Are You Getting Enough Calories on Paleo?

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Are you getting enough calories on Paleo?

Is it time to add more carbohydrates, fat, or more Paleo calories in general?

I ask my female Clients of average weight to eat around 1800 Calories/day. Men about 2300 Calories.

Getting Enough Calories on Paleo

Here are the keys to getting enough Paleo calories. If you’re at a decent weight, or exercising hard, you’ll want at least 100 grams of carbs. (Petite women can aim for 75/day).

Many following Paleo eliminate too many vegetables and tuber calories. And may be cutting short fat intake too.

Having eliminated grains and sweets, you need to replace those calories.

1. Are you eating enough vegetables?
2. Can your gut digest starchy carbs such as sweet potatoes, plantains, quinoa or wild rice?
3. Are you making up caloric deficit with coconut oil, ghee and other fats?
4. Can you really tolerate dairy products?
5. Are you consuming excess honey, juice or chocolate?  Or fruit?
6. Do you need more animal protein?

Carb Calories From Grains

Paleo, Primal, Ancestral, Biological, KETO, my Diet For Human Beings… all agree that GRAINS are not human food. We did not evolve to graze on grass and grass seed. (Yes, wheat, corn, rice and oats are grasses).

Eliminate grains, and your calories from starch drop dramatically.

Getting enough calories on Paleo can then be a challenge.

Replace the space on your plate with vegetables (cooked or wilted to increase digestibility), fats and tubers. And check your amount of protein.

Getting More Vegetable Calories

Seven cups of cooked vegetables yields about 150 calories and 40 grams of carbohydrates.  Seven cups! (I get that much daily, divided over 4 meals).

Salads hardly count – raw leafy greens may look like a lot of food, but provide few calories. They are not nutrient-dense food.

Winter squash gourds (Acorn and Butternut) have about 60 calories per cup, or about 15 grams of carbs.  Adding 1 cup of Acorn Squash to your 7 cups of daily veggies still only gets you to 55 grams of carbs.

What about starchy carbs?

Starchy carbohydrates include sweet potatoes, potato, wild rice, quinoa, cassava.  They’ve got around 115 calories per cooked cup.

If you can digest these, you can ADD portions to the above list. KEEP the veggies as you need the vitamins, prebiotics, fiber and antioxidants they provide.

Rice and cassava are high in Arginine so those with HSV can’t eat much of these.

If your gut, like mine, rebels at lentils, try well-soaked and longer-cooked Quinoa. Here’s how to properly prepare Quinoa which I have found digestible and an easy source of extra calories (220 calories per cup). Not good for HSV sufferers however.

Add wild rice or quinoa slowly, a few bites a day, if you’ve been off starch for a while.  It is a complex carb and not as easy to digest as meat, veggies, tubers and fat.

Getting more Paleo Calories from Fat

Six Tablespoons of pure fat (olive oil, coconut oil, ghee, pastured animal fat, etc.) provide 125 calories per Tb. or 800 calories.

If you have Gallbladder issues, use lean meats but try to add 4 TB of organic pastured fat daily to keep your calories up.

This is not KETO, where 80 % of calories come from fat. I do not agree with KETO.

Animal Protein – our Main Source of Paleo Calories 

There are 600 – 800 calories in a pound of meat or seafood. This is our primary and correct source of calories on Paleo.

Animal protein is preferred for those struggling with Herpes. It is very high in Lysine and very low in Arginine.

Plant-based proteins such as beans, lentils and rice are high in Arginine, low in Lysine. They are not tolerated by HSV sufferers.

Do You Have Hidden Dairy Intolerance?

If you’re getting calories from dairy, you may have dairy intolerance and not know it.  In my practice at the Diet and Health Center in San Antonio I encourage elimination challenges of dairy and egg to see if they may be causing problems. Here’s one article on doing a food challenge properly.

Classic signs of dairy intolerance are bloating, arthritis, snoring, heartburn, loose stool, ear infections and respiratory allergies.  Eliminate ALL dairy except ghee for 1 to 4 months, watch for improvements, then add it back slowly and see what occurs.

Excess Calories from Fruit and Sweets?

Fruit is pretty high in calories.  A cup of blueberries has 85 calories (21 carb grams). But many of us don’t digest fructose well (FODMAPS foods). More than 1/2 cup of fruit sends my blood sugar off.

Juice, honey and sugar obviously provide calories, but destabilize blood sugar causing hunger, mood swings and insomnia.

Chocolate might be OK, but I personally can’t handle it.  The sweetener, milk solids, caffeine, all bother me. Plus it’s a common (and sneaky) allergen.

3000 Calorie Shopping List – Gluten Free, Dairy Free

Beverly Meyer, CCN, MBA

Functional Medicine Coach and Podcaster