My objective is to land on a proven formula for weight loss while on the Carnivore Diet.

The problem....  There are many, many people who eat a Carnivore diet that do not loose weight and there are some that actually gain weight, while strictly adhering to the Carnivore Plan.  My objective, once again, is weight loss.  I don't care about food intolerance's at this time.  I do not have an auto-immune issue.  I'm just a big, fat dude that loves red meat and find the Carnivore Diet more appealing than Keto at this moment and I want to find a winning plan to loose 50 lbs.  After all, any diet that involves loosing weight is going to be sacrifice and some pain.... and I refuse to go a week with high levels of effort and sacrifice to only step on the scale and see a loss of 0.3 lbs.  Unacceptable!

Below are the summations of two articles below, I will embrace and execute their suggestions.  (Obviously, if you want to understand their rationelle, you can open the provided links and read in detail yourself.)

 

Adopt the following strategies for weight loss while on Carnivore:

1. What to eat: Eat leaner cuts of meat, preferably ruminant meat like beef, lamb, bison, goat, their organ meats, eggs, and seafood. Avoid added fat, butter, honey, dairy products, and carnivore treats
2. How much to eat: Start with current food quantity and cut down only to the extent that you are comfortable with
3. How often to eat: Eat 1 to 2 meals a day to satiety and don’t snack in between. Practice fasting regularly
4. When to eat: Eat early, preferably before 16:00.
5. (https://www.allthingscarnivore.com/how-to-lose-weight-fast-with-the-carnivore-diet/)

Here are some simple, easy-to-follow fat-loss strategies that may help you lose weight while on a carnivore diet.

• Move more, eat less. The general rule of thumb here is to burn more than you consume while eating only animal foods.
• Incorporate intermittent fasting. This can be a cycle of 2:5 (2 days of restrictive eating and 5 days of normal eating) or restricting your daily eating window during a carnivore diet for weight loss.
• Drink more water. Staying hydrated is essential. Sometimes you may think you’re hungry, when in fact, you’re simply dehydrated. Fruit & vegetables contain water. As these are eliminated, your body must be getting enough electrolytes and essential minerals, supplements can help.
• Get to know when you’re hungry versus eating out of habit. Eating is a highly social and ritualistic behavior. Cutting down your meals from 3-5 to 2 can help you monitor when you’re eating out of habit rather than because you are hungry.
• (https://carnivorestyle.com/carnivore-diet/weight-loss/)

 

The wife reminded me a few minutes ago.... "Remember when you were 24 years old and over weight and you started that diet that wouldn't allow you to eat after 4pm and you lost all that weight?"

She was right....   I ate all the crap food I wanted, but not a single calorie after 4pm and I lost about 35 lbs in short order.  My buddy who introduced the notion to me went from a porky 227lbs to 175lbs.   

You see above that one recommendation is .... Don't eat after 16:00 and no snacks.  I can certainly see how this will help with weight loss.

My problem is what most will have... I am working at 4pm, wrapping up my day and I can't eat at that time and I don't have the break time to eat earlier at 2 or 3pm.  

For me, I get home about 5pm and will have to eat then and eat nothing else until the next morning.

I will be eating Breakfast at 6am and then dinner at 5pm...... 2MAD.

Edited February 21Feb 21 by Mesa_John

The object is to find the plan that works for you and sometimes that plan does not fit under the same umbrella as everyone/anyone else. 

We have some things in common. I was big (306) old (55) fat dude who only tried carnivore because my son did it for a couple three weeks and lost 12-14 pounds or so. I can eat red meat by the bucket full so when I heard 'eat til you are full', I was sold. I repeat a lot of things for context because I am not sure who has read what. I started off what I thought was eating strict carnivore but the first week I did finish off a 12-pack of Mountain Dew and a tub of ice cream. I then went strict on the food, meats, salt and water, but I did use drink mixers to help me learn to like water. A couple months of those and since just plain water. 

We had several weight loss contests at work, and I won them all. Once I ate only Grape Nuts cereal twice per day and walked around 3 miles per my days off (3-4 times per week). I lost 32 pounds in 50 days (60-day challenge but I started late). The next contest was more of balanced meals and walking. Both times I ditched the Mountain Dews and snack cakes to get the day started. Both times I didn't eat after 6PM and then again at 6AM the next morning. It averaged around eating at 6AM and 1PM-2PM based on work. The next time I lost 30+ pounds in 60 days to win again.

Both times I celebrated the victory with two bacon, egg and cheese on buns with a Mountain Dew and a snack cake. Each time I gained the weight back plus a few extras. For me, losing weight is not hard and keeping it off is not all that hard. The difference between easy and hard is my decision making. Poor decisions put me right back on the heavy/heavier train. 

I like fats, especially beef fat and pork fat. I could just eat a plate of that and be perfectly content. When people toss out the numbers of X amount of protein and X amount of fat I am easily ahead on the fat chart. If I choose between a rib eye and a chuck roast, I choose the one with the most fats. (Plus, it is cheaper and I'm both fat and cheap) 

I am about 64 hours deep into a 72 hour fast. Nothing but water since Tuesday night around 8-9PM. The last time I attempted to do a 72 hour fast I crashed at 71 hours. Fell flat. No energy and felt like I was starving. 7 more hours to see if that wall still exists. 

I think your plan will work for you, especially if you make it work for you. I would go with the fattier cuts of red meat and let chicken and some cuts of pork be leaner choices. Personally, I look for fat, so I buy the cheaper cuts of pork, and I also think skinless chicken is an abomination. The first thing one could do to ruin a good chicken is to peel the skin off. This is a lifelong struggle I have yet to figure out. Right up there with 10 hotdogs in a pack but only 8 buns to a pack. Babbling.....

Good luck with your plan. Keep us posted. I enjoy reading other people's experiences more so than studies or youtube videos trying to sell me something. 

This morning, I hit 216, down 90 pounds from May 8, 2024. Maybe 9 1/2 months. I just did a 13 hour night shift, went meat shopping and then hit the gym. Math will not be my strong suit til much later in the day.

Scott

3 hours ago, Mesa_John said:

Eat leaner cuts of meat, preferably ruminant meat like beef, lamb, bison, goat, their organ meats, eggs, and seafood. Avoid added fat, butter, honey, dairy products, and carnivore treats

You need to do what works best for you but the whole foundation of carnivore is high fat and moderate protein. If you don’t eat the fat you will have no energy. We only get energy from two sources, glucose or ketones. If you have no carbs in your system then your only energy source will be ketones and we get those from fat. On top of that, eating too much protein can cause us to go into Gluconeogenesis and our body will start producing glucose from the protein.

3 hours ago, Mesa_John said:

Start with current food quantity and cut down only to the extent that you are comfortable with

The common eating strategy in carnivore is to eat until comfortably stuffed or until the food just doesn’t taste good anymore. 
It’s the fat that turns on the leptin hormone that tells us we are full glucose blocks the leptin hormone so we stay hungry. 

 

3 hours ago, Mesa_John said:

Move more, eat less. 

That’s something that was debunked long ago. It’s a myth. We lose weight because our body no longer uses glucose for fuel. 
Glucose raises insulin and insulin is the fat storage hormone so as the insulin goes up you are incapable of burning fat. 

You eat carbs, that raises insulin, you’re going to store fat. Your insulin must come down before your body can access your fat stores. 
What unlocks those fat stores is your body needing to run on ketones. 
Ask Bob about sitting in a chair for a long time with a broken ankle and still losing weight. 
Then there’s me. I’m not very active, especially during the winter but I lose weight simply by eating plenty of fat and protein. I dropped 63 pounds and did nothing different except how I ate. 
 

Everything else you listed sounds good to me but just be careful of those I commented on. They go against conventional carnivore science. 
Of course everyone is different with different physiology’s so maybe that may be the best path for you. We all have our own journey to follow. 

There are no set rules to eating a carnivore lifestyle because of everyone’s differences. 
We do however have a foundation that we start with and then build our WOE from there. 
That foundation is to eat a diet of 70% fat (in caloric measures) and 30% protein. 
Eat only animal fats. Animal proteins, salt and water. 
Eat only when hungry and then eat until comfortably full or until the meat no longer tastes good. 

A good book to read that explains it well is The Carnivore Diet by Dr. Shawn Baker. 
 

I hope you find the path that works best for you. 

19 hours ago, Geezy said:

"Eat less, move more"

That’s something that was debunked long ago. It’s a myth. We lose weight because our body no longer uses glucose for fuel. 
Glucose raises insulin and insulin is the fat storage hormone so as the insulin goes up you are incapable of burning fat.
 

I hope you find the path that works best for you. 

I don't advocate eating less.....   100% I will advocate "move more".  Really, the experiment I am conducting is eating more lean and less fat on Carnivore.  It is a very simple hypothesis..... eat less fat in the hopes that my stored fat will burn off faster.  It is really a simple change..... Eat Sirloin instead of Ribeye.  Take the skin off the Chicken.  Stop cooking in butter and bacon grease.   My hypothesis may be wrong.... and if that happens, no one will be happier than me to return fatty cuts, butter and bacon grease. 

Back to the movement thing...... On Keto in the past, I have proven this with my own body.  During my last Keto stint that lasted about 4 months, I spent the first 12 weeks, only doing diet and I had stabilized at an average of 2 lbs of loss a week.  I just wasn't happy with that.  The next week I changed nothing but walking.  I began to walk 60 minutes a day and my weight loss instantly jumped to 4 lbs a week, sometimes 5 lbs.  

I think Carnivores make a mistake ignoring the notion of calorie burn, or even the effect of calories in and calories out.  I completely with your statements above, but I am not throwing the baby out with the bath water.  And everyone could argue that additional activity is simply working for me.  Hogwash... anyone that walks 60 minutes a day on top of their normal day is going to loose faster.

PS.... I am NOT advocating calorie counting...  

Edited February 22Feb 22 by Mesa_John

Let me also say....  'Weight Loss Carnivore" .... absolutely  IS NOT for long term.  

As Dr. Shawn states, without carbs, fat intake is critical for long term and sustainability.

11 hours ago, Mesa_John said:

It is a very simple hypothesis..... eat less fat in the hopes that my stored fat will burn off faster.

This might work. Or you might go into gluconeogenesis and convert the protein into glucose. 

Granted, there's no need to go overboard on the fat. But you don't want to be afraid of it either. By way of example, if I eat a ribeye for dinner, I might sustain or lose weight. But if I eat chicken breast for dinner, I will usually be hungry again in a short time and/or be up on the scale the next day. 

There's a balance to be had. The body has to become fat adapted, which required fat consumption. Then when fat is absent, it will go for your body fat. But if your still "glucose-adapted" (so to speak), then your body will go out of it's way to make glucose in the absence of fat.

No harm is going a little leaner. And definitely don't eat within 4-5 hours of bedtime.

Lean meat will be a mistake. Protein adds more weight than fatty cuts because of gluconeogenesis. People that don't lose weight on carnivore eat too much protein. 

16 hours ago, Mesa_John said:

I don't advocate eating less.....   100% I will advocate "move more".  Really, the experiment I am conducting is eating more lean and less fat on Carnivore.  It is a very simple hypothesis..... eat less fat in the hopes that my stored fat will burn off faster.  It is really a simple change..... Eat Sirloin instead of Ribeye.  Take the skin off the Chicken.  Stop cooking in butter and bacon grease.   My hypothesis may be wrong.... and if that happens, no one will be happier than me to return fatty cuts, butter and bacon grease. 
Back to the movement thing...... On Keto in the past, I have proven this with my own body.  During my last Keto stint that lasted about 4 months, I spent the first 12 weeks, only doing diet and I had stabilized at an average of 2 lbs of loss a week.  I just wasn't happy with that.  The next week I changed nothing but walking.  I began to walk 60 minutes a day and my weight loss instantly jumped to 4 lbs a week, sometimes 5 lbs.  
I think Carnivores make a mistake ignoring the notion of calorie burn, or even the effect of calories in and calories out.  I completely with your statements above, but I am not throwing the baby out with the bath water.  And everyone could argue that additional activity is simply working for me.  Hogwash... anyone that walks 60 minutes a day on top of their normal day is going to loose faster.
PS.... I am NOT advocating calorie counting...  

That’s cool and I hope it works for you but the science and the millions of carnivores around the world have proven that eating a high fat diet does allow you to also burn body fat.

I’m not saying don’t move. I’m just saying it isn’t necessary to lose weight. You can’t out run your diet. You will find that your energy level will go up making you want to move move more but your weight loss will be more attributed to what you eat rather than how much you move. Sure by moving more you will burn more energy and that can help but If a person eating SAD ran a mile every day he’d lose a little but it wouldn’t be a significant amount. That’s been proven many times. That’s why every weight loss plan that requires exercise also requires changing the diet. It’s not the exercise so much as the diet.

I’m not a big believer in CICO simply because a calorie is nothing more that a measurement 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 increase the total calories you eat 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.

So what it boils down to is the quality of the food we eat and what it does to our body.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for you trying this. It may work for you and if it does then it just proves what we always say and that is we are all different and there’s no set rules to this way of eating. We all have to find what works for us as individuals. 
I looking forward to your N of 1 results. 

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Edited February 23Feb 23 by Geezy

6 hours ago, Geezy said:

You can’t out run your diet.

Running also makes you eat more. Coming from an ex-runner. 

7 hours ago, Geezy said:

Sure by moving more you will burn more energy and that can help but If a person eating SAD ran a mile every day he’d lose a little but it wouldn’t be a significant amount.

My former boss, I knew him for six years. He was overweight. He was really tough on himself and did cardio every day for an hour and a half on the treadmill. Over the six years he gained even more weight. Every. Single. Day. The food was more powerful than these huge amount of cardio sessions on a daily basis for years. 

And I am thinking, what is more boring than eating meat everyday? Doing cardio everyday. Coming from someone who's been working out for 15/20 years. 

7 hours ago, Geezy said:

I’m all for you trying this.

Also this. We'll be cheerleaders for anyone who seeks improvement. I think some perspectives have been offered to provide depth in such endeavors. 

I hear you guys, but why can I Google search "Carnivore Weight Gain" and I come across dozens and dozens of pages of posts of people gaining or loosing no weight?

And I also hear you loud and clear on going to lean.  Don't want that Rabbit disease.  I was reminded this morning how much I love FAT, as I ate one piece of bacon with my eggs.  I did eat a huge patty of my homemade breakfast sausage, which if very lean for sausage (it makes very little grease in the pan).

I hit Sam's Club yesterday and purchased a lot of Sirloin and Top Round, both pretty dang lean, especially compared to a Ribeye.  (Partly because Top Round was $6.20 a lb and Ribeyes were $13 a lb.)  But I also purchased boneless, skinless chicken thighs and four racks of Pork Ribs.... and Oh, a small Brisket that is on the Smoker as of Pre-dawn this morning.

Before leaner cuts, it is likely me moving to two meals a day and not eating after 5pm on workdays, 4pm on the weekends is going to propel my weight loss even further.

I agree with John on the 'common sense' thought process to the lean meat/less fat approach to "carnivore" and I actually tried it. It makes sense in theory but metabolically for me it didn't. I can't say whether it will work for anyone else but this my personal experience as I went down the same train of thought.

Even prior to carnivore my blood sugar has always been relatively low. Upper 80's to low 90's and before carnivore the 'dawn phenomenon' might get me into the upper 90's but I never broke 100 until a couple months into carnivore. Even the first couple months into carnivore when I was eating the higher fat content the blood sugar remained relatively low.

I made an adjustment to lessen my fat intake and use more lean meats. A couple three things happened.

Weight loss: It basically stalled in comparison to the rate at which I was losing overall. The first month I lost 31 pounds in 30-31 days. The second month I lost 22lbs in a month. The first number probably carried some initial water weight, but the second month is still quite the accomplishment. The kicker is about 18-19 pounds was in the first three weeks of the month about the same time I made the switch to a lesser fat/leaner meat approach. From around 256 pounds til 246 took more than a month. It was a steady bounce around a certain weight for three-four-five days drop a couple then up and down over that 1–2-pound lesser number all over again. I was accustomed to the mongo numbers and was becoming somewhat disappointed with my progress, even though it was still good progress. 

Blood sugar: Soon after switching to lesser fat/leaner meat my blood sugar made a shift. I broke 100 to 105 for the first time in my life. Around that same time my morning number was 110 or more and my daily was around 100. Big picture? Not the end of the world but a shift up the same. On my mom's side of the family, I am about the only non-diabetic (mom, sister, grandmother, aunts and uncles and several cousins) so I have always tracked my blood glucose, so it does not sneak up on me, even when I ate the diet I did in the past. Any movement up is a concern for me.

Energy: I didn't totally flatten out or crash. There was a difference but along the same time I started to walk more and increase the load at the gym. Those were topped off by it being the busy time at work and my 12-hour shifts were often 13 and picking up extra shifts became the norm. There were some other factors in play, but my energy level was not the same.

Stools: I found I had no consistency on the low fat/leaner meat approach. I would go 5-6-7 days without going, followed by a somewhat difficult bout with constipation and that would be followed by several days of "looseness". Stools can be comical at times and my looseness force me to find several spots on my commute to work that I could whip over to the side of the road and prevent a bad situation. Followed by 5+ days without, then repeat the looseness. Nothing consistent. 

So, for me, here is what I concluded. My body is looking for an energy source and what I eat becomes the primary energy source. On the high fat kickoff to carnivore my body was ditching the glycogen/sugars and afterwards the first thing available was the fats I was eating. As I became fat adaptive it was the fat I was eating, and the next best thing was the fat I had been storing. The weight was peeling off. The proteins left over were used for muscle recovery/repair. I am sure at times the protein is used for energy, but the high fat eating led to fat being my primary energy source. Higher fat to protein also kept my blood sugar down, at least to the same lower numbers I had always experienced. My blood sugar shift came after ditching the fat and using leaner meats. The first thing in was lean protein and that became the 'new' source of energy. The protein source of energy sort of stalled the fat loss and thru the gluconeogenesis there was "excess" sugar in my system, maybe not excess but more than I had had in the past. The body looks for energy sources and will take the easiest and first available. 

Although the sugar has always been a concern I didn't make any changes. What forced me to increase the fat content back was the stools and their unpredictability. I stayed the course until I didn't make it to the bathroom in Sam's. Another day it was before I could get to the side of the road and the last time was in the parking lot at work. (Again comical, I thought I am the only person in the world that had to use the patch of decorative trees and bushes just inside the plant property. But, to my surprise as I was really loose there was a log on the ground, I would have been really happy to claim vs. my current situation).

I re-added the fat content and sort of went back to the way I originally started. Higher fat content-moderate to high proteins with no carbs/no sugars. In took a week or so and my stool was more consistent. I didn't pay much attention but soon I realized the energy levels were up and then gym load and the workload were still relatively high. I attributed it to the fat content. Soon after that the weight started another fall again. 

Since then, I am a high fat (maybe higher fat than most) with moderate protein. As of late I have upped the protein intake to hit a muscle gaining levels in grams per pound, but I think my liking fat and the higher fat content may put me closer to what is considered desirable. Not real sure there.

Good luck. Sorry for the length. But I had the exact same thought process as you and for me, it didn't pan out. I'm interested to see how it works for you. Wishing you the best in your search.

Scott

4 hours ago, Mesa_John said:

I hear you guys, but why can I Google search "Carnivore Weight Gain" and I come across dozens and dozens of pages of posts of people gaining or loosing no weight?

I get it. There's so much conflicting information out there. The internet is a double edged sword. Sometimes I read a crappy book, and I see praising reviews, or vice versa. You've got a rash on your leg, and you find out on WebMD you've got but days to live. We're really on our own. A lot of the information is not vetted, and especially when it comes to nutritional science, it is very hard to pin down. 

A lot of people do not report accurately what they eat, or measure it wrong, etc. And with this partial information they go and display their findings on Reddit. 

I think what the consensus on this particular forum is, that fat is a friend. Fat is fuel. But again, these are opinions, no more, no less. 

10 hours ago, Scott F. said:

So, for me, here is what I concluded. My body is looking for an energy source and what I eat becomes the primary energy source. On the high fat kickoff to carnivore my body was ditching the glycogen/sugars and afterwards the first thing available was the fats I was eating. As I became fat adaptive it was the fat I was eating, and the next best thing was the fat I had been storing. The weight was peeling off.

You process the science and the concept of the whole carnivore diet right there. 

12 hours ago, Mesa_John said:

but why can I Google search "Carnivore Weight Gain" and I come across dozens and dozens of pages of posts of people gaining or loosing no weight?

We see this all of the time. Usually it’s a woman. Women have a harder time losing weight due to their hormones. Until their metabolisms are fixed they can have hormonal imbalances that can affect their weight loss. A Utube influencer, Kelly Hogan, didn’t lose weight for six months but she was in it to heal and since she was seeing improvement she stuck with it and after six months started losing. Take a look at her now. Skinny as a rail. 
Many people are impatient and start posting about their failures after only a week or two on carnivore. They often have higher expectations than reality allows. 
Then there’s the ones who don’t really understand how this WOE works. Have never done their research and then do it wrong not understanding the bodies mechanism's in relation to fat and weight loss. 
Some won’t get off the dairy and eat it like a meal. Thats almost a guarantee for failure. 
Then there are those that just aren’t honest with themselves. They say they’re eating carnivore but they continually eat outside of their diet and kicking themselves out of ketosis. 
Other than just naturally hitting a plateau like we all do, there is generally a good reason why but it’s not the carnivore diet itself but an underlying factor. 
I try to encourage people to reexamine their diet anytime they say they can’t lose on carnivore. Sometimes it may be that they are doing everything right but just need more time. Each body is different and reacts differently to carnivore so we can’t compare ourselves to anyone else. We are each on our own journey. 
Some people may need to do something like a fast to get things kick started. 
It pays to experiment sometimes but I think everyone needs to be more patient and give it time to heal their metabolism before doing too much. 
In this microwave generation we are used to instant gratification. Food hot and ready in a minute. Information as quick as you can click on a keyboard. Packages ordered at our the next day. Lol! No wonder we expect instant weight loss but us old timers come from a time where it took 30-45 minutes to heat up leftovers. If we wanted to learn something we had to go look it up in the encyclopedia or take a trip to the library. When we mail ordered something we had to wait 6-8 weeks to get it. By the time it arrived we had forgot we even ordered it. lol. 
I guess that’s why us old folks have more patience than the younger folks. We had no choice but to be patient. 

I’ve made tons of mistakes with the carnivorous diet

cheese (eating the whole package)

alcohol (drink until passing out)

pot (gives major munchies)

cheat days (that last for 3 days)

I’ve made tons of mistakes with the carnivorous diet
cheese (eating the whole package)
alcohol (drink until passing out)
pot (gives major munchies)
cheat days (that last for 3 days)

Live and learn. Experience is the best teacher.


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