Summer’s relationship with fat loss is a rough one. Barbecues and pools usually mean bathing suits, and for someone who is on the path of fat loss, their anticipation is based on their judgement of their own progress, usually negative.
For the more opportunistic though, summer is a motivator to reach health related goals, as well as the perfect environment for primal eating.
The Primal Blueprint eating plan, or what some may know as the related eating pattern, the Paleo Diet, is an eating pattern based around meats, vegetables, and fruit primarily. It is based on certain affirmations also [Source],
- 80 Percent of Body Composition is based on diet, or what food and drink you consume
- lean body mass is the key indicator of health; it is the muscle and non-fat tissue of your body
- excess body fat and excess insulin are related and both bad
Within the primal philosophy is the central goal to be free of the physical limits which excess body fat and excess insulin cause. To do this efficiently, Mark Sisson, and others who have contributed to the philosophy in their own unique ways, studied the past of human digestive history, Paleolithic ancestors of humans, to record and research how the human digestive system and human nutrition adapted.
Grains and agriculture go back in history as far as 11,500 years, according to researchers, and an eating pattern based on meats, fruits, vegetables and their specific contents and ancestors goes back much further, because before agriculture, getting nutrition meant getting what was available. What was available was animals, and trees and plants with vegetables and fruit, similar to primal eating.
I’m not a doctor, but It just so happens that Primal Eating could be a way to avoid excess insulin, because of the lack of grains and starch, and presence of vitamins, minerals, and nutrition in meats, vegetables, and fruit. Without the large flood of carbohydrates and resulting wave of insulin, insulin receptors are likely to not become over-stimulated over a long period of time, avoiding ineffective and in-receptive receptors, also known as insulin resistance.
Insulin resistant receptors cannot receive and allocate nutrients, and because of this scenario where glucose is left circulating, more insulin hormone is produced and more and more their receptors become resistant. Body fat, being an organ of storage, eventually receives the calories unable to be delivered by other insulin receptors. And as more and more calories are stored in fat, new fat cells are created and the cycle continues.
The Primal Eating Plan prioritizes protein, which comes from a Greek root meaning “of prime importance”, because of its role in cellular repair, cellular health, and muscular growth and maintenance. There are varying sources and opinions on the quantity of protein an individual “should” take in everyday, but among sources which I read and trust, it is generally accepted that 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass (LBM) is a good aim, while recommendations range from .8 grams per pound of LBM to 1 gram per pound of mass. These are good ranges to just keep in mind when thinking of what to eat on a weekly basis and what major foods to consider at the grocery store.
Lean body mass is calculated by determining your body fat percentage and total weight, and subtracting that body fat percentage in pounds of total mass from total mass. The number of pounds left over after body fat pounds have been subtracted from total weight is lean body mass, or the muscle and non-fat tissue of the body. There are various professional services available, which should be researched first, that can help determine these numbers for an individual.
Fat is also of prime importance within the Primal Blueprint eating plan. Dietary fat plays an important role in every process of the body, being necessary for brain health, where it constitutes estimates of 60-70 percent of the brain, necessary for cellular generation, and necessary for organ and hormonal health. Fats do provide 9 calories per gram, which is where the notorious “fat makes you fat” arose from, among other chemical reactions within the body. But with an individual gram of fat’s nine calories, comes nutrition necessary for the aforementioned functions, necessary fat-soluble vitamins, and satiety that limits excess caloric consumption and “sweet tooth” expenditures.
Carbohydrate may come off as the enemy of all things healthy in preliminary discussion of the primal eating plan, but further reading, discussion, and research will explain the importance of even carbohydrate in the diet. It is not carbohydrate that is the enemy, it is the excess of it, and the consequential unique reactions of its excess (possibly insulin resistance) that are of concern. Additionally, it can be said that there tends to be an unhealthy nature trait that correlates with high amounts of carbohydrate in a food, although the same may be said of fat in some instances, and correlation is not causation.
Sugary cereals and synthetic vitamin bread do not constitute the type of carbohydrate categorized under primal eating, but, fruits of many types that deliver unique nutrients and unique taste and refreshment, and vegetables that require little complimentary spices to bring out taste and deliver nutrients and satiety are categorized as primal or paleo.
There are of course other fundamental principles of the primal blueprint eating plan and primal plan in general, such as moving and exercising in a way that maximizes time spent in the gym and muscles used during exercise, and attaining not just enough sleep, but restful sleep, and managing stress by valuing hard work and achievement. These are topics of information which I find of interest and recommend, and which are discussed within the Primal Blueprint Eating Plan,similarly the Paleo Diet, and at Mark Sisson’s popular and resourceful Mark’s Daily Apple. Mark Sisson has a primal cookbook & grocery list, which can be checked out to help deliver better understanding for Primal Eating.