Mesa_John

Anyone read the books from Dr. Paul Saradino..... or Dr. Carnivore as they have called him? I listened to a podcast this morning, where he is rethinking Carnivore and has quit the diet after years being on it. His reasons.... Insomnia, low testosterone levels and muscle cramping. I think his diet is still very heavy and strong on meats and organs, but he has now incorporated some carbs very strategically..... I don't think his diet is even considered KETO, as Carb intake could be as high as 150-200 grams of Carbs a day. Wonder what everyone's thoughts are on this?????

Do you have any idea how much a person can save by quitting drinking? The wife was good for 5-7 bottles of $20 wine a week and I would polish off a $45 fifth, twice a week. Yeah, we were blowing as much as $800 a month on alcohol.... makes me upset just thinking about that. This isn't uncommon.... I have a nephew who claims he is spending $1,200-$1,500 a month at the bar that he visits at least 5 times a week. Alcoholism is evil...... and expensive. So I decided to splurge for the wife and cook her two of her most favorite food items on the planet.... Crab and Lobster. This is $80 of Seafood, which is a 1/10th of what use to be our monthly alcohol bill. Feels expensive, but the two Ribeyes I bought for the wife and I this week were $40. Unfortunately, the brisket won't be ready until about 9pm... So will make a feast of it tomorrow.

Pre-meal pics! hahahaha (More to come this evening.) On the smoker in pre-dawn hours this morning. Counting on it being phenomenal by 5pm this evening. I will smoke until Noon and then move to my massive roasting pan and into the oven on 350 until 4-5pm today. It's a short cook, but all the time I have today. Small Brisket, about 8lbs, Rubbed in Mustard, Salt and Pepper.

I hear you guys, but why can I Google search "Carnivore Weight Gain" and I come across dozens and dozens of pages of posts of people gaining or loosing no weight? And I also hear you loud and clear on going to lean. Don't want that Rabbit disease. I was reminded this morning how much I love FAT, as I ate one piece of bacon with my eggs. I did eat a huge patty of my homemade breakfast sausage, which if very lean for sausage (it makes very little grease in the pan). I hit Sam's Club yesterday and purchased a lot of Sirloin and Top Round, both pretty dang lean, especially compared to a Ribeye. (Partly because Top Round was $6.20 a lb and Ribeyes were $13 a lb.) But I also purchased boneless, skinless chicken thighs and four racks of Pork Ribs.... and Oh, a small Brisket that is on the Smoker as of Pre-dawn this morning. Before leaner cuts, it is likely me moving to two meals a day and not eating after 5pm on workdays, 4pm on the weekends is going to propel my weight loss even further.

When I see a whole article based on the situation of one person, I immediately discount it. Good chance the Pharma companies are behind this crap. Classic effort to motivate with fear. But... why don't we do a survey of CT folks... Who has had kidney stones while on Carnivore?

Sorry, I started eating before I remembered to take the pic. One of my favorites... Grilled Ribeye and Shrimp.

I hear on here of so many of you having no trouble eating a 16oz steak. Right now, I don't feel I could force myself to eat 1/3 of that steak. I am concerned because as the days are going by, I am finding it very hard to eat much food. Last night I cooked a 9oz hamburger patty and the last 2oz were very difficult for me to get down. This morning, I cooked a 1/4 lb of breakfast sausage and added three eggs. I am half way finished with the plate and I am stuffed and every bit is becoming more and more repulsive. What gives? Am I supposed to survive on 700-800 calories of Carnivore a day? This is Day #10, should I assume my body is still adjusting and this decreased appetite is simply part of the transition? .........

Let me also say.... 'Weight Loss Carnivore" .... absolutely IS NOT for long term. As Dr. Shawn states, without carbs, fat intake is critical for long term and sustainability.

I don't advocate eating less..... 100% I will advocate "move more". Really, the experiment I am conducting is eating more lean and less fat on Carnivore. It is a very simple hypothesis..... eat less fat in the hopes that my stored fat will burn off faster. It is really a simple change..... Eat Sirloin instead of Ribeye. Take the skin off the Chicken. Stop cooking in butter and bacon grease. My hypothesis may be wrong.... and if that happens, no one will be happier than me to return fatty cuts, butter and bacon grease. Back to the movement thing...... On Keto in the past, I have proven this with my own body. During my last Keto stint that lasted about 4 months, I spent the first 12 weeks, only doing diet and I had stabilized at an average of 2 lbs of loss a week. I just wasn't happy with that. The next week I changed nothing but walking. I began to walk 60 minutes a day and my weight loss instantly jumped to 4 lbs a week, sometimes 5 lbs. I think Carnivores make a mistake ignoring the notion of calorie burn, or even the effect of calories in and calories out. I completely with your statements above, but I am not throwing the baby out with the bath water. And everyone could argue that additional activity is simply working for me. Hogwash... anyone that walks 60 minutes a day on top of their normal day is going to loose faster. PS.... I am NOT advocating calorie counting...

Of course I am less than two weeks into this endeavor, so no I haven't. There will certainly come a time when someone will notice that I have lost 20 lbs and ask a question. It is then that I will share my story. They can choose what they do with that.

The wife reminded me a few minutes ago.... "Remember when you were 24 years old and over weight and you started that diet that wouldn't allow you to eat after 4pm and you lost all that weight?" She was right.... I ate all the crap food I wanted, but not a single calorie after 4pm and I lost about 35 lbs in short order. My buddy who introduced the notion to me went from a porky 227lbs to 175lbs. You see above that one recommendation is .... Don't eat after 16:00 and no snacks. I can certainly see how this will help with weight loss. My problem is what most will have... I am working at 4pm, wrapping up my day and I can't eat at that time and I don't have the break time to eat earlier at 2 or 3pm. For me, I get home about 5pm and will have to eat then and eat nothing else until the next morning. I will be eating Breakfast at 6am and then dinner at 5pm...... 2MAD.

My objective is to land on a proven formula for weight loss while on the Carnivore Diet. The problem.... There are many, many people who eat a Carnivore diet that do not loose weight and there are some that actually gain weight, while strictly adhering to the Carnivore Plan. My objective, once again, is weight loss. I don't care about food intolerance's at this time. I do not have an auto-immune issue. I'm just a big, fat dude that loves red meat and find the Carnivore Diet more appealing than Keto at this moment and I want to find a winning plan to loose 50 lbs. After all, any diet that involves loosing weight is going to be sacrifice and some pain.... and I refuse to go a week with high levels of effort and sacrifice to only step on the scale and see a loss of 0.3 lbs. Unacceptable! Below are the summations of two articles below, I will embrace and execute their suggestions. (Obviously, if you want to understand their rationelle, you can open the provided links and read in detail yourself.) Adopt the following strategies for weight loss while on Carnivore: What to eat: Eat leaner cuts of meat, preferably ruminant meat like beef, lamb, bison, goat, their organ meats, eggs, and seafood. Avoid added fat, butter, honey, dairy products, and carnivore treats How much to eat: Start with current food quantity and cut down only to the extent that you are comfortable with How often to eat: Eat 1 to 2 meals a day to satiety and don’t snack in between. Practice fasting regularly When to eat: Eat early, preferably before 16:00. (https://www.allthingscarnivore.com/how-to-lose-weight-fast-with-the-carnivore-diet/) Here are some simple, easy-to-follow fat-loss strategies that may help you lose weight while on a carnivore diet. Move more, eat less. The general rule of thumb here is to burn more than you consume while eating only animal foods. Incorporate intermittent fasting. This can be a cycle of 2:5 (2 days of restrictive eating and 5 days of normal eating) or restricting your daily eating window during a carnivore diet for weight loss. Drink more water. Staying hydrated is essential. Sometimes you may think you’re hungry, when in fact, you’re simply dehydrated. Fruit & vegetables contain water. As these are eliminated, your body must be getting enough electrolytes and essential minerals, supplements can help. Get to know when you’re hungry versus eating out of habit. Eating is a highly social and ritualistic behavior. Cutting down your meals from 3-5 to 2 can help you monitor when you’re eating out of habit rather than because you are hungry. (https://carnivorestyle.com/carnivore-diet/weight-loss/)

There is this set of critters on planet earth called bacteria. That stuff loves to eat our food and it tends to replicate and give off toxins that our body isn't fond of. Matter of fact, it will even eat our food in the refrigerator (that's why things in a frig spoil in a week or two). When you eat stuff that has been left out for long periods of time, you are rolling the dice. Now, there are certain things that have built-in protections. If it is cured with salt and maybe even smoked, it repels bacteria for a significant period of time. If it is acidic, it will repel bacteria and be good for a while. Generally speaking, I own a frig and pay the electricity bill ....... so, I use it. Our one exception is butter. The wife has a Butter Bell, which is a spectacular invention and I have constant access to soft, creamy butter.

And... guess what I will be eating tonight! hahahhahaha Yep, hotdogs. I referred to our school concession stand hot dogs as nasty.... because they are. They are cheap with fillers and corn syrup, etc... 4 grams of carb per wiener. But dangit... I grilled chicken breasts last night to take with us today for our dinner... and I forgot them at the house this morning. So I go down to our dinky, little store in our little town and there weren't many choices. I ended up buying a package of Nathan's Hot Dogs. They were the best I could find, 100% Beef, no fillers......

If you have purchased and tried several brands of Chicharrones? What do you like the best and why? I can eat these dudes with happiness, but the wife hates the idea of them even being in the house. I would like to find a super high quality, thin and fresh Chicharrones that she may learn to like. I want ones that are very clean without a bunch of added junk or chemicals. Here are some that Amazon buyers rank high..... I am sure these are on the pricey side, but remember... I am trying to win the wife over.

Skipped breakfast. For lunch it was 4 boiled eggs, mashed up and heated up with butter. Also enjoyed four sausage patties. For dinner it is a big, massive Pork Chop.

I purchased these yesterday.... (I purchase all my prescription glasses from Zenni.) https://www.zennioptical.com/b/blokz-blue-light-glasses?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA_NC9BhCkARIsABSnSTYM3_ucNlAGcdwvdDkq0Tt_cWtSV26rj03ZUyupaYMT1LMs5-xgyyYaAjKdEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Didn't from 6pm'ish til 11:30am the next day, about 17 hours of fasting. Noting that this is only day 7 on Carnivore, I was famished between 10-11:30am. Then here is the weird part. After eating four hard-boiled eggs and four pieces of sausage for lunch, my body felt really bad about 90 minutes later. I didn't feel like I was dying, but I sure felt like crap.... The wife said, go drink a bunch of water with electrolytes. BINGO... 15 minutes later I felt great.

A big part of the reason I became fascinated with this subject is..... Our school district received a huge grant to strip out all of our existing lighting and convert everything to LED. That work was done last summer and we have been living with those LED's for the past 6 months. Causing the main Science Teacher and I beginning to read and research, we have noticed an uptick in Student sickness and a significant uptick in reported headaches. We live in western Colorado and during the winter, our students are inside and under those lights 8 hours a day and rarely go outside for natural sunlight. Now, couple this with vast increases in screen time of smart phones and computer screens....... https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/blue-light-has-a-dark-side LED blue light exposure If blue light does have adverse health effects, then environmental concerns, and the quest for energy-efficient lighting, could be at odds with personal health. Those curlicue compact fluorescent lightbulbs and LED lights are much more energy-efficient than the old-fashioned incandescent lightbulbs we grew up with. But they also tend to produce more blue light. The physics of fluorescent lights can't be changed, but coatings inside the bulbs can be so they produce a warmer, less blue light. LED lights are more efficient than fluorescent lights, but they also produce a fair amount of light in the blue spectrum. Richard Hansler, a light researcher at John Carroll University in Cleveland, notes that ordinary incandescent lights also produce some blue light, although less than most fluorescent lightbulbs.

I found this article fantastic regarding Carnivore and Intermittent Fasting. Better than most I have read, they cite a lot of research. https://www.allthingscarnivore.com/intermittent-fasting-best-practices-on-the-carnivore-diet/#google_vignette Conclusion In summary, based on available evidence, the characteristics of the best intermittent fasting pattern are: Avoid eating immediately after waking up or very early in the morning. Spend sometime in the sun and let your body slow down melatonin production and increase insulin sensitivity accordingly before eating the first meal of the day Consume most of your calories earlier in the day, ideally around mid-day which is when your insulin sensitivity is at its peak Avoid eating late in the evening or into the night when melatonin levels increase and your insulin sensitivity declines. You should finish your last meal at least 3 hours before bedtime to allow time for complete digestion before you fall sleep A 6 to 8 hour feeding window should give most people on the carnivore diet enough time to fit in two meals a day and accommodate social engagements Adhere to a consistent eating pattern including during weekends. Every time you shift your feeding window, you experience metabolic jetlag equivalent of traveling across timezones If you need to adjust your feeding window, transition to the new feeding window gradually rather than suddenly to give your body time to adjust Engage in gentle exercises post meal to help your body get into the deep fasted state quicker Consume most of your caloric need earlier in the day to support fat loss Consume most of your protein intake earlier in the day to support muscle hypertrophy.

I must admit, I have done a lot of intermetent fasting the past couple of years. It certainly helped my health and I am a fan. When I was eating carbs, I found it easy to OMAD, even 2 to three days in a row. Today I awoke to the wife cooking the homemade breakfast sausage and scrambled eggs. At 6am I ate two sausage patties, but could not eat the eggs. Then I fasted Lunch, not eating dinner until 6:30pm. I was hungry around 1pm and again at 4pm. It was hard..... Tomorrow I will skip breakfast, but eat lunch at 12 noon and dinner at 6om, giving me 18 hours of fasting. .........

Anyone learned and bought in to the issues around Blue Light? This lady is a Princeton grad and a little whacky, but holy cow, her research eye opening. Then there is Jack Kruse on the link below Dr. Cowan. "Nutrition is important. But it's not the be all and end all. Light is just as important. Overall, you should aim to limit your exposure to blue light, both during the day and evening. Humans evolved getting a full spectrum of light throughout the day, not overwhelming amounts of artificial blue. Excessive blue light from LEDs and electronic screens can contribute to illness by triggering an overproduction of reactive oxygen species and decreasing your body’s production of melatonin." (https://www.optimallivingdynamics.com/blog/how-to-protect-your-brain-from-blue-light-screen-filters-protection-glasses-app-bulb-sleep-bedroom) What ya think?

Malaise, fatigue, tiredness, lack of energy, etc. is perplexing, as others have said and everyone has to work out their own biochemistry. A few years ago, on my first dive into KETO I learned that dehydration was a big culprit, especially in the winter. In the cold weather months, when you don't have hot days, you tend to drink a lot less water and you don't even realize you are doing it. Or shall I say, not doing it. Forcing myself to drink when I start feeling bad or tired/fatigued is nearly always a 'pick-me-up". Coupled with water intake is to make sure that I have enough electrolytes. Not having the right amount and balance of vitamins and minerals always affects me negatively. For instance, about an hour ago I had a sinking spell (I am skipping lunch today), I immediately filled up my water bottle and added my electrolyte drops and 15 minutes later I felt so much better, despite no lunch food in my belly. And if all else fails, I go to the coffeemaker! (a fact, but humor intended...)

Replying to the Venison question, my wife's family are those Germans in the Texas Hill Country. Each one of them fill their hunting tags every year and the sausage production every February is a sight to behold. They drag a couple hundred pounds of venison out of the freezer along with the previously purchased Boston Butts. 500lbs of sausage is made on a single Saturday, usually two to three Saturdays in a row. It is 40% Venison and 60% high fat Pork, stuffed into natural casings and cold smoked for 3-4 days. It is then left hanging and cured for 30 days and thrown in the freezer. The finer cuts of Venison, like the back strap and tenderloins are cut into steaks but most of the deer goes into sausage. By the way, they keep back about 15%, add some Cyan Powder and it becomes breakfast sausage. A link of that smoked/cured deer sausage is like Crack Cocaine to me! I could eat a link a day for the rest of my life. When wild game is prepared correctly, it is stunning. Here's some eye candy for you all.... Everyone's resolution should be.... More Wild Game! ahahhahaha ......

Great points and you are not the only one who has stumbled over acronyms! hahahhaa