Success losing weight at 50-100 carbs a day on paleo/primal diet?

[tillymonster]

I am looking to lose a good 20# before Dec/Jan as I am trying to get pregnant and want to be as close to the pre-prego weight as possible. Not to mention many issues being overweight, I was 170-80#s when I got pregnant, now I'm 215#. Being only 5'5" makes this a lot of extra weight to carry around, and I'm a smallish framed gal.

I lost 75# on Weight Watcher back in 2006-07 so it's very depressing being this huge again. But I do have the cutest 2yo to show for it. I apparently ate garbage (though I thought I ate so "healthy" while pregnant). I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis after a year postpartum and probably had for awhile. I'm on a super low dose of levothyroxine.

LONG story short...doing primal/paleo for a month or so now. But I have been off grains for longer, since April. Not seeing huge results but feel GREAT. I hate all the cooking sometimes but am getting used to it. It's ALL about planning. I don't think I'll ever go back to grains!

I am still BF my toddler and almost think this is why I cannot drop ANY substantial weight. I'm sure it's because I am eating too many carbs, even if they are healthy. I really want to focus on 50-100g of carbs a day.

Any other ladies do this with success? Please post and let me know! I'd love to do a challenge or weekly weigh-ins if anyone is interested!

[Cynthia Mosher]

Good for you for cutting out the carbs. 

Anyone have any info to share?

[Pogo0685]

I was primal for the last 2 years, I'm kinda off it now though because being pregnant with #2 its just to hard for me to stick to primal. I was 100% primal, like no cheats, always under 100 grams of carbs a day and still had an extra 30 pounds on me until I quit breastfeeding, and then those pounds just literally fell off, I could have eaten 5 grams of carbs a day and I would have kept that weight. Most people say that breastfeeding helps you lose the weight but in my experience it helped keep a good 30 extra on me. I loved being primal, I felt so good and clear and healthy! my only advise is to be patient and it will come off then you wean the baby. 

I am 5'5" as well, and when I went into labor with my son I was at 223 pounds (I got pregnant at around 160/165), when I went primal 1 year and 1 month later I was only down to 179, when I weaned baby at 2 years 3 months I was at 159 within 4 or 5 months I was down to 133. I ended up having surgery and never really recovered from it and my weight went back up to 170, now I am almost 4 months pregnant with #2, once I have this baby I plan to go back to primal.

[staceychev]

I've been primal/paleo at about 80% compliance for about 2 years or so. I was 218 right before delivering my 6-1/2 lb. daughter (28 months ago) and am currently about 150, so it's definitely worked. 

I find I need to tweak it if I want to get back into weight loss mode (I'm kind of maintaining right now).  Personally, I find that, in order to lose weight, I need to: keep the nuts and fruits at a minimum and focus on getting a decent amount of fats. Have you thought about doing a Whole 30? You also might want to check out paleohacks.com for more info on tweaking your diet.

FWIW, I'm nursing a toddler as well. 

[luckiest]

I second the Whole30!  I didn't need to lose any weight, but I dropped about 5 doing it.  Like PP, keeping nuts and fruit in check was key for me.  Not for weight loss per se, but for keeping hunger in check.  It made sense for fruit to make me more hungry with the carbs, but nuts were a surprise.  Fruit also makes me bloated.  If I'm nut free and fruit very, very limited I feel a thousand times better, even though I'm otherwise still eating clean.  

[crunchy mom qi]

I have to agree with everyone else here.  While I was pumping (sadly I wasn't BF because my son was stillborn) I didn't lose weight at all. 

Doing paleo, (no dairy either) I don't even try to lose weight.  I consistently lose 2 lbs/week.  I keep my nuts to 1/2 per day or less and eat 2-3 servings of fruit less than half of the days per week. 

Some weeks the scale is stagnant, but the next week it always jumps.  I've lost 30 lbs so far.  The only other things I do are walk an hour per day and take my vitamins.

I feel (physically) good and get complimented a lot.

good luck or make your own.

[Pariah]

What is Whole 30?

[provocativa]

When I am paleo / primal and take my thyroid supps, the pounds melt off.  1 tsp kelp powder and 400mcg (it's on the bottle) Trace Minerals Research Ionic Selenium.  Thyroid hormones are iodine-dependent, and selenium makes the body's tissues more responsive to the hormones.  Right now I'm adding back in some carbs because I lost weight too fast and my breasts shrank and got flat!  HTH.
 

[skreader]

OP,

Try cutting back to below 50 net carbs per day for 2 weeks & see if that helps. Make sure you have adequate fat to keep up your energy.

[luckiest]

Originally Posted by Pariah 

What is Whole 30?

http://whole9life.com/2012/08/the-whole30-program/

The Whole30 is a program of completely clean eating for 30 days.  You eat only meat, vegetables, seafood, eggs, some fruit and nuts, and lots of good fat.  You entirely eliminate all processed foods, all grains, legumes, dairy, and sugar.  It is basically just a month of zero cheat paleo.  It helps your body reset.  I was doing 80/20 primal before doing my first Whole30, and afterwards I realized how much dairy was affecting me.  I thought I was one of the lucky ones who could eat dairy without consequences, but I just wasn't noticing them.  I feel a hundred times better without dairy, and I've also figured out that I do best with a good amount of starch (sweet potatoes, plantains, root vegetables) but very very little fruit.  And nuts make me insatiably hungry for some reason.  Whole30 helps you figure out how different foods are affecting you.

[krankedyann]

I couldn't budge weight while nursing, regardless of diet.

[basilico]

A bit late chiming in here but I do the Primal way of eating (on and off). When I started, I used My Fitness Pal for a calculator and tried to stay around 30 carbs.  I really limit my fruit.  My main snack is hard boiled eggs because I was having a hard time getting in enough fats.  I was able to lose 20 pounds in maybe a month and a half!  I really wasn't trying, just wanting to eat better and maybe lose a bit.  I'd suggest to go lower on the carbs and see what happens.

Edited by basilico - 8/20/12 at 9:32pm

[tillymonster]

Thanks for all these responses. The awesome thing is... I am losing weight. I know this because I am doing the 8 week challenge here and am really working at it. I'm a fruit-a-holic, and cannot go without it! I also notice I get very moody and depressed (or feeling of depravity is really what is happening) if I'm too low on the carbs scale. Yeah, and I think I just won't lose like I want to while nursing.

I was doing a 30-day paleo challenge and already dropped 3 pounds in 3 weeks. Pretty good. Too bad I cheated too many days in a row and just, well, gave up. One day, I'll do the Whole30 and do it right. I'm not in the right mind-set yet. I am counting again on MyFitnessPal and can never usually go under 50 carbs. I usually naturally hit around 100. Especially with the amazing selection of produce in my area. I feel good for the most part. Even with dairy and small amounts of sugar.

[ImogenSkye]

I have been eating paleo for 20 months now. I am breastfeeding my two yr old, and kept an extra 15 lbs on until I increased my carb intake. I had been unintentionally eating too few, so my body was holding onto fat, storing it like I was in a famine but still getting enough to store for worse conditions. I tracked my carbs when I came across a blog called Paleo For Women, and the author suggested that intermittent fasting and carb-restriction is great for men's bodies, but most women will have trouble with it because biologically, we evolved to eat regularly to support the life of our little ones, and our bodies view fasting and low-carbing as bad timing for fertility and also dangerous for the species because of the potential for starvation, so while men lose weight by this method, some women will actually gain weight, while most will just not lose what is extra in reality. I decided to experiment on myself, not being a mouse or a rat, so unsure how I'd fare by comparison. ;)

I have never craved carbs, and even when I previously ate grain, I was then only eating around 40-50g per day, and when I tracked myself for a week recently, I was eating to taste, only 15-35g per day.

So for the past three weeks, I have with much effort, managed to average my daily carb intake to between 90 and 115g per day. This is a huge feat for me! I used to get headaches if I ate any really sweet fruits that don't have loads of fibre, so grapes, apples, even carrots gave me headaches immediately- even sweet potatoes. It's easy to see why I just didn't crave them. Anyway, I increased my carbs initially with red potatoes, and have slowly introduced fruit a bite at a time or three grapes one day, five the next, etc... 

My body went into a bit of a fit for a week- weird sugar lows after eating a few grapes, but then they leveled out without eating anything more. I gained about ten pounds in two days- all water-, and started wondering if I was doing more harm than good, but I kept at it, because I have been able to sleep for hours in a row, which I couldn't do before. And, I have stopped needing my thyroid replacement hormones, AND my hair has stopped falling out, AND the very long list of symptoms from low thyroid and adrenal exhaustion has almost disappeared. Then, I lost the ten water pounds over two days, and following that, I have been losing extra fat so quickly that it is visible every morning.

So, for me, the key to shedding the extra pounds while breastfeeding, was to increase carbs, which has raised my thyroid and alleviated a lot of symptoms I'd come to know as my normal. I have not been clinically overweight ever, but I know that my fat:lean muscle ratio is/was not ideal for me. I am 5'7" and weigh 135lbs now. Before this experiment-gone-right, I weighed 145-150lbs, changing from day to day. My body feels best at 130lbs, with more muscle than I have now. I am also noticing an increase in lean muscle mass and, not unexpectedly, physical strength, now, a few weeks since I began eating more carbs.

I think carb-restriction can jump-start weight-loss, but if it stops working at a certain point, knowing what I'm learning now, I'd try reintroducing more carbs again. I think over 250g, weight-loss would likely stall again, but under that, the body may just do some reparation and building, while consuming excess fat stores. It seems at least possible given my admittedly short (so far) experience.

Also, my carb intake would still be considered by many "low", or low-ish at least, though for me, it is very high relative to how I've been eating for the majority of a decade and longer. I feel much healthier now. Also, through all of this, I have been using magnesium oil topically, and with the higher carb intake, I have been absorbing or at least utilising the Mg much, much better.

[BeagleMommy]

I'm in a similar position and have a bit to offer. I'm 5'5" and 135 now. After my son was born three years ago, I had a thyroid nodule. My thyroid numbers were "normal." I began supplementation with natural desiccated porcine thyroid. I felt great for the first time in my memory! Many people, like those at Stop The Thyroid Madness find they have MUCH better results with natural thyroid replacement vs. synthetic.

But, I was still about 155.

Last year, I started The Harcombe Diet and within a short time, lost 20 pounds. I continued to lose weight until I got down to 126 and began to cheat too much. The 135 I am now is my pre-pregnancy weight and I am still nursing my toddler, so I don't genuinely know how this effects my weight.

I would say I eat Paleo now, but I really am hooked on dairy. Heavy cream in decaf coffee is a treat I have about 3 times per week. And we are a family of cheese eaters. . .

Oh, the interesting thing about The Harcombe Diet is that it is not low carb. It's no processed foods and no sugar. The key there is to separate fat meals from carb meals by at least 3 hours.
For instance, you could have a couple of pieces of fruit for breakfast and then have some delicious fatty meat with a salad for lunch. The human body is more likely to store sugar (even fruit sugar) when there is fat present in the system. If you have a meal of fat and basically no carbs, your body will burn the fat for fuel.

Mark on Mark's Daily Apple said that occasional "high carb" days with get weight moving again sometimes. Of course, he means sweet potatoes and the like, not Reese's Cups. And I think he suggests one day per week.

Sending happy weight loss vibes to all! :eat
Edited by BeagleMommy - 8/22/12 at 12:57pm

[tillymonster]

Imogen--- love that blog you linked. Very interesting stuff. I have no intension on starving myself and I naturally eat lots of carbs. Fat and protein are usually my problem but without the processed carbs I've been able to up the protein easily. I had the most delicious chicken thighs tonight omg!

But this brings me back to... should I track or not?

[ImogenSkye]

Tilly, I've not been very big on tracking my food intake at all either. I have only done so to figure out what my patterns are if I suspect I am missing something. I'm glad I did, too, because apparently, I was missing a whole macronutrient, lol. Ooops...  I could eat meat and animal fats/coconut oil all day and not notice a lack of carbs (I eat lots of veggies, but they apparently don't convert very well into carbs). I'm having trouble keeping up with my carb intake; I'm still too low most days. I stuff some honey down at night to try to increase my carbs, but that tends to just get me to barely adequate. 

Strange issue, I know. Where a sweet tooth is common, I have a bitter tooth, and actually crave bitters, not sweets. 

[tillymonster]

Originally Posted by provocativa 

When I am paleo / primal and take my thyroid supps, the pounds melt off.  1 tsp kelp powder and 400mcg (it's on the bottle) Trace Minerals Research Ionic Selenium.  Thyroid hormones are iodine-dependent, and selenium makes the body's tissues more responsive to the hormones.  Right now I'm adding back in some carbs because I lost weight too fast and my breasts shrank and got flat!  HTH.
 

Thank you for this info. I've been looking into take a selenium supplement for a while now and just finally bought one. I decided I was tired of the insomnia caused by levothyroxine and don't want to take it anymore. I don't think it's helping as I still feel hypothyroid, including stubborn weight loss as I already know. 

The brand I'm using is a yeast-free, gluten-free brand from Country Life. It's 100mcg. Looking into the kelp power... Any idea where to get that? Whole Foods?

[Sharlla]

ive lost weight doing 20 gr carbs but 40+ i just maintain ( i went from 260 to 132)

[tillymonster]

Wow only 20 carbs? Do you think that's smart for me though since I am nursing? I bet I could but it would be hard long-term. What was a typical day like, meal-wise if you don't mind? I am intrigued...