High Calorie Paleo?

I've had Crohn's for 16+ years now, and I've never really taken dieting as a form of treatment very seriously. But as I'm still in relatively good health after a small bowel resection from last year (my third), I've been researching optimal dieting, and Paleo seems like the most promising option from everything I've been reading.

The problem, though, is that I'm 6'5 and have a pretty good metabolism, so I need a lot of calories every day, even when I'm not really doing a whole lot. Historically, I've eaten a lot of pasta as a dietary staple to pile on the calories. It's cheap, tasty and easy to prepare, so I relied on it for years without really questioning any deleterious effects. After doing a bit of dieting research, though, I suspect it's been one of the main culprits in ensuring the recurrence of my symptoms.

So, to get to my thesis question -- what do Crohnies on Paleo do to rake in the calories? I'm not opposed to doing calorie-heavy shakes as a form of meal replacement, as long as (obviously) it's Crohn's friendly, but I'm not even sure where to start. I realize that what bothers one Crohn's patient may be fine for another, but any and all feedback on what sorts of things I could try is appreciated, as I'm a duck out of water on this one.

I'm sure you can find a website that tells you how many calories you 'should' be eating for your weight. It also depends on how active you are, but....

short answer.... eat FAT not CARBS,
you need to switch from being a sugar burner to being a fat burner, it's a better source of fuel

long answer...
the big question is- How many of those calories are being used by you and how many are being consumed by the bacteria in your gut (and of those, how many for your benefit by good bacteria and how many are being used by bad bacteria to your detriment)

One of the big rationales behind Paleo/SCd is starving the bad bacteria by restricting carbs, the other is removing toxins from the diet.

Probably both reasons are valid but who knows how important each one is to you personally.

To that end you might want to concentrate on meat, good fat (not vegetable oils) and vegetables. You can get more than enough calories without carb rich food.
If you think you need carbs then there are plenty of paleo carbs, mainly tubers, but from a paleo point of view, you don't need much of them unless you are using lots of energy (endurance athlete, etc)
It is probably better to change your habits/desires/cravings rather than trying to keep the same level of carbs from other sources.
This vid is very informative on paleo for SCD

http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=48559

Paul Jaiminet from the "perfect health diet" recommends white rice as a carb source and many in the paleo world are taking that on-board, however they aren't doing paleo for IBD
this is part two, of 4 posts, by paul jaminet, dealing with food toxins and IBD
http://perfecthealthdiet.com/2010/0...i-healing-the-gut-by-eliminating-food-toxins/

I gained weight after I began eating paleo - a little over 40lbs. Most of the gain I suspect came from working out in the gym, weight lifting with a trainer.

Most people that eat paleo loose weight early on regardless of how many calories are eaten. From what I've read It's not completely understood why that happens. (Some suggest an insulin theory - the less insulin the body produces the less fat is stored away. Diabetics tend to be overweight for example with having elevated insulin. Or as I read the other night, elevated blood sugar levels when taking prednisone might explain why that drug often leads to weight gain.)

The weight loss tends to occur over the first month or two. After that loosing weight levels off typically.

You might counter the typical early weight loss by exercising in order to retain muscle. That's what I did. As Hugh mentions tubers such as sweat potatoes can be helpful. I don't eat white rice now, but did early on and that might have helped.

I'll be interested to see the replies you get to this question. One of the many problems I had with the diets claimed to help Crohn's and other health conditions is that I just couldn't eat enough calories while following them. Sugar is very important for me, as I find it less filling than complex carbs (I think that's the right term?) and definitely less filling than fat. When I wasn't eating sugar and tried to make up the calories from fats, it just resulted in me getting horrific diarrhoea and I lost weight.

Denzel said:

Paleo diet increases weight and there is no any doubt in this statement. I have tried this diet plan and i gained lot of weight so this diet plan has more calories and good for those who want to gain weight.

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This is totally contrary to most people's experience. I lost 50 pounds and needed to stop the diet from becoming too skinny. It is a low carb diet and many adopt it to lose weight. Nobody wanting to simply gain weight should go Paleo.

UnXmas said:

I'll be interested to see the replies you get to this question. One of the many problems I had with the diets claimed to help Crohn's and other health conditions is that I just couldn't eat enough calories while following them. Sugar is very important for me, as I find it less filling than complex carbs (I think that's the right term?) and definitely less filling than fat. When I wasn't eating sugar and tried to make up the calories from fats, it just resulted in me getting horrific diarrhoea and I lost weight.

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I had similar problems with paleo. The high fat diet just caused me more diarrhea that was visibly fatty! It was pretty gross. I had some success with the SCD for a while but ultimately/long term I couldn't get enough calories and had to stop. I've found what I can personally tolerate and not tolerate through a lot of trial and error. I also have celiac and multiple food allergies, which complicates/restricts my diet even further.

plaidknitter said:

I had similar problems with paleo. The high fat diet just caused me more diarrhea that was visibly fatty! It was pretty gross. I had some success with the SCD for a while but ultimately/long term I couldn't get enough calories and had to stop. I've found what I can personally tolerate and not tolerate through a lot of trial and error. I also have celiac and multiple food allergies, which complicates/restricts my diet even further.

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Yes - the visible fat is what I had too, really gross! I don't usually have problems with malabsorption, but when I was on high-fat diets I don't think I could have been absorbing everything. I was over 2000 calories a day and I was losing weight (and I'm a small person, only doing light exercise, I don't need that many calories to maintain). I think the fat was just passing right through.

I don't think I could have tried those types of restricted diets at all if I had other food restrictions. I have no allergies or intolerances - I can't imagine how you'd have managed to work around those as well as avoiding all sugar and processed food.

Yeah, it left me with very few options when I was allergic to half the allowed foods! Now I'm eating much lower fat but not no fat, and it seems to be going better. I eat mostly veg/vegan now (my allergies include a bunch of meats and dairy anyway, so it seems like animal products and my body do not get along!) with occasional eggs. I eat a lot of potatoes and rice with very well cooked veggies, which seems to be kinder to my intestines.