Low Carb Paleo Diet/Intermittent Fasting/Intermittent Diet

[GreatEXPATations]

Anyone interested in/following these? If so, want to compare notes and support each other along the way? There was quite an active Intermittent Diet thread until last month but it's died a death [: (]

Basically, I've been researching around the subject for a while and am very convinced by the principles of low-carbing having read Atkins/Gary Taubes/Briffa/IPD/Dukan etc

I've been on a mainly gluten-free diet for over a year anyway (though hadn't realised how v high-carb rice-cakes and the like were!); I've been doing low carb since Jan initially following the clinically trialled and evidence-based Intermittent Diet
www.genesisuk.org/blog/?p=896
with great success but then fell into the Atkins camp and have been playing around with that.

Depends on how much carbs - I can eat some fruit / starchy veg (ie paleo carbs) without gaining loads of water weight but immediately gain lots with grains, esp wheat. Non gluten grains somewhere inbetween But totally overindulged yesterday so 55kg on friday 57.7kg this morning! Ideally back to 55kg by Tuesday or maybe Wednesday.

Ate far too much yesterday so am having "light" day today. We often eat at other people's houses for saturday lunch and so I don't even try to paleo then - take the 90%/10% approach over the week.

Couldn't fast as did triathlon training this morning and was hungry after cycle, swim and run.

I am trying a fast today. Not sure how long I will do it for but it may be 18 - 19 hrs if I can last that long. I am just drinking water and green/herbal teas. I was going to go to the gym but decided I would try a fast firts before I tried to exercise fasted just to see how I faired.

creamtea- Fasting as a remedy to sabotage, what a great idea :)

Whippoorwill- I hope your dog is alright.

foreveronadiet- Very interesting about the wheat causing more weight gain. I was at the doctors last week and my GP (I hadn't seen him in 2 years) asked me how I'd lost all the weight and why hadn't I come in for my asthma check-up. I mentioned I removed wheat and gluten and his response was 'Ah!Wheat: probably the most evil of foods!' He then continue to tell me not to reintroduce wheat (even in the gluten free form) because it would make me gain all the weight back.

vnmum- How are you (or did) get on with your fasting?

Has anyone seen greatExpatations?

What is gluten free wheat have never heard of this???

Sorry the brackets and their content were not supposed to be there. Darn edit skills!
I was thinking of the further conversation we (GP and I) had about grains/cereals but as is specific to me, I was going to remove all parts of that story!!!

fava The fast went fine. I had a few tummy rumbles but wasn't starving. I ate salad with chicken, prawns, bit of cheese and some pistachios, dressed in oil at about 6pm so it was a 19 hour fast. I also went for a walk, about a mile and a half this afternoon so for my first long fast it was surprisingly easy. I am hoping it may have helped to undo the carb binge I ended up on yesterday . I wrote yesterday off as part of the 80/20 rule, fasted today as a remedy and back on paleo properly from tomorrow but may fast later in the week too.

Will it be harmful to fast again tomorrow till lunch? That will mean I can get a fasted workout in

Vnmum- no it won't harm to fast again and will defo help to undo your bad day - I've done exact same thing. Was 1lb up due to weekend badness so fasted from 7Pm yest to about 1 hour ago, with a gym work out earlier and 1 protein shake this aft. Weighed before dinner tonight and undo job done

Just thought I'd check in,and say hello!

After returning to my old approach to eating (involving fasting for varying amounts of time,along with eating what is normally considered a healthy diet) I am very happy to have lost 10 lbs in about two and a half weeks!

Obviously the initial weight loss is faster,so I can't expect to continue losing at that rate,but it's an encouraging start!

Have been reading this thread with interest and wanted to say hi :) Am a bit of an old hand at low carb and more recently Paleo; totally sold on the idea but trying to muster up the enthusiasm to kick all my bad habits to the curb and get going with it again.

To help me along I've just signed up with a personal trainer who's a big believer in Paleo and a Paleo type of training - I'm going to give it a really good go over the next twelve weeks and hope to make a significant dent on my bad fitness and excess weight. Gulp, he's even taking 'before' pics this Thursday which I am massively dreading already.

Fava - inspired by your weight loss and knowledge and hope to be able to contribute to this thread as I go along. Incidentally I lost 4 stone doing Dukan about 18 months ago (sadly half of that weight is back on; hence the need to pull my socks up) and used to regularly do Intermittent Fasting - it really worked for me and I felt great on it.

Those of you who follow paleo, in particular the mark Sisson Primal Blueprint, do you all eat organic and do the blueprint exercise? The exercise is so different to my normal numerous days at the gym and runs etc. I certainly regularly get my heart rate up to 90% or above when doing cardio (every time I run actually, must be unfit as it seems like I am so slow yet my HR is v.high)

SkinnyVanillaLatte- what a fantastic start. :)

ladymuckbeth- Thank you, I've never been an inspiration before. I shall look forward to your grin in twelve weeks time but I suspect you'll be smiling way before then. :)

vnmum- I would love to eat entirely organic but I think it's virtually impossible. The meat and fish are possibly the most awkward, even with farmers who sell directly to the ordinary public (often as a bulk buy) and some specialised butchers (especially for venison and boar). Farm shops and sometimes Country parks have rabbit, pheasants and woodcocks.
Fruit and veg it's more achievable and there is lots that can be grown at home. My biggest problem is that I want to try anything new I come across: the 'dudhi' curry tonight was beautiful, the roasted 'mooli' crisps were divine last week (both around 3g of carbs ).
I also find the eggs from a farm are far nicer than shop organic eggs but you can't beat 'pastured' eggs which I've yet to see for sale.

I'm looking forward to hear from ladymuckbeth about her upcoming training and learn lots more.

The true paleo exercise I do:
-go to bushcraft sessions with ds, which include the occasional foraging and fire building/lighting and cooking (some places may offer forest school/ woodland clubs as an alternative)
-long walks, but ds is the only one that climbs the trees or hangs of one
-the occasional adrenaline rush and consequent sprint ds might kindly provide

And this is what I consider paleo exercise in the real world:
-be the children's mule
-a loooot of squatting is involved in cleaning after chickens
-gardening: cutting grass is 'push and pull' and weeding is very much like foraging
-Almost daily, I use resistance steppers (hiking strength), 'total core' sit-ups (find it more effective than unassisted sit-ups) and gentle weight exercises.
-Also the occasional ice skating and now I can fit in a decent size swimming costume some swimming

well fasting has been going ok. I tend to do it regularly now so I am fasting when I go to the gym. My Trainer was quite impressed and ok when she asked about my diet and I said I eat paleo. She mentioned how you don't want the sugar when you cut it out. Nice to know some trainers are ok/on board about it

Glad to hear you getting on ok with fasting, vnmum; what is the style that is suiting you?

I had a bad(ish) week. I had a dental procedure on Mon but I had an adverse reaction (yet another allergy, one suspects! all fine now :) ); all foods felt like they were burning except for cheese, which I ate for two days. On the third day my mouth was ok but my cravings for sugar where so high I ended up eating about 80g of carbs, mainly in fruit. The cravings have since been slowly reducing:I should definitely stay away from dairy.

Today I couldn't resist a small portion of homemade low carb berry ice-cream but after this week's experience I will I have to substitute the cream for coconut milk.

For those who are ok with dairy, the ice cream I made:
Ingredients:
500g Mixed berries (washed and drained)
280ml double cream (greek/normal yogurt would also be fine)
1/2 lemon juice
2 tbs Truvia (stevia)

Total carb for all of the ice cream, which easily serves 6-8 people: ~66g carb (~36g of berries, cream and lemon; 30g from stevia- despite the no calories I count the carbs in it)

Method:
Blend berries and lemon juice (sieve if you dislike the seeds); add cream and blend again (until 'fluffy'); add Stevia to taste (before paleo I used to add 150g of sugar); put in the freezer for a few hours, it will require the occasional stirring.

fava I have been fasting about 3 times a week. I will have a snack in the evening, approx 9pm then fast until about 5-6pm the next day. That way I can eat my meal with the family so the children don't start asking questions. I also go to the gym in the morning of my fasting days. I have found it fine. I have had a few cheats this week and have gained a few pounds some of which I expect is my muscles holding water from heavy gym sessions and also because I haven't been drinking enough

mmmm, wonder what that message was

Deleted message was advertising a weightloss product.

Hi there, can I join you? I've been low-carbing but reading about paleo (just finished John Briffa's book) and it makes so much sense (plus allows you to eat berries and yoghurt!) so I am switching over. Have also been doing a little bit of fasting - mostly just not eating breakfast, as I tend to exercise in the morning. Feeling lighter already, and not hungry at all. Now just wondering how to incorporate more paleo style exercise into my routine (at the moment I do Jillian Michaels, which I figure takes care of the resistance and HIIT aspects), run three times a week and cycle on the other days. Any thoughts?

gherkin I have just finished 'the primal blueprint' by Mark Sissons. With regards to exercise he reccommends doing weights/resistance 2-3 times a week, sprints once every 7-10 days and 2 - 5 hours of low level aerobic exercise(HR between 55 - 75% of maximum) such as walking or cycling a week. From his guidelines you are doing too much chronic cardio and it can stress your body too much and make you crave carbs. It is definately an interesting idea to back off the workouts after years of being told to feel the burn.
Anyway, that is just the guidelines from his book. It is a very good book to get if you are serious about following paleo

I don't run very fast - doing couch to 5k at the moment, in barefoot trainers, so building up very slowly. I think I'll wear my heart rate monitor next time I run. Thanks vnmum!

gherkin I am thinking of doing couch to 5k again just to build up my running in my five fingers. I can usually run about 5k in normal trainers but need to build up slowly in my barefoot shoes. I am trying to work out how to fit the paleo exercise in to my routine as I like to go hard at the gym but I also enjoy running so don't want to stop doing that on my non gym days (not that i'm doing much running at the moment though)

I had got to the point with C25k where I was running 25 mins but went too far too fast in switching to Vivo Barefoot trainers and pulled a muscle in my calf, so have started again. I'm now on week 4, and enjoying it - I usually run part of the way home from work so it fits into my commute. I want some five fingers!

gherkin I love my fivefingers. well worth the money. so comfy. I want a casual pair now too. I did a little bit of running on the treadmill today but think C25K might be a more structured way of building up gradually. It's just going to be strange making myself run for 30 secs or a minute at a time when I know I would usually run for 30 mins

It does feel strange, but you are running in a totally different way. My mistake was to run on my toes, putting loads of strain on my calves. You still need to drop the heel, just not land on it.