The paleo diet is one of the hottest new health trends online.

A quick google search will tell you the basics: eat like a caveman, and you’ll lose weight. This probably makes you wonder: “Why paleo?” How does it work, and what does eating like a caveman mean, anyhow?

In this article, we’ll break down what it means to “go paleo”.

The Paleo Diet Basics

In a nutshell, the paleo diet can be summed up like this:

Eat lean meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds.

Don’t eat grains, processed foods, dairy, or anything that contains added sugar. 

It gets it’s “caveman” name from the idea that this is how our ancestors ate, and subsequently, how our bodies were meant to be fed. Over millions of years, we adapted to living off a diet consisting of animal products, healthy vegetables, and the occasional treat in the form of berries or tree nuts.

How Does It Help With Weight Loss?

At least one study found that people who go paleo lose weight (an average of 11 pounds) and they lose more on average than people who follow other popular diets.

Paleo helps you shed excess pounds in part by removing unhealthy, high-calorie foods from your diet. 

It’s much harder to overeat lean chicken breast and broccoli than it is to overeat ice cream or chips.

In fact, that’s one reason why the paleo diet doesn’t make you count calories or macronutrients — they’re so sure that eating real foods will keep you full that you won’t have to worry about it.

To a lesser extent, paleo dieters eat fewer carbohydrates than people following a “Standard” American Diet.

Reducing the number of carbs you eat helps your body level out its blood sugar levels, which has been shown to help with weight loss and weight management.

Why Paleo? (Why Should You Try It?)

One “knock” on paleo is that newbies to the diet can’t stop talking about it. Like doing CrossFit or going vegan, it’s their favorite subject to discuss.

While that may be frustrating at a dinner party, the motivation behind it is gold. They feel better, they’re losing weight, and they want to share the results they’re getting with loved ones.

By going paleo, you give your body a chance to “reset”.

Even eating this way for thirty days can help you determine if you have any allergies or sensitivities you didn’t know about to grains, dairy or other processed foods.

Believe us: many people who scoff at this wind up discovering they had an allergy without ever knowing about it. If you’ve been eating grains or dairy your whole life, you might just not know.

Believe it or not, 65 percent of the world has some allergy to dairy.

And because paleo is so mainstream now, you won’t have to make any major lifestyle adjustments to follow the diet. It’s easy to find a paleo restaurant, so you can still go out to eat out and be social.

Getting Started

Ready to go paleo? Start by doing a big shop for all the essential foods you’ll need, and ridding your pantry of any goodies that might tempt you while you’re in caveman mode.

There are plenty of reasons why paleo works. But it’s up to you to dive in if you want to experience the benefits.

For more health tips and weight loss advice like this, read around the blog!