Scott F.

Congrats. Hopefully that represents the healing. Keep at it. Good luck. Scott

I think carnivore (going in) is just like any other diet, there is nothing really sustainable about it. (and allow me to finish) I think everyone who switches to carnivore starts off on a carnivore diet and like most all diets, people choose another route. it is the diets that are not sustainable. It takes time for carnivore to become a lifestyle and leave the 'temporary-ness' of just about all diets. For me personally I have been strict carnivore for about 19 months. I have not had a fruit nor vegetable nor bread nor pasta since May '24. With that said it was nearly a year later when I felt like being on the carnivore diet had morphed into me having a carnivore lifestyle/carnivore way of eating. And maybe my story is a little odd because I didn't start with any health concerns in mind as for me it was nothing more than a weight loss hack. I stumbled upon a ton of benefits early on, chalked them up to coincidence, and then once I was reading the writing on the wall I started to evolve from diet to lifestyle. People quit for all kinds of reasons. If I had not stumbled upon the benefits with my autoimmune disease, knowing it was going to be a weight loss hack, I probably would have quit after losing 40-50 pounds (and called it a successful endeavor). If I knew which carb/vegetable/fruit was my trigger I would probably venture back out into the carb world on occasion. But since I don't know it is not a gamble I feel comfortable with so that too helped me transition from carnivore diet to carnivore lifestyle. I think it could be any number of reasons, but I mostly think those reasons land on the individual person rather than the way of eating itself. Scott

Hadn't seen this post in a while. Funny it gets posted when I have been fasting since Tuesday. LOL Looks good. I will put it on things I need to try with the exception of the peppers. Looks/sounds good. Scott

A large percentage of the American population is digging their own grave with a fork. Write that down. Scott

Being a total hypocrite, don't look at the scales in the very beginning ( I did just about daily, LOL). It is better and more self serving to take notice of more important things, like how you feel, and the one snug pair of pants is now loose fitting. That was the advice that was given to me early on, (and I ignored it) and now I am passing that tidbit forward (and odds are you will ignore it, most do, LOL). Congrats on the first week. My weight fell off really fast the first months and then I hit my first stall. Watching the scale drop just about a pound a day for 30 days was amazing but when it stalled it made the stall all the more disheartening. Everyone is different and metabolic health and weight moves their needles at different rates for different people. Until carnivore I never had a fasted blood sugar result over 100 and my highest has been 111. That shift/moving of the needle triggered me to buy a glucose monitor so I could track it. I had an initial rise and then it fell back into the 80's. I was intrigued by the number of the scale and the glucose meter so I bought a ketone meter as well. And then in time I hardly use any of it, maybe the scale once or so per week. Good luck and welcome. Scott

Good luck as it sounds like a solid plan to me. Scott

Somewhat in the same boat as Bob. I am pretty much happy with my weight after dropping 90-95lbs and bouncing around in the 85-90lb lost range. I'm still working out but eating way more than I really need to be eating. The 'last few pounds' usually land around visceral fat and this can be difficult to lose. (I am about to attempt to drop 10-15lbs of mine). I'm going to use fasting, somewhat more aggressive, than what I have been doing the last few months. Currently, I fast from 48-72-96 hours every other month, or so. Sometimes plans and life get in the way of the fasting but I am going to change that starting this week. Instead of fasting every other month and then eating to gain muscle (extra proteins) when not fasting I'm going to fast and then go back to eating when I am hungry, which I think/hope will gradually shift back to once a day. (since using the protein powders and the protein drinks the little bit of sugar has sparked an appetite I didn't have the first 10-12 months eating carnivore and today I can eat bigger meals and even twice per day). I am not sure if fasting works for a lot of people but it has worked wonders for me. Scott

I think anytime a group eats in a strict form, or an extreme way, there can be shortcomings, both real and perceived. To some the carnivore approach is crazy. Remember, to a lot of groups we are the weirdos. LOL For some the strict carnivore diet is not the way to go, others see benefit from morphing from carnivore toward a low carb keto approach and others see improvements when coming off low carb keto to carnivore. I happen to benefit from going cold turkey from a complete trash diet to a strict carnivore diet which eventually evolved to a carnivore lifestyle. I think anyone that ditches the processed foods and sugars get healthier, regardless of what their diet is called. Along the way they may need to supplement or make some adjustments but staying away from the garbage seems to work for most everyone. In this particular case I think the issue was not an all-fruit diet but an actual eating disorder/mental health issue. This was a slow demise and unfortunately no one was able to intervene/convince her to make better decisions. Scott

I think that is where I fall as well. I have seen milk trigger a stall and when weight loss was a goal I limited the milk for the most part. I don't think I ever totally eliminated it but I can see where it could be a problem. It is indeed nature's weight gainer as that is what the good lord intended it for, to grow babies. (and it will 'grow' adults as well, the difference being babies grow up and adults grow out) I have some pounds to go with visceral fat and some body composition. I actually started drinking more milk to head off some weight loss a few months ago, and it worked. I stalled my weight loss around 95lbs and gained about 10 back to bounce around the 85–90-pound total loss since starting carnivore. I'm using it now a little more often but not like it is a staple of my daily food intake. Sometimes, I simply like a glass of milk. Scott

Yep. I think it was as much the eating disorder as what she was actually eating. She could have picked all vegetables or all roots or all just about anything and found troubles. I would venture a guess to say it was the fact it was an eating disorder because she never recognized she was orchestrating her own demise. Thoughts and prayers for her, her friends and her family. Hopefully there is a lesson learned. Scott

WOW! So my question is that this didn't happen overnight and I would have to think someone said something? At some point a person has to look in the mirror and see the results of their choices. I have lost as much as 95lbs, to the point I did look sickly. I had been really sick a few years prior and I had a bunch of people both ask and think I was sick all over again. I wonder how many people tried to intervene as her decisions to a long time to get her to the end. Scott

I have never been one to set goals or even make plans. "Me and life" find a way to trash out even the best made plans. I go with a different approach. I start off with 'this is what I am going to do' and then go from there. I have lost as much as 95lbs, bouncing around 85-90 lost today and I'm going to attack visceral fat around the gut and change my body composition some more. I am not sure what that new number will be as I will be trying to add muscle as some of the fat goes away. If the composition changes the number will be no more than a number. From there I will continue with the carnivore approach and focus a bit more on red meat and adding more fish. Scott

Agreed. I am pretty sure I have been carnivore the last 19 months. When I got rid of all the other garbage in my diet it is really easy to see the effects of what I do eat. I feel better on longer stretches of red meats. Pork is not as satiating for me as red meat and I can eat more chicken/pork per sitting than I can red meat. I found that milk will put the brakes on weight loss for me but haven't had any other ill effects from drinking milk. (and I like it too) I morphed all that into my current eating habits. I call it carnivore. Maybe I'm off the mark to some. LOL Scott

Agreed. I made the tallow a couple days before and thought we were on the same page. I get home and see peanut oil jugs. I am pretty sure a couple three times over 19 months is not going to do me in, or be the straw that broke the camels back, but once you learn something one can't un-ring that bell. I thought the tallow fried turkey tasted better. Could have been a mind thing for me but I am pretty sure I felt a little better about it. LOL Scott

So how, exactly, do you feel about seed oils? LOL Agreed. I haven't had but a tad of seed oils in the last 19 months. We have eaten out two or three times over that period, one they were nice enough to scrape the grill and cook in butter, the second time they said they did but they didn't and the third time I didn't bother asking. We don't eat out hardly ever, even before carnivore. We have a cabin next to the house and it has turned out to be everyone's favorite place to go. We always ask, "wanna go out to eat tonight?", "maybe, but I will be good with a steak on the grill out at the cabin" and then., "the cabin it is". My son deep fried a turkey for Thanksgiving and it was pretty good cooked in peanut oil. I fried one the following Saturday in tallow I had made and I "think' mine tasted better but several could not tell the difference. But I agree, seed oils are no good. Scott

I never totally gave up milk (some dairy) except for in the very beginning of switching to carnivore. I learned about the diet on one evening and started a strict carnivore approach the next morning. So much so, I didn't realize that the majority of the salt in my diet was coming from the processed crap I was eating. I got off on both hydration and electrolytes the first week or so. The first videos I watched trying to learn a little more were somewhere between "anti-milk to every so often but not recommended". I ditched the milk altogether for a stretch. Then over time I started back with a glass here and a glass there. For me, if I were losing weight between a 1/2 to 1 pound per day all it would take was a glass or two of milk and I was immediately in a "stall". Back when weight loss was the only real goal I had with carnivore I spaced the milk out when I did drink a glass. One glass I would get a lull in the weight loss and a second glass during that lull put the brakes on any weight loss, and at times adding a pound or so back. Fast forward to trying to build muscle while still on the carnivore diet I started drinking more milk. I use it to mix protein powder to get the protein grams per pound up. I'm still strict on what I eat with zero fruits and zero vegetables and the sugar I eat is limited to the milk and the protein supplements. I sort of semi-cycle on and off the protein supplements, somewhere around monthly. The milk goes along with that. I have added some muscle and lost a lot of fat but still have some visceral fat I would like to lose but feel like I am in a pretty good spot. In early '24 I was over 320 and have been as low as 210 and now bounce around between 215 and 221. (with milk and protein). The monthly fasting drops my weight several pounds close to the 210 mark and then I eat, supplement and drink milk back to >215. Some muscle and some fat. I feel like milk is working for me. Scott

CARNIVORE PARADOX: WHY HUMANS CANNOT BE CARNIVORE LIFE LONG

Keep going. In the first month you are still adjusting. Increasing the proteins in your diet and removing the carbs probably moved you into ketosis. Mine made a jump in the early months but fell back to normal. Then recently it pushed just outside the normal limit but I have been eating a lot of protein as of late. I don't do organ meats and I make sure I hydrate throughout the day. When I eat normal amounts of protein and hydrate my number drops back. Not sure if this helps but I have seen my uric number inch up and down over the last 18-19 months. Scott

I'm neither diabetic nor do I have kidney related issues. Hopefully Bob sees this and responds. Kidney issues are in his wheelhouse. Several members of the board have discussed the positive effects of the carnivore way of eating. Hopefully they chime in as well. Scott

Welcome. Good luck with their schooling. Scott

Let's start off with saying in August of 2018 I was simply fat, dumb and happy. I was in the 320's, never really had blood sugar nor blood pressure issues but the cholesterol had been ever increasing thru my upper forties. Around the time I turned 49 the doctor convinced me to give the statins a try, I forget which one, but I picked up the prescription. About the third day I started to feel funny, and by the fourth to the fifth day I had every side effect listed. When I googled the medicine it listed the five more common side effects and I had all five by day five. I stopped taking them that day but the symptoms continued, and some even worsened. I fought the symptoms for a month or more. The doctor offered another version of the statin, maybe another name brand, but I declined. By mid-September I had cramps behind my eyes and pains in my neck and spine that would drive me to my knees. On Monday morning, Labor Day 2018, I woke up as blind as a bat. Zero sight. Everything was as the same color as a computer screen when turned off. I freaked out. The pain in my neck/spine was crippling. On the way to the emergency room some of sight returned in my left eye almost like a curtain was being peeled back. By noon I could see again but the pain was even more intense. Over the next three months it was CAT scan after CAT scan, blood draw after blood draw, multiple MRI's, a couple EMG's, a lumbar puncture (spinal tap), some visual evoke type tests, some cognizance exams, probably in stroke protocol 10-15 times when the left side showed weakness or no mobility. In late December I was diagnosed with Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder. During the explanations of the disease the neurologist said something triggered the autoimmune response and your body reacted. By then I was well onto my Google Medical degree and was near graduating from the Youtube College of Medicine and based on my newfound medical expertise (LOL) my trigger was the statins. I have no medical background to say that was the case and it could have been a complete coincidence; I simply could not prove it one way or the other. But in my brain (and in my heart) it was the statins. From that point til now, I doubt statins will ever be an option. Scott

Congrats. Sometimes the 'eating Holidays' can be a challenge (Thanksgiving and Christmas). Sounds like you nailed this one. Congrats. Happy Holidays. Scott

As our families have grown and expanded there is just not enough time in one day. Here is our plan and Thanksgiving has turned into a 3-4 day event. Some plans changed and my son and daughter-in-law will be here for Thanksgiving. A really close friend's mom passed a few months ago and he and his sister are doing separate things this year. My mom's lunch is still on tap for today so we will: Eat with my mom at lunch. Come home and we are doing a low-country boil tonight with my wife, my son, his wife and our new grandchild (one month yesterday) after watching football all day to day in the cabin. Tomorrow night my buddy, his wife, kids and grandkid are coming over to the cabin with us and my mom for another 'traditional turkey led Thanksgiving'. Then on Saturday night my son and his friends do a 'Friendsgiving'. That can be anything from Thanksgiving leftovers as well as the two smoked pork shoulders he is prepping. Then Sunday will be some sort of pork approach for Football Sunday in the cabin. I will go carnivore weaving thru the dishes to get to the meats. Hectic, but enjoyable. Scott

I'm good with it. It just was a bigger jump on total than I thought over the 4-5-6-month span. I felt like it would move up some, just not as much as it did. I have been eating a lot as of late. When I brought in the protein drinks I think that little bit of sugar not only increased my appetite at mealtime it also brought back some cravings during the day. Some days I would snack on left over meats and other days I'd eat a stab of butter. I now think butteris an amazing snack, almost too good. LOL I feel good and I am sure if I targeted or actively pursued a lower number I could adjust what I am eating get there in time. I have ditched the protein drinks for now and will let things sort of settle out. Although I don't see anything wrong with pursuing a protein target for muscle gain I do see where it does not fit as naturally as 'eat when hungry-eat til full' approach. That little bit of sugar manipulates/stokes the hunger/appetite. Scott

Ours has changed as well. My grandma had five children and all their children and grandchildren managed to pack into a 12-1300 square foot house. She cooked half the night and half the day. Everyone brought dishes, the women folk hit the kitchen to pitch in and the men folk sat around 'sneak drinking' waiting for football. My wife's family much the same. Her mother and her older sister were from way back, right off the farm. My wife was the first kid in their family to go off to college. If you picked your tea glass up and the ice 'almost rattled' they would be there to top off your glass. I remember teasing my wife about that and how college had ruined her. I rattled my glass to let her know it was empty, and she said if I were waiting on her for the re-fill I would eventually perish to death. Now our son is married with his first child, and everyone is doing things with branches of the families but neither family altogether like days gone by. I'm 56, not 86 or 96, but things sure have changed. My wife's banana pudding is world class. My mom's sweet potato pie is top notch. My great aunt's country ham with red eye gravy is superb. My grandma's fresh hams were awesome (and this is when their cousins were still oinking in the bottom). It is not hard to see how I topped out in the 320's. LOL Scott