I know there are countless books out there about going prehistoric with your diet and eating like a caveman, but I thought a quick article talking about the Paleo diet might be a little easier for you than a big book.
To save you even more reading I will tell you that going Paleo is going in the right direction. Not perfect, but in the right direction. It can help you burn fat and lose weight by losing inches. There you have it, if you’re not a big reader, you don’t need to keep reading, you’re on the right track.
But if you want to know the areas where the Paleo diet falls short and how you can improve it for greater health and weight loss, read on.
Hunters Gathering Diet
The hunter-gatherer diet was around long before the advent of agriculture, and of course, long before processed foods and fast food from fast food chains. The Neanderthal diet was simple. They ate anything that could be picked up, collected, or caught. That would mean that their diet consisted of meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, roots, and nuts. As you can see, there are no grains, vegetables, dairy, salt, refined sugar, or processed oils on that list.
Bodybuilder and Paleo
You may be surprised to know that eating like a caveman is very close to what bodybuilders do before competition. It works very well to get them to lose weight quickly. The staple diet of a physique competitor such as a bodybuilder or fitness model consists of lean protein, nuts and seeds, green vegetables, and some fruit. It does not contain all processed foods, dairy products, most grains and starches. As you can see, you are not too far from the Paleolithic diet.
When you want to get super lean, and you’re aiming for maximum fat loss, ditching grains and calorie-dense starchy carbs and replacing them with lean protein and vegetables is the best way to go. This will really speed up the fat burning process, helping you burn the most amount of body fat in the shortest amount of time.
Why it is effective to eat like a caveman
This type of diet is effective for several reasons. The main one is genetics. Our genetic code hasn’t changed much in the last 40,000. So our bodies are not yet used to eating food produced today.
As you can imagine, the caveman was not unwrapping his food. There were no TV dinners, canned or boxed food. The only packaging they had to deal with was a shell, skin, or shell.
There was no high fructose corn syrup, white sugar, hydrogenated oils, chemicals or preservatives. Everything was natural and organic.
This is a very different way than what we eat now.
Okay, but…
So I think a paleo diet definitely has great merit. Where they veer a bit off course are their recommendations to cut out all grains and starches. I think this is a bit drastic and unnecessary.
His reason for such a recommendation is that agriculture is only about 10,000 years old and that is not long enough for our bodies to evolve. We are not able to adequately digest our most modern food. This leads to a ban on rice, potatoes, and whole grain products that can be grown.
This is not totally necessary. There are definitely carbs and starchy grains that require little to no processing, which are fine to consume in my opinion. There are also people who have a metabolism that can handle starches and grains with no problem. Because of this, I don’t think it’s necessary to totally eliminate whole grains and starchy carbohydrates from your diet. Everyone is a little different, each person has a little leeway in their nutritional strategies.
Activity levels and diet
For the very active person or athlete with normal levels of body fat, it doesn’t make sense to eliminate 100% whole grains, sweet potatoes, oats, legumes and the like from your diet. These items are particularly important for athletes who perform at a high level. Helps with energy and performance.
A good way to deal with these carbohydrates is to keep them in your performance-enhancing diet when you need the best results. Then when you want to maximize your fat loss, eliminate or reduce them. Please note that these carbohydrates are natural and not processed. A good example is oats. There are instant oats with added sugar and fortified ingredients, or 100% whole-grain oats that take time to cook. The former are bad, the latter are fine most of the time.
Refined carbs are definitely something you can do without. To speed up your weight loss and fat burning ability it is a good idea to completely eliminate these foods.
When choosing the right diet plan and weight loss regimen, I think people get too caught up in current trends. I don’t think it’s that important to say you’re on a low-fat, high-carb diet. The most sensible approach to take is to eat whole foods that require the least amount of processing. Vegetables and fruits can be eaten without any processing, you can go to the garden, pick an apple, wash it and eat it. The next level is cooking. He takes a piece of fresh fish or heated chicken and eats it. That’s just one processing step, and that’s okay.
Stick as close to these two models as possible, and you’ll be healthy by maintaining a healthy weight.
