[WARNING THATS A REALLY LONG POST] Carnivore for an half year, here is the story of how i found the way. I knew great victories, I knew fighting with myself into crazy training to feel I deserved any calories I ate and so I knew REDS, I knew the slow descent into hell and i finally knew that fatal injury which makes you realize that you need to stop the nonsense... I remember get out of the hospital with canes because my hips were completely f*cked and two days after already doing 5km walk with the canes, recovery was not even something existing in my stupid head... Then I knew what it is to be at the bottom with not a single physical capacity left and to have to develop everything again, during this period I oriented myself more than ever on endurance, (I was before someone really explosive doing lot of sport of high intensity and impact) during this endurance era I kinda make peace with myself and were not as strict as I always been, I was changing after years of military routine... but endurance is endurance I slowly started to become the perfect type of the "zombie runner"... seriously all these guys doing endurance, especially when it's start to expend to marathon or even more are mostly not feeling in good shape at all... after months and months to continuously complete weeks over 70km the injuries started to show up again but not as a one and only explosion like the first time but more little ones at intervals... outside of the high volume factor I was not eating enough again as I always did... and not the good food (I always been strict on my diet but "strict" based on what?... on usual poor recommandations that gives most of sports guys... So with all those little injuries i finally got bored. And I decided to stop to run FOR EVER! I actually started to hate it. Then I discovered "race walking" (if you never seen it look a few videos the movement can look a bit weird but that's a wonderful activity) I always walked a lot but at this moment walk became a sport! So I combined it with strength training (the only activity I never stopped for almost my whole life)... I felt in better shape than ever during this time but it was still something weird... I was always inconsistent, especially mentally... I'm a severe autist and yes it's not help me to feel good every days but I don't want of that excuse to let my own life f*cking me... one day I have just no idea from where but after considered and experimented everything with food I finally discovered something I never heard before "the keto diet"... at this moment I needed to move really really quickly, even consuming extra amount of oats on the few last days to bring forward the date by which I will no longer have any carbs into my house LOL... I never felt bad at the beginning in keto, probably because I had the chance that for years I always had a relatively reasonable distribution between fats and carbs in my diet compared to most people that eat a standard type diet. My performance stagnated for a while but I never have a fall. But the progress out of the gym came to an impressive speed! Headache, constant drowsiness, heatstroke, anxiety skyrocketing after meals, constipation... all was gone! and it's only now that I name all these issues that I realize how I was miserable when I was as it seems leading a healthy life, eating what is considered as "healthy foods" and aside of it being a great sportmen... Bullsh*t.... The keto diet was already a great improvement, but not everything was solved like the arthritis and joint pain I developped over years of eating sh*t and training to the limits, as well as a bad thermoregulation, my relation with food was still bad as I was constantly continuing to track my calories intake and stayed to a relatively low daily intake... I think the final transition has finally came of a sudden boredom of spending so much time to eat per day... I eat really slowly and in keto I was eating a lot of veggies so it was endless... I firstly got ride of the veggies, then during 2 or 3 weeks i finished the 2 foods I had in reserve at home, which were olive oil and nuts, then the cupboards ended up empty and the only things I had to think was to go get my meat, my butter, my eggs and my cheese, that's it. The carnivore definitely ended the last issues mentionned that were remains in keto. And the most crazy was about the sport, I came a beast in carnivore, it's simple the hormones start living again! No more digestive fatigue too, ou dont realize how it consume to digest... After five years of struggle with myself, to loathe my fate I'm back. Probably my greatest pride is to reach again numbers of cals I not saw since about 4 years, reaching close to 3k , 3k yes... but 3k for someone that is 160cm and 47kg! Until now I was almost limiting to strength training every day and "race walking" as became much rarer, but now that I am completely adapted to this diet I have the desire to do more again! (without going to excess for sure) And by doing more I will eat more and my greatest challenge is now to get some additional weight to simply have more reserve. I actually eat 2 times a days, on a whole day I eat about 500/750 gr of meat, and lot of cheese and eggs, and there is the butter... I'm on a consecutive streak of 100gr per days for months and months 🤣 but now I'm closer to 150gr a day. Hope some smiled reading my post. Take care. J
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The last six months I have tried to eat to hit a protein target. Still strict carnivore (18-19 months) but eating pretty much more than I want each day to have enough protein for muscle growth. The proteins went up, and I didn't hit the fat targets, so I had some stiff and hard stools. I increased the fat to catch up to the proteins and help with the stools as well. In turn, so my diet has not been 'eat when hungry-eat til full' for the last six months or so.
After six to 12 months on carnivore my cholesterol dropped a few points but took a significant bounce up at the 18-month mark. I was expecting an increase with the sheer amount of food I was eating but I didn't expect the numbers to jump this much.
May thru November 2024 May 2025 November 2025
Total Cholesterol 239 212 274
LDL 185 150 164
HDL 37 39 55
Tri-G 49 43 41
My total weight loss of carnivore has been 95-96lbs and in the last couple months I gained 12-15 pounds bouncing around the 215-mark for the most part. The weight gain I expected as the lifting has become more and more a part of my day to day. I am stronger now than I can even remember (never was much on lifting) and the energy levels are still that constant/ability to keep going since early on with carnivore. I feel just as good now as I did six months ago. I had a great visit with my neurologist yesterday. (He is moving back home to Alabama so I quipped that carnivore was going to run him out of business. He replied, "I hope so".) He told me of all his NMO patients I have made the biggest turnaround and went from ho-hum numbers 18 months ago til now. All my markers are within limit is with the exception of one. I started carnivore 18 months ago, so I let people draw their own conclusions. (LOL, preaching to the choir in a forum such as this). My blood sugar crept up a little. My day-to-day over the last six months moved from the low 80's to touching the low 90's every now and then. Yesterday it was 94. Blood pressure was 100/58 before the infusion and 98/54 afterwards (laying in a recliner for five hours).
Even with the cholesterol making a jump this is how I judge my health. When I first started the infusions I was 310+lbs and was on a dumpster diet. After each infusion I would be wiped completely out. The 45-minute ride home felt like hours. I hit the recliner for a stretch then to bed really early. restless sleep all night and pretty much flat the next day. Fast forward from 18 months ago, yesterday I saw the Neurologist at 8AM, started the infusion at 9AM (use to be six hours at 310 pounds but now 5 hours at 220) and I was home by 3PM. The ride home was a simple ride home and I ate bacon, sausage and eggs mid-afternoon. I went outside and busted/split just about a Toyota truck full of red oak from two trees we had taken down last week. Fed all the animals as it got dark and back in the house. I went to bed at 9 and now I am up at my normal 3AM time frame. I checked out the forum and now off to the gym to be one of those 4AM weirdos (LOL).
I'm going to call that progress, maybe with a chunk more of fat running free in my bloodstream, but over the last 18 months, progress the same.
I don't think we make progress over months/years without stacking up a bunch of day-to-day wins.
Hope all is well with you and yours.
Scott