Fat Burn Zone

[perfecta1c]

Good morning all

I have been on carnivore for 9 months. Feeling better every day. I was wondering about visceral fat burning on carnivore. My go to exercise daily is walking. I use to have to walk at a certain elevated heart rate so as to burn fat first(60%to 70%) of max heart rate.  Since I am not eating carbs anymore, does the heart rate zone matter anymore for visceral fat burn since I'm fat adapted? Thank you to all who reply.

[Scott F.]

My loss of fat has continued since pretty much the beginning. I started at 306 in May and tipped the scales this morning at 220. 

I lift three to four times per week and on those lift days I walk between 3 and 4 miles.

I think it boils down to whether you are in a calorie deficit or not. Being fat adaptive really helps with the visceral fat. 

I would venture to guess the fat will continue to drop in the situation you described.

Scott

[perfecta1c]

That's amazing for you. Good stuff. I don't have a lot of weight to loose. I was trying to regain my health and add some muscle as I get older. I have always been a hard gainer. Sarcopina is not a good thing. I will look into calorie deficit. On a side note my nephew just reversed his type two after 6 months on carnivore. It's criminal that thus knowledge is s not more popular. 

[Scott F.]

I was never really strong. When someone is talking about a smaller guy they say "he is really strong for his size'. I have always been the opposite. "really weak for my size". In turn, gains were always hard for me and now at 55 I'm doing the best I can but things are slow.

The carnivore diet and the lifting/walking has helped me lose a bunch of weight and as it peels off I'm hoping the muscles are growing underneath. LOL

Time will tell. 

I'm a big fan of the diet and although I don't stand up on the pedestal and preach, but I will tell them about it if they are interested. It has done wonders for me.

Scott

[Orweller]

On 1/7/2025 at 6:26 AM, perfecta1c said:

Good morning all

I have been on carnivore for 9 months. Feeling better every day. I was wondering about visceral fat burning on carnivore. My go to exercise daily is walking. I use to have to walk at a certain elevated heart rate so as to burn fat first(60%to 70%) of max heart rate.  Since I am not eating carbs anymore, does the heart rate zone matter anymore for visceral fat burn since I'm fat adapted? Thank you to all who reply.

It does not matter. It most likely never mattered. We lose fat in the kitchen, not in the gym. Cardio is a poor way to lose weight. Think of it like this, a 5k run is equivalent to one chocolate chip cookie, that is 30 minutes of jogging. 

• Eating is for weight loss
• Cardio is for cardio vascular health
• Strength training is for metabolic health & efficiency

Calorie counting goes out the window too, when you're not consuming carbs. 

[Orweller]

19 hours ago, Scott F. said:

My loss of fat has continued since pretty much the beginning. I started at 306 in May and tipped the scales this morning at 220. 

I lift three to four times per week and on those lift days I walk between 3 and 4 miles.

I think it boils down to whether you are in a calorie deficit or not. Being fat adaptive really helps with the visceral fat. 

I would venture to guess the fat will continue to drop in the situation you described.

Scott

I think, that if you would never count a calorie again, you'd still lose weight. Know what I mean? I think all those years we weren't counting calories, but carbs. Just my observation. It's carbs that got us fat, not calories. 

[Scott F.]

Agree with the carbs/sugars got me fat (maybe us, but I will only speak for me). I have never counted calories, before carnivore nor since.

Two end results. One, I went from 205 in 1993 to 306 in 2024 going on proteins, carbs/sugars and fat. Then in 2024 I went from 306 and now down to 220 over the last 8 months. 

One path I am sure I was in a calories surplus, maybe even all of them. Since carnivore and a large chunk of that has been OMAD, I am sure I have been in a calorie deficit. 

For me, the real difference is the quality and the need for which calorie, more so, that the quantity. 

We had a weight loss contest once at work. It was for 60 days. I started around the 50 day mark and lost 32 to pounds for the win. I ate a bowl of Grape Nuts in the morning with 2% milk and another bowl in the evening for about 40 days. No added sugars other than the milk and no animal protein or fat. I walked about 2-3 miles per day. I celebrated the victory by stopping at the store on the way home for a 20oz. Mountain Dew, a Little Debbie cake and side of the road pork chop biscuit. (not the sharpest knife in the drawer).

A year later we had the same contest. This time I dropped 29lbs by eating Grape Nuts in the morning and a normal meal at night (one of the 'balanced' meals we were all taught to eat based on the food pyramid). I walked about the same amounts and won again. And, just as before I celebrated with the same foods that blew me up from the start.

Different calories carry different qualities and serve the body differently.

But when you commented about weight-loss comes from the kitchen, no truer words have been spoken.

Scott

[perfecta1c]

All good stories. Interesting all the people's journeys. I have to admit that I have started counting calories. I started to gain weight instead of looking weight. I think it's because I'm gaining muscle while loosing fat.  I'm trying to loose fat and gain muscle at the same time. Counting carbs makes easy to ensure I'm in a deficit.  Being on carnivore and eating the same meals all the time makes it is easy to count. Ground beef, roasts, eggs, butter, bacon, sardines,  salt and cheese. Water and coffee. 

I am also playing with zone 2 training during my walks and also ensuring the 10,000 steps / day. The hardest part for me was getting enough protein before carnivore. That's easy now that I don't eat carbs. 

 

[Orweller]

6 minutes ago, perfecta1c said:

All good stories. Interesting all the people's journeys. I have to admit that I have started counting calories. I started to gain weight instead of looking weight. I think it's because I'm gaining muscle while loosing fat.  I'm trying to loose fat and gain muscle at the same time. Counting carbs makes easy to ensure I'm in a deficit.  Being on carnivore and eating the same meals all the time makes it is easy to count. Ground beef, roasts, eggs, butter, bacon, sardines,  salt and cheese. Water and coffee. 

I am also playing with zone 2 training during my walks and also ensuring the 10,000 steps / day. The hardest part for me was getting enough protein before carnivore. That's easy now that I don't eat carbs. 

 

I guess we're looking for fat-loss, and not weight loss. The scale can be quite deceptive. So what if we know how hard the earth is pulling on us with it's gravity? What is it pulling is the question! Good luck on your journey. 

[Scott F.]

Great comment. 

There is the difference between weight loss and fat loss. For me, in the beginning of Carnivore the overwhelming majority of weight I lost was fat. At some point I am sure there was some muscle loss as well. 

I'm lifting now trying to gain muscle, off-set the loss of muscle due to age, off-set some of the muscle atrophy issues with the medical issue I have and off-set the muscle that is being lost with the fat. 

Maybe I need to count some calories. Not sure. I have, however, counted grams of protein on occasion to see if I am eating enough protein for muscle growth. Even at 220lbs it is a hard go to eat that much protein. 

Great post. 

Appreciate the information.

Scott

[Orweller]

11 hours ago, Scott F. said:

Great comment. 

There is the difference between weight loss and fat loss. For me, in the beginning of Carnivore the overwhelming majority of weight I lost was fat. At some point I am sure there was some muscle loss as well. 

I'm lifting now trying to gain muscle, off-set the loss of muscle due to age, off-set some of the muscle atrophy issues with the medical issue I have and off-set the muscle that is being lost with the fat. 

Maybe I need to count some calories. Not sure. I have, however, counted grams of protein on occasion to see if I am eating enough protein for muscle growth. Even at 220lbs it is a hard go to eat that much protein. 

Great post. 

Appreciate the information.

Scott

You could track your calories on an app, but rather count your macros, to make sure you've got enough protein, etc. 

0.8 to 1 gram of pound of protein per pound of ideal body weight. So if your goal is 180 lbs. consume between 144 and 180 gram of protein. That is doable I'd say. Eat 8 oz. of ground pork and you got about 60 grams of protein right there. Add a leaner cut of meat in the mix, and if you go too lean, add a tbsp of butter or some shredded cheese. 

[Orweller]

And I reckon, we are always in the fat burning zone as that is our primary fuel. But that may be an ignorant observation. 

[Scott F.]

 

[Geezy]

Calories” are a measure of heat energy created when you burn something in a calorimeter. Completely useless measure as we do not burn our food, we process it chemically… completely different processes and outcomes.

Folks lose weight/fat on carnivore because they cut carbs from their diets, not because they cut calories. In fact, you can lose weight/fat on carnivore even when you increasethe total calories you eat.

Yes, in fact, you can lose weight/fat by reducing carbs and eating the same or even more calories on carnivore. Why is that? It’s because (1) carbs turn into glucose (in fact they are glucose) which if not burned immediately for energy get stored for future energy as fat by insulin. (2) Eating fat increases your metabolic rate of energy consumption. Because eating fat does not increase insulin,stored fat is free to leave adipose storage to be used as fuel. On carnivore it will be used as fuel because by restricting carbs it’s the only fuel available.

The human metabolic system does not run on units of heat energy ie calories.

Calories cannot be eaten because they are not mass and what we put into our bodies is mass.