Looking visibly aged now, more than expected. page 4

[j3nn]

Foods low in methionine: Foods Low in Methionine | Whole Food Catalog

The list of Primal/Paleo favorites starts at the highest ranked ones on the last pages. Interesting. Plants are important.

[AshleyL]

One thing I've noticed looking at LOTS of before and after pictures of people who have lost weight on different kinds of diet, from Vegan to CW to Primal.. the Vegans look pale and weak, especially the men, I think, as a woman, I could take them. The CW people lose weight but tend to look older, their skin often looks dry. The Primal people lose weight, tend to gain or at least maintain muscle and they usually look younger instead of older! SO I'm not buying this stuff about protein.

Fats are very important, are you getting enough omega 3's? What fats, specifically, are you eating. And yes, plant food is important, don't forget your greens and veggies.

[magicmerl]

I think that part of looking 'visibly aged' is because of loose skin as a result of weight loss.

[JudyCr]

People immediately think Atkins when you mention primal way of eating. It's the lb of bacon every morning and a dozen fried eggs thing. When I tell them primal eating is some uncured bacon, yes, and avocados and org greens and sweet potatoes and ghee and all sorts of roasted veggies, they like the sound of that. Then comes doing without bread and sugar and they start shaking their head no..

I have heard/read that too much protein will cause kidney stones, and I've seen firsthand the pain those caused my DH, so I've always kept protein at about 4 ounces per meal. Moderation works.

[zoebird]

To be sure, what I have noticed is that most primal/paleo types -- like Mark and his wife, DeVany and his wife -- is that they look much younger than any other counterparts.

Next to this, I always crack up at how people consider this to be a "high protein!" diet.

I know that the RDA puts everyone at .8g per kg of bodyweight (total, not lean), but we know that the RDA is about *minimum* requirements, not "optimal" requirements. From there, they tell us that protein should make up 10-35% of our diet.

The problem is, they don't explain how/why. So, here are a few "how/why" versions.

Starting with their math, lets go. I weigh 58kgs (128 lbs). This means that I require a minimum of 46.4 grams of protein per day. That is 185.6 calories per day from protein.

I currently eat an average of 1600 calories per day (calculated across a month). This means that 11% of my diet would be protein.

If we do Mark's version (which I cannot find sourced on the net -- but I didn't look too hard), he recommends using .7-1g per lean body mass. Since I'm 128 lbs, and about 18% body fat (eyeball/pictures mostly, haven't calipered in a while), that means 105 lbs of lean body mass. If I go with the highest amount there -- 1g per -- I end up with 420 calories per day. Or, 26% of my daily intake.

This is still within those RDA guidelines, no?

But lets look again. Say I do the RDA, but I'm the "average sedentary woman" and according to various sources (like livestrong.com), the average sedentary woman needs 1800 calories a day. This means that using the RDA's minimum, only 10% of my calories are from protein. But if I'm an average moderately active woman, that caloric number goes up to 2000, and then my RDA protein amount is only 9% od the diet. So now it's too low!

Now, lets do it using Mark's numbers. I'm now an average, sedentary, and 23% of my diet is protein. Still RDA approved! And as an average, moderately active? It's 21%. And that's if I'm using the highest number.

How does it get to being 35%? Calorie restriction. If I am a restrictor and I need to get the RDA of 46 g per day (184 calories), and I eat only 1300 calories per day, then what? It's still RDA ok at 14%. If I used Mark's numbers, I'm still RDA ok at 32%!

So to be completely honest, I have no idea what these folks are talking about about the diet being "too high!" in protein.

Also, I think many people would be shocked to know what they eat. Even if they are eating the right amount of calories, I'm always surprized at how protein-freaked everyone is. When you mention something like vegetarianism, everyone goes 'but i NEED my PROTEIN!" well, it is entirely possible to get mark-levels of protein (420 cals per day) from vegetarian sources, in particular if you also include dairy and eggs. Granted, the vegan versions for protein are lower in the "inflammatory" elements of meats, but according to the site linked above -- X amount of meat equals the same as Y amount of veggie, and I'm just as apt to eat Y amount of veggie and not X amount of meat (i usually eat less than X).

Which then means that if aging is due to the inflammatory element, then I can just as easily fall pray to it with veggies as I can with meat, depending upon the real amounts that I eat.

Honestly, My average daily intake of protein is anywhere from 90-100g on average. At 1600 per day on average, this means that I'm sitting at 22% to 25% of my diet from protein. This follows Mark's guidelines, which is just about double (a little more/a little less) the RDA for me in terms of grams, but certainly not excessive in terms of caloric intake. In fact, it hits the middle of the RDA percentage-of-calories road.

And, if I look at a previous poster's assrtion of "4 oz per meal" and estimate only 3 meals, we are looking at 7 g of protein per oz, or 28 g of protein. At three meals, that's 84 grams of protein -- or high above the RDA amount, but certainly close to Mark's assertions.

If the poster's diet sits at the average person's 1800-2000 calorie diet, then it's 17-19% of the diet from fat. For me (at 1600) it would be 21% -- so again, not far off from where I already am. . . and both of us well within "RDAs."

And, it's true. People think that we eat a lot of meat, btu we don't. It's just that we don't eat a lot of other things (grains/etc). Most of our plate is veggies and oils.

I had 3 small eggs (they don't come in different sizes here, really, we just get regular sized eggs, which tend to be smaller than what we ate in the US), butter, and 3 cups of steamed veggies for breakfast, and for dinner, I'm probably going to have 4-6 oz of fish with a coconut-cream based thai curry sauce with three cups of veggies. I also had a tangelo and some fresh cherries earlier today. I mostly eat vegetables, seriously.

[sbhikes]

It's the shift work. Shift work will kill you.

My partner is 62. His job isn't shift work but it is stressful. It's killing him. He sleeps with an ice pack on his back from all that sitting. His hand is all curled up with arthritis. He takes drugs to sleep at night. He, of course, thinks this is all normal, but when he got laid off a while ago he was so happy and healthy, like a totally different person.

I have a friend who retired a couple years ago after a lifetime at a stressful job in law enforcement. He didn't even realize the job had been killing him until the withdrawl symptoms hit him. He was very ill for a while. He had the shakes and all kinds of mood problems. He totally fell apart for a while. He feels lucky to have gotten out when he did, soon enough he could recover from the stress and enjoy the rest of his life as a healthy person.

You don't notice how your shift work and job stress can kill you at your age. Let me tell you, it does a lot of damage. Messing up your circadian rhythm messes up your hormones and this will affect all your organs including your skin.

[Drumroll]

How often do you fast?

I've long been told that one of the benefits to some sustained autophagy is that your body rids itself of dead and damaged cells that can cause the signs of premature aging (and getting rid of them extends life to boot).

Just another thing to consider. I'm not talking about excessive long term fasts, just the occasional two day fast tossed into your routine can have wonderful benefits.

[Gorbag]

Nothing unusual by getting the "dieters face" after being in a calorie deficit and low on carbs for a while. The face is often one of the first places to lose fat and water and the last to get it back after finishing a diet. Replenishing glycogen may help in the short perspective and also eating at maintenance with plenty of carbs to restore hormones...

[Derpamix]

You know, if you use the word "imbalance" without any clarification you cant really expect people to understand what you are going for. Imbalance as in too much of each of them, not enough of each of them, too much of one in relation to the other?

Zinc and copper compete with one another. Too much copper has many symptoms including parallel estrogen, depression, anxiety, skin issues(acne, sunburn, etc). Zinc also competes with manganese, so it's easy to have a zinc deficiency given specific diets(those high in leafy greens for example ^-^)

[Knifegill]

It is not possible that I have any deficiencies based on food intake. Unless my gut is just incorrctly populated, that is. Which it may be! I ate some carrots and sweet potatoes tonight and the pain and bloating was so intense it hurt to move for awhile. It appears I've become starch intolerant.