I’m nearly 7 mths on carnivore - 2 mths in I went off my blood pressure, cholesterol, type II diabetes meds, no more CPAP machine, full of energy - the best I have felt since I started Keto 6 years ago.

Last year, I was hospitalized 4 times for pancreatitis on eating Keto foods, lots of green leafy veg…put on insulin and told had to carry snacks that could prevent going into a coma - started eating keto bars & other keto treats. Insulin was raised from 20ml daily to 80mls in a few mths - felt so sick, shortness of breathe, heart palpitations, severe chest & shoulder pain, doing lots of CT scans, X-rays, ultrasounds, blood tests…no answers given. Told I would be on all these meds for life… I was getting worse and felt terrible - depressed- felt like 2025 would be my last.

Started researching, my son found Dr Berry for me, I found Dr Kiltz and started listening to them and their speakers and January 17th, 2025 I started strict carnivore.

On 9/9/2025 at 6:22 AM, Sheila said:

I started intermittent fasting last year and really started focusing on cutting carbs in the last few months. Now I want to try carnivore. What is the max carbs one should eat in a day and would a nut butter or berries be ok? I am NOT a salad person lol.

So technically.... and pardon me for getting technical .... a carnivore diet is animal products only. Zero plants. It's also referred to as a zero carb diet but that isn't always accurate. There is some trace carbohydrate in muscle meat and eggs. And then if you are okay with dairy, there will be trace carbs in certain cheeses and considerable carbs in a glass of milk in the form of lactose (milk-sugar).

With that said, a little nut butter and/or berries once in a while might be just fine for you, while they might stir insufferable cravings in others. And if you have any auto-immune or chronic conditions you are trying to alleviate or remediate, you should try eliminating even these for 2 or 3 months before reintroducing them to see clearly what affect they may be having on you.

Odds are you'll be fine. But we technically would call this "ketovore" since it's not 100% meat-based. But that's okay, because a proper human diet is a spectrum from zero carb carnivore on one end and up to 100g of carbs daily in the form of single-ingredient fresh foods that are God-given, Mother-Nature provided, and not processed (save for cooking).

As a carnivore the only carbs you “should” be eating are what’s going to be in the animal products you consume. There are carbs in meat and dairy. Dairy can be problematic for some people because of the amount of carbs in it.

I found that while I was losing weight I had to be very strict with dairy and absolutely stay very strict in my diet with only animal fats, animal protein, salt and water. Now that I am at my maintenance weight I find that I can eat dairy again and if I felt like it I could eat a carby food occasionally but I just don’t have a desire to. I will confess though that I took a page from Bob’s book about what to consider as consumable food as a carnivore “If I can pluck it”. At my old house we have a jujube tree that puts out an abundance of fruit. While working on the place getting it ready to put on the market I was hungry and tired and it was going to be many hours before I would be able to eat so Bobs words popped into my head and I though…hmm, my ancestors wouldn’t have passed up this opportunity to eat fruit in season and I’m not trying to lose weight so let’s try this out as there was lots of ripe jujubes. I ended up eating several to no ill effects and I have done it several times since.

So basically it comes down to where you are at in your journey and what you are trying to accomplish.

16 hours ago, Sheila said:

Where I work, the cafe does not have much in the way of beef every day. Still trying to figure it out.

I microwaved leftover steak yesterday, yummy

Helenb,

Welcome. You're story of recovery is incredible and inspiring! Also a bit depressing I guess as we've all been duped throughout the years, and obviously that diet advice is still being preached.

I look forward to learning from you and sharing info.

Steve

8 hours ago, Geezy said:

As a carnivore the only carbs you “should” be eating are what’s going to be in the animal products you consume. There are carbs in meat and dairy. Dairy can be problematic for some people because of the amount of carbs in it.

I found that while I was losing weight I had to be very strict with dairy and absolutely stay very strict in my diet with only animal fats, animal protein, salt and water. Now that I am at my maintenance weight I find that I can eat dairy again and if I felt like it I could eat a carby food occasionally but I just don’t have a desire to. I will confess though that I took a page from Bob’s book about what to consider as consumable food as a carnivore “If I can pluck it”. At my old house we have a jujube tree that puts out an abundance of fruit. While working on the place getting it ready to put on the market I was hungry and tired and it was going to be many hours before I would be able to eat so Bobs words popped into my head and I though…hmm, my ancestors wouldn’t have passed up this opportunity to eat fruit in season and I’m not trying to lose weight so let’s try this out as there was lots of ripe jujubes. I ended up eating several to no ill effects and I have done it several times since.

So basically it comes down to where you are at in your journey and what you are trying to accomplish.

Thanks for the information. I wondered about that with something like blueberries when in season. I ate 2 hot dogs today at lunch, then some blueberries tonight, 3 eggs and 4 pieces of pork tenderloin. So far so good!