Scott F.

It is a 'dial it in for yourself'. I haven't been doing it very long and I mostly just say 'this works for me'. I didn't have my electrolytes right and I felt like I was dragging. Over the weekend I started adding the electrolyte solution to all my food and after a couple days I lost that dragging around feeling. I don't his the gym like a crazy person but I do move from set to set quicker than most. I leave the gym, come home and walk between 3-4 miles. Along the way I try to get in 60-70 squats and 40-50 pushups. The week before I struggled, then it was like a boost, and I felt better. Since I am heavy on the fats and I make sure I hit the salts, I have had more energy now than I have had in a lot of years. Scott

All that is documented facts, but with that said, this is sort of hard to beat. Scott

Second that. I have found I have more energy and better efforts in the gym on the red meats. So much so (see the post above) I am about to ease into a red meat, water and salt diet. Another thing is electrolytes. When I started I didn't read any instructions, just dove in headfirst. I was feeling flat and not all that energetic. Then I read about electrolytes and tried a couple of the store bought versions. I didn't like their taste and found a youtube video for a homemade electrolyte solution. Between the fats and the electrolytes I have found more energy than I have had in a lot of years. Scott

Me too. I read that was a beautiful marketing strategy to sell pork as the 'just as healthy as the chicken' white meat. It was a great marketing campaign because the first thing that comes to mind is 'the other white meat'. Scott

I always lead off with, "it's only been XXX number of days", so I am on the lower end of the learning curve. In those 112-114 days I have noticed a number of trends along the way. I sort of keep track of what I've eaten and how it affected me, mostly stool scenarios, but I have noticed I seem to feel better (totally subjective as so many other things factor in) and have more energy the day or so after red meats, especially the fattier red meats. Thus far it has been a pretty good mix of the meats, the variety coming from my wife is not into the carnivore, so the meats vary. As of late I have swayed a bit more to the chicken. Again, it "feels" like there is a difference. Part of that is we have a local Mom & Pop grocery store, and they have killer deals on chicken. I sort of stocked up a week or so ago. I'm off work this week and will finish up the pork chops and the chicken over the next two to three days. My wife calls it grocery shopping and I call it a 'meat run', but either way this week we stock up. I think I'm going to red meat, water and salt for a 30 day stretch just to see. It won't exactly be a double-blind study with control subjects, as I will be the double and the blind and the subject all rolled into one. This has piqued my interest. Speaking of learning, as I read up on this version there were a number of people who referred to pork as 'red meat'. I never considered it red meat, but I guess the learning is never ending. Scott

I'm no expert at all and personally, I consider 114 days still in the infancy and barely tipping the iceberg of the learning. Seldom do I disagree with another's post because everything is really individualistic when it comes to one's health. My son was on the diet and told me three or so weeks in the diet I would seldom be hungry and eating two hamburger patties would be a tough go. Like was posted earlier, I could snack midafternoon, eat a honking ribeye, with a loaded bake potato, two to three glasses of sweet tea and then eat a hearty snack before bed. "eezy-peezy". I'd still wake up hungry in the morning. There is no way two hamburger patties are going to fill a man at 300lbs. So, I pretty much thought he was full of S*&%. Fast forward three weeks in and I put four patties on my plate and nearly had to choke the second one down. The next two got moved til the next day.. From that point on I am mostly OMAD. Before I snacked to be snacking, mostly out of habit and cravings. From about three to four weeks in the cravings were gone and have not had one since. I mentioned once my wife mixed some left-over black beans and corn into a scrap bowl to give to the chickens. It was not exactly a craving, but it did look appealing. I also did a lot of snacking based on break times at work on the 12 hour shift. For most, eating is a habit as much as it is a craving or a need. The carnivore diet is all about elimination. For me, it eliminated the cravings and pretty much broke the habit of eating just to be eating. It has not eliminated my need to eat but it has eliminated what I thought was "the need to eat all the time". Again, this is my spiel, and the carnivore experience will never be 'cookie-cutter' but there a lot of typicals. Scott

Welcome. Dr. Shawn Baker and Dr. Chaffee have several videos that speak directly to the points/questions you are asking. Check them out on youtube. Scott

No doubts. No complaints. Scott

I'm good with the numbers. Like anyone, I was hoping to see some improvements. But I can't imagine fixing 50+ years i 111 days. LOL I still think I'm in the infancy of the carnivore lifestyle. I'm figuring things out every so often. For now, I'm going with I feel better, I'm not taking any medicine for pain/inflammation, and I have dropped 60 pounds in less than four months. I'm good. Scott

I think so too. It is still just 111 days in so I'm trying to not be terribly impatient. I don't take any medicines other than my infusions every six months. My BP has always been relatively low. For me, 110/70 is the highest I see. Once with Covid I had 125/75 and that is highest I have ever seen. It is the same with blood glucose. I would have to eat a Little Debbie cake to get into the mid 90's. Since Carnivore I'm in the low 100's. Prior to that some mornings I would do the 'wall slide' to get to the kitchen to eat. I would wake up in the upper 80's at times. I have bloodwork again in November with my infusion. It will more data points. LOL Scott

Just tagging on to an old post. I had bloodwork earlier in the week. For the most part pre-carnivore, I was healthy, just fat, if that can make any sense at all. I never had a blood pressure issue and my glucose was sort of low, especially in the mornings. My cholesterol was up, high, but not totally alarming (to me anyways). This trip my blood pressure was 99/66. Which is a few points down as normally it hangs around 110-112 over 60-70. My glusose A1C number inched down from 4.73 to 4.32 (which is odd because my daily's have been a hair over 100 for the last couple months and before I needed a Little Debbie cake to get to the mid 90's). The Vitamin D moved up 9 spots to 46. Total cholesterol dropped some and now is at 219. The HDL is 37 and the LDL is 187. ( I was thinking the total would drop a bit more and maybe even a slight better LDL number---then again, I have to factor its only been 111 days since I started---patience is not my strong suit). The triglycerides are close to the same at 75. My hemoglobin and hematocrit has always been on the lower end of the chart but this time they both dropped just under the 'normal'. The doctor recommended an iron supplement every other day. She said there could be some constipation. I told her I am on the carnivore diet and if I miss on fat, water or electrolytes a little constipation would be a good thing. My doctor is on vacation so I seen Dr. Avery for the first time. She was really receptive of the carnivore approach. She said she never met anyone who did the diet for a long stretch and she had only read about some of the 'benefits'. We spent twenty minutes with me telling her how it has been working for me. My favorite thing to hear from a doctor is, 'not everything needs a pill'. She told me at my next appointment she would be well versed on the carnivore approach. Sometimes getting the warm fuzzies from your doctor means a lot. Babbling. I'm trying to copy and paste the records from 5/13 and 8/27 for comparison sake, but the portal is not cooperating. Scott

We do. But this time of the year it is really hot and the chickens slack up. I get a pack of things and leg quarters and take them out to the chicken pen and show them the difference between laying chickens and meat chickens. They usually pick up a little after the choice is left up to them. Scott

Nice. Our basket looks similar. Scott

Going to be tough with the dislike for meat to be a on a meat based diet. I would say you are going to have to be creative. This week I am planning to make a carnivore pizza with minced chicken as the crust. Sounds interesting and will be a little different. Once I work my way thru what is in the freezer Im going red meat, water and salt for a stretch to see how that works/feels. Welcome to the board. Best of luck. Scott

Great post. My weight has come off incredibly fast. But with that said, I hit some 1-2 week stalls as far as the scales go. Even then I felt like I was cinching the belt up a notch or two. It is nice to 'see' the numbers fall, but sometimes, they are just that, numbers. As humans we are mostly impatient. (Me) I spent 30+ years with a dumpster diet and a trash lifestyle but then was disheartened because the scale didn't drop immediately. Human nature to a point. A one or two week stall is really nothing in the big picture. Maybe I am losing weight and gaining patience, not sure. Best of luck at keeping it going. I'm about 105 days in and still feel like I am brand new to the idea, still learning, still experimenting trying to find what works best for me. Scott

The Lion Diet Guide: Benefits, Risks, and Tips - Dr. Robert Kiltz (doctorkiltz.com) I'm not as much on studies as I am the personal experiences of others. Great conversation above. I'm at work and using some downtime to read. The above article had some of the information here at the bottom. I'm not picking sides, nor being judgmental. I don't eat peppers because I don't like them, and I had to look up the definition of Natto. I never had them, but they don't sound appealing. LOL I have been straight carnivore since the third week of May. I use butter, use cheese on occasion and the past two weeks I had maybe three or four glasses of milk. I'm not sure what 'my plan' is called but I have lost 57lbs since May 8th and been off pain/inflammation meds since the last part of May. (Each time I type I lead off with the weight loss knowing full well being off the meds is a much bigger deal considering the autoimmune disease and all. I guess weight loss is a better hook. LOL) I have found I do better on the red meats. I was making plans this past week to go red meats, water and salt for a few weeks just to explore that as a path forward. But then Sam's and our local butcher shop had a killer sale on chicken and I couldn't pass it up. As the freezer goes empty in the next week or so I'm going to I guess what is called the Lion's diet. I'm sure time will tell. Scott

Two good responses. One of the primary things to understand it is a process of elimination. (I was 6'3" 306 and as high as 320, so not pointing fingers). I made all the "right" decision to get to 320 if 320 was my goal. Since I started carnivore it has been much more about what I am not eating than what I am eating. Eating animal products, drinking water and adding salt works but the objective is to eliminate all the things that helped me get to 320. I would take the advice from Bob Geezy, as both are solid. Then look at what has been eliminated and what still may need to be eliminated. As far as the scale, although I have dropped a lot of weight there were times when it stalled. During the stall times I was still cinching up the belt every so often. And before the weight was seriously falling, I came off meds for ped/inflammation from NMOSD (auto-immune disease). There are positives other than the scale. Recognize and celebrate those when you can. Best of luck. Scott

Congrats. I'm maybe a 100 or so days in and it has been more than amazing for me. Best of luck. Scott

I'm going to guess it comes down to the individual. For me it is butter. If the butter intake eases up some I start getting a bit loose. The other fats are usually with their respective meat and it does not bother me as much, if any at all. I made some beef tallow to use with cooking and it does not affect me the same as butter. Just me, no literature or data to support. Scott

I am almost possible you get to keep your membership card. Scott

I think it was called the Meat Only diet or even the Stonehenge diet. Scott

Agree with Geezy. Stay positive. I'm no expert but sometimes the weight is just a number and you may stall on the scales and still cinch the belt up a notch. I hung out at 25-29 pounds, up and down for a period, but the belt was moving. Good luck. And not only see the positives but look for the positives as well. Scott

As I read more and more it is sort of strange that two different doctors with the basically the same medical school training can be polar opposite on certain situations. I have a friend at work that switched to carnivore when I was about 3-4 weeks in, and 25-30 pounds lost. He quickly started dropping weight. His doctor advised him against the carnivore diet based on the it being an incomplete diet. In turn, he prescribed him one of the ozempics, etc. etc. One of the neurologists I see tells me that if they had perfected medicine a long time ago, he could give me some absolutes but since they were still practicing medicine, a lot of the decisions would be on me. One day I would wake up with aches and pains and it could be NMOSD/Devic's as the cause. The next day I could wake up with really similar aches and pains, but it very well could be I was over 50 and over a hundred pounds overweight. Scott

As soon as we got past white sugar and brown sugar things were coating downhill....fast. Scott

Good luck to you as well. Scott