Scott F.

What works best is to use the plan that is best for you/your wife. If morning and evening work then go for that and if OMAD is a goal, then 2MAD can be one of the steps to get you there. Although I still think I'm in the infancy stages of carnivore only having ~9 months eating this way, I have learned a ton in those nine months. I went in head first with no idea that carnivore was a thing until my son told me he was doing it. In the beginning I ate by the clock because we have all been programmed that way. Gradually, when the eating hour rolled around I was simply not hungry. I ate anyway because we are 'suppose' to and soon after that eating at certain times became a chore. I just morphed into eating when I was hungry and that turned into OMAD. The funniest part is that I didn't know OMAD was a thing, nor did I know it had a name. On this very board I was about to hit SUBMIT REPLY with "I don't eat OMAD I only eat once a day or so, and that usually turns into one meal a day". Then the little bell went off in my head and I looked up OMAD. I almost claimed the "Dumbest Post of the Month" crown. So mine just sort of got there naturally by eating when I was hungry. If I can get it copyrighted and maybe make millions, I'm going to coin EWH, Eat When Hungry. My only hope is that some other guy looks it up before he insists, he doesn't eat EWH, he/she only eats when they are hungry. LOL best of luck. Scott

I quit drinking pretty much cold turkey. We went out and I got plastered (as usual). on the way home a deer ran out in front of the car. It smashed up the fender and door. My wife asked me to get out and check, but I was unable. I looked over at the temperature gage, decided the radiator was good, asked her to ease it into drive. As it rolled, I didn't hear anything, so I said drive it to the house. When we got home the bent-up door would not open. I was too drunk to get out of the car and she had to climb over me to get out the passenger side. I slept all night in the car. If it ended here it would be another funny drunk story. But it didn't. During the night my son came down with a fever, up to 104-105. I was too drunk to offer any kind of help. My mother-in-law and father-in-law came from next door to get him to the hospital. When I woke up and found out how the night went there was no bigger piece of shit on the planet than me. (pardon the French) I went months without a drop. Then one night we went out and the waitress was parading back and forth hauling ice cold long neck Budweiser beers. I told my wife we better leave now or I am headed for another train wreck. That was 23 years ago. I did however, ditch one addiction and keep the food/sugar habits. I'm only 9 months out of that one. Still a work in progress. This thread hits home. Scott

Congrats on your start and welcome to the forum. itis a great place to check in and bounce ideas off the walls. I have learned a ton here. I am nine months in and when it came to starting carnivore I was as dumb as a stump. I did not research, no fact finding, no How to's, I just dove right in purely as a weight loss tool. I accidentally found out that I no longer need medication for pain and inflammation due to an auto-immune disease. The energy part will come along as you adjust your diet, your fat intake and salt/electrolytes. Once you become fat adaptive your body will use that for energy, and you will more than likely need to adjust it up or down once adaptive. I adjust based on my stools. Instead of buying a drink mixer for electrolytes I made my own solution and use it for 'table salt', add it to water on occasion or simply eat a pinch or two to start the day. (Last week I found out at 55 I can't bust wood with a maul like I did 40 years ago as a kid). I was making sure I had X amount of salt in me based on my workday and my workouts. When I added six plus hours of wood busting, I found both my water intake and salt intake was not adequate and I had cramps in my legs all night. Lesson learned. Good luck and try to look at obstacles as just adjustments. And I applaud the 'damn the torpedoes' approach to 90 days. As far as the garden goes, I would not let that be a concern. I would think the carnivore approach with a few home-grown vegetables is still going to be better than the diet you left behind. And although that might push you out of what is thought of as "pure Carnivore" the big picture is your/your wife's health. Plus, the Carnivore Police is just a made-up organization anyway. LOL. You will not be arrested or prosecuted (or even ostracized) for eating a green bean or a tomato. Welcome, and best of luck. Scott

Good series of posts. I think I have been basically lucky. I had no idea there were benefits to carnivore other than losing weight. Weight loss was the only reason I dove into carnivore. My son did carnivore a couple three weeks and lost 12-15 pounds. He described the eating, and it sounded easy for me. I thought my only issue would be sugar. I drank 4-5-6 20oz. Mountain Dews per day, two-plus Little Debbie cakes, hit the snack machines for candy bars while at work, and would eat lemon cheesecake by the pound, not by the slice. And it was nothing to have three or four glasses of Pepsi/sweet tea during dinner. I felt like going in I would struggle with sugar but would have no issues with plants/carbs. Most everyone's plan or route to success/failure is different. I think what helped me is, after reflection, I was not as cold turkey as I had originally thought. I said I only eat meats, salt and water. The first few months I used drink mixers as I have never been big on drinking just water. Even tho my drink packet said NO SUGAR there is sugar in there. At the same time, I had an occasional glass of milk. I was not as cold turkey on sugar as I thought so I basically weaned myself off sugar. First, I eased into drinking plain water and now that is all I drink. I still drink milk, but it is far less than ever, maybe a glass a week or sometimes every two weeks. I think I would concentrate on the 5-6-7 wins (like posted earlier) and figure out how Day 1 turns to Day 2, and then to Day 3. Then build upon those things. Maybe try to figure out what you could do to change Day 4-5 and 6 so you don't have the "crash" on Day 7. This approach may help you to limit the "crash" or maybe even eliminate it as an issue. And at the end of the day if you are strict for 6 days and then not so much for one, and then back to six days again, I would think that is much better than 3 and 3 and 5 and 2, etc. As far as the booze and weed go, I have never smoked weed or did anything drug related. Until I got sick in 2018 I had 7 prescriptions from 1987 til 2018. (Again, been really lucky). As for the booze, the last two years I was in the service and the first 8-10 years after I drank enough Jim Beam/7-up/Budweiser in the bottle to float a battleship. I did not socially drink, I drank to fall down, and I stopped whenever and wherever I fell down. I can't relate to the weed and not so much to the sugar and carb cravings, but I surely remember my "NEED" to hit the bottle. And looking back, with drinking came eating and I am sure the sugars helped jump start the next day. After a rough night there was nothing like a cold Mountain Dew and a Little Debbie cake to get me going. I think causation and correlation can go both ways with my drinking and my trash eating habits. Once I built those trash eating habits they remained long after I quit drinking. Habits are habits and addictions are addictions, and one common denominator is that each are different dependent upon the individual. Hopefully you can figure out your plan. I apologize for the length and the babbling. I'd look for the good things early in the week and try to implement them in the latter part of the week. The weed I don't know and the booze, you are going have to pick/find something that is more important to you than that. Little steps from there. God luck. Scott

Take care of the head wound first. Hope all is well. Scott

I had a leg quarter for lunch today.

I am not much on making plans but I am planning to do a fast next week when I am on nightshift. I'm going to eat on Tuesday night and then Friday night. The last time I fasted I was perfectly fine for 71 hours and at the 71 hour mark I hit a wall. The energy was fine one minute and totally zapped the next. I went form not feeling hungry at all to feeling completely empty, drained of fuel and really hungry. I thought at some point I would feel a drain or start feeling hungry but i was expecting it to be gradual no all of a sudden. My plan is to take blood sugar tests before and after I eat Tuesday night around 8PM. Then every six hours or so throughout each night I am working (will sleep thru most of the day). At some point after that I plan to do another but either when I am off work or on dayshift to compare the differences. I don't make it to the gym when on night shift so I am interesting to see how I fair working out while on a fast. Scott

Well said. I am pretty much the same. I think I need to just settle in and let the chips fall where they may. I also felt the best with the OMAD but like I said before, I just happen to eat one meal a day vs. having the OMAD approach, if that makes any sense at all. My adjustments as of late were purposely aimed at hitting a protein target and that included "extra" meals throughout the day. I don't see it as a bad thing, but it makes some things a little more clear around eating. It is funny how I felt hungry but when I actually ate after the 2nd bite I was full and could not finish two hamburger patties. I got hom last night at a little and was quickly full. I cut the rest up and will eat it today sometime. Part if it is some experimenting with where I land long term. So far it seems like I will be right around eating once per day, but that will be more of an average. Some days I am sure I will eat more than once. Sort of a play it by ear approach. I am planning to do a fast next week while on night shift. Again, experimenting to see how it affects me throughout the week. I am planning to do one next week when I am on nights. I work all night, come home take care of the animals for a bit and then sleep all day. In a sense if I skip a meal during that time it is a 48 hour fast without even putting forth much effort. Then a couple weeks later I want to do another fast but either when I am off or when I am working dayshift, for no more reason than comparison's sake/just to know. I'm gonna plug that into the February fasting thread as well. Scott

I agree. I'm a big fan. I think the current administration should have waited on his approval and used the time and money on changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico on school lunches. The government does not have a lot of input on what we as adults choose to eat but putting healthier choices in front a kids may very well create life-long good habits. I wondered whether the name change made Musk's list of wasteful spending. Scott

Sort of a re-post and apologize for clogging up the board. In nine months I have moved in and out of eating patterns, from eating by the clock to eating when I am hungry, to OMAD, to eating two times a day as well as three times per day to hit a grams of protein target. All this week I have been eating a big egg/meat breakfast, a large portion of meat at lunch and then a rather big dinner. Today, I returned to dayshift and skipped breakfast this morning. By mid-morning today I felt like I was about to starve. I drank water and it sort of held me over til I made lunch. I can't imagine I am actually hungry today after the amount I ate yesterday. The funniest part is that half-way thru lunch today I was more than stuffed. I didn't finish the burger patties. Scott

Totally depends on you as the individual. I never had any signs nor form of the keto/carnivore flu. My son did carnivore about a month or so and the first two seeks he had versions of flu like symptoms. Hopefully it gets better sooner than later. Scott

I don't. My son and my wife have tried carnivore a couple three times. I sort of 'just keep going' on whatever it is I am doing at the time. Some say I have tons of will power but I think it is just I get from Point A to Point B and don't let obstacles slow me down. Scott

Mine was more natural than by choice. I started carnivore still eating by the clock. When I started eating when I was hungry it sort of morphed into OMAD. I started off eating by the clock and then when I ate when I was hungry it was once per day. There were also times when it stretched out to the following day. I went back and checked some entries and I think it was about 6-8 weeks into the diet. I think it was actually sooner but for a stretch I was eating our evenign meal with my wife but not really hungry. Just eating. Scott

I chew it up if I can. It has been a habit since I was a kid. I also eat the end of the chicken bones and suck the marrow out. Again, a habit I developed as a kid. My dad always said that when I got thru eating chicken it made the dog made. Scott

As said, I think you are trying to make it work on the calculator first and foremost. A buddy of mine just started a couple months and he thinks along the same lines. In our younger years he was heavy into the weights and dabbled in bodybuilding for a stretch. He became accustomed to counting everything from macros to carbs to protein and back then 'fat' was evil. This past month we have had a number of conversations where he is trying to plan his meals with co-pilot and chatGPT. He is not happy with the math and is struggling to understand as well. I think you are trying to make fat grams, fat % and fat calories be equal. They are not. Plus, for most of the population 'fat' is still considered taboo as that is what has been taught for many years. Maybe part of the 'taboo' is why you are putting emphasis on the 'fat math'. I went 7+ months and didn't factor or calculate anything. Beef salt and water. I used the fat content as a lever based on my stools and the adjustments continue because life continues to change. The last two months I have calculated protein for muscle building. I am trying to hit in the neighborhood of 200 grams of protein so I have used co-pilot to track/keep tabs on protein. I don't factor in the fat content in hitting the protein target. I hope you can figure out what works for you. I'm not much on giving advice but I would say ditch the calculator and eat meats, salt and water until you are full. Then wait til you are hungry again and repeat. As far as the muffin top, I'm at a loss there as well. I started off at 306 and now I am down to the muffin top but that is much more understandable. Hope you get it figured out. Scott

My son introduced me to carnivore. He lost around 14-15 pounds in a couple three weeks or so. just eating eat sounded easy and I gave it a go with the sole purpose of losing weight. I didn't do any research. I just dove straight in and it took me a bit to start figuring out there was more to the diet than just eating meat and then, and more importantly, it can help with health issues that far outweigh the weight loss. Once I stumbled onto this board the very first things I learned was the importance of salt and electrolytes. I was just eating meat and not doing anything to ensure hydration and electrolytes were adequate. Correcting these two helped with my adjustment to the diet. Maybe the next thing (after a few months and adjusting to meat, salt and water) I learned I can use fat to drive my stool from loose to normal with a decrease in fat and an increase will help me go a bit more regular if mu movements slow down. As I type I am remembering different things I learned and one that pops out is having patience. I trashed myself for thirty-plus years but at times expect the magic pill/miracle cure and correct those thirty years in a couple weeks. On a lighter note, I learned that eating once per day was a thing. I was eating once per day and did not know it had an actual name. I read it a couple times and had to look it up. I didn't even know it was a thing. And secondly, I lost weight/size in my feet. My $200 boots no longer fit as they should. My foot just rolls around on the inside when they are cinched up tight. I didn't know that was a possibility. Scott

Welcome and congrats on your choices. The carnivore and keto as well is more about what you are not eating and the focus should be on eliminating the sugars and carbs (or greatly lessening their amounts). I'm 9 months in or Carnivore and have had a ton of positives. I have learned and continue to learn a ton off this board. it is a great place to bounce around experiences and ideas and questions. Scott

Agreed. Belief systems and habits. There was a meme and maybe it was here, not sure. When you bring up Carnivore, standing in front of them in better health/lost weight, and they are eating a super-sized meal from a fast-food joint with a mongo sized soft drink, and all of a sudden, they become a nutritionist or a doctor. These will always be a hard sell. Scott

Posted on the other thread as well. I am at about 220 this morning. If I calculate my protein based on my current weight it would basically be 220 grams per day. I don't know my goal weight soe it is hard to the math with an unknown. If my end number is 185 then I would simply multiply somewhere between 0.7 to 1.2 by 185 to get the amount of protein I need each day. I am currently trying to add muscle thru eating and lifting so I am doing my math to keep my intake above 1 gram per pound of lean body mass per day. (This is hard). The problem, or big picture, is that if both of us strike the same keys in the same order on our calculators we will both get the same response/answer/solution. Fortunately, and unfortunately, you and I are different. My 1 gram per pound may not be enough for me in my situation/scenario and 1 gram per pound for you might be way too much, or vice versa. We are different. In the beginning I just ate when I was hungry and I only eat meat, salt and water. This morphed my daily eating habits into only eating once per day and at times not even once per day. I did/t do any math, or track nutrients or macros or calories at all. When my body said it was time, it was time. Over a period of time my body only had a couple choices to work with and it would then tell me which one to increase and which one to increase. For most, and for sure myself, I think it would be hard to eliminate carbs/sugars and use a calculator to target what our body needs. That is an awful ot of change going on at the same time. For me, it was let my body work some things out and then after some time listening to my body to make change and when things somewhat 'normalize' start dialing for the aesthetics of the process. Successful carnivore is much more about what you are not eating that what you are eating. As crazy as that sounds. Scott

The carnivore diet is an elimination diet more so than it is anything else. You can choose either of the two scenarios and go with it and you will see results over time. Why? Not because the calculator says the math is right, or the ratio calculation says fat or protein percentages are a few numbers off. The percentages given are just guides. There are no calculations or absolutes that work for both me and you. We are different. The idea of the diet is to remove the carbs and sugars more than it is to add the proteins and the fats. Elimination being the operative word. And if we go into the theories of calories in and calories out or calorie deficits and maintenance plans and the math that goes into all of that.....in reality you can just about toss all that out the window. Until you get down to less that 5-6-7% bodyfat you can't really be in a calorie deficit. There is always enough body fat to supply your body with energy, in the beginning of carnivore maybe not to thrive, but definitely enough to survive. I am only 9 months deep into carnivore, so I don't climb up on the pedestal and start preaching. (doubt I ever get there but, for sure, not there today). I have learned more from other people's experiences than Google or Youtube or substantiated scientific studies so with that, here is my spiel.... Last May I weighed 306 pounds. I was on prednisone and Gabapentin for an auto-immune disease. I had never heard of carnivore until my son gave it a try. It seemed an easy way to shed a few pounds and that was the only angle I had when I started. I started off every day with a Mountain Dew, a Little Debbie cake, two breakfast sandwiches from what ever fast food or local convenience store grill in our area. I crappy lunch and then a somewhat healthy, balanced meal at night. The basic trash Western-diet. After a month or so in I was finding myself not needing my medications for pain nor inflammation. Only thing changed was my diet. So for me, if I hadn't dropped a pound by being on carnivore and no longer needed medicine that alone was worth way more than the price of admission. When I ate my body basically said, here comes some protein and we will use that to recover from muscle work over the last few days. Here comes some fat, and we could use that for energy but we know a boat load of carbs and sugars are on the way so the fat can go lay over there in the corner (belly/muffin top, etc.) The carbs and sugars come, and they are the primary source of energy and what is left over gets to hang out with the fat over in the corner. Over time the weight can go up a differing weight and the body composition will change at differing rates. That is based on lifestyle and life choices. When I switched there was a period in there where my body was really confused about what I was doing (adjustment period). Although I didn't have sugar cravings my body was reacting to the lack of sugar/carbs/fillers and only having proteins and fats available. I had some loose stool issues along the way, I had some energy level issues at times, I had some sleep issues at times and sometimes I simply felt great. The weight was coming off but there were a lot of days where the scale said I was the same or even gained a pound, but I had to tighten my belt by one notch. This took time. Now, my body is more accustomed to meat, salt and water. I can still dial one or the other up or down for a purpose and sometimes my body tells me to make an adjustment because I am not totally hung up on a fat percentage or a calculator to tell me what I need. I am not sure that will work for anyone, but I am not up on that pedestal. The food comes in now and the body basically says, Mr. Protein you will be used for rebuilding, and some will be converted to sugar and used for energy, but you are playing 2nd fiddle to Mr. Fat. Since the initial adjustment, incoming fat and my current body fat becomes my primary source for energy. If my daily routing, lifestyle or life choices, require more fat than I need my body tells me that in a couple ways. One, the positive, I lose some body fat, or I have a change in body composition, and two, the negative, I can go to the bathroom and blow thru screen wire. Then I have to make an adjustment. Again, I don't know enough to give advice but what worked for me thus far is some patience and some time. I got out of dive school in '90 at 185 pounds, got out of the service in '93 at 215 pounds and then spent the next thirty years eating a trash diet and choosing a trash lifestyle and "worked" myself into a 320+ pound guy. In nine months, I have dropped 90 pounds to get down to 216 pounds and still have quite a bit to go. Best of luck and hopefully the plan you come up with works for you. I think your body can tell you more than the calculator. And if you miss on percentages your body will tell you that as well, but it will do so because it does not have spent all its time figuring out what to do with carbs and sugars. It is all about elimination. Scott

I will get the other pictures loaded in the morning. My phone is on charge right now. We cooked two shoulder, two butts and a couple chickens today. This is the fire barrel. We burn oak/hickory and then shovel the coals to the pig cooker which is an old oil drum I converted to a grill many years ago. I could not begin to count the number of pigs cooked on this old jalopy. The only drawback is it is hard to find heavy gaged steel barrels. A long time ago I could get years out of a burn barrel like this and no I'm lucky to get 6-7 pigs before it caves is or the bottom seam comes apart. I remember truly not understanding way back when my Pops would say, "they don't make things like they used to". It took a long time to understand. Scott

My son introduced me to the diet. he has been on and off about three times. Currently off. My wife tried it twice lasting about a week to ten days each time. We rode side by sides in West Virginia last fall and I had many conversations with the guys that rode. We are having a Super Bowl party out in the cabin and one of the guys out there is one of the ones in the discussion in the fall. He is now thirty pounds lighter, some inflammation is gone and is back to running a couple three miles a few times per week. He has slightly modified his diet to line up with his wife's keto efforts. He has used chatGPT to build a weekly diet and a weekly shopping list to hit his goals of protein consumption, fat and the minimal carbs. He is much deeper into the science than I am and was schooling me on a lot of things today. I'm 0 for 2 at my house, but one for two outside the house. Scott

I am not necessarily trying to gain 'weight' but I am trying to add muscle. In order to build muscle I need on average of about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. I'm at 216 and that works out to be pushing 200 grams of protein in a day. After naturally falling to OMAD it is now hard to eat again and again in the same day. When I get around 170-180 grams of protein that amount of food leaves me more than full. It has become an inner battle of do I keep eating and try to build muscle or do I eat when I am hungry and let the lifting/working out leave me in wherever that leaves me? Scott

Forgot pics again. Thursday night was a 14oz NY strip. Friday morning was 4 eggs and a two beef riblets, two more riblets at lunch and then another 12-14oz ribeye when I got to work. This morning 4 more eggs and then 5 chicken tenderloin strips mid-afternoon followed by another 12-14oz. NY strip when I got to work tonight. We are cooking butts and shoulders tomorrow. I will try to get some pics. Scott

I'm not sure about all the rules, and I am not sure if it even has rules. But if it floats your boat I don't see anything wrong with the additional protein. Scott