So I am on day 5 of my paleo diet and I'm reading many stories to see how quickly everyone is losing the weight on this diet and I have to say I haven't been that impressed. I'm changing the way I eat which in many ways is like suffering because of cravings and just the financial aspect of eating healthy food, then I hear people say they lost 10 - 12lbs in 4 months, or 20 in 4 months and that is very discouraging because before this, I had tried my own diet of just eating under 1000 calories a day and jumping on an elliptical for 1 -2 hours straight for 3 days a week and I lost 20 in 1 month, so now I'm doing this and while I've lost about 7lbs in 5 days...I worry that this is going to stop and I can honestly say when I stop seeing results...I give up on the diet because I always figure why keep it up if I'm only going to lose a pound a week. So here I am doing the paleo diet along with going to a personal trainer 2 days a week and I plan to stick to it for a month to try it out but right now I'm not feeling too optimistic about this. So if any one has any great results they'd care to share than that would really help my motivation. Thanks

I agree with Jean.  Focus on how you feel.  And eating under 1000 calories per day and burning off at least half of that on a machine doesn't sound like a very healthy way to lose.  If you want to lose weight and keep it off, slow and steady is better than quickly in an unsustainable way.  I lost 12 pounds in the first couple of months without trying.  Now the fat is slowly melting away, maybe one to two pounds per month.  That's good enough for me.  Hopefully you will be happy with Paleo, and if not, hopefully you will find the right thing for you.  Good luck!

I lost 30 lbs by following a Paleo lifestyle but put 10 back on when my "cheats" started to multiply.  I've been back on the wagon for about 3 weeks and have dropped 5 of those excess pounds already.  But as other people will tell you, this isn't a diet, it's a way of life.  You have to commit to the long haul and you will feel great if you do. 

Ok before I provide you with my results on Paleo, I need to give you some tough love.   First Paleo is not a diet, so if you are in it for the short term you might as we'll quit now, because you are not going to reap any benefit from it.  In the short term you may lose some weight, but if you are a diet hopper, you are doing yourself more harm then good and your weight will yo-yo or even increase.   Losing 7 lbs in 5 days is fantastic, but not sustainable over the long term, unless  you are morbidly obese.  1 or 2 lbs of weight loss per week or  52 to 100 lbs a year  is fantastic for a midrange diet, but yet weight loss of this magnitude would make you quit a diet.

Your exercise program is also one of extremes.  Jumping on an elliptical bike for 1-2 hour straight ?    What is that doing for you other than damaging your body ? 

So here is my suggestion to you and please do not take this the wrong way.   Rather than make Paleo your next diet, maybe you should first seek a mental health specialist to identify why you jump from one diet to another, why you participate in extreme diets and exercise routines that destroy your body, and why you are easily discouraged.   

In 2 hours on a bike I think I could comfortably burn 1,000 calories. I can't imagine how you even had the energy to climb onto the bike on day 2 when you're burning more in 2 hours than you're eating over the course of an entire day.
What happened when you stopped this diet? Did you put those 20lbs straight back on?

Personally, I have lost 5kg since early Jan, which is about 11lbs. Not a huge number, but I'm about 10% bodyfat now, and leaner than I have ever been. So for someone my size, I think that's about as good a result as is possible.

My girlfriend on the other hand has lost about 12kg in 2 months (26 lbs), which is more than fantastic for her.

I'll put it this way, eating 1,000 calories/day you must have been hungry. REALLY hungry I'm guessing. You might say you weren't, but I expect you'd be lying. Eating paleo on the other hand, I can down 1400 calories worth of pork belly in ONE MEAL, and no that's not my only meal, I also have several strips of bacon for breakfast and a huge amount of beef for lunch. I can do this and still lose weight, and lose it faster than I have on any other 'diet'. For me, to eat healthily, not be hungry, and be trimmer than I ever have before, I'd say that's about as successful as I could possibly hope for.

Haha, I've only been here a week and I already love the mods!  Too funny.

You actually burn more calories weight training than you do on something like an elliptical trainer.  Also, the metabolism boost you get from lifting weights lasts for days, while the metabolism boost you get from running will be over by the time your next meal comes around.  More muscle means more metabolically charged tissue that needs energy, which means you burn more calories at rest which means you will be burning off that tummy sitting there!  Don't limit your caloric intake either, eat well, eat slow and your body will tell you when to stop eating.