I've been Paleo for nearly 2 years now and I have experienced a lot of benefits healthwise.
But in the last 6-8 months I have gained weight! I was always slim before Paleo. I am 41 and I have gained about 3 kg. I am trying to shift it with IF and low carb (3 months now), but it's not budging. I do have some sweet Paleo friendly treats, but not often, and have only a bit of fruit and rearely nuts/seeds. I have dairy occassionally, but I don't seem to have a problem with it. I exercise, I lift weights, although in the last few weeks I haven't done much I have been very busy with work.
To be honest I am fed up googling my problem only to find results that suggest I don't eat enough or that it's hormones or stress. While I am sure these things do play a role, I don't think they apply to me. My hormones are doing quite well because of Paleo, I hardly have any PMS or bad skin anymore, and stress, well, of course I can get stressed, but I have 2 kids a a full time job, so I really don't think it's anything out of the ordinary. And I eat plenty, I have a good appetite and I get plenty of good fats.
I have previously participated in some excellent Paleo thread here on Mumsnet, so I thought I'd post here. Any suggestions?
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Low-carb diets
Paleo - gaining weight!
misscph1973 · 09/05/2014 13:21
misscph - I am an Eating Psychology Coach - part of the work I do is looking at what people eat in the way that a nutritionist would but after that, I'd explore with them what else is going on in their life. So coming at weight and health from the point of view of there being a strong mind-body connection? Can I ask, on a scale of 1-10, how much the weight gain bothers you and, measuring the same way, how strictly you control your diet?
As we age, particularly 40+ there are hormonal changes that can result in weight gain - you probably know this 
. Your exercise (weights in particular) and diet are exactly what would usually counteract the hormonal effect though and without any other peri-menopausal symptoms I doubt this is the explanation.
So...with the psychology hat on - did anything significant/particularly stressful happen/start happening around the time when you started gaining weight? It could be to do with your relationship, your job, a bereavement or illness in the family, something going on with DC's - if you imagined that extra weight was calling your attention to something in your life that isn't anything to do with food, is there something it could be?
Ok, let me know if this stirs anything...we go through different life stages, it's interesting that often a change occurs in our body around every ten years, in terms of metabolism and what foods work well for us or not. Also we go through different life phases.
Women from their teens into their thirties can be described s being in a 'Princess' phase, they want to fit society's definition of attractive, ie pretty and thin, and seek lots of positive affirmation from everyone around them. Then from their thirties into 40+ we enter the Queen phase, where we have developed our own confidence, we don't need others to affirm our attractiveness, we are comfortable in our skin and don't obsess over losing or keeping off the last half a stone, we are more focused on relaxing and enjoying life, loving our families and setting an example to the princesses. Following this theory and what you said about what's going on for you, your weight gain could be synonymous with relaxing into life a bit more...our bodies are meant to soften as we age, become more feminine, this can still be very beautiful and I think it's a much better look than fighting and trying to control our appetites and bodies...think Helen Mirren, Emma Thompson or Susan Sarandon, as opposed to Madonna? Who would you rather have dinner with and think sexier? .
Oh I get what you are saying , it's a theory that makes great sense to me instinctively and intellectually but the hardwired drive to be slim/perfect weight is so strong . I'm working on it myself though, starting with - if clothes don't fit/suit/feel comfortable then it's the clothes that are wrong, not my body. It must be harder if you were slim and bounced back easily after pg, many women go through a period of adjustment acceptance about the fact that their body has changed and it's won't ever be the same . I think 40+, at some point there is another stage like that. We can choose to fight it - by all means, try 1 day fasts and more fish (especially fish, or an omega 3 supplement) but if it just isn't happening and the process is making you miserable or foggy headed then keep in mind the alternative , working a bit more on self acceptance and enjoying life - and put in the time/money/effort to find clothes that suit you and make you feel good.
Your DH sounds quite judgemental 
, that must be tough, sounds like you can't really win there...presumably he looks like Zac Efron in the buff 
?
Also, from an exercise pov, rather than trying to reduce waist and bum, think about building shoulders up with weights a little bit, so you get more balance/the illusion of a smaller bottom half? A great compound exercise-take two dumbells that you can comfortably do a military press with. Start in a push up position, holding the dumbells, do one push up, jump your feet up between hands, straighten up slowly with dumbells at your sides and stand then do a bicep curl to military press overhead, then back to push up position, repeat. Depending on how fit/strong you are, increase the number of push ups by one each time, up to about 6, then work back down doing one less push up each time. It's a killer 
. If you find it easy, increase the weight.
Also...lat pull downs, push ups, pull ups, clean and overhead press with barbell all great.
Fair enough misscph, it's just something to think about
Tabata doing burpees is amazing. Re my exercise, if you imagine a burpee, the exercise is sort of a slower version of that, holding dumbells....so you do the push up, jump your feet in, but instead of jumping up, just straighten up, uncurling your back with your arms straight, holding dumbells.. Then bicep curl, rotate your wrists so palms face away from you, straighten arms up above your head, then back down, rotate palms back again, lower arms then bend down to place dumbells on floor (still holding them) and jump your feet back to start another push up....any clearer 
?
this is essentially it...but I do it a little slower so the bicep curl and overhead press is more distinct???I have to do it more slowly because of the fairly heavy weight I use, the lower the weight the faster you could do it but obviously there is a trade off between cardio/strengh effect between the two .
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I've been low carb for a long time, and Paleo/primal for 3+ years, have lost a very large amount of weight (6 1/2 stones), and my bmi is still nowhere near 20 
.
Health wise, it's changed my life, uncovering some quite severe food allergies/reactions. BUT complacency creeps in doesn't it? I think there is so much emphasis on not counting calories or carbs on this WOE, that it's easy to loose sight if the fact that sometimes it's a good idea to do it for a time to just help remain "mindful" of portion sizes, carb intake etc.
Last year I lost only a few pounds (have about 20 still to lose). Recently I started logging everything using the myfitnesspal app and it's been a real eye opener! I have lost 5lb in 2 weeks and and it's shown me how much carb was creeping back into my diet, not huge amounts but too much (on my metabolism) for weight loss (was creeping up to about 100g a day on too many days).
I really don't want to be logging calories/carbs but I think I need to for a few weeks to "reset" my carb portion sizes (I am mid 40s and I think hormones are at play too wrt resistant belly fat!).
Myfitnesspal has standard macros that can be changed in the settings to the proportions you want, on standard it was telling me to eat 200g carb a day on a diet of 1500cal! I set at 15%carb (55g), 30% protein. The barcode scanning device is quite addictive and fun... .
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