Having read a couple of books and various information online, I'm a little be confused about the meat -v- fruit ratios on phase 1.

My wife views what she has read as fruit being fine and as much as you like. This is not my understanding - my understanding is that fruit should be eaten only in moderation and that New World fruits (such as pineapple) should be avoided where possible.

It is also my understanding that in phase 1, meat should be lean and account for 60% of the diet. The other 40% should be made up of leafy green veg and nuts (not legumes) where possible but other salad items like bell pepper, onion and cucumber are fine.

Finally - cheese is banned as are all diary products - but butter is acceptable as is olive oil for frying.

Am I on the right track?

Paleo doesn't have phases. Are you talking about a specific implementation of paleo? If so, which one?

Paleo eating is more of a philosophy of eating food mankind was evolved to eat: Meat, veg, fruit, nuts, etc.

If you want to lose weight then limit the carbs like fruit and starchy veggies.

You can be as strict or loose with Paleo as you like. I find I do better avoiding dairy, but I haven't cut out butter yet. If you want, you might try ghee, which is basically just the fat part of butter with the milk solids removed. Others use olive oil, coconut oil, bacon drippings and so on.

Many thanks. I may have been confused by a specific type of paleo, but I don't recall which it was.

In view of carbs - is there a daily "limit" like Atkins and is ketosis important? Or is it a case of zero carbs except those from fruit/veg?

And meat - is lean preferred or is fatty meat acceptable?

To lose weight lowering carbs is a good strategy. Much easier than limiting calories. You might start off with Atkins like rules and gradually increase the carbs as you go along. It is a bit experimental. I'd prefer to start low and go up rather than start high and wonder why I'm not losing.

Ketosis is going to happen if you limit carbs enough, whether it shows up on annoying paper strips or not. It isn't all that important, IMHO. The key thing is to get insulin and hunger under control and you can do that by keeping carbs lower.

I'm experimenting right now with raising my carbs to 50-75g every other day. I have thyroid issues when my carbs are too low. It is possible that being too low carb for too long (8 years in my case) can cause thyroid issues. Every other day I eat 500-700 calories, low carb then the other days I eat a more normal amount with higher carbs. But I've got extreme metabolic issues hopefully you and your wife don't have.

There are a lot of paleo bloggers jumping on the higher carb band wagon. I think we all have to experiment a bit and figure it out for ourselves.

OK, many thanks.

I am going to cut out the fruit for now and concerntrate on the protein and veg-only carbs. Will see how I go!

Thank you for asking this. I think I'm going to switch from Atkins to Paleo as my weight has completely stalled, but I am so afraid to get out of ketosis, as though what's behind that door is compulsive over eating and a raging appetite. If I don't have ketosis all I have is my own will and that ain't enough.

When you says it's stalled - how long for?

Can you give an example of a daily meal?

Richie: one month.

While I was losing, a day would look like this:

3 eggs, some butter and cheese in the AM (omelet)
Lettuce and leftover dinner for lunch (pork, etc). No dressing.
Snack of some salami and Brie (4 ounces of cheese)
Some kind of meat or fish, plus broccoli or salad for dinner
Almonds, olives, maybe a but more cheese or another egg at night

Also, I began eating two Atkins "safe for all levels" coconut bars at night, still losing. I went wild with nuts a few times, still losing. I started eating natural peanut butter, still lost.

Then I stopped. Was it dairy? Nuts? Most likely it was the progesterone I am on and off of, about to finish for three months, if I take it at all again. But it might not be. I did some reading last night about upping carbs until you are out of ketosis in order to lose because the body starts to save energy as fat again if you are in ketosis a long time. So I ate some grapes and strawberries. Woke up this morning still in ketosis. Just read some stuff saying that fruit is the worst thing- honestly, I am not the right person to ask about anything! I'm not saying "oh, I ate a cupcake, I'm so bad, oh well!", I have consistently stayed on a low carb course and..... Hmmmm....

Somim upping the carbs to 40 or 50 and we'll see where that takes me.

Seems like a lot of cheese to me. Personally I won't be having any for some time.

Also, how much exercise are you doing?

Fruit is OK in small amounts but better replaced for leafy/green veg in my opinion. I find cabbage quite good in salads.

Perhaps you're going through a dribble rather than a stall?

The fruit is on purpose. I am upping the carbs to try to break the stall and can't even stomach the though of a potato or sweet potato. The cheese stayed under 4 ounces per day, but I am also having about 3T of what you guys call double cream (I think) and some butter.

Keep in mind that I just described what I was eating when I was losing every day/week.

Sure - I'm not suggesting I'm an expert, just saying what I know from my last WL stalled me.

Personally I'm a little suspicious of the idea of upping carbs to stop a stall as I found adding exercise kick started me again before. OK, so I only lost 26lbs, but I was still losing up until the day I stopped Atkins. I just found diary and fruit stalled me, so I cut them out. I also found that too much diet soda/cola stalled me.

What exercise do you do? How about your daily tasks - do you do much or sit behind a desk?

Thanks for posting that good article, I hadn't read that summary before.

As with low carb, there are quite a few variations of Paleo. Here is a summary of the top five. http://www.dansplan.com/blog/787-fi...-the-paleo-diet

Personally, I think Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint gives the most advice about how to lose weight on his program. He has a "Carbohydrate Curve" (see link below) and you pick the appropriate carb level for your goals. It can be ketogenic for the weight loss, or higher for fit athletes. He also gives clear instructions what to change if you are not losing weight as desired. Skipping fruit is one suggestion, but I keep a small serving of berries.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/17-r.../#axzz1xliyWr5C

Thanks for that . Have to agree Sisson's looks the best for me. Interesting to read that wild rice is acceptable in his opinion, but for me any starch is a no-go.