I doubt I have all or many of the traits necessary to be adapted to a high carb diet. What I've found, over the years, are a few general principles that apply to my situation. 

1. Calories matter. I can't simply eat as much as I might like of anything and lose weight or maintain weight loss. Even on zero carb, although I didn't gain much weight, I failed to lose weight I needed to lose. The relation between calories and my weight is certainly not linear, and I wouldn't claim that calories are the whole story, but they are part of the story. 

2. Below a certain carb intake, my appetite increases dramatically and stays there. I seem to need some amount of carbs to achieve appetite control. How much I need is still not really clear to me, but the 72 g level recommended by Wolfgang Lutz seems to work pretty well. 

3. Meal timing and distribution matters a great deal. Whether I'm paleo or not, I do best if I have three meals, zero snacks, and no food after 7 pm. If I depart much from that pattern, I soon find myself extremely hungry and prone to eating all manner of regrettable things. 

4. The real thing that needs to be controlled is appetite. Paleo foods help, but they don't seem to be the whole story either, at least for me. Skipping meals because I "can't find anything paleo" is more likely to derail me (see previous item) than just finding something reasonably healthy to eat and getting on with my day. If I find myself in a situation where I have to find food at a convenience store, for example, I'm better off getting some string cheeses and an apple than holding out for paleo purity. 

5. Psychologically, I don't want my life to be too centered on what I don't eat. Beyond a certain point, paleo can lead to "orthorexia", a kind of eating disorder in which I fixate on food, and especially on the rejection of certain foods, toward which I develop attitudes of suspicion, fear, and loathing. This makes the acts of shopping, cooking, and eating "risky" and stressful. 

6. So I tend to look at paleo as a set of rough guidelines, to be adapted each day to the demands of life, but not to be obsessed over. In terms of my overall health, my weight is clearly what matters, and paleo is generally helpful but, as already pointed out, it's not the whole story for me. 

7. There's a lot we don't know about what real paleolithic people ate or didn't eat. Attempts to re-enact their diets are to a great extent exercises in imagination. There's nothing wrong with that, but I have other things to do. 

Todd 

----- Original Message -----

> Todd Moody, a previously active poster on this list, used to talk
> about his
> experience as incongruent with the experience of others on this list
> and I
> suspect that he was correct, except that he was inclined to carry too
> much
> weight. Could he have had some, but not all the genetic traits
> necessary for
> a full adaptation to a high carb diet? I don't know, but I remain
> open to
> the possibility.