Hi all, I was just wondering if any of you knew much about the paleo (caveman) diet? I have been following it pretty close for a couple of weeks and it seems like a not to bad fitness/bodybuilding diet. Basically it is lots of lean protein, veggies, fruits and good fats. I have pretty much cut out grains and dairy. I have dropped a few pounds in the last couple of weeks and I don't think it has been muscle...and my energy has been pretty good. Just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on it.
Also just wanted to say hi and introduce myself, Hi, I'm Old School . I love the over 35 thread! Look forward to becoming part of the community.
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02-15-2008, 11:56 AM #1
Is the Paleo diet good for bodybuilding?
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02-15-2008, 11:58 AM #2
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It sounds like a great diet. Anything that cuts out processed food is good.
Yorkshireman I: Right! I had to get up in the morning, at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill and pay mill-owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our dad would kill us and dance about on our graves, singing Hallelujah!
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02-15-2008, 12:03 PM #3
It's basically a ketogenic diet, but allows some fruit (meat, leaves and berries); yes you can bulk on a keto diet. It just takes a lot more planning and a lot more calories. There's a lot of info at the Keto forum.
"Go home, have a beer and smash something. That's what I would do" - Unknown (but probably Thor).
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02-15-2008, 12:23 PM #4
Lean protein, veggies fruits and good fat is absolutely ideal for Body building (particularly the lean protein bit). Key is when you intake it. Eating a bunch of fruits and vegitables at 9pm isnt the greatest idea. Taking a little bit of each every 2-3 hours is ideal.
Welcome to the boards.Sig = not worth the petty B.S.
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02-15-2008, 12:45 PM #5
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02-15-2008, 01:36 PM #6
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02-15-2008, 02:38 PM #7
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02-15-2008, 03:19 PM #8
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02-15-2008, 03:22 PM #9
Cool, thanks for the replies. I figured it would be a good diet...I was just a little worried not having some grains, for carb energy, would be less than optimal in a bodybuilding sense. I definitely can see by cutting out grains it will be much easier to get a six pack showing .
Hey Minotaur thanks for the input about keto/paleo, I figured the difference between the paleo diet and a keto diet would be that keto relies on burning fat for fuel while the paleo still burns carbs via tons of veggies and fruit? There really isn't a lot of fat in the paleo diet, as all the meat protein is lean and I am only taking fish oil pills 3 times a day for extra fat (well maybe that is enough fat to burn?). I haven't really looked into keto at all so I am only going by what I have heard and could be totally wrong, I'll definitely go check out the keto section, thanks. And you are exactly right about grains not being introduced into the human diet until 6-10k years ago...the theory is we just haven't had long enough for our systems to adapt to them 100%...this is why so many people are wheat (gluten) intolerant/sensitive etc.
Thanks for the tip about not eating fruit by itself in the evening Odin1970, I am really trying to make sure I have some protein with everything I eat lately. This certainly wasn't always the case (I actually even tried going raw for a couple weeks a few months back, man did I miss meat)...I have been learning a lot lately.
Thanks gbg...I figured Old School fit in well with the over 35 forum and nice arms!!Last edited by Old School; 02-15-2008 at 03:26 PM.
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02-15-2008, 03:28 PM #10
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02-15-2008, 04:23 PM #11
Ah, no...I went raw without the meat thank you very much The last 3 or 4 months I have been on an exploration for the healthiest/most energy producing/enjoyable diet I could find. I tried going veggie for a while, that evolved into vegan, which in turn eventually lead to trying just raw veggie. It was a learning experience that's for sure. I felt pretty good/even euphoric at times on the raw diet but had to end it as it was just to damn hard to get enough calaries every day...you have to eat copious amounts of bananas (up to 15 a day) and other dense fruits to get 2000-2500 cal's a day. Plus I missed chicken/fish/eggs etc. So I think my quest for my optimum diet has lead me to the paleo diet (for now, I reserve the right to keep evolving) I still eat most of my veggies raw so it is kind of a combo raw/lean protein/healthy fat kind of thing. I like it. And I really like that it is condusive to weight training and showing results.
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02-15-2008, 04:51 PM #12
You are right about the vegs. though I don't know that you could eat enough of them to derive a lot of energy from them. Paleo man actually did rely on mostly fat for energy. Even the Plains Indians of North America ate the buffalo fat preferentially. Of course, no hunter-gatherers wasted anything. A staple of theirs was pemmican: buffalo fat mixed with dried meat and berries. A one lb ration could sustain an adult for a day (1 lb of fat=3500 cals.).
A caution about using protein as the main macronutrient: you teach your body to use protein for fuel, and if you miss a feeding you can break down muscle tissue for energy. Hig fat or high carb (eeewww! I can't believe I said high carb! ), but not high protein. It was either Fitty or Chitown or IPR that taught me that."Go home, have a beer and smash something. That's what I would do" - Unknown (but probably Thor).
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03-02-2008, 08:37 PM #13
there are several issues i see with the paleo diet as it is promoted by health gurus... one... all that fruit and carbs, wouldn't be available. there goes the whole seasonal fruit stuff u get conveniently at your grocery store shipped to u from around the world... most fruit is all fructose, and well, it wasn't available back then like it is now, modern fruit has been bred to be super sweet.
flax oil? out the window
lean meats? hrrm... paleothic people valued fat more so than the protein, and its mostly saturated...
real paleo diet is in ketosis about 8-9 months out of the year.
as for another point, before going into the 10,000 year of agriculture ... we were definitely hunting and eating mostly big animals ... we were in a 60,000 year ice age up until 10,000 years ago. those are our most recent ancestors... if you are basing stuff off paleo eating :P
while i'm on this rant, whats up with vegetarians... don't they realize they are just living in an age of convenience where they can eat this way... not in their genetic code. also quite convenient big vegetarian cultures, such as say... india, have prolonged growing seasons...
btw eating everything raw isn't exactly too good per se, most of stuff becomes more available when u cook it
the only people that eat raw diets are modern vegans, its nutritionally very unsound.
according to archaelogical finds humans were controlling fire 1.4 mya...come on, its rubbing some sticks together. our brains didn't blow up and become smart to create all the inventions ... we've been intelligent for quite some time just haven't lived in "modern society"Last edited by grapemaster; 03-02-2008 at 08:52 PM.
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03-02-2008, 11:19 PM #14
It's a romantic idea, but you can't get the food we ate in paleolithic times, or any other time further back that about 150 years. But the idea of a diet that doesn't intrude/collide too much with our genome is a good philosophy for sure.
If you look at the foremost authorities in the subject, Loren Cordain et al. a 65/35 animal/plant ratio is pretty much accepted, which isn't really that far out of wack with todays diets. Of course geographical lattitudes will effect ratio's/diets as well as shoreline h-g's that consume large amounts of sea animals high in omega 3's....but all in all a diet derived of natural non processed foods can't be bad for you.
What's ironic though is as soon as you get away from the North American/Standard Western Diet you don't see the chronic diseases that are associated with that diet.
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03-03-2008, 04:14 AM #15
One word of warning about the Paleo diet. I did this several years ago and found it hard to get in enough calories. (Back then I was an endurance athlete - doing 2-5 hours of cardio each day and my metabolism is naturally pretty high.) I imagine bulking could be difficult for some using Paleo.
<Insert witty comment and inspiring quote here>
my journal: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=142021531
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06-14-2008, 08:35 AM #16
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06-14-2008, 09:29 AM #17
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06-19-2009, 06:47 AM #18
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06-19-2009, 08:39 AM #19
Some people can consume up to 100g of carbs per day and remain in ketosis, if ketosis is your goal, depending on your activity level. But ketosis is not required for fat loss. Humans are omnivores, and paleo humans ate whatever they could whenever they could. Except cultivated grains which didn't exist. I don't think anthropologists or archaeologists have found the remnants of cooking fires with any kind of wild grains.
"Go home, have a beer and smash something. That's what I would do" - Unknown (but probably Thor).
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06-19-2009, 09:09 AM #20
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06-19-2009, 10:48 AM #21
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06-19-2009, 03:58 PM #22
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06-19-2009, 04:35 PM #23
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Paleo diet is a good way of eating. Pretty tough to go wrong with lean meat, raw fruits/veggies and healthy fat nuts.
If you ever want to consider grains again, oats are pretty much a staple of most bodybuilders for very good reason. Oats are energy dense, provide anti oxidants, lowers your cholesterol and has 2 sources of fiber that work together to lower your risks of cancer (and not just in your intestine). Oats are also excellent to add to a protein shake to slow down the rate of absorption a bit which helps alot with "protein farts".
The dairy isn't an issue...just make sure you're getting enough calcium through a quality supplement (or a food source like kale, etc). I don't know what I'd do without cottage cheese though, man. It's like taking a protein IV before going to bed.
Anyway, good luck and keep eating healthy! Fruits and vegetables are so important for cancer prevention...especially at our age. We're at a key point in our lives where bad habits can start catching up to us and we still have time to reverse course with lifestyle changes.Last edited by JC480; 06-19-2009 at 04:37 PM.
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06-19-2009, 09:03 PM #24
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06-19-2009, 09:30 PM #25
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06-19-2009, 10:12 PM #26
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06-20-2009, 06:38 AM #27
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06-20-2009, 09:35 PM #28
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06-20-2009, 09:40 PM #29
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06-21-2009, 10:09 AM #30
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