Scott F.

The object is to find the plan that works for you and sometimes that plan does not fit under the same umbrella as everyone/anyone else. We have some things in common. I was big (306) old (55) fat dude who only tried carnivore because my son did it for a couple three weeks and lost 12-14 pounds or so. I can eat red meat by the bucket full so when I heard 'eat til you are full', I was sold. I repeat a lot of things for context because I am not sure who has read what. I started off what I thought was eating strict carnivore but the first week I did finish off a 12-pack of Mountain Dew and a tub of ice cream. I then went strict on the food, meats, salt and water, but I did use drink mixers to help me learn to like water. A couple months of those and since just plain water. We had several weight loss contests at work, and I won them all. Once I ate only Grape Nuts cereal twice per day and walked around 3 miles per my days off (3-4 times per week). I lost 32 pounds in 50 days (60-day challenge but I started late). The next contest was more of balanced meals and walking. Both times I ditched the Mountain Dews and snack cakes to get the day started. Both times I didn't eat after 6PM and then again at 6AM the next morning. It averaged around eating at 6AM and 1PM-2PM based on work. The next time I lost 30+ pounds in 60 days to win again. Both times I celebrated the victory with two bacon, egg and cheese on buns with a Mountain Dew and a snack cake. Each time I gained the weight back plus a few extras. For me, losing weight is not hard and keeping it off is not all that hard. The difference between easy and hard is my decision making. Poor decisions put me right back on the heavy/heavier train. I like fats, especially beef fat and pork fat. I could just eat a plate of that and be perfectly content. When people toss out the numbers of X amount of protein and X amount of fat I am easily ahead on the fat chart. If I choose between a rib eye and a chuck roast, I choose the one with the most fats. (Plus, it is cheaper and I'm both fat and cheap) I am about 64 hours deep into a 72 hour fast. Nothing but water since Tuesday night around 8-9PM. The last time I attempted to do a 72 hour fast I crashed at 71 hours. Fell flat. No energy and felt like I was starving. 7 more hours to see if that wall still exists. I think your plan will work for you, especially if you make it work for you. I would go with the fattier cuts of red meat and let chicken and some cuts of pork be leaner choices. Personally, I look for fat, so I buy the cheaper cuts of pork, and I also think skinless chicken is an abomination. The first thing one could do to ruin a good chicken is to peel the skin off. This is a lifelong struggle I have yet to figure out. Right up there with 10 hotdogs in a pack but only 8 buns to a pack. Babbling..... Good luck with your plan. Keep us posted. I enjoy reading other people's experiences more so than studies or youtube videos trying to sell me something. This morning, I hit 216, down 90 pounds from May 8, 2024. Maybe 9 1/2 months. I just did a 13 hour night shift, went meat shopping and then hit the gym. Math will not be my strong suit til much later in the day. Scott

Absolutely nothing. I'm pushing the 60-hour mark on the 72 hours fast. So far so good. No cravings. No hunger. Energy level still good. 72 might turn into ~84 because I am trying not to eat and then crashing. The 72 hours would be up around 8:80-9PM on Friday night. What's 10-12 more hours? Scott

Yep. I'm a lifelong shift worker and a rotating shift worker at that. As I read it was like the author was speaking to me personally. LOL Maybe the worst thing about working 12-hour shifts is that either day or night you find yourself eating and then going to bed. I have went stretches where I would bring two meals to work but I seem to always gravitate back to eating before laying down. Convenience I guess. Since carnivore, and mostly after winding up eating about once a day, I don't eat then sleep nearly as often. On dayshift I eat around lunch time and then I am good til the next day. On night shift I eat somewhere in the first couple three hours of the shift, work 8-9 more hours and then go home to lay down. OMAD suits me better. When I was trying to hit protein targets, I reverted back to eating prior to sleeping. A 12 hour shift that most of the time ends up being 13+, followed by a 45-minute drive home, a half hour to an hour of taking care of animals, and that next 12 hours is staring me right in the face. I have been gainfully employed like this for 30+ years. I guess it keeps the lights on. LOL Scott

Congrats. Scott

I'm making a chart and I will post it tomorrow night at the end of the fast. 72 hours will be around 8PM Friday night and I am not a big fan of eating that late. If I hit the wall like I did on my first 72 hour fast I will eat but odds are I will stretch it out til the following mid-morning. Time will tell. I wish I had been able to check my blood sugar before the last meal and within an hour or so afterwards but that didn't work out. My first reading was 113 and I think the 'dawn phenomenon' played a role in that number. (I have never been over 100 prior to going on carnivore). The blood sugar has dropped each 12 hours since. 113-92-82-75. Learning as I go. I have always had 'lower blood sugar'. There are a lot of mornings (pre-carnivore) and had an anxious feeling, sometimes a little dizzy and sort of a use the wall to get down the hall approach to get my morning going. Usually that meant my blood sugar was around the 90 mark, give or take. I got my morning Mountain Dew and snack cake, and the sugar jumped into the mid to upper 90's and I felt fine. This morning as I showed the 82 reading it caught me off guard so I took it again. Same thing. The difference? No carb and no sugars for months and my blood sugar is much more easily regulated. I am guessing I am somewhat deep into ketosis ( I am going to buy a meter just so I will know). Between ketosis, ketones, and probably being solidly fat adaptive I feel OK/good even though the blood sugar number is much lower that what has affected me in the past. I think maybe I am just getting healthier. Details to follow. Scott

This is true. But bacteria and bugs and such are in everything. Go to the store and buy the finest meat or chicken you can find. Bring it home, freeze it as is or wash it, re-package and freeze. When it is frozen solid, for even weeks on end, pull the plug on the freezer but do not open the lid for two weeks. When you open the lid can anyone explain where the maggots come from? I guess I sort of roll the dice. LOL Scott

I fix burgers and put them in a sandwich bag for trips and outings. Burgers seem to work best for me. Last year we went to West Virginia to ride side by sides. The night before I cooked a weekends worth of country style pork ribs and chuck steaks. Cuts of meat that can be eaten without forks and knives. I got quite the laughs when I am standing on the side of the path with a hunk of steak or pork or burger for a snack. Scott

It didn't load on the above post. We oil him down throughout the cook to keep the skins moist. Once we flip him and the chopping is done, it is all about the skins. Scott

Find an old broke down BBQ joint (and it may be a geographical challenge). We have several here and they sell bags straight from the grill/fryer. From skins cooked down to cracklings. After you get past the tongue, then the fatty stomach meat, and on somedays the tenderloin, the skins can be the best part of the pig.

You have to keep plugging away. Look for the positives and build upon those. Try to correct some of the negatives. I doubt you can win the war until you start winning the battles. Sometimes it does boil down to the whys. Why? did you try carnivore? Why? are the benefits not outweighing my addictions? From there, work on what you can. I was on the bottle for a long period of time, so much so, that it dictated/played a role in most every part of my life. During that stretch it was more important to me than most everything else. I would say things were important to me, but my actions would speak otherwise. I said my son was the most important thing in the world to me until I was too drunk to be there when he needed me. I'm not one to preach, or stand up on the pedestal and talk down, but sometimes things are as simple as your personal decision making. Keep plugging away. This is a good place to unload, ask questions, learn from another's experience and maybe get better. Scott

This a conversation I have had with my buddy several times. As a kid we ate every Sunday at my grandma's house. Mostly everything was fried. I can remember the leftovers (chicken, pork chops, burgers, etc.) sitting on the stove for the rest of the day. And a lot of times they were breakfast the next day. His grandma did not refrigerate her mayonnaise. She kept it in the cupboard, even after opened. They had a part of the house that was called the back porch (but was actually closed in) and they hung meat from the ceiling. When we bring eggs in from the pen they are on the counter for a couple three days (usually eaten by then). I will say your process is less wasteful. We never let food sit on our counter and go bad. We put it in a container, stick it in the refrigerator and wait for it to go bad there. LOL Like most things, it is an individual approach. If it works for you, then it works for you. The world survived for a while before the refrigerator was a thing. At one point we hunted for food daily, it lasted a couple three days and we hunted some more. You are 'hunting' the same but at the grocery store. Scott

Circadian misalignments such as eating late, eating at night, daytime sleep and nighttime wake due to shift work or voluntary behaviors can increase risks of weight gain, obesity, diabetes, liver diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cancers, digestive diseases, sleep disorders, inflammation and depression. (This is me to a "T". There are numerous studies that show the ill-effects of shift work, and rotating shift work makes a deeper dive.) Irregular eating patterns affect sleep quality, digestion, and hormone releases as well as put stress on the body. Eating meals irregularly has been found to associate with an increased risk of metabolic syndrome and cardiometabolic risk factors, including BMI and blood pressure (Yep. Spot on for me as well. Although I could have eaten better over the years, and could have made better decisions, I did allow my work schedule to dictate a large percentage of my life-health issues included. There are a lot of people who work rotating shifts and live healthy but it is due to better decision making. In my younger years I would work all night, not sleep very much during the day, work the next night and buy a double-deuce (22oz) Budweiser for the ride home in the morning. Maybe a stop at a fast food joint and then sleep during the day. On the last night of the rotation the Mountain Dews and snack cakes kept me going. Again, all poor decisons on my part) Great article. Appreciate the post. Scott

Will check it out later tonight. We are in the midst of a big snow storm. We have about 8" and steadily snowing with some reports showing it will continue to snow til tomorrow morning. We are in rural NC and although our state workers and the private contractors do great work with our roads, we are simply not prepared for winter weather. We get this type of snow once every 5-10 years. I'm at work and the plant is shutdown. I should be able to watch the last three or four videos left on youtube. After last night I think I have seen all the rest. LOL Scott

Yep. As long as there is a trace coming out, I feel pretty good about what I am making and what I am using. I doubt I see a huge jump over the fast, but it will be interesting to see if it moves. The blood sugar could be a morning issue, but the only difference is that I was coming off night shift and been up since 3PM the previous day. Basically, I am tracking it just to see. I feel like I am in a pretty good place right now so I really don't think I should be rocking the boat. Scott

I think I probably fall into this category. The energy levels are higher than they were before and maybe that is indeed going from bad to normal, which feels/look likes things are a lot better. Along those same lines I don't think I have had the improvements is mental clarity or focus like some report. The closest I have experienced to that is when I wake up, I wake up. I go from a really good sleep to wide awake and ready to go in a split second. There is no dragging around or lugging to the start of the day. Somewhat off topic, but this does feel like extra energy after sleeping, compared to dragging off to a start. After better sleep, I feel a better charge, and the quicker start feels like 'more energy'. It might actually be the better diet, the weight loss, etc. allows me to rest/recover better and my 'start point' is in a much better place. Scott