oldandlean

"very bottom of the dumpster diet", that's so funny! Congrats on such a life transformation. 95 lb is impressive!

After looking at the pics of myself from a visit to my son's house about a month ago, I was shocked at how skinny I was. I mean, I looked healthy but I had no idea how puny I looked. Back home, I weighed in (never do that) and I was a mere 131lb. Dang! Except during my bodybuilding days 20 or so years ago, I've always been around 155 lb. As an old dude realized that I need to be concerned with sarcopenia (muscle loss as we age). I decided to target 150lb as a start and so I ditched the intermittent fasting (I was eating one or two meals and to target a bodyweight of 150lb I need to eat 150g of protein per day). So, on August 10, I added an early meal of at least 50 g of protein so I didn't have to force in 75g in two meals. I also rearranged my gym training. I am doing three days of squat, bench, and barbell rows with the goal of working up to ten sets of ten of each exercise. Anytime I couldn't do 10 reps I stopped and moved on to the next exercise. Once I got five sets of ten of all three exercises, I ditched the 10 sets goal and started over with whatever number of sets I could get with heavier weight (10lb additional for squats and 5lb for bench press and rows. In 3 weeks I've gained 8 pounds! I've still got veins all over my lower abs and inner thighs, so if I've gained fat, it's negligible. Carnivore is the sh...t! At least for me, the only way to eat enough protein to increase muscle mass is to only eat protein. There's no way I could eat this much protein AND eat carbs (or anything else!)

Welcome! I'm new to the forum and a couple years in on carnivore. I definitely ran into diarrhea early on and later, well into it. I am pretty sure that you have to dial in your personal fat intake after you are fully adapted to the diet. I think I remember Dr. Chaffe saying that our body's only put out a certain amount of bile per day and once that's gone, you will pass the excess fat. Anyway, glad you're here.

I wish I could tolerate beef liver for the nutrition. I just can't stand it, even mixed with burger. To cover our bases, we take dedicated liver pills instead. I also wish we had chickens, one day. My wife and I eat A LOT of eggs and knowing exactly what the chickens are eating would be great.

Here are three things my wife and I have done to make our carnivore diet a little more affordable. 1) We shared a cow from a local farm. We bought 1/6 of a cow for about $700 which worked out to $11 lb 2) We discoverd a huge pack of rump cap in our grocery store meat section. Rump cap is also called Picanha in Brazilian steakhouses and is tender with a big layer of fat across the top. Once cut into steaks, they resemble NY strip but are way better IMO 3) We also discovered whole ribeye and cut 8 or 9 thick steaks out of a $111.00 pack...way cheaper than the normal $25 lb or so. Bonus: a lot people are unaware of chuck eye steaks, which have been called "the poor man's ribeye". Almost as good has ribeye, half the cost!

Wow, I guess I made a good decision coming here. It's definitely a relief knowing others have been in "the exact same boat". After the past 3 or 4 days of eating enough protein to reach my target weight, I definitely have more energy. I think I was slowly killing myself before!

But since people (except my wife, also a carnivore) act like it's the craziest thing in the world, I figure I better get connected. We came to this nutrition approach via keto after listening to the podcast The Sacred Cow. Until going carnivore, I was like that woman on the commercial where she said that anywhere she went, she always makes sure to know where the bathroom is (sorry, can't recall the product they were selling). Digestion was better on keto but completely transformed doing carnivore. My wife and I both lost significant weight even though we were both already very healthy. I recently realized after seeing pictures of myself from a recent trip that I was so into being lean that I had lost a lot of muscle. Listening to an interview with Dr Chaffe opened my eyes to the change in hunger signals that is possible on carnivore and realized I needed to up my protein and get busy in the gym! Looking forward to learning from you all and contributing where I can.