Paleo is not a weight-loss “diet.” It’s a way of eating for health and longevity – which, for some people, involves weight loss as one piece of the big picture. With that said, weight loss is an important goal for a lot of Paleo dieters, and it’s certainly very motivating as an outward sign of changes under the hood. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. If a number on the scale or the measuring tape helps you stay enthused about making healthy changes, there’s nothing bad about keeping track of it. The trick is to recognize that weight loss – especially scale weight – is not a perfect measurement of health. It’s that balance of tracking weight loss without being dominated by it, or letting the scale push you into making unhealthy choices like starving yourself. It helps a lot if you know what to expect, so you can zoom out and look at the big picture, instead of getting trapped in short-term thinking during one bad week. So here’s a quick overview of what weight loss looks like on Paleo, some pitfalls to avoid, and tips for seeing the forest, not just the trees.

For the newbies in the audience, here’s a quick run-down of how to tweak Paleo for the best weight-loss results (bearing in mind that everyone’s body is different, and you may need to play around with your diet to find something that works). If you already know the drill, you can skip down to the next heading) So once you’re doing all of these things, what will the weight loss end up looking like? Weight loss does not look like a straight line down from your starting weight to your goal weight. Wouldn’t we all love that! Instead, here’s what to expect for the first few weeks. Why so much water weight? Every gram of glucose (carbohydrate) in your body holds on to 3-4 grams of water. So when you lower carbohydrate intake, you’re losing a whole lot of water weight along with the carbs. This isn’t good or bad; it’s just a physiological effect of lowering carbs. In Week 1, weight loss is very rapid – the pounds are just falling off thanks to water weight.

Then weight loss inevitably slows, because there’s no more water weight to lose. Don’t get discouraged when this happens. Weight loss is not slowing down because you started doing anything wrong, or because Paleo isn’t “working,” or because you need to cut down to 1200 calories a day and start spending all your free time on the Stairmaster. It’s slowing down because the initial pace of loss was not sustainable. You can’t simply continue to lose water weight, unless your goal is to become a human raisin. Also, it’s important to note that not everyone sees the initial “whoosh” of water weight. If you were coming off a low-carb diet before you switched to Paleo, that water weight just isn’t there to disappear. After this initial rapid loss, the period of slow and steady weight loss begins. The standard number for a “moderate” weight loss is 1 to 2 pounds per week, but that certainly doesn’t imply a daily weight loss of 0.14 to 0.28 pounds on the dot!

Instead, weight at this stage shows a general downward slope in the long term. Baby Blue Tab Top CurtainsAgain, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you will get on the scale every day and weigh less than you did the day before. Weight Loss Patch Orange CareSome days, you may even go up, and then down again. How To Check Ac Unit Capacitor“Weight loss” means that the overall trend is pointing in a downward direction, not that every day you wake up weighing a little bit less. Why is this “bumpy” pattern of weight loss such a big deal? Because it’s a huge stumbling block for so many people. The first day they don’t lose, they panic, assuming that they’ve plateaued and that obviously the whole project is useless. It’s one thing to read about this happening to some hypothetical person, but when it’s your own actual weight on the scale, it’s surprisingly easy to get sucked into the 0.1-pound fluctuation rabbit hole.

To avoid this, it helps to be very aware of all the things that can go wrong with “scale weight.” There are all kinds of reasons for a temporary upward fluctuation in scale weight that have nothing to do with fat gain or loss. Just to name a few: Another huge reason why the scale lies is that it measures muscle as well as fat. If you’re doing any kind of strength training or muscle-building exercise (you should be!), you may be gaining muscle. Muscle will show up on the scale as “weight” just like fat – it’s all pounds, so it all counts. But muscle is the kind of weight you want more of. The upshot: the scale measures total mass, but not all mass is equal. Constipation, your belt buckle, monthly water retention, and food in your stomach are not fat gain. Muscle gain is not fat gain. Fixating on the day-to-day scale weight is a perfect recipe for getting completely mired in these little details, and that’s just a miserable roller-coaster nobody wants to be on.

So – ready to break free from the stress of daily weigh-ins? Jump straight to Part 2 of this series, featuring practical ways to track your progress without getting derailed or driving yourself crazy over tiny fluctuations.Weight Loss on a Paleo Diet By | The reasons for going Paleo are multitudinous, running the gamut from disease elimination to exercise optimization and everything in between. With its inflammation crushing power, Paleo is able to handle these tasks with ease, which is why it can be easy to forget that Paleo is the perfect solution to the everyday problem of weight loss. The sad fact is that two out of three adults in the U.S. are obese or overweight, aMost people who switch to a low-carb diet, a paleo diet, or a low-carb paleo diet find great success in losing weight.  I, myself, have lost 120 pounds using these strategies (low-carb for the first 100 pounds and paleo for the last 20 pounds).  But if your weight-loss seems stalled or too slow, there are some extra tricks that will help you lose weight faster and/or get beyond those natural set points that our bodies all seem to have.

1.  Don’t Eat for 3-4 Hours Before Bed:  When you eat shortly before bed, you increase your metabolism and stimulate growth hormones, which makes it very difficult to lose weight. 2.  Get Lots (and Lots and Lots!) Of Sleep:  Getting plenty of sleep will help regulate your cortisol levels and give your body plenty of time to rest and repair.  If you are prioritizing sleep but still not sleeping well, see my post Trouble Sleeping? 3.  Manage Stress:  Do whatever you can to keep your stress level in check.  This is about the stress hormone cortisol, which profoundly affects the ease at which our bodies access stored energy, how we metabolize fat versus sugar, our insulin sensitivity and our leptin (hunger hormone) sensitivity.  For more tips on stress management, see my post Managing Stress. 4.  Get Lots of Low-Strain Exercise:  Things like walking, yoga, and swimming are fabulous for regulating your hormones and reducing stress (exercise is not about burning calories, it’s about regulating hormones). 

They also build muscle tone without stressing your body.  Some light resistance training (yoga, pilates, lifting weights without going nuts) can be very helpful aswell.  One of the key points here is that “over-training”, by which I mean doing something that is too stressful for your body, ends up increasing cortisol and derailing your weight loss efforts. 5.  Get Outside:  Our bodies need sunlight.  Sun exposure helps regulate our circadian rhythms and our adrenal glands (via the hypothalamus and pituitary gland), which affects cortisol regulation, as well as a whole host of other hormones.  If getting outside just isn’t possible for you, make sure you are taking a Vitamin D3 supplement (I recommend somewhere in the 2000-10,000 I.U. daily range). 6.  Eat 2-3 Meals per Day (and maybe one snack):  Eating less frequently is better for your insulin and leptin sensitivity (and actually all of your hormones).   If you are also keeping your sugar intake fairly low, then this is really great for regulating your hunger too. 

Some people like to create a calorie deficit by occasionally skipping meals.  This only works if your stress levels (specifically your cortisol levels) are well-managed (you should be getting plenty of sleep and lots of low-strain exercise). 7.  Reduce Carbohydrates:  Keeping the carbohydrate intake on the low side (check out my post How Many Carbohydrates Should You Eat?) can be very helpful in curbing your appetite and regulating insulin.  The end result is that you eat less, which creates a calorie deficit so your body uses stored energy instead.  Typically, if your carbohydrate level is on the low side, you don’t need to worry so much about portion control (your body does this naturally).  But do still be aware of how much of certain calorie dense foods (like nuts and seeds) you are eating. 8. Increase Carbohydrates:  Wait, didn’t I just say reduce carbohydrates?  Well, that doesn’t always work and sometimes it backfires completely.  If you are already eating fairly low carbohydrate (say less than 50-75g per day), you might actually be going too low carb for your body. 

Insulin is actually required for the conversion of the thyroid prohormone T4 to the active hormone T3.  Since thyroid hormone controls metabolism, increasing your carbohydrate intake a little to support thyroid function can actually help boost weight loss.  Other things that are good for supporting your thyroid are managing stress, getting enough sleep, and eating lots of seafood (for the iodine and the selenium). 9.  Promote Healthy Digestion:  If you feel that you are stuck at a “set-point”, first evaluate your health.  Do you really need to lose more weight?  Maybe it’s time to turn your focus to fitness goals and creating lifelong habits for maintaining a healthy weight.  If you do still feel like you need to lose more weight, you might be dealing with micronutrient deficiencies or something like small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.   See my post on Repairing the Gut for ways to address this.  You might also consider focusing on more highly nutrient-dense foods, like organ meat, seafood and eating more vegetables.