4 weeks in and still extremely tired, is this normal?

[Joolz]

I’m 4 weeks into carni, I’m eating heaps of butter with my coffee and with every meal, sticking religiously to only eggs and meat, with a little cheese. I thought I’d got through the intense midday fatigue last week but it’s back with a vengeance. I can literally fall asleep while talking to someone in the middle of the day! It’s awful! 

I’m worried that this might not be normal? 
 

Thank you for your help

[Bob]

A couple thoughts. One is, how long is your sleep and what is the quality of that sleep? Some people find themselves not sleeping as much through the night, waking up before their alarm goes off, etc. This can and will catch up with you eventually.

My other thought is that you previously posted about your concerns that you were eating too high protein and not enough fat. We suggested raising the fat intake, because fat is where the energy will come from - the fat you eat and the fat that you are losing. By eating too lean, you would not become fat adapted (when your body prefers fat/ketones over the occasional carb). This was only 5 days ago, and so maybe you need more time eating a high fat, moderate protein diet to yet become fat adapted. I know you said you've been carni for 4 weeks, but if you were lean meat, high protein, low fat for the first 3 weeks, then you were most likely converting protein to glucose in the absence of fat. 

In short, oftentimes the best way to overcome tiredness on a carnivore diet is to give it time. Some people will boast about this amazing pool of energy they got after 7-10 days, while others will tell you it took them a couple months to fully adapt and feel that way. Every body is different. 

You already know it's doing you good. You've boasted about how your acid reflux and gastritis symptoms have disappeared. I would keep going with a goal of 90 days.

 

The alternative, is to slide more into ketovore -> keto -> low-carb animal-based, which are all fine options, and for a lot of people is the end goal after doing carnivore as an elimination diet. I would still do carnivore for 90 days before slowly reintroducing foods to see how you react to them. I do believe that carnivore can work for everybody, even if some don't think it's for them.

[Geezy]

My guess, from hearing of this from other new carnivores, it that since you have only been doing this for four weeks now it’s extremely likely that you haven’t become fat adapted yet. Your body is still transitioning to trying to use fat instead of glucose for fuel and it seems to be around the 30 day mark where it really becomes noticeable. You don’t have enough glucose left to sustain you like it used to and the fat burning hasn’t quite gotten into full swing yet.
This of course is just a theory but you might just need to hang in there and see if things change.


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[Joolz]

On 4/18/2024 at 9:31 PM, Bob said:

A couple thoughts. One is, how long is your sleep and what is the quality of that sleep? Some people find themselves not sleeping as much through the night, waking up before their alarm goes off, etc. This can and will catch up with you eventually.

My other thought is that you previously posted about your concerns that you were eating too high protein and not enough fat. We suggested raising the fat intake, because fat is where the energy will come from - the fat you eat and the fat that you are losing. By eating too lean, you would not become fat adapted (when your body prefers fat/ketones over the occasional carb). This was only 5 days ago, and so maybe you need more time eating a high fat, moderate protein diet to yet become fat adapted. I know you said you've been carni for 4 weeks, but if you were lean meat, high protein, low fat for the first 3 weeks, then you were most likely converting protein to glucose in the absence of fat. 

In short, oftentimes the best way to overcome tiredness on a carnivore diet is to give it time. Some people will boast about this amazing pool of energy they got after 7-10 days, while others will tell you it took them a couple months to fully adapt and feel that way. Every body is different. 

You already know it's doing you good. You've boasted about how your acid reflux and gastritis symptoms have disappeared. I would keep going with a goal of 90 days.

 

The alternative, is to slide more into ketovore -> keto -> low-carb animal-based, which are all fine options, and for a lot of people is the end goal after doing carnivore as an elimination diet. I would still do carnivore for 90 days before slowly reintroducing foods to see how you react to them. I do believe that carnivore can work for everybody, even if some don't think it's for them.

Thank you, yes I suspect the first 3 weeks my diet didn’t include sufficient fat. Hopefully now that’s being addressed energy levels will increase. I’ll do as you suggest and keep going for 90 days and review then. 
Many thanks  

[Joolz]

9 hours ago, Geezy said:

My guess, from hearing of this from other new carnivores, it that since you have only been doing this for four weeks now it’s extremely likely that you haven’t become fat adapted yet. Your body is still transitioning to trying to use fat instead of glucose for fuel and it seems to be around the 30 day mark where it really becomes noticeable. You don’t have enough glucose left to sustain you like it used to and the fat burning hasn’t quite gotten into full swing yet.
This of course is just a theory but you might just need to hang in there and see if things change.


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Thank you  ok sounds like the transition may be about to kick in. I’ll keep going

[Orweller]

Me thinks, fat like others have stated, but do consider your electrolyte intake. 

[LesW]

These guys give great advice; other than that, I would just reiterate that it’s best not to think in terms of normal vs not normal. Tons of people have had success, but it doesn’t come the same way for everyone. I’m 7 months in and still looking to make adjustments for my body. I believe we’re all on the right track, it just takes fine-tuning and patience. ‍

[Geezy]

I’m 7 months in and still looking to make adjustments for my body. I believe we’re all on the right track, it just takes fine-tuning and patience. ‍

Very true. I’m 349 days in and still tweaking here and there. For some of us it can take more time to heal and expel all of the toxins accumulated over a lifetime.


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[Miranda]

I am just now within the last week experiencing this euphoric type of energy. I have been at this since mid February.  I have recently started focusing on eating mostly beef and adding more butter to my decaf.  I have quit caffeine coffee over this time as well, so I am supposing my sleep has gotten better.