eating really cleanly, my hunger drive started working again and I stop eating when I'm full. I track my food in Cronometer where I can make sure I'm getting plenty of vitamins and minerals.

2) Because it's so important, I'll repeat that it never helped me to focus on calories. I now average between 800 and 1200 calories per day and have for several months (I still have some weight to lose). I make sure that I never go hungry. Only that what I'm putting in my mouth is on the approved list. Remember, when you are losing weight and are in fat burning mode, your body is burning a lot of, well, fat. So you may not need as many calories as the prescribed amount. Let your body be the judge and do not go hungry! And don't stuff yourself either just because you feel like you need to get in X amount of calories.

3) I weigh myself every single day. I use a Withings scale which transmits the data wirelessly, so some days I'll step on it and not even look at the weight. But I do it every day because being able to look back at those trends is immensely helpful to me. I can use it to decipher if a particular food is helping or hurting my cause.

4) I eat limited quantities of fruit, although you may not need to. I also eat zero dairy (no cheese, no milk, not even ghee or anything derived from animal milk) because it absolutely means I won't lose weight. This may or may not be the case for you, but might be worth doing some experiments. I also limit nuts, mostly because they are not full of vitamins and nutrition. With the exception of salad dressings and some sauces, I do not eat blended foods like smoothies. I find they cause weight loss to stall for me.

5) I decided to be my own judge about what is and is not working for my own body. It's easy to get caught up thinking that you're following the advice of so-and-so, and it must be something you're doing wrong if it's not working. That's how I ended up being a fat vegan for 12 years. So, do your own experiments. Try eliminating food groups and adding them back in to see what works for you. Everyone seems to have their own successful combination.

I'm sure there's a lot more I'm not thinking of right now. But you get the idea.

[RitaRose]

I think those big sausages likely satisfy your needs.

2nd best line ever.

[sbhikes]

I was going to aim for 2000 calories/day. What do you guys think?

That's a good place to aim for. You may find that with all the fat and protein you can't even eat that much. Don't worry if you find yourself around 1000 calories sometimes without trying. Your body will be using it's own fat reserves at that point to make up the difference. It's probably a good idea not to even count your calories. Or just count for one week to get an idea if you are doing what you think you are doing.

Daily Protein I was told .7 grams per lbs of lean body weight. Since I have no idea what that is, I decided to use my goal weight of 180lbs.

Lean body weight is your body minus ALL your fat. So unless you are really huge, it's probably not 180lbs. I'm 133lbs and I estimate my lean body weight somewhere around 100lbs. Then you have to figure out that protein doesn't equal the weight of a piece of steak. A 6oz steak has 42 grams of protein.

Daily Carbs I would like to stick with 50 carbs/day. This comes to about 200 calories of carbs per day. I assume I'm going to get these from vegetables.

50 carbs is a good place to aim for. You might try a couple of weeks even lower than that in order to clear yourself of your sugar addiction. Then choose low carbohydrate veggies until you feel ready to try higher carb veggies. Depending on how badly carbohydrate intolerant you've become, you might not tolerate high starch veggies very well. I usually kept my starchy ones like sweet potatoes and winter squashes to a quarter of a potato or a half a small squash.

Daily Fat Daily fat is apparently the rest of my calories for the day. So, 2000-504-200=1296 or roughly 1300 calories from fat. How the hell is this possible? Am I supposed to drink coconut oil?

I wouldn't worry about trying to guzzle extra fat. Just choose the fattier cuts of meat rather than worthless meat like boneless, skinless chicken breast. Fattier meats I like include salmon with the skin still on, pork butt roast, carbonara spaghetti sauce (that's got bacon or salt pork and all the fat included), liver, sausage, high fat ground beef, rib-eye steak (when I've got a hole burning in my wallet), chuck roast, pork belly, random scrap meats like pig tails.

Use plentiful oil for cooking (coconut is good in high heat, olive oil works too), put plenty of butter or olive oil on your veggies. Have coffee with heavy cream for breakfast. That should get you more than enough fat, maybe even too much. You might get sick of it!