35 days on strict carnivore diet and have crappy results

newbies
(Jack) #1

I’ve been on the carnivore diet now for 35 days and am not super happy with my results. First off, I’m 5"10, 24 years old, male and weighed 240 pounds 35 days ago and this morning before eating the scale says 211. That’s the only positive thing I’ve gotten from this diet so far. I have psoriasis, joint pain/back/hip pain and sciatica, (btw I have spinal stenosis, a fused tailbone, lower back arthritis and a history of herniated disc on top of a back operation to cut it out and then it re injured). I have insane brain fog and mental confusion, terrible anxiety and anxiety attacks, paranoia, OCD and mental health doctors have said probably more. I also have GERD/Acid Reflux and basically nearly vomit every time I brush my teeth and need to spend five minutes hacking and gagging up thick weird spit, every single time I brush, its hellish.
Also, for some reason, obviously related to this diet, I’ve had this nasty meat taste in my throat for weeks now.

Not one of these things has been made any better in the past 35 days on this diet, just weight loss. Now, I have low testosterone, like 260 ng/dl when I got tested a year or two ago, and I’m sure from rapid weight loss its possibly gone even further down, so I’m wondering if that’s why I feel like crap and a possibility to why my brain doesn’t feel better, that combined with sudden complete stoppage of drinking four diet coke cans daily for years, since I’ve only drunken water since I started this diet. Or maybe I wasn’t eating enough? I was eating but not hungry a lot, sometimes just didn’t want to eat. I don’t know, pretty sure I’ve seen other people losing weight at my rate and they had all those other positive effects that I haven’t gotten. I think the most logical conclusion is this diet just doesn’t work for me, I’ve been eating nothing but steak, 4 grams of celtic sea salt daily and drinking water plus a few beef roast things for a month. (I did eat eggs a few times in the first like 8 days, 48 hours of nausea led to giving those up.)

Point is that I’ve been very strict on this diet and it hasn’t fixed jack shit and I’m sick of eating this crap. I’m about to give up unless anyone has any advice why this diet seems to do nothing it claimed to for me. I wanna switch to keto.

(Elizabeth ) #2

Hey whatever makes you happy, but I can tell you that weeks five to six seem to be the worst for most people. Your body is undergoing massive changes right now and it is going to feel like crap. That’s why 95% of people never make it to 6 months. But for those of us that do it’s life-changing. I can’t believe though, that you really expect one month is going to cure issues that you’ve probably had for years? this isn’t a magic bullet it’s a way for your body to reconstruct itself and make it healthier to help resolve issues that you have.

#3

Jack,
Congrats on the phenomenal weight loss!!! Impressive.

As for feeling lousy at this point…yep. I had that happen too, and from what I have been able to glean from the more educated persons on the forum - that feeling is at least in part - due to an oxalate dump. So, over time, other foods we’ve eaten contain soluable and insoluabe oxalates. Insoluable oxalates become like tiny spikey crystals that bounce around and cause pain in joints, etc. (80% of kidney stones are comprised of calcium oxalate.) When doing carnivore, the body seems to start “dumping” these bad boys out like crazy. Which, causes some serious pain. The pain and aches last for usually less than a week. But then…it disappears and you feel like new. Now, you have A LOT of other issues happening, so it make take longer to feel better. I always remind myself that I didn’t gain all this weight overnight, and its not going to come off quickly. So, be patient with your body as it may just take a longer time to heal. You’ve got lots going on, my friend.

I still drink black coffee because I am not a carnivore purist, and I do love my coffee. Plus, no caffeine deprivation headaches. For those days when I don’t feel like I’m getting enough salt, or I just have general aches and pains…dill pickle juice. I chug it. I feel better almost instantly. So, that’s something you might consider trying.

Make certain that the meats you’re eating contain ample amounts of fat too. =) Sure hope you feel better soon!!!

(Jack) #4

Most stories I’ve read people started feeling better anywhere from 2-4 weeks, 5 weeks for me and I still feel like shit, so yeah I expected it not to take months and months.

(Jack) #5

Okay well I stopped eating 24/7 red meat and now I’m just adding in random meats like chicken, pork, turkey,etc. Should I not do that and instead only add in one certain meat every couple weeks at a time to see how it effects me?

I don’t know if I can afford this diet anymore as I’m getting back into working out and that burns lots of calories which will require me to eat even more meat and I can barely afford the 1200ish calories I eat daily already.

I assume keto is cheaper but I really need to fix these terrible mental issues and I’m afraid the carnivore diet is my best bet at it, idk if keto will work as good.

#6

So don’t do it anymore! Clearly isn’t for you. I did it for a couple weeks and wasn’t for me at all! Way to restrictive for me. Not everything is for everybody. I have a lot of the same probs you have, still wasn’t a benefit to me.

(Jack) #7

Idk sounds like that’s just giving up.

#8

It is giving up, but that’s OK. The body doesn’t work on our timetable.

I also have oxalate dumping that gives me incredible pain in my knees at times, but overall, I have more energy, have been losing weight effortlessly, and I think the payoff is worth the short term discomfort.

I buy cheap ground beef at Aldi’s and meat on sale, and even eating a lot found it is much cheaper then wasting produce, buying processed or fast food, and is really easy to prep ahead.

Good luck whatever you choose, but I am really glad I stuck it out for the first six months to get to a sweeter spot. . .

#9

HI :slight_smile:

have you done ANY low carb or keto or caveman or paleo ‘diet’ before you jumped into carnivore?

because if you have gone from a nasty eating junky food life like most of us, then you would understand there is ‘adaption’. Happens when we ‘go healthy eating’ and cut all that sugar and more LOL It happens for all of us. All to varying degree. Your experience will never be anothers and many do have tough experiences.

One thing about carnivore is meat heals…but that is on an individual timeline no one can predict. Healthier you are, more you were ‘very low carb or keto’ and healed more before coming into carnivore, usually the less bad adaption you do have for most, but again, some come from like keto into carnivore and are shocked how much more adaption/detoxing they have to endure.

ZC is time. 35 days is a drop in the bucket. Most carnivore trials SHOULD be at least 90 day commitment…but since everyone wants instant gratification most think the 30 day commitment is all one needs, nope…again, time on this plan is key.

We must detox and heal before we get to the other good side of it all.

Just eat as much meat/seafood/good fats you need as you want it.
Just heal thru the changes.
Come here and B and moan about how crappy ya feel and let it out :wink:, it is ok, we all been there, done that :smile:

Now Keto is a great plan. No doubt about it. So if you wanna go there, then go for it, but if you got 35 days in and you are eating clean and true to this plan…omg don’t back out now…make your total focus at least 60 days and see where ya get………cause in truth when one keeps going and going, the changes are so stellar it is amazing. Again, it is time on plan, get thru adaption and healing on a personal level and thrive.

All good things come to those who wait, a little healing/adaption shouldn’t truly waiver you just yet…if you feel you can hack it, then treat your symptoms…tired, nap if ya can. Hungry, eat well. Not hungry, don’t eat, it is fine. Need some salt use it.

I tell ya Jack…you keep on going and you will be shocked how well you probably do…but I can’t stress enough, it is a personal timeline and we all ‘get the good benefits’ in our own time in zc.

So I say hang on for the ride and go for it.

In fact we are starting a July Challenge to stay on plan and that post will be coming in a few days. Jump into our carnivore challenge and chat up with all of us who do this plan…we can help ya if you want it :slight_smile:

best of luck on what ya decide

(Elizabeth ) #10

That’s exactly your problem if you’re not eating a couple pounds of fatty meat a day you’re not giving your body the nutrients that it needs. You’re eating a starvation diet and no matter what you eat you’re probably going to feel like crap.

#11

oh E is right on that. Number 1 on carnivore is eat. Eat all the meat/seafood you need at all times. Very important. Without that rule on transitioning into zc it is very hard to even get any good results at all and makes adaption maybe worse…so what Elizedge said is key. Eat :slight_smile:

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #12

Most of the people who have gone carnivore did so from a low-carbohydrate diet, and even so, they almost always experienced an adaptation phase. To go straight from a high-carbohydrate diet to full carnivore/ZC is quite a jump. So the adaptation can only be worse, because there is a lot more to adjust to. You should see quite a bit of benefit merely from dropping your carbohydrate intake to ketogenic levels, if you want to go through that adaptation first. Then the transition to carnivore shouldn’t be quite so stressful.

Along with the other posters in this thread, I would advise giving yourself another thirty days at least, before giving up on eating carnivore/ZC. At that point, however, you may need to sit yourself down and do a serious stock-taking, to decide what your goals are and if this way of eating is helping you meet them. I can tell you that several well-known people who have adopted a carnivore diet have done so because it was the only way of eating that resolved their various mental and physical problems. While low-carb/keto helped, it was not until they fully eliminated plant foods from their diet that they started to get full relief from their problems.

It is important to remember that there is a lot of individual variability in these matters, and there is no guarantee that any given way of eating is going to work for everyone. If carnivore/ZC doesn’t give you the results you want, there is no shame in moving on to a way of eating that works better for you.

(Jack) #13

Thanks to everyone for answering this post, you’ve given me the knowledge and motivation to probably/hopefully stick to this diet another 30 days. I just hope I can afford the meat to eat more now that I’m working out.

Just one thing that I wasn’t sure if anyone answered, if its okay now that I did 31 days of pure red meat to start adding in any other kind of meat or do I need to slowly add in other foods like two weeks of chicken and see how I react, two weeks of turkey and see how I react,etc.

Anyways I have to get off the computer now for 7 hours but please keep replying, thanks.

(Jack) #14

Well the past month I’ve just been sitting at home doing nothing so two pounds of meat daily wouldn’t have made me lose weight and I was already feeling like I didn’t want to eat anymore when I was eating like 1200 calories lol.

I felt like I could have eaten more, I just didn’t want to.

(Jack) #15

My anxiety is so bad I can’t work, debilitating anxiety attacks, very bad brain fog constantly and mental confusion are the worst things ruining my life the past decade, so yeah I very much need this diet and its probably worth suffering, just really hope the acid reflux goes down soon.

(Jack) #16

I hope the changes are amazing if i stick to it and no I jumped straight from an unhealthy diet into carnivore.

(Mary) #17

I’ve found that a tsp of sodium bicarb (baking soda) in a glass of water takes care of acid reflux pretty much instantly…

#18

ohhh, ok straight into carnivore…then you did not walk the ‘low carb or keto’ walk first.

wow…you have a lot of info to understand for sure and that is cool, cause heck when I went into low carb from crappy menu I got nailed too :slight_smile:

come into our July challenge and chat up when we start the thread ina few days…or hit the last of our Junebilee challenge. We can help you but also…at any time if you need to go ‘keto’ and learn that plan there are tons of people here to help you.

It is also a mental transition thru eating changes. Keto/low carb and all helps one walk toward zc if you think zc is for you…so how ya roll you got good people here to get ya thru big changes you are experiencing.

in the end…one thing right…you have to want to walk thru these changes and get healthy :slight_smile: so in the end, grab the gumption and hang on!!

and you are gonna go thru massive detox/adaption. So hold on.

but key is eat. Eat ALL THE MEAT/SEAFOOD you need. Sausage links, bacon, big old steaks and as much as you need, want a pile of chicken wings then eat that…want chicken thighs go all in…want seafood and crab/shrimp/scallops fried in a bit of butter, heck yea :slight_smile: Key now for going all in is eat. Beef holds us best. Big old burger, a 1 lb. burger if you need it. Chuck roast and more. Key is eat please and it will be the difference in how you feel and just work thru adaption. If adaption is super tough we got ways to help that too :smile:

(Elizabeth ) #19

Joe and Charlene Anderson have eaten just about nothing but red meat for over 21 years. Poultry is not going to be as satisfying nor has the same nutrient composition, lamb is an excellent substitute if you have cheap access, pork occasionally but main stay beef, poultry now I just eat occasionally when I crave wings :slight_smile: of course naked

#20

agree with Elizedge. Chicken and some are not ‘holding dense meat’ like red meat…beef, bison, deer with added fat…red meat is tops for us but it can go leaner etc. as we choose animal and cuts.

But thing is since a newbie to it all, you eat ALL you need, focus on red meat then add anything else you need or want. Bacon, sausage, chicken, lamb and more.

Make a point to say…all in carnivore, but if and when I require any and all food I can eat any darn animal I want. All meat and seafood all the time as I need it and want it. You won’t be deprived ever, physically or mentally if you allow this type of eating to happen.

boy I had to grab this. I had to eat all the animal foods I need to get past that point and learn thru it all. You can eat as much as you require at all times, just eat and be happy :slight_smile: Some of us need a bit of variety to hold, some can go in all beef and hold, some can change it up as required to a taste. But dropping ALL junk and obviously plant carbs means you went from crazy to 0 carb in a flash and it can be hard. I know, I walked it :slight_smile:

thing is YOU ARE not lower carb coming into this and an ‘all beef’ 90 day trial might be truly overwhelming but it is the best way to go but you have to know…at all times ALL meat and seafood are allowed. Any time you eat all ya want of any animal meat you are fine. Carnivore is just that.

So if overwhelmed, when in doubt eat anything animal.
If doing better, focus on that red meat and get your fill cause this is how most zc’ers do our best on these meats.