Good morning all.

I haven't checked in for a while as I've been working none stop so I thought I'd drop by and say hi. I'm exactly 1 month and 10 days into my strict carnivore on a tight budget and no alcohol life. I know this because my quit drinking app has just sent me a congratulatory message with cartoon party poppers and balloons.

It's all going very well with only the occasional "nice cold beer" urge which I just ignore. I've noticed that my appetite has changed over the last week or so. Initially I was eating three large meals a day with great pleasure but that's becoming less. I've started skipping breakfast because I'm just not hungry and also what i want to eat is changing. Ground beef is slowly becoming a bit of a chore and I don't feel like downing the fatty juice which at the start i loved. If I never see a sardine again in my life I'll be a happy man and even buttery scrambled eggs are a bit tiresome. Something I imagined would never happen.

If I were a rich man I'd do steaks all day, every day but alas, I am not. I appear to have kicked myself out of ketosis according to my dubious and slightly beyond their sell by date pee strips which might have to do with a bag of pork rinds I inhaled recently. I only realized in hindsight that they had been cooked in seed oil but I don't know whether to trust the old pee strips. I feel great but my weight loss seems to have plateaued a bit.

I'm wondering what to do about, boredom would be too strong a word but the sameiness of the diet. I've been completely avoiding cheese. Pork and chicken is always a pleasure.

But, getting to my cravings question. I've had next to zero urges over the last weeks. Don't need veges or sweet stuff or junk. However, the last few days I've had an overwhelming urge to eat honey dew melon. Really strong. I can taste it it's so strong. I'm starting to wonder if the old bod is trying to tell me that there is something I'm missing.

Either that or I'm pregnant which would come as a bit of a shock considering that I'm a middle aged man with a big beard.

Anyway, Just wanted to get the communities take on it.

Hope you all have a great day.

I think fasting is the best seasoning for food boredom.

I try to imagine, when I get a specific craving, that my body just released some patch of fat that stored the thing I am craving. So you ate melon at one time,then it got stored as fat, now it is being released and it's circulating so that's why you get the craving. Not science just a hunch. So just let it go.

might try the above suggestion. I did eat an entire pear yesterday, which is unusual. If I have a craving for fruit I eat a little. I'm not a failure because i did. As far as boredom, you might have to shop around a bit more. my grocery store has sales on different meats every week. Chicken and pork are fine additions IMO.

Congratulations on getting this far. You are doing great.
You should be past the physical cravings by now as long as you’ve been strict but you can still have phantom or memory cravings. You remember how good something used to taste and it comes back to you. It can be overwhelming. I’m almost two years in and I still get them. My solution is to eat something fatty or just fat itself. I make my own tallow and I save the leftover rendered fat pieces for a snack if I get a craving. Bacon helps with those cravings too.
When it comes to variety of food you are only limited by your imagination. Instead of just burger and scrambled eggs why not make a meatloaf wrapped in bacon. Cook your eggs in different ways or even make an egg custard.
There are cheap cuts of beef you can find on sale at the store such as chuck roasts, flank steaks, breakfast steaks. We will often buy a whole roast chicken and eat the dark meat and make chicken salad out of the white meat. Tuna or salmon salad are an option too. Pork butt is cheap and you get a lot.
Hopefully you’ll get to the stage in at where I no longer eat for entertainment but only for nutrition.


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3 hours ago, Geezy said:

Bacon helps with those cravings too.

The Kirkland Thick Sliced Center Cut Hickory Smoked Bacon I got at Costco says 0 carbs and 0 sugars but is cured with water, salt, sugar, sodium phosphate, sodium erythorbate, and sodium nitrite.
Is the sugar in the cure a problem?

Edited April 25, 20251 yr by musicalgym
correction

21 hours ago, Miranda said:

my body just released some patch of fat that stored the thing I am craving.

🙏

2 hours ago, musicalgym said:

The Kirkland Thick Sliced Center Cut Hickory Smoked Bacon I got at Costco says 0 carbs and 0 sugars but is cured with water, salt, sugar, sodium phosphate, sodium erythorbate, and sodium nitrite.
Is the sugar in the cure a problem?

I am guessing most people eat regular bacon from the store. There are some here lucky enough to cure their own, but don't sweat it. The amount of sugar is neglible and as long as you are just eating a few slices and not half the package. 😉 Many will suggest having it onhand.

I have just discovered cod liver. It's mostly fat and if you like fish it is absolutely delightful. I picked it up for $2.50 a can. One can has about 800 calories. So it's. Some that could be used as a side flavor.

Laura Spath talks about having side meat, like having two or three items on the plate.

Dr Sean O'Mara recommends having several fermented dairy and veggies. Ferments are cheap and "easy" to make at home. I am just starting with sauerkraut, but as I collect more kimchi jars from the store I am going to try kvass and other veggie ferments, probably cauliflower next.

On 4/24/2025 at 1:44 AM, Binny said:

I'm starting to wonder if the old bod is trying to tell me that there is something I'm missing.

I would lean more towards @Geezy's that it's a memory craving. But if it is your body telling you something, the first thing that comes to mind is that it's a potassium rich fruit, and so I would ask if you take any electrolytes. Many new carnivores benefit from electrolytes their first few months, and then in time no longer need them.

Honey dew is also 90% water. Are you plenty hydrated? The reason why those new to carnivore o keto can sometimes use electrolyte is because they are retaining less water, because you aren't consuming carboHYDRATEs <-- see that in there? :D

22 hours ago, ketomonster said:

If I have a craving for fruit I eat a little. I'm not a failure because i did.

I agree with this. God made the pear. He did not make the Snickers bar. ;)

On 4/24/2025 at 4:18 AM, Miranda said:

I think fasting is the best seasoning for food boredom.

I try to imagine, when I get a specific craving, that my body just released some patch of fat that stored the thing I am craving. So you ate melon at one time,then it got stored as fat, now it is being released and it's circulating so that's why you get the craving. Not science just a hunch. So just let it go.

I will always say "Fasting , for the win!". The energy effect I get personally from multi day fasting is nothing short of amazing and the personal challenge of going as long as you can is very powerful also. Autophagy and all the other hidden good things that the body goes through are probably the best part of a long fast.

For cravings you can also try a pinch of salt under the tongue. Smoked salt is even better IMO. Works for hunger pains also.

I do have the same problem as you with not wanting to eat meat anymore, which causes carb cravings. I now put tiny little chunks of butter in the freezer and eat one with salt when the cravings hit. (Excess butter does cause weight gain though). I just discovered last week that when I crave fruit it's because I'm thirsty. I drink some water and it goes away (most of the time). Fasting helps too if it doesn't make you crave carbs. Exercise helps too by making you hungry without you having to fast. One month is too soon for cravings to go away. For me the firtst time I did this, it took about 6 months and even then I still had carbmares (nightmares about eating carbs, lol).

Here's a great article on recognizing hunger on carnivore:

https://www.zerocarbhealth.com/recognizing-hunger-on-a-zero-carb-carnivore-diet/

About the ketones:

I did a strict lion diet for 2 years. In year two, I went for a general check-up with a blood test and urine test and all that, and my ketones were non existent. I heard a veteran carnivore (not sure who) say it's possible that the ketones don't show up anymore because your body becomes very efficient at using ketones and not much of it is actually dispensed as waste through your urine for tests to show. That made sense to me at the time because, in addition to being a very strict carnivore, I had fasted for 24 hours for that test so not having any ketones would have meant that I had absolutely no metabolism going on (only happens in dead people) given that I must have had very little glycogen stored and had to have been burning some fat from somewhere and therefore I would have had ketones in my body even though they didnt show on the test. I wouldn't be concerned about ketones. I don't think they matter on carnivore (they do matter on keto though, because you do eat carbs on that).

This is an excerpt from the "Zero Carb Health" blog by a friend of Kelly Hogan's and Charles Washington, who have been doing this for decades:

"Our meat eating ancestors did not have high ketones or low blood sugar, yet they were healthy and fit. If you are not eating carbohydrates you are on a ketogenic diet. Just because your ketone levels might be very low does not mean you are not in ketosis.  The current trend of trying to reach high ketones and get your blood sugar low is likely sabotaging your health, not helping it.  By purposely trying to achieve something your body is uncomfortable with you are working against homeostasis.  The body likes homeostasis. (Homeostasis, from the Greek words for “same” and “steady,” refers to any process that living things use to actively maintain fairly stable conditions necessary for survival.) It is IMPOSSIBLE to naturally maintain high ketone numbers, especially if you are on a zero carb diet, where you don’t have carbohydrates as a macro to manipulate. You have to constantly manipulate fat/protein macros, feeding times and calories to get high ketone readings.  The body does not want to be producing lots of ketones so it will adapt to your tweaks so it’s not over producing which will bring the numbers down.  How can this be healthy if the body is constantly fighting to bring ketones down?  There is zero science or history on humans maintaining high ketone levels in the long term."

https://www.zerocarbhealth.com/manipulating-ketones-and-glucose-on-the-zero-carb-carnivore-diet/

Sorry this is so long. I hope it helps a little bit.

Edited April 27, 20251 yr by The S.

On 4/27/2025 at 8:16 AM, The S. said:

I now put tiny little chunks of butter in the freezer and eat one with salt when the cravings hit.

Learn to make brown butter bites. You will either love me... or hate me because they are addictive, lol.

18 hours ago, Bob said:

Learn to make brown butter bites. You will either love me... or hate me because they are addictive, lol.

I make those along with homemade Ghee. Both are really tasty and EASY to overconsume. Just the other day I discovered if I add a small bit of brown butter bite to my Blueberry Zinger tea it opens up a wonderful flavor profile kind of like drinking a candy. Be careful 😀

Brown butter only if you want to consume a stick a day. No joke

On 4/25/2025 at 1:33 AM, musicalgym said:

The Kirkland Thick Sliced Center Cut Hickory Smoked Bacon I got at Costco says 0 carbs and 0 sugars but is cured with water, salt, sugar, sodium phosphate, sodium erythorbate, and sodium nitrite.
Is the sugar in the cure a problem?

That depends on the individual. For most people no. The amount of sugar used in the cure is obviously small enough that it doesn’t need to be reported in the total carb count. If you can find sugar free then that’s great but I most of the carnivore doctors and influencers who eat bacon are eating the same thing you are.

Now if you react to it in any way then it may be a problem for you.