Carnivore and Weight Loss

[Mesa_John]

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/)

 

[Mesa_John]

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 19 hours ago by Mesa_John

[Scott F.]

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

[Geezy]

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.