Carnivore diet...

Has anyone tried it? Is it worth the time/effort/cash?

 

Cheaper, quicker prep, fewer dishes to clean, less time shopping, less frequent meals. More time doing things.

 

Could you make it work? Mark Bell loves this diet and puts out a lot of content on it. Don't get me wrong I love steak and chicken etc. etc. I just also like potatoes and rice. Wouldn't be that hard to give it a go for a couple weeks and see how it works for you. I am currently on the Vertical diet and I sometimes find it hard to eat ground beef, steak and chicken all the time.

On a side note since both diets include it. Drinking beef bone broth is surprisingly tasty in my opinion. Kettle and Fire has discounts for subscriptions. Never thought I would ever have a subscription for beef broth lol

 

Meat Good!
https://giphy.com/gifs/joey-friends-cake-eat-ToMjGpQirN8FU0BZibC/links

 

What about this is making you ask?

 

I am relatively ignorant to the diet aside from Joe Rogan's experience with it but I was curious about something. Eating that way likely avoids the health issues associated with our consumption of refined sugars but I'm curious about the result of prolonged consumption of fats? is it just trading diabetes for heart disease?

 

Curiosity... and because my current diet sucks. And I like meat. I’m not a fitness hound by any stretch here. But now I’m finally able to start hitting the gym again after a completely jacked up 11 month period so I’m wanting to supplement that activity with a more proper diet. Simple as.

 

I tried the Carnivore Diet for a couple of months to sort of crash diet after not tracking any food for a while and gaining a lot of weight. I knew my body responds well to carb cycling so I figured 0 carb would work wonders and I was right. I lost over 20lbs over the first 3 weeks and another 10lbs over the next 3-4 weeks. I never got the shits like Joe Rogan describes in his podcast but I did feel like I lost a little energy in the gym over the first couple of weeks. The only reason I stopped was because meat was just too expensive after I ran through all the deer meat I had from last year, probably didn't help that I thought I needed nothing but ribeye's and salmon .

 

Meat is the healthiest thing one can eat.

Before going carnivore, maybe try a simple first step, cut out ALL grains and ALL sugars for 90 days. No fruit, no added garbage and sugars. Full fat, lots of butter, meat, eggs, etc.

you will feel like a kid again if you do not cheat.

Look up Vinnie Tortorich, great info on his website and great interviews with professionals and Dr Sean Baker, who runs meatrx.com now.

ive been low carb for 3 years, 95% animal based for a year. It is incredible. I was unhealthy my whole life, always fat. I can run faster than I could 20 years ago. I go through periods of just meat, but every so many months a kid has a bday party or family event where i have to have some pizza. Life happens, but you get back on track next day.


I actually don’t find animal based eating as extra expensive. People don’t realize how much fruit and veggies cost, and you never finish all of them. Forget processed food, that is FAR more expensive per calorie than meat. If anything you’ll be saving money

Edit- i saw rogan mention the shits, i have never experienced that either. It is possible though that your gut needs to adapt, so maybe include some veggies at first for a trial time. Studies have shown that fiber is a myth. It just causes more crap, your body does not need it at all to function. Eating grains plugs you up, so the fiber is needed with them to keep it going. But you dont need drano if you don’t clog the sink

 

I honestly could give two craps about Joe Rogan’s craps. What I’m looking for is what you’re peddling. More energy from a more efficient, less wasteful diet. I’m on board. I just need to go draw up a plan, thanks for the info.

 

I tried it last year for 45 days. I felt like shit for the first 2 weeks and had violent diarrhea, when I say violent i mean if there aint a shitter close by I was borderline people of walmart shitting in a aisle. After that I felt ok. Lost some weight which is really due to the fact I only consumed about a pound of meat a day and nothing else besides coffee. I had to be very picky on the meat I ate once I really got going with it. After 30 days I was feeling really good, was down about 12 lbs and had good amounts of energy. I ended up stopping after 45 days just because my blood work came back a little elevated on bad cholesterol and I was sweating like crazy all the time from my body constantly trying to digest massive amount of red meat. After 25 days I was consuming right around 2. To 3 lbs of meat a day or I was extremely hungry and angry.

 

Do you mind me asking if were you were already low carb before starting the diet? Or did you go from a typical American diet of at least a few hundred grams of carbs a day to zero carbs?

 

All my carbs came from green vegetables, some rice, and maybe some doritos here or there. I was doing intermittent vasting before and after. Maybe consuming somewhere around 150 grams a day. I think maybe the majority of my problems was i have mild IBS and red meat is hard on my guts sometimes. Most of my red meat now is Elk or Moose and when I went carnivore I was getting cheap walmart beef due to the quantity i was eating.

 

I'll stick with what the Canada Food Guide recommends until they see fit to update it.

 

My 2 cents. If it's not a way of eating you're committed to long term don't bother.

If you enjoy sweets, or booze, or etc. Why would you want to choose a diet that cuts those things out?

It is very possible to have a healthy relationship with all types of food and have them give you a energy bump.

Start cooking from scratch, locally source what you can, and choose reusable containers if you want to cut down on waste. Actually weigh out raw food, it's eye opening how large restaurant portions have become.

I'm 6 years in and have kept 75lbs off nothing other than portion sizing and regular exercise. Energy will increase as you eat better even with 'bad' food and you'll gradually learn what foods keep you fueled better then others.

This is not a one thing works for everyone. Protein works best for me with moderate carbs and lower fat. My wife does better with higher fat and carbs.

 

Please watch this if you wish to know more about cholesterol.

https://youtu.be/fuj6nxCDBZ0

Cholesterol, even LDL, is not bad. That is a myth started by Ancel Keys and further promulgated by the pharmaceutical sales industry.

I try to eat at least 5 egg yolks a day. Give me extra cholesterol, it’s good for you.

 

This is a timely post for me.

I am in my mid 50's and I was 50 lbs overweight. For many years I tried the tried and true method (sarcasm) of reducing fat and overall calories like I always did when I was younger. I was starving myself on a low fat, 1400 calories a day and not losing a pound. Two years ago I started studying the whole low carb movement, so I thought I would give it a try. I stopped worrying about fat and focused on the carbs, I got the carbs down to like 25 grams or less a day. Between Aug and Nov I lost 25 lbs, it was the easiest weight I have ever lost in my life and I felt amazing. Then I plateaued and I have stayed there for the last 2 years. What I have learned for me personally is I do really well on a super low carb diet, from a weight control point and more importantly how I feel. I had an ulcer in 2011 and my gut has never been the same. When I stick to a super low carb diet and eat healthy meats and fish along with small amounts of greens I feel better than I did in my 20's. When I let carbs creep back into my life I start feeling cruddy again. I never use the word Keto, even though I follow some of it, because of all the connotations that it puts in peoples head, but mainly because I never focused on the correct fat to protein ratios typical on Keto diets.

For me Fat is not the enemy I once thought it was, but carbs are.

I have been studying a lot in the last 6 months on the Carnivore diet and have been contemplating giving it a go in October to see if I can drop the last 25 lbs and more importantly improve how I feel. So many aspects of the diet I think will work well for me but I am somewhat reluctant even though I have read so much about the diet because in the back of my mind I still think "It can't possibly be healthy". But how do you define health? For me, maintaining a healthy weight and feeling great are what's important.

I will post here if I decide to give it a try and let you know how I do on it.

 

I did a KETOish diet a few years ago, 90% meat and I lost 100lbs @ 55yrs of age over about 8 months, Body fat went from 47% to 30% felt better than I did in my 30's. I've gone backwards a bit the last year but am now firmly back in the saddle.

I don't like many vegatbles, love fruit and carbs. Both of those are my kryptonite.

 

Anyone looking to lose fat.


Just remember, what do we feed cattle to fatten them up? Grains! Mankind lived for thousands of years before eating grains. Grains cause intestinal barrier breakdown and are one of the root causes of most modern disease, joint pains, mood swings, etc

throw some pork ribs on the smoker and enjoy

 

This is also why I try to buy as much grass fed beef as I can. ;-)

 

OMG...don't you people care about the Climate.

 

Look up the Carbon studies done at white oak pastures.
Good quality beef agriculture Is FAR healthier for the planet than plant ag. Modern plant AG is killing the planted. Yes i know you’re joking, but its fun to have ammo to smack the soy boys arguments down

 

If money is a concern, it's possible to do carnivore, literally on McD's patties and hotdogs (if you can find the ones without too many fillers).

Some other names to Google because most people benefit from doing their own research and reading:
Kelly Hogan
Charles Washington
Paul Mason
Dave Feldman
Ken Berry
Nina Teicholz

The only thing that I might add to the things @Hbjeff had to suggest might be to ease into it. Maybe just begin by cutting sugar, then move onto the other carbs...slowly so as not to have or feel like (the) shit(s). As mentioned, everyone is different and hard core carnivore may not work for you and that's perfectly fine. If you can get it down to simple, single ingredient foods, that awesome (a BLT without the toast would be an example). It's the processed stuff that's doing all the harm. I've been at this for a couple of years and am still trying and tweaking things to find my groove; there are no guarantees that once I find it, my body won't be needing me to make further changes. Once your body is in a better place metabolically, adjustments need to be made again. You need to learn to listen to you body.

 

I’m not trying to promote anything here. All these diets are similar in that they are low or no carb.

The only thing I am going to say is if you posted and included the word “Gut” you should at the very least google Vertical Diet.
Ultimately what is sustainable for someone may not be for someone else.

Also slowly easing into whatever you choose(except Keto) is the best method for changing eating habits and creating lasting change.

Good luck to everyone on this journey. It’s usually not an easy one.

 

Everyone has their tolerances and limitations regarding carbs though. I wonder how that brand of bread gets away with claiming to have zero sugars when they include honey and molasses, which are sugars...

 

Fda nutrition labels allow for extremely loose definitions. Carbs = sugar. Doesn’t matter what form the sugar is in, your body doesn’t care if it white sugar or organic, harvested by a virgin agave nectar. All carbs are sugar. The body breaks it all down to glucose, frutose, ect. Now those forms can react at different rates in the body, but in the end, they will all get to the same result, elevated insulin in the blood

 

Ya, I've read that they're allowed to round down, I suppose that there isn't that much of those two ingredients added.

 

It’s not just the rounding, but the fda doesn’t classify all “sugars” as sugars. Somewhere there is a chart of 42 different names for sugars

 

Yep, I was looking at one list just today to see if one of the ingredients in my toothpaste was on it.