Ken Wrote:

>Of course, it is difficult to demonstrate exactly what is going on in these
>examples without a controlled study.
>
>One possibility that occurred to me each time I read one of these
anecdotes in
>the thread is that consuming too little fat prevents fat loss.   It seems
that
>the body conserves fat when it perceives there is a scarcity.  Thus, you can
>actually stall weight loss by consuming too little fat.   (There are more
>technical details, but this is the gist.)
>
>So, it occurred to me that the "dairy" addition that triggered the weight
loss,
>may simply have been a fat addition.

It is indeed true that lack of fats will stall weight loss efforts.  My
case is hardly a controlled study, but I do use a database to track
everything which goes into my mouth.  Thus, I am able to track every
calorie, gram of nutrient and trace mineral I consume - assuming that the
USDA databases for calories etc are correct.

My average food percentage when I was mysteriously gaining fat was:

Protein   30%

Carb       3 %

Fat         65%

with a varying caloric intake of  1800 to 2400 calories per day (average
2176).  And yes, my calorie range was in keeping with my size and weight
and pounds of fat to lose.  I consumed flax oil daily, ate a lot of salmon,
nuts daily, etc. ad nauseam.

Now, I am still eating the same percentages and calorie levels.  However,
the body fat, which had hot 29% is now at 26.5% and dropping.  I am still
improving at the weightlifting as well.  The only change has been the
addition of the small amount of dairy.

I believe that I may have been deficient in CLA.  I had mis-typed it
previously - it is Conjugated Lineolic Acid.  I had reasoned that dairy,
while not paleo, was still food.  A CLA supplement is cooked up in a lab
and is completely non paleo.  So I decided that of the two, adding dairy
was more paleo than adding a pill.

In any event, I have finally reversed the fat gain and am relieved.  Now, I
do have a cholesterol problem and am on medication for that, and I also
have Kalman's syndrome.  So I don't know if my inability to handle strict
paleo is due to these problems.  It could also be because of the lack of
free-range poultry and beef.

In any event, modified paleo is a great diet for me.  Using real
ingredients for ingredients is a heck of a good idea!

James at Penn State