Welcome AllyBelly, I am also from Melbourne!

Don't worry about the scales you have probably gained a little muscle which is only good news for metabolism & improving body composition, these days I snack on coconut oil straight from the tin if I feeling hungry between meals.

G'day from Ballarat!   

I started paleo in March, lost 30kg and a few health problems, and feel like a new me now. Keep it up and you'll get there!

Re the weight loss, I agree if you're exercising lots the scale may not be so helpful. Your waist measurement might be a more useful measure of progress. If you want to lose weight faster, you need to cut most of the nuts and fruit, eat more meat and fat so you stay satisfied between meals, and don't drink your food.

re sardines, I mash them with lemon juice and black pepper, they don't taste too bad like that. A can with some salad makes a good lunch. I make a nice sharp olive oil vinaigrette and take a bit of sardine mash and a bit of salad in each bite.

Getting the level of fat right can be tricky, I found it took a couple of months before I got that fine-tuned. Basically if you feel full at the end of the meal but hungry again two hours later, the meal didn't contain enough protein and/or fat. Check that you're eating a suitable protein portion for your goal weight - about 1.5g per kg of "ideal" weight, more if you're exercising heaps - and divide that between however many meals you're having. eg for me I wanted 90g protein per day, over three meals, so I'm aiming for about 30g animal protein per meal. I have a rough idea of the portion size of various foods I need to get that. Once you've checked you're eating enough protein, keep upping the fat until the meals satisfy you from one meal to the next. I found even with fatty cuts of meat I need extra, a slab of butter on the veges, oily salad dressing, avocado, coconut milk, onions fried in lots of dripping, etc. If the protein is a non-oily fish I might need several of those! While I was learning how much fat I needed I made sure I always had paleo snacks available - it was two or three months before I'd got it sorted and didn't need any snacks any more.

Too many nuts isn't that good for you, but they are a handy snack. I would use macadamias for a snack while you get your meals sorted out, but get rid of any nuts you're having at mealtimes, eg the nut butters. You shouldn't need them with meals, better to save your nut allowance for those handy snacks. For snacks, I use leftovers, sliced cold chicken, canned fish, sashimi if there's a good place to buy it from, fruit (but not on its own - I always include protein or fat with the snack, no carb-only snacks as they won't keep you satisfied for long), hard-boiled eggs, macadamias. If I need to snack at home I might make something cooked that's quick and easy, like bacon and eggs or an omelette, depends on how long I want the snack to keep me going for. My aim is for the snack to carry me through to the next meal, so I won't have to snack again. If it's three hours till the next meal, the snack might have to be an extra meal!

If you feel hungry around working out, it might be a good idea to start a thread on the workout section about pre- and post-workout eating, you might get some useful replies there. Good luck!

Most beef and lamb in Australia is grass-fed, so anywhere will do to buy fresh red meat. Pork and chicken is more dodgy, best to stick to organic and free-range, which is expensive, but it's not as nutritious as red meat anyway. If you need to save money, buy mostly cheaper cuts of red meat, and preferably some fish for variety. Remember that even though meat from a quality butcher is more expensive, it will have been hung for longer so it's more tender, and you can use "tougher" cuts than supermarket meat. eg I buy rump from a good butcher and trim it and marinate it for steaks, and it's really tender! Way more tender than supermarket porterhouse. But for mince the tenderness doesn't matter so I usually get that from the supermarket to save money.

You get 30g of protein from about 125g of lean meat. You need to size up the portion to account for how fatty the cut is. So if you're buying 70% mince (eg Coles "3-star") that's almost 200g per person. Or if it's kangaroo probably 125g per person would do it as kangaroo has almost no fat on it. (Remember to add plenty fat to a kangaroo meal!) You don't need to be fanatical about sizing the protein portion. Extra will be fine - it's very hard to eat too much meat. I just found this helpful to make sure I was buying enough meat when I started out. I wasn't used to buying that much, and at first I kept running out so I had to get mathematical about it.

Other ways to get about 30g protein:
Two eggs with something like a couple of rashers of bacon or one or two lamb kidneys.
Three-egg omelette with mushrooms.
At least 200g real sausage. (I mean the type from a good butcher made from real meat and fat, not breadcrumbs and soy.)
135g fish.

Also Jean, how did you find out that those Aussie meats are usually grass fed? Or do you just ask your butcher?

The one non-organic butcher I asked said that their cattle was grass-fed up until the last few days, and then pumped full of grains before the knife

Ah that all makes a lot of sense. Thanks so much for all the info!!

I've cut down on the nuts since I started this post, and increased my fat and protein. Also using eggs and shredded coconut for snacks which feels good.

the meats you're eating (chicken breast, kangaroo, steak) are on the lean side so I'd try and get fattier meats as others have said.

How to eat Sardines, by CCG
1) Find your sardines.  They must be fresh.  If you don't like canned sardines, you don't like canned sardines.
2)  Give them a good stare in their fishy little eyes (very important step) and then banish them to the fishmonger to be filleted.  Don't cook them whole and don't try to DIY.  You will probably need 3-4 of them depending on their size
3) Flame-grill them with lemon, black pepper, garlic and chilli, in ghee, lard or tallow (olive oil is nice too but not as paleo).  They should be crisp but not burned so keep an eye on them.  If you have no grill, then they can be fried on a ridged skillet, but the smell will linger for at least a day
4) Ease of eating depends on the filleting skill of your fishmonger.  If he's done it right then you won't have any issues with bones and they will be delicious

I believe that mackerel and sardines are top for o3 and sustainability

You will save by buying in bulk (I guess ~5kg's), these cuts or packs of meat are labelled 'naturally grass-fed', the butcher will slice them up for free.