Getting adequate Carbs with Paleo

[Charles Siler]

Hey there-
Just started the Paleo diet and I'm wondering how I'm going to manage to get enough carbohydrates without grains. I am a five time a week crossfitter plus I compete in mixed martial arts. My caloric intake has been about 3,500 calories before this. When I weighed and measured out all my food last night it was an insane amount of vegetables. Know of any good veggies with high carbohydrate? Carrots are the best so far...but I don't wanna turn orange haha. I also have heard fruit is good but I try to avoid sugar although I'm sure I'll have to have some as the amount of vegetables seems not only hard to eat but quite costly as well. Any advice would be most appreciated! Thanks!

[Jennifer Conlin]

http://*************/?cat=11 w/f/w

[Jennifer Conlin]

http://mypaleokitchen.blogspot.com w/f/s

[George Mounce]

Originally Posted by Charles Siler

Hey there-
Just started the Paleo diet and I'm wondering how I'm going to manage to get enough carbohydrates without grains. I am a five time a week crossfitter plus I compete in mixed martial arts. My caloric intake has been about 3,500 calories before this. When I weighed and measured out all my food last night it was an insane amount of vegetables. Know of any good veggies with high carbohydrate? Carrots are the best so far...but I don't wanna turn orange haha. I also have heard fruit is good but I try to avoid sugar although I'm sure I'll have to have some as the amount of vegetables seems not only hard to eat but quite costly as well. Any advice would be most appreciated! Thanks!

Carbs are sugar in any form you take them anyways. You'd have to eat over 5 lbs a day in carrots to suffer from a pigmentation effect. Of course you could add in tomatoes and turn burnt sienna.

[Jennifer Conlin]

I'm not being a a@# but to quote from IF life
There are essential amino acids...
There are essential fatty acids...
There are NO essential carbs..

Or are you doing Zone/paleo?

[Sara Fleming]

Everyone is different. If you are tired and run down and sick of chewing, eat some oatmeal or brown rice. It won't kill you and there are no Paleo police. At least they haven't found me yet.

With Crossfit and your other activities, you'll be burning it off. Especially if you eat it with breakfast or post workout. Avocados, apples, a non-brown banana, all have a higher starch content and will give you a little more lasting energy as well.

Post workout, I'll eat a banana or apple with my protein shake and I usually have oatmeal for breakfast.

If you really want to drop the grains entirely, well, your jaw is going to get bigger.

[Charles Siler]

Originally Posted by Jennifer Conlin

I'm not being a a@# but to quote from IF life
There are essential amino acids...
There are essential fatty acids...
There are NO essential carbs..

Or are you doing Zone/paleo?

I am not really doing a technical zone diet. I started eating every two and a half hours a few months ago. I would have four and a half ounces of carbs and three and a half of protein. Six meals two rice, two couscous, one oat and one wheat for the carbs. I also recently tried going with pearled barley. Right now I just feel tired and slow. Maybe I just gotta get used to it?

[Sara Fleming]

Are you saying you are eating 4.5 oz of carbs and 3.5 oz of protein every 2.5 hours? I'm just not clear about what you posted. Because that right there may be why you are feeling tired and slow, too many complex carbohydrates.

Just looking at that made me tired.

Now, I am much smaller than you and I'm a woman, but I only eat 1/2 cup of oatmeal in the morning and maybe 1/2 of brown rice at lunch time and that's it for starches for me for the day.

The most complex it gets after that is fruit and semi-starchy veggies like avocados, sweet potatos, etc. And I do a heavy strength day, an oly lifting day, and a heavy metcon day every week (I only work out 3 days a week as I have a busy training/mom schedule).

[Charles Siler]

Originally Posted by Sara Fleming

Are you saying you are eating 4.5 oz of carbs and 3.5 oz of protein every 2.5 hours? I'm just not clear about what you posted. Because that right there may be why you are feeling tired and slow, too many complex carbohydrates.

Just looking at that made me tired.

Now, I am much smaller than you and I'm a woman, but I only eat 1/2 cup of oatmeal in the morning and maybe 1/2 of brown rice at lunch time and that's it for starches for me for the day.

The most complex it gets after that is fruit and semi-starchy veggies like avocados, sweet potatos, etc. And I do a heavy strength day, an oly lifting day, and a heavy metcon day every week (I only work out 3 days a week as I have a busy training/mom schedule).

The amounts I listed here is what I had been eating in the past, and felt great. But now I have abandoned all the grains and am trying to get my carbs from veggies and the likes. I'm about six foot one seventy five and my metabolism has been roaring. I'm not that hungry (stomach feeling) wise,) just feel slow and tired.

[Sara Fleming]

Well, if I were you, I would add back some grains a little bit at a time, starting in the morning, pre, and post workout and see if you pick a bit of energy.

Same recommendation as above, maybe oatmeal (has 4 g fiber and 5 g protein per 20 g starch) for breakfast, and maybe an apple or banana or even 1/2 cup brown rice before and/or after your workout. Post-workout is actually a really good time to re-fuel carbs because you pretty much depeleting all your muscle glycogen stores (guessing you are not trying to lose weight) during your workouts so you can safely bet those carbs are not going to go to fat storage. Also, if you take your carbs with your protein then, it will help slow down absorption.

I don't do well on pure Paleo, I get to feeling weak and fatigued as well. That's why I do some partial grains. My ancestors probably did a little opportunistic farming on the side.