Carnivore Diet

[BadDogPSD]

I wonder when folks go to carnivore if it's the carnivore diet itself or the elimination of the processed food they experience.

It would be interesting to see if folks that ate only whole foods (carbs, protein, and fat intake, single source, minimum processsed foods) that went to carnivore what those experiences would be.

I'll let you know! I've been keto since Jan 1st, no processed foods, just meat, healthy fats, veggies & berries probably 80% organic. Starting carnivore on June 1st. Keto has been good, a huge improvement over the SAD I had been eating, but want to take it to the next level. My biggest concern is making sure I eat enough fat.

 

[Stache Attack]

I do find even after a day or two of only meat that I sleep much better and less bloat and inflammation! My wife might kill me because she’s a sourdough starter person, but if it helps me why not!

 

[Sherman]

I'll let you know! I've been keto since Jan 1st, no processed foods, just meat, healthy fats, veggies & berries probably 80% organic. Starting carnivore on June 1st. Keto has been good, a huge improvement over the SAD I had been eating, but want to take it to the next level. My biggest concern is making sure I eat enough fat.

About 3 weeks in I tried to hit the gym. I was only able to complete my first superset before hitting a wall. Did a little research and found that a 2:1 fat/protein ratio takes care of this. Immediately energy levels were sustained throughout a gym session. Also found a carnivore friendly preworkout from Optimum Nutrition. That was the icing on the cake and now feel more energy at the end of my workout than any other time. Was able to hit the treadmill yesterday and ran a mile at 6.5mph. Haven’t done that in 20 years. Weighed in at 244lbs this morning. Officially 30lbs down.

 

[BadDogPSD]

About 3 weeks in I tried to hit the gym. I was only able to complete my first superset before hitting a wall. Did a little research and found that a 2:1 fat/protein ratio takes care of this. Immediately energy levels were sustained throughout a gym session. Also found a carnivore friendly preworkout from Optimum Nutrition. That was the icing on the cake and now feel more energy at the end of my workout than any other time. Was able to hit the treadmill yesterday and ran a mile at 6.5mph. Haven’t done that in 20 years. Weighed in at 244lbs this morning. Officially 30lbs down.

Nice! How are you getting your fat calories? I know a lot of people rely on butter... not sure I want that much dairy.

 

[Sherman]

Nice! How are you getting your fat calories? I know a lot of people rely on butter... not sure I want that much dairy.

Butter has a lot to do with it. Buttered coffee with heavy cream, buttered ground beef, put butter on all my steaks. Besides that, I pour some of the grease out of the pan onto whatever food I just cooked. Pepperonis with cream cheese. Cheese on almost everything in general. Homemade Alfredo sauce is LOADED in fat content. Fatty cuts of meat. 60/40 ground beef. Frying my eggs in butter or tallow, then pouring whatever is left in the pan on top. And you have to remember that a gram of fat has more calories than a gram of protein, so it really isn’t difficult to get the correct ratio with a little knowledge. This was a great read:

A Visual Guide to Getting Enough Fat on the Carnivore Diet

It is important to get enough fat on the carnivore diet because fat is your main source of energy. However, due to decades of fat fear-mongering, meat on sale at grocery stores often has its fat trimmed off and ends up being too lean. As a result, in order to get enough fat on the

www.allthingscarnivore.com

 

[Duckhunter14]

Butter has a lot to do with it. Buttered coffee with heavy cream, buttered ground beef, put butter on all my steaks. Besides that, I pour some of the grease out of the pan onto whatever food I just cooked. Pepperonis with cream cheese. Cheese on almost everything in general. Homemade Alfredo sauce is LOADED in fat content. Fatty cuts of meat. 60/40 ground beef. Frying my eggs in butter or tallow, then pouring whatever is left in the pan on top. And you have to remember that a gram of fat has more calories than a gram of protein, so it really isn’t difficult to get the correct ratio with a little knowledge. This was a great read:

A Visual Guide to Getting Enough Fat on the Carnivore Diet

It is important to get enough fat on the carnivore diet because fat is your main source of energy. However, due to decades of fat fear-mongering, meat on sale at grocery stores often has its fat trimmed off and ends up being too lean. As a result, in order to get enough fat on the

www.allthingscarnivore.com

I am 50 days into the carnivore and feel amazing as well. My diet sounds really close to yours Sherman, I also incorporate as much seafood as possible to keep from becoming monotonous. I am also taking a vitamin supplement from Ancient Nutrition (Liver) because I’m not a huge fan of liver, but it’s full of vitamins and nutrients. I also cook mostly in rendered bear fat and butter to help with fat intake. My joints feel better, better energy, my stomach/bowel issues have resolved and I’m down 20lbs so far. I was super skeptical at first, but am a believer now. I’m going in for blood work again soon and interested to see if my elevated cholesterol has dropped since increasing what the doctor told me to stay away from. I also gave up alcohol almost two years ago and so that made carnivore much easier, that’s a tough one for a lot of people.

Do you mess with intermittent fasting at all? Found any backcountry meals for hunting season to supplement carnivore snacks for fall? Trying to plan a 10 day hunt in AK fly in for Caribou in August without destroying my guts.

 

[nantzh]

Excellent work. Keep it up. Carnivore is a great option over SAD.
I am about 5 months in to carnivore and have never felt better. Dropped from 250lbs down to 200. First month workouts sucked, but since becoming fat adapted I feel like i have endless energy while working out.

I plan to stick with it through two 5-7 day backcountry hunts this fall. Don't have my food plan figured out exactly, and may end up doing a lil more of a keto type diet while hunting. Open to ideas if you have experience.

 

[Sherman]

So, the past week or so I have found myself less and less hungry. I have high energy despite my reduced food intake. I have been starting my day with 20oz of coffee with 3tbs of butter and some heavy cream. I eat about 3/4lbs of meat for lunch and have been having to force myself to eat dinner. I have done some research for back country archery elk hunts and found the website I will post below. They have bulk freeze dried meats, eggs, and butter flakes. I bought some mylar food bags with oxygen absorbers. I plan on making my own meal packs. Also, for any military, vets, first responders, or licensed guides, there is an app called “guidefitter” you can get access to for steeply discounted prices on all things hunting. They have anything you can imagine from optics, to nutrition, to firearms, ammo, archery, blinds, packs, tree stands, clothing, packs, footwear, hydration, e-bikes, decoys….you name it, they have it.

Nutristore Freeze Dried Meats

Nutristore Freeze-Dried Meats are 100% freeze-dried with a 25 year shelf life, ideal for adding to your favorite recipes, adding to DIY camping meals, or storing long-term for emergency preparedness. Our wide selection of meats all can be rehydrated into their natural state by just adding water!

nutristorefoods.com

Here is the link to the Guidefitter website. They also have an app.

Guidefitter | Community & Commerce powered by Outdoor Pros

The home of pro guides, outfitters, and thousands of other outdoor enthusiasts. Search for guided hunting trips, guided fishing trips, share photos, and shop.

www.guidefitter.com

 

[Sherman]

Got these off of Amazon.

 

[Sherman]

Off the nutristore website vs the Guidefitter app, save about $25 on Guidefitter….

 

[SloppyJ]

Here's my take on it as a bodybuilder in a previous life:

I was always a big dude. Played football growing up and loved to weight train. It was something I was good at and picked it up young. My body type helped me too. I'm the type of guy who gains weight if I don't work out. A endomorph body type.

After football I really struggled to lose weight and keep it off until I became obsessed and extremely dedicated diet wise. That's when I was dedicating myself and free time to body building. I ranged from 270 in the off season to 215 when I needed to be.

The thing that I found worked the best was Keto which in my opinion is extremely close to the carnivore diet. I was very carb sensitive. However, keto is not sustainable for me with a family and a busy schedule. You can do it, but it makes life that much harder and eventually something must give. I bumped around for years on and off of keto and the weight came back as quick as it left. I also didn't get great workouts in or have reserves of energy to push myself when I was strict on keto. Couple that with the hell that the few first weeks is and I had to find a better way.

My training and prep kicked up a notch and I really started dialing in my diet with the help of a coach. What I found worked for me was nutrient timing. I would eat 70% of my carb intake for the day starting 2hrs before my workout and 1hr after. There is a lot of science around this and the insulin response that this creates to shuttle nutrients to your muscles along with filling your glycogen reserves for endurance.

I did this very consistently for a couple years and it's almost like my body reprogrammed itself. I now hover around 215 and maintain the vast majority of my muscle mass. I feel much healthier and i havent dieted hard in 4yrs or really watched what i eat too much. Another thing that helped me a ton was getting on TRT. There are nutrient partitioning effects from that but it's another topic.

The one thing that is a constant through all of this is consistency. Consistency in diet and some form of exercise. My advice is to take what you read with a grain of salt. Throughout my life I've read this and that and tried to implement it on myself. It finally took educating myself a bit on the biology of the deal before I could find what works for me. I know of no two people who bodybuild and share the same successful diet. We truly are individual in that aspect. However, there are plenty of common denominators between all successful diets.

Good luck! Happy to help. If you need anything feel free to message me.

 

[Haro450]

I have been doing Keto/Carnivore since Easter. Down 38 lbs. I 315 when I started. I fit in hiking when my schedule allows. With a new born and a 8 year old getting workouts in is a challenge. Will do Carnivore right up to archery season in September. I am seeing more consistent results with Carnivore over Keto. My ultimate Goal is to lose 100lbs. My problem has never been losing the weight its keeping it off. 40 years of a high Carb diet is a hard pattern to break in the long term.

Anyone have any tips on keeping the weight off that worked for them?

 

[bdan68]

After you lose the weight, do not change your diet. Continue doing everything you've been doing. Just possibly eat slightly more of the same foods once you're in maintenance mode. For me, I do best if I track everything I eat. I use an app on my phone called My Fitness Pal. I know a lot of people don't like to track, but for me a lot of the time if I don't I can easily way overeat. The other thing I do is to weigh myself every day.

 

[Sherman]

Update: halfway through my 100 day goal. Ran a mile on the treadmill @ 7.5 MPH. Feel great.

Day 1 photos:


Todays pics:

 

[Haro450]

40 lbs lost since Easter. Starting to fit back into some old clothes. The main thing about my weight loss is how a feel and the motivation I have. I have more energy and don't feel lethargic. When I eat like crap I just want to lounge around in front of the TV after work. Health eating and physical activity is a life changer. There was a time when I enjoyed trail running i would like to get back to that.

Keep up the work Sherm! You will enjoy the benefits during hunting season.

 

[ManUpNorth]

I definitely noticed how much carnivore helped my acid reflux, bringing it to almost never occurring. Starting 75 hard and going to do intermittent fasting (eat from 11a-7p) with a focus on clean high protein foods. One website I've found to be super helpful when deciding on supplements/vitamins is examine.com or the Huberman Lab podcast. You're able to search for specific supps/vits and look at peer-reviewed studies on effectiveness, etc.

Congrats on dropping the 19lbs, keep killing it!!

 

[Sherman]

Got my blood work back.

General Chemistry
Glucose: 65
BUN:19
Creatinine: 1.3
Sodium: 136
Chloride: 100
CO2: 23
Calcium: 9.2
Total Protein: 7.1
Albumin: 4.3
Globulin: 2.8
Bilirubin: 1.2
Alkaline Phosphatase: 89
ALT: 32
AST: 29
Albumin/Globulin Ration: 1.5

Diabetes Evaluation
Hemoglobin A1C: 4.9

Iron/Anemia Eval
B12: 650

Coronary Risk
Triglycerides: 148
Total Cholesterol: 188
HDL: 48
LDL: 88
Chol/HDL Ratio: 3.9
Vitamin D: 60

Thyroid Testing:
Free T3: 2.3
Free T4: 1.5
TSH: 1.328
Thyroid Peroxidase: <28

Tumor Markers:
Total PSA: 0.980

Endocrine Eval
Edtrodial: 12.4
Total Test: 980
Sex Hormone: 28
Free Test: 22

Every single test was in normal range. Doctor said he can’t believe the numbers compared to my blood work last year given my diet of meat, eggs, butter, and tallow for only 70 days. He said it goes against what he was taught in med school. I was pre-diabetic, high cholesterol, high BP on BP meds, on blood thinners, poor liver and kidney function, 24% body fat, sleep apnea, and high visceral fat levels. I’m am now in normal range of all tests, off all meds, no more sleep apnea, normal visceral fat levels, liver and kidney function normal, and 14.7% body fat and continuing to drop. Tipped the scale at 236lbs, down 38lbs. I feel great. No more joint pain. High energy all day. I can’t imagine going back to eating and feeling the way I did before.

 

[Mule3006Elk]

Why not just maintain a natural diet while you consume the correct amount of calories for the rest of your existence? Meanwhile work at a good fitness program of flexibility, strength, aerobic capacity and get your caloric deficit thru exercise.

Exactly! Obesity epidemic solved in 2 sentences.

 

[*zap*]

Got my blood work back.

Every single test was in normal range. Doctor said he can’t believe the numbers compared to my blood work last year given my diet of meat, eggs, butter, and tallow for only 70 days. He said it goes against what he was taught in med school. I was pre-diabetic, high cholesterol, high BP on BP meds, on blood thinners, poor liver and kidney function, 24% body fat, sleep apnea, and high visceral fat levels. I’m am now in normal range of all tests, off all meds, no more sleep apnea, normal visceral fat levels, liver and kidney function normal, and 14.7% body fat and continuing to drop. Tipped the scale at 236lbs, down 38lbs. I feel great. No more joint pain. High energy all day. I can’t imagine going back to eating and feeling the way I did before.

That is awesome....I am having problems with the lower body since I jacked it up last fall overworking. It seems to be inflammation, mostly. An anti inflammatory drug helped but it raised my bp too much in 3 months....so I am going to give this diet a shot. I appreciate your posting all the info you have in this thread and apologize for my skepticism. Carry on with the good work.

 

[Haro450]

My brother inlaw has had mirror results to Sherman. All confirmed by blood test with his doctor. He is down 60 lbs as of the first of the year.

I have lost 45lbs now but have not had any blood tests.