Scott F.

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

Hopefully you are correct. Thus far, zero complaints and no real negatives. All in all, the change has been much easier than I would have ever expected. I started the diet because it sounded like a easy way to drop a few pounds. I had no idea of the total impact it has had for my health. I went the longest, even as I could see my own benefits/progressions, without really preaching its benefits to others, much less recommending someone try the diet for themselves. As of late, I have become more of an advocate in conversations as I don't think I should be receiving all the benefits and not at least sharing. Sometimes 9 months seems like a long time and then at others it seems like I am in the infancy of the diet. The journey continues. Scott

I feel like it will eventually be my lifestyle. I try not to predict the future. If I could do that I would be buying lottery tickets. LOL Scott

Tomorrow will mark 9 months eating Carnivore. At nine months I still call it the Carnivore Diet. I'm working my way toward it being a lifestyle. This far no real issues. I made light of my nearly $200 boots no longer fitting but mostly because I have heard tons of weight loss stories and tons of diets. Keto, Atkins, Jenny Craig, Weight watchers and I never remember anyone showing off the fact their feet got smaller. Totally caught off guard on this one. I have not taken any medicine for pain nor inflammation since May/June of last year, maybe 4 weeks into the diet. Although I was expecting a bit more progress as the weight fell but over the last four months or so my LDL dropped by 35. I was sort of happy with it holding steady for the first four or five months, then after some reading, I sort of expected it to inch up some as I am eating a lot of fat and using fat for energy. Another carnivore surprise, it dropped by 35. I stalled on the weight loss in the low to mid 80's for more than a month. I'm eating more than ever trying to hit the protein per pound for muscle growth. I have found getting close to 200 grams is sort of hard to do as I have found I'm a 'right around one meal per day person'. The second meal at times can be a chore. And even though I feel like I am eating a five gallon bucket of meat a day this morning I hit the 90lb loss mark. I weighed in at 306 in May and hit the scales at 216 today. Ten pounds per month average over the last nine months. Not too shabby. A big thanks to the board and its members. I pull older threads and read as I am interested in people's personal stories more so than studies and clinical findings. I like to compare the experience of others to my own and usually learn something along the way. Scott

I ate twice yesterday and felt overly stuffed. Today I didn't eat til around 6PM. I had a pretty big NY strip. I wish I could easily eat more. Scott

Welcome and congrats on getting started. I was 306 when I started and jut recently starting counting protein grams per day. After just about 9 months it is really hard for me to eat enough to get to 200 grams of protein in a day. Tonight, I ate a pretty big NY strip steak that was about 14oz which is around 90 grams but that is the only thing I ate today. I ate twice yesterday, and the second meal felt like I was having to choke it down. Tonight, I hit the 90lb loss mark. I'm trying to hit the 1 gram per pound of ideal body weight in order to gain some muscle. I'm finding it difficult to eat that much in a day. Good luck. Scott

Nice work. I have thought about trying the raw butter. I may give it a shot. Scott

I just ate and instead of watching TV for the next few minutes I am going out in the shop and get the old truck frame in epoxy. I'm hoping the crash can be avoided by being a little more active after eating. The next few hours will tell. Thanks for the reply. Scott

I haven't had hardly any negatives since switching nine months ago to the carnivore way of eating. I have been really strict with the food intake and on occasion drink a glass of milk (somewhere between a glass weekly/bi-weekly). I started off with the eat when I was hungry approach and that pretty much turned into OMAD (and as said before, I didn't know it had a name or that eating once a day was a 'thing'). As of late I have increased my food intake to hit a protein per day target as I am lifting and trying to build muscle. I have an auto-immune disease and building/maintaining muscle mass off-sets the progression of the disease. My issue: On my days off I am up early around 4:30 or so and get to the gym a little after 5. I lift for a little more than an hour, come home put on the weight vest and walk for a hair over three miles. After the walk I shower and eat breakfast. It is usually 4 eggs and whatever meat we had left over from the night before. If no leftovers it is fresh sausage made the week before, sometimes it is bacon. The off to whatever I am doing for the day. This past weekend I cut up a couple fallen trees and busted the wood for the grill. (used a wood maul to bust the wood/no log splitter). Yesterday I cut some steel to make spring hangers for the project truck I am working on and the day before I used the back-pack blower to push the leaves into the woods (live in an oak grove so the leaves are just about year around work). As the day ends I usually fire up the grill for the evening meal. Fir the past month or so when I eat the evening mill it hits a switch and no sooner than I am finished I am gassed out. No energy, tired as all get out, and simply can't hold my eyes open. If I try to power thru in the recliner, I end up sleeping in ten-to-fifteen-minute intervals, and once rested can't sleep much that night. If I go to bed I am up at midnight as wide awake as can be for the rest of the night. I am a life-long rotating 12 hour shift employee so my sleep patterns suck due to the shift work but have not ran out of gas, all of a sudden zapped for energy before. It seems to have started when I started adding the extra protein for muscle growth. Anyone experienced end of the crashes? It is all of a sudden, from 100 to 0 as soon as I finish eating. Feel great one minute and can't get out of my the next. Scott

This is so true. I naturally went to OMAD (even before I knew it was a thing). When I started eating more to get more protein I started eating two times per day. When I tailed that off I woke up feeling not necessarily all out hunger, but it was more like the clock said it was time to eat. Proving one of the points that eating is more habit than anything. Scott

Looking forward to it. Scott

6'3". When someone is actually sick and loses a lot of weight over a short period of time. I'm not sick but going from 306 to 220 in less than 9 months leans in that direction. Scott

It is a thread 'what did you eat today?'. This past weekend I made my first carnivore pizza. I was quite impressed with how the ground chicken and an egg made a really good pizza 'crust'.

All depends on you, your diet, your lifestyle, etc. I weighed 306 on May 8th, 2024. I dropped an average of a pound a day the first 31-32 days. It tailed off and now I have lost 88lbs, about a week shy of 9 months. I think I have lost too much weight based on what I see in the mirror. I look somewhat sickly. I'm lifting a lot and eating a lot but I'm hanging around the 84-86 pound mark, fluctuating daily. I'm not sure I could eat much more during the day as of late I am fighting loose stools and I feel like it is because I'm eating more than I should. It is like the more I eat and the more I work out the more fat I am using for energy, the weight continued to fall until I started eating like a crazy person. I can only guess your end number will be as individual as you and me. Scott

We had a brand we used for years and in the beginning, I didn't see much difference. As I have progressed with carnivore there are some sugars that trigger the loose stools. On occasion I drink a glass of milk. It does not really do anything to my stomach but during the weight loss I felt like it played a part in a stall. The sugar in the milk does not bother me that much. The bacon was sugar cured and added the maple syrup for taste, like said earlier. This minor amount of sugar would send me running. I have also gotten to the point where 'me and seed oils' no longer work well together. I have not had sugar or carb cravings (been lucky) but if you are still craving that little bit of sugar on the bacon with the syrup might be your gateway drug. hard to say. I think it will be based on you as an individual. If it works for you then it is a non-issue. If itis , then the most effective part about carnivore is that it is an elimination diet. Scott

Congrats on the retirement. I also answered on the other thread. Best of luck. I'm 55 so I got a few years to go. Scott

Geezy is spot on. I averaged a pound a day for the first 31-32 days. It may stall on one day and then drop two the next but the average was a pound a day for a little better than a month. A big portion of that was water weight and in time as I became fat adaptive the fat loss was evident in the mirror as well as the scale. Depending on you as an individual at some point you will plane off, some call it a stall, and then the fall will be slower, mostly depending on you and your lifestyle. I would not add carbs just to off-set weight loss. I'm just shy of 9 months in and I have lost 88 pounds. Around 75 or so I started to look sickly. I started eating like a horse and the weight continues to fall. This way of eating can get you a lot closer to your ideal bodyweight. I'm lifting with more frequency and more volume as of late and I'm eating like a horse. I have slowed the weight loss but it still continues with gradual weight loss. Best of luck and I would not re-add carbs at this point (just my opinion). That would be like fifty cent holding up a dollar. Scott

I'm going to go the 'two pair of socks' route for awhile. At some point I will have to do something different. Stepping on and off logs this past weekend just about threw me to the ground several times. I think that is when I really noticed the botts didn't fit like before. The carnivore thing ceases to amaze. Scott

12W. Of all the things people talk about in weight loss, regardless of method, I never remember hearing nor reading about shoe size. I would have never even considered this as a possibility. Scott

This is very petty and my apologies upfront as some people have real issues. I have lost as much 88lbs in just shy of 9 months. I have not had any negative issues thus far and the positives have been simply amazing. Anyone ever lost weight/size in their feet. I bought a pair of work boots that were pushing $200. The last few weeks they just didn't feel the same. This past weekend I am in and out of the woods cutting trees and busting wood for the grill. My feet like my boots are two sizes to big and my feet are slipping and sliding on the inside. I have flat feet anyway, and I guess I had fat feet as well. My 12W's that have fit forever now do not. I tried on a 12 regular for a much better fit. For the next few cold months, I can go with an extra pair of socks but once it get shot two pair of socks just sounds miserable. Of all things I am, I am really cheap. If I have paid nearly $200 for boots I can't wear this entire carnivore concept comes into question. LOL Scott