On Fri, 2 Aug 2002 07:24:04 -0400, Todd Moody <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Those of us who are
>trying to lose 50 or 100  pounds are doing something that paleo
>people probably never wanted to do, or had to do.  It should not
>be surprising that to do it we may have to depart from their
>dietary patterns in one way or another.

This is where the "Lights Out" book (admittedly flawed) may have some
application.

Their theory is that in the summer, when both fruit and light are bountiful,
humans naturally stayed up late and ate more carbs.   Then in winter, when
daylight was short lived and there was no artificial light, humans went to bed
early and slept longer and due to the meager results from hunting and gathering
in the winter, lived off their fat.

If there is any truth to this, then losing 50 lbs may have been an "every year"
occurrence in the paleo era, and the key would be to start your diet on the day
in October when Daylight Savings Time ends.

The two main components of the diet would therefore be a) eating only small
amounts of meat, and b) getting to sleep as early as possible, ie 9-10 pm.

The one part of the book that was the most substantiated is that the later you
stay up, the more carbs you crave.   This is due to the melatonin/cortisol
system getting out of balance.

The part that most people find hard to believe is that even 7 hours beginning
at 9pm have a different effect on the body than 7 hours beginning at 2am, but
both the circadian rhythms theory and the studies done by NIH look solid.


--
Cheers,

Ken
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