Good Morning Carnivores,

I just setup my account with your forum in order to find folks that i can ask questions and look for guidance from people other than social media influencers whom frankly i can't seem to trut that they may be just doing what they need in order to get clicks and money.

I started on Aug 8, 2025 with the goal to lose 50#, get off all my Big Pharma Rx, and feel better each day.

Within a week i had lost 6#'s and all my bodyaches and stiffness was gone.

I am just over 2 weeks in now and down 14# and feeling wonderful, but recently started having diarrhea.

I will search the forum and see what all i can learn before i start throwing questions at the group - i am sure that i am experiencing things that everyone else has already goen through.

THANK YOU everyone for this group!

Deeramp67

Welcome aboard!

Many people experience adaptation/transition/withdrawal symptoms with the first 2-8 weeks. One of these symptoms is unpredictable stools, often toggling back and forth between either diarrhea or a perceived feeling of constipation. Part of the reason for this is the change in your microbiome. The population of carb-loving microbes will drop off. The long term benefits of this will eventually be normal stools (your new normal might be every several days instead of several times a day) and no gas.

You have to wait this process out. Be patient.

Welcome. This is a great place to learn and chat and teach with your own experiences. We all can have some similar experiences, but we are individuals, and the carnivore effects are not cookie-cutter.

What Bob said. LOL

It is an adjustment. Most people have stool issues but in the beginning, it is no more 'going carnivore' or 'going anything else'. Most anytime there is a drastic change in diet the body reacts with some stomach issues of sorts.

It is normal. I t can be a pain and hassle, but it is not long term. As Bob, said, you will get your new normal as you adjust. Once you adjust and dial in your fat to protein ratios to you, your new normal will form. I have found it I miss low on fats my stool stiffens and is not normal. If I miss high, eating much more fat than I need I can get loose.

I think most have similar stories.

Again, welcome.

Scott

Welcome! It's a journey well worth taking. Glad to see you here.

Welcome! I'm new to the forum and a couple years in on carnivore. I definitely ran into diarrhea early on and later, well into it. I am pretty sure that you have to dial in your personal fat intake after you are fully adapted to the diet.

I think I remember Dr. Chaffe saying that our body's only put out a certain amount of bile per day and once that's gone, you will pass the excess fat.

Anyway, glad you're here.

On 8/25/2025 at 6:08 AM, oldandlean said:

I am pretty sure that you have to dial in your personal fat intake after you are fully adapted to the diet.

I think I remember Dr. Chaffe saying that our body's only put out a certain amount of bile per day and once that's gone, you will pass the excess fat.

Yes, I've heard that too. So as a general rule of thumb (after your initial adaptation/transition phase), if your stools are loose, back off the fat a little. And if they are uncomfortably too hard, add back in a little fat.

And then remember we all have times where we splurge, eat something that didn't agree with us, bad meat, or have a stomach virus, etc. We don't always want to jump to the conclusion that every episode of diarrhea must be diet related.

hey gang - still battling the loose watery stool - in my ignorance i am wondering if that can be a sign/sympyon connected to electrolyes ?? If i am drinking too much LMNT or maybe not enough ??

I didn't really like the taste of the LMNT packs I tried so I could not really say if they did anything to me personally. Off the top of my head, I would guess that shouldn't be your issues and secondly, and maybe more importantly, is if you are loose drinking water is still needed. Loose and diarrhea can lead to dehydration which could cause any number of issues.

I will venture a guess it is a combination of what you are eating and not so much when you eat but how often. Most people on the Standard American Diet eat at a frequency that the stomach never really empties. With carnivore, and especially the satiety of meat(s), sometimes we don't eat enough or often enough in the beginning. The looseness could be from food landing on an empty stomach, and the body has not yet adjusted to the 'new way'.

To get no more done than I do in a day, I am the busiest person in the world (LOL) and me saying 'it takes time' is really ironic because I struggle when someone gives me that answer. No matter how right they are.

Everyone is different and responds differently to carnivore. I didn't ease into the change in diet but just dove in headfirst. I think a lot of my early issues around my stool would have been better if I had thought eased into the diet, changed what I was eating slower and kept something on my stomach a little longer.

Similar, but not the same, I am a big fan of water fasting. I have done several 72-hour plus fasts. I have yet to figure out how to come off the fast. I have tried eating a number of different things as well as changing the initial amounts, trying several different combinations. I am loose every time food, any amount or any kind or any combination, hits my empty stomach. It takes me a couple days to get things lined back out to "my normal".

Good luck. Hope things swing your way.

Scott

Welcome deercamp67,

I think Scott might be on to something with the empty stomach because, compared to where I came from carnivore has been a major blessing in my life.

I've been carnivore for several years and periodically have blowouts. I've strive to figure out why for quite a while because nothing really changes in my diet except meal timing.

Thanks Scott, I'm gonna keep an eye on that!

Oh, I eat a lot of high quality salt rather than taking electrolytes regularly. I work outside in coastal south Carolina, so I do lose a lot of water.

My wife orders electrolyte powder from Dr. Berg because we like the guy and it seems to work well and tastes pretty good. I occasionally drink that, she drinks it first thing in the morning

Coastal SC is one of the hottest places on the planet. Most look at the thermometer and say, "Just 94F" but it is not just 94. LOL

I lived in Louisiana on the water and in a small hole in the wall town in Texas for a bit and was stationed in California. I spent time in the Middle East as well.

SC is the only place I have ever been where you can hold the air in your hand. It is that thick with humidity.

Go ahead a get another drink of water while we are talking about it. You will need it.

Scott

On 9/21/2025 at 11:52 AM, deercamp67 said:

in my ignorance i am wondering if that can be a sign/sympyon connected to electrolyes ??

I'm not so sure. But based on the timestamps of your posts, it would appear you are about 6 weeks in so I would expect the stool issues to be leveling out about now.

As a general rule, the experts will say that if your stools are hard, add a little more fat to your diet. If they are loose, back off the fat a little bit. The reasoning being that if you do not have enough bile on hand (stored in your gall bladder) when you eat then the fat will slide right through you and out the back side.

I personally found that when I add cheese to my diet, things stiffen up. Cheese is apparently a natural 'constipator' for me.

You could try supplementing with Ox Bile capsules when you eat to see if that will help.