The Paleo Diet is primarily concerned with food quality instead of quantity, but we’ve received enough questions in our second week now to post some general information about quantity measurements. I like fitday.com to measure macronutrient numbers.

Basic prescription for a lower carb style paleo diet is 1 gram of animal protein per lb of body weight.

Eat 30-50 grams of carbohydrates from veggies to stay ketogenic, but still keep alkaline balance and proper nutrient levels. You’re not going to be eating that much food if you are eating fruit, as a piece of handfruit is approximately 15-20 grams. Also, excess amounts of fructose in fruit helps to contribute to insulin resistance. I would recommend no more than 1 piece of fruit per day if you are trying to lean out, and no dried fruit. Stick with green, yellow, orange, purple veggies.

The balance of calories is fat. Go for olive oil, coconut milk, animal fat (especially grass-fed animals, wild fish).  Try to avoid more than a large handful of nuts per day, anecdotal evidence shows these to more irritating and less beneficial for leaning, also nuts are typically high in Omega-6 and low in Omega-3s.

Total calories per day based on prescription of calories per pound of bodyweight:

Less than 15 calories per lb of BW to lose weight, 18-19 calories per lb of BW to maintain, 20-21 calories per lb of BW to increase weight.

A larger athlete (in excess of 200lbs) can scale that count back some, due to increase in size without as much increase in surface area, therefore not giving off as much heat per surface area unit.

These calorie counts are very general and are dependent on personal metabolism, activity level, etc.

You can up the carbohydrates as a percentage of your total calories (hence cutting fat) if you want to preform better at metcons day in an day out, but only if you are at your desired level of leanness. In this scenario I would add sweet potatoes or some other kind of starchy or quickly digestible glucose food immediately post workout. I don’t see many scenarios where a carbohydrate prescription would get over 100g per day.

This article was taken from Crossfit Delawarevalley (CFDV)