Scott F.

I don't use it anymore but I do keep it on hand for cramps. Scott

Per the Carnivore rules (LOL) it should be cut out altogether. I started on May 8th but had 6-8 Mountain Dews and several small cups of ice cream. I didn't waste them. From that point forward I have been all meats-butter-eggs. I have had all positives thus far so I would think going 'not at all' is the right way to go. The flip side is that I think there are so many things that go into a lifestyle change success is found by what works for you. Scott

I'm in that middle ground where I am still losing weight but lifting to add some muscle. If I eat for the extra protein I get the loose stool. On the days I do OMAD my stool is OK (at best). I work a rotating 12-hour shift. This week I roll onto the three nights and I try to do a 48-hour fast over the three nights. I can remember thinking only a psychopath could go 48-hours without eating (on purpose) and now I find it to be rather easy. Good luck in your adjustment. I felt a little drained at first but I didn't read any instructions nor did I ask any questions. As a result the toilet paper supply dwindled quickly. LOL Scott

Welcome. I have been on the diet for just shy of 90 days. I started at 306 and dropped 50pounds since May 8th. I have been one of the ones who have seen nothing but the upsides. Feel really lucky for that. I thought I would struggle with the diet as I ate many, many times per day. Once I got rolling, I found that I was hardly ever hungry. So much so, one meal a day is a breeze, and I have done a couple 48-hour fasts without being hungry at the end. I could have gone longer (and should have just to see). I am guessing after a couple weeks or so three meals a day will be hard to do. I struggle to eat a protein meal after going to the gym in the morning. Basically, I do one meal a day, but I eat three or four eggs after the gym and that pretty much counts as a 'meal'. Best of luck as you get started. This is a pretty good place for real world experience. Scott

Anti-carnivore to a point, but mustard is an excellent means for cramp relief. I have heard (and seen) people drink pickle juice for just about instant relief. When it comes to the pickle juice I choose the cramps. Just saying. Scott

There were two guys in the gym the other day and they were having a fevered debate over honey. One with your argument Bob about 'bees using plants' and the said his pigs used plants to make bacon. It was a pause as that resonated. LOL Scott

Heat tolerance is a tough one to describe. I'm in NC where the temperature and the humidity climb together. I have lived all throughout the south, thru Texas for a stretch, in southern California, Washington state and then back to Virginia. Hot is hot, no matter. I can remember growing up priming tobacco as a 12–14-year-old in the beat down heat of August and September. 15-17 the summers were spent with my Pops doing construction work. My hat still goes off to the folks laying shingles when it feels like they melt together faster than you can pull them apart. babbling. I remember going to the service in southern California and it was 108-110 and the orange 'do nothing' flag was flying. It didn't 'feel' all that bad to me. Even at 54 I can work outside all day in that beat down sun and have never really had any issue with the heat. Before May I hydrated with Mountain Dew by the five gallon buckets. At the same time if I walked out and the beach and sat down with as my wife 'laid out' in ten minutes I am about to burn up. Sitting still the sun kills me. It is crazy how that works. I'm not drinking 'electrolytes' per se, now, but I do use the home made electrolyte solution to salt my food to taste. It seems to be working as I have had no real issues since I read the carnivore instructions. I think the electrolytes, the heat, the work (energy expenditures) get really individualistic. The most important thing is the ability to recognize heat related issues in yourself prior to them being an issue and the second most important thing is being able to recognize them in others. The hardest part is us knuckleheads who choose to power thru til the job is done. Scott

Great sale on chuck eye steaks this week. Had one for breakfast this morning and will eat another just after lunch. It's Saturday dayshift and when I get home it will be feed time for all the animals. Sometimes when you are simply too busy to eat it helps with the 'calorie deficit' monster. LOL Scott

Welcome. I started at 306 on May 8th. I lost 30 lbs in about 31-32 days. I am at 49 pounds today. Myself, I never met a sandwich I didn't like. I could eat several times per day. I eat once per day for the most part and eat a fairly big breakfast after working out. I would say eat when you are hungry and then set your eating routine after that. It may stretch your times out a little more than you think. Best of luck. Scott

I think everyone is different. I had bought 12 Mountains Dew's and two small cups of ice cream. I didn't waste those the first week. I also didn't read anything about electrolytes. I didn't know a lot about increasing the fat content. I'm about 83-84 days in and it has done really well for me. Since the first week of the MD's/ice cream and then getting some salt going I have eaten nothing went but meat, eggs and butter. I have started to lean more toward red meats as of late. I have went for stretches on chicken/pork but the stretches of red meats seems to work better for me. I'm probably not the one to answer 'how to get started'. I stumbled out of the gate but since have done fairly well. Scott

I believe that to be true. Everything is not for everyone. I would say evaluate where you are and what you are looking for and then go from there. Thus far I have had nothing but good results. Maybe I am one of the lucky ones. I have not tried the 'eat when I am hungry/eat til I am full' approach. I eat once per day most days and on occasion I will eat a hearty breakfast after going to the gym. If I ate when I was hungry it would be like, maybe every 36-48 hours. I did a 48 hour fast and was not the least bit hungry at 48 hours. This comes from a dude pushing 306 pounds and ate pretty much every time I went by the refrigerator. Were you straight carnivore? did you cheat? did you modify? I would say find the one that works for you and go that route. Best of luck. Scott

Possible. I have bloodwork scheduled Monday. I'm more interested in seeing my immunoglobulin scans than anything else. Maybe mid-next week I will know more. Scott

Define cheating. LOL Scott

Maybe, but more than likely not. It was a rough stretch in 2018 until diagnosed. Once diagnosed and got started the infusions every six months I have been basically healthy. When my immune system is low and can catch a cold or flu from miles away. I have had Covid three times officially and once where the symptoms were the same but a negative test. Other than the multiple trips down the Covid road I have been basically healthy (if that makes sense). My infusion is about six hours long. Sounds rough but I see so many others there in a far rougher situation than me, so sometimes I think my health can be relative. Again, if that makes sense. Scott

I'm on the cheap bus too and did the exact same thing. I bought the ingredients and made my own I still didn't like the taste but I use the electrolyte mix to salt my food to taste. More than one way to skin a cat. (bad example on a Carnivore forum) Scott

Before this one of my favorite things to do is smother mash potatoes with any vegetable we were having at the time. Corn, peas, snap beans, really didn't matter. My wife said I looked like I was eating like a child. There was nothing like mash potatoes, with snaps beans smothered with gravy. I didn't think you could really eat much better. Tonight, I ate my chicken, and my wife cooked some corn and some black beans. After we ate, the corn and the black beans were left over. I went to the frig for my water bottle and she had mixed the corn and the black beans together and I am not sure if it was the contrast in color, flashing back to how I would have eaten them in the past or maybe it was a simple craving. Not sure, but they really looked good. I told my wife that is how I would have eaten them and she said, "You would have" but I'm done with it and the chickens will get the pan in the morning. I was like "Damn chickens". Maybe the trade-off is tomorrow's eggs. (always searching for the silver lining) Scott

So I am pretty new as well, maybe 80 days without looking at a calendar. I didn't come here or read any directions the first few weeks. I went with the 'just eat meat' approach. I had stools from loose to all-out diarrhea for the first few weeks. I had a lull in energy around the second week or so. (First week of 'just meats' I had 6-8 Mountain Dews left and a couple small ice cream cups left so I didn't waste them). About three to four weeks in I started reading and trying to learn and found out I had missed the boat on electrolyte needs. I tried several of the pre-made drink mixes, even made some homemade mixes none tasted all that good to me. I the used the electrolyte mix to salt my food to taste. Once that got back in order the energy not only returned, but much more than I had previously. Like Geezy said, everyone is different and thus the results and challenges are seldom the same. I lost 30 pounds in 31-32 days. That is a great lead-in, great sales pitch, but it fails to mention that I had hundred pounds in which to choose. No expert by any means, but the huge, really quick awesome results seem to happen to people further down the line from "healthy" (relative term and changes with the individual). I found I no longer needed pain/anti-inflammation medicine for an auto-immune disease. I have now lost 49lbs since May 8th. So far, I have seen only positives. When discussing the diet, or the lifestyle change, I am in no place to give advice but I will say just give it an honest try for a couple weeks and then stretch it to a month and then decide for yourself. Tons of information thru conversation in this forum. I'm more of a fan of someone's personal experience than a big pharma sponsored double-blind study from some far away research lab. If that makes any sense at all. Welcome and best of luck. Scott

I'm hoping I can graduate into some of the 'burpee' type exercises in time. From my lesions (autoimmune disease-NMOSD) I have scar tissue on a number of places on my brain and stem. It has been a few years since they were active but old folks don't heal up like young folks. One of the only remnants is that when I change levels quickly there is a certain amount of dizziness. I can go down to one knee and then to a push up position but if I were to spring up doing a military type bodybuilder exercise I might be there on the ground for a few seconds or so. Hoping I can get there but really happy with the progress so far. So much so, I sometimes kick myself in the ass for not going this route years ago. LOL Pretty much no complaints here, I'm on the 'only positive experiences with carnivore/exercise train' right now. Scott

I had not been for a lot of years. As of late it is a pretty good upper body work out at Planet Fitness. Then I walk for about 3-4 miles on the walk I try to get in 50-75 pushups and 50-75 squats. I wish I could do it everyday and in time maybe I will. I work 12 hour rotating shifts that often end up being 13 hours or so. On the work days I come home and take of the animals and such. By then it is too late for me to workout. Hopefully as work slows down I can get more regular with workouts. Scott

I never had a reading above 100 til now. No processed meats to make note of and the fat content I feel is sort of high. (I have been grinding meats and adding a lot of fat-maybe 60-40, even some 50-50). As of late I am leaning toward more red meat than chicken or pork (as the leg thighs get ready for the grill tonight). I lift and walk on my days off which works out to a lot more one week and not near as much the next week due to rotating shift work. I read about the gluconeogenesis and some of the other reports along these lines but didn't expect a 15+ point jump. I'm eating once per day and it was about 12-13 hours from eating to testing but it was in the morning after working out on the way to the walk. I have not ready anything testing after working out. I will need to look that up. I mean the carnivore diet is the miracle cure for everything. I saw that on the internet, so I know it is true. You can't lie on the internet. LOL Just sort of caught me off guard. I think I will test this week before working out to see if there is a marked difference. Scott

Agreed. I doubt I would ever get tired of eating meat. Prior to carnivore I could eat a bologna sandwich every day without complaining. As I move along, I am finding I eat much less and that amount leaves me full for stretches, even outlasting the one meal day approach. Where my 54 year old body is composition wise 6 months from now is "who knows". Being that I am not hungry at all now if I needed more protein to add muscle I think it would have to force eat the extra protein. I would probably think of using one of the grass-fed powders along with creatine monohydrate. Right now, I feel like I am a long way from making that decision but no more than I really want to eat now, I can see it as a possibly if muscle gain is a priority. Interesting subject. Scott

Minced meats. Send the chicken thru the blender/food processor and add it to your recipe. Sort of your current recipe then add the chicken. Before carnivore we did this with our homemade chicken noodle soup. it is meatier and less soupy. Scott

Here is my $0.02, and it will be a struggle for it to be worth the entire $0.02, as I am still brand new. I have read about people who are lifting/working out heavily and they simply can't eat enough protein each day (whole food) and they use the whey proteins and supplement along those lines. I started at 306lbs and have lost 49. I'm pretty much eating once per day and have only ben actually hungry only twice since May. I did a couple 48 hour fasts with no problems. I am lifting as the fat comes off, I am hoping for some muscle mass to be there vs. looking like an empty trash bag whenever I plane out. Although I am not there yet, I can see where I may need to go that route for the protein needed. Tonight, at work, I am eating now. I'm not at all hungry but I have a 12-hour shift in front of me and I plan to work out/walk in the morning. So, in May a nice size ribeye was not a challenge at all. Less than 3 months later, eating once a day, that same rib eye is more than feel like I want. (if that makes any sense at all). Last week I ate half the rib eye at night and put half in the refrigerator. I took it to the gym with me and instead of a post work out protein drink I ate the steak on the ride home. Eating a chunk of steak riding down the road made me look like a true carnivore or some sort of psychopath. Not sure which. I'm not there yet but I can see where for me the use of protein drinks may be a real option. Scott

I don't. It is a "balance" of sorts. The fat content should be higher than 20% and it may take some variety other than ground beef. Personally, I do better on a higher fat content. I noticed that when I eat heavy on chicken or pork, my weight loss planes off and the stool gets loose/looser. Electrolytes also play a role. When I first started carnivore, I didn't read the instructions. My electrolytes were way off, and my movements swung from semi-constipated to loose, to all out diarrhea. Just my personal experiences. Scott

Even prior to carnivore my blood sugar was in the 90's and a lot of mornings in the upper 80's. My blood pressure hung around 120/60. I was relatively healthy but way overweight at the same time. Go figure. After 30 days on the carnivore diet, I had my first ever reading over 100 at 104 and at 60 days in I was at 108. Most of the relatives on my mom's side have diabetes related issues. I'm either adopted or somehow dodged the 'sugar bullet'. Been lucky, I guess. I'm reading about gluconeogenesis. I'm eating an all-meat diet as well as eggs. This past week I have used cheese for the first time and have had maybe one glass of milk in two months. I'm sure if I counted my protein intake would be pretty high but I'm not sure how much is enough to spike blood sugar. Anyone else see a spike in blood glucose while eating carnivore? Just wondering. Scott