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Dieting & exercise

The Paleo Diet

(11 Posts)
Teetime Sun 01-Mar-15 11:53:26

I keep hearing about this and it may well be a Hollywood fad but is anyone here on it/tried it. I'm on Slimming World but weight loss is slow and I would like a boost. As I don't eat processed foods it seems to me I would only have to cut out grains and pasta and diary (only having small amount of skimmed milk on alternate days) and if that's the case I should be losing weight anyway. I am really fed up with dieting but my BMI is too high at 28. Words of wisdom from someone sensible pleeeeese.

Mamie Sun 01-Mar-15 14:27:01

Popping back in after a break to say that low-carb is still working really well here. After a year of the diet, I am nine stone, BMI 21 and size 12. I have lost 16kg and OH 26kg. We continue to cut out all sugar, white flour, potatoes and rice and eat small quantities of low GI carbs to a limit of 100g a day. We eat full-fat everything, but limit portions. We have both seen a significant reduction in cholesterol and OH has been taken off statins and feels much better for it (I was never on them). We throroughly enjoy our food and a couple of glasses of wine.

Mamie Sun 01-Mar-15 15:37:55

So I would say give low-carb a go. It is easy when you go out because you just have cheese instead of puddings and salad or veg instead of carbs. We didn't follow a specific diet, but found Zoe Harcombe and the Mumsnet low-carb threads helpful. We have never eaten a lot of sweet stuff anyway, but would have found giving up meat, butter or cheese really difficult. You have to experiment a bit, but we find pearled spelt makes a great risotto, cauliflower or celeriac mash are delicious and we love the spelt bread that we make now.
Tonight is pot-roast veal with cauliflower and parmesan mash and cabbage from the garden.

Teetime Sun 01-Mar-15 16:05:09

Well I already am on a low carb diet and as I say the going is slow uts over a stone since Dec 1st. I think I would have to do very low calries to lose at a faster rate. I am already doing as much exercise as I can given the extent of my arthritis. DH thinks I look fine but as I say the BMI is till to high. Annual hypertension clinic in 2 weeks time so we will see what the nurse has to say.

Mamie Sun 01-Mar-15 16:17:12

I think that you don't have to do low-calorie though. If you read the Mumsnet low-carb bootcamp they are all furiously eating cream, fats etc. to make the diet work. We have certainly never counted calories on this diet, they are irrelevant. We get plenty of exercise, but haven't changed ithat in the last year either.

Mamie Sun 01-Mar-15 16:20:36

A stone since Dec 1st sounds OK though. We have lost weight very slowly over the year. I think if you lose it too fast you are more likely to put it back on again.

MargaretX Sun 01-Mar-15 16:34:19

It sounds like the old Atkins Diet. just a lot of meat, eggs and fish and veg.
I wouldn't say that a BMI of 28 is so bad. Older people need some weight or fat to survive a severe illness. Maybe you should see some people who have been really ill. My BMI is 26 and always used to be slim but now if I lost weight my face would be thin and haggard looking. No thankyou!

Mamie Sun 01-Mar-15 16:44:10

A bit like Atkins, Margaret, but this version also means you can eat fruit and low GI carbs. We eat a lot of Indian and Middle Eastern food, but cut out all the white carbs. We might have chickpea fritters instead of rice and aubergine instead of potatoes for example. Of course, the main thing we have cut out is all forms of sugar.
I have got thinner in the face, tis true but enjoying wearing size 12 cast-offs from my daughter. OH has definitely got a bit of a chicken neck. On the other hand he is right out of pre-diabetes, off statins and suffering far less from muscle pain and arthritis.
I know which I would choose!

Paleopeter Thu 14-Jan-16 20:03:04

Message deleted by Gransnet for breaking our forum guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

grannylyn65 Thu 14-Jan-16 20:25:41

Dormant when last post was 30 mins ago?

Blodyn Fri 22-Jan-16 17:18:58

grannylynn65 is there another Paleo thread that I am missing?