Beate:

Grains and grain products (seed oils) are cheap, but they're not the diet we evolved to eat.  I wish you the best of success: let us know how it works for you.

jamal:

Yes, you can increase muscle mass on paleo…but as paleo foods are very satiating, you might have to force yourself to eat more food than you normally do!  

If you're really trying hard to build muscle mass, you can break the "don't drink calories" rules and drink things like protein shakes and smoothies (scoop of protein powder + 100ml coconut cream + some fruit + enough water to make it liquid = delicious mass gainer shake).

Re: coconut oil, all the kinds you linked will work.  In fact, I haven't yet seen a pure coconut oil for sale that isn't food-grade, and therefore edible!  Note that unless you're buying a gallon at a time, it's generally cheaper to buy it at the supermarket…in the USA, even Wal-Mart carries it now.

Also note the difference between refined coconut oil (has no taste, suitable for use in any recipe that calls for regular cooking oil) and unrefined/"virgin"/"extra virgin" coconut oil (which tastes like coconuts).  I generally cook with refined oil: if I want the coconut taste, I'll just buy cans of coconut cream and make my curry with those.

Finally, I'd buy it in tubs instead of bottles if I could, because coconut oil solidifies at 74F, and you'll have to microwave the bottle or melt it under warm water every time you want to use some.  If you get it in a tub, you can just scoop it out with a spoon.

JS

mike:

Thank you!  Sales of TGC, T-shirts, and Amazon referrals are my sole source of income from gnolls.org, so your support is appreciated.

Evidence for human control of fire -- hearths, burned bones, etc. -- goes back a few hundred thousand years, so we've been eating cooked meat for quite a while.  (There is evidence of fire use back to perhaps 1 MYa, but it's sporadic, and it's not consistent with the hypothesis that we were always cooking our food that far back.  It's likely that we figured out how to tame and use existing fire, i.e. brush fires from lightning strikes, long before we figured out how to produce it at will.)

Nutritionally, there's no problem eating meat raw, and it means less of the fat-soluble vitamins get burned or melted away.  Cooking kills surface pathogens, and it can make tough parts more tender.  And while I don't like to turn my meat into briquettes, it's pretty clear that Paleolithic cooking didn't involve poaching, steaming, or other "gentle cooking" (which requires pottery): it involved burning stuff on sticks over a fire, or perhaps digging a pit and roasting it with coals or hot rocks.  

Given that I don't trust the provenance of most modern meats, my usual strategy is to sear the outside and leave the inside bleu -- but I don't stress too much about it.

john:

Doing cardio will impair your ability to build muscle, as will trying to lose fat.  In general, you want to choose one or the other as your goal: build muscle (in which case you lift heavy weights and eat more), or lose fat (in which case you work on your aerobic capacity and eat less).

If you want to gain muscle mass, get Dan John's Mass Made Simple and do the program.  It's not "paleo", but you can adapt his dietary prescriptions to your own needs.  (For instance, instead of peanut butter sandwiches, you could use gainer shakes of protein powder, coconut milk, and fruit.)  Then you can switch to "lose fat" mode.  Trying to do both at once is generally counterproductive.

JS

jamal:

What I said above to ahmad still holds: eat a breakfast high in protein and fat, and eat your carbohydrates during the evening meal. 

I would imagine that a morning meal based on meat, eggs, and vegetables, prepared with butter or coconut oil, would be best.  (Remember that corn, peas, and beans aren't vegetables.)  I would stay away from sugars and starches, including fruit.  You might not be very hungry just after waking, and after eating so late...choke it down anyway.  (Since you're trying to preserve muscle mass, you'll need the protein.)  And since you're not allowed to drink water during the fast AFAIK, you'll want to drink plenty of water with the morning meal.

In the evening, you've got a lot more freedom.  Again, to preserve muscle mass, make sure to eat plenty of complete protein (meat, eggs, etc.)...but starches and fruit are fine at the evening meal, including the traditional dates to break your fast.  

In general, I believe you'll do best to follow the dietary rules from Eat Like A Predator while doing all this...but that's your decision.  

Should you do cardio?  Only if you feel up to it.  Don't go running in the morning, get hungry, and then be starving and miserable all day...and dehydration is a real danger here, since you're not allowed to drink water AFAIK.  But if it's late afternoon or evening, you're feeling good, and you're not feeling dehydrated, then sure, do some fasted exercise!

JS