90 Day Journal. I need your support

mentalhealth
depression
(Peter Schmitt) #21

Yes, I ment August 18th. I’m much, much older than 18 ( 22 xD ). Good luck for your carnivore-experiment.

#22

Hello. Day 11 here. Feeling ok. But this is odd. I’ve been having weird gurgling cramping every day. Pretty much constantly through the day with varying degrees of severity. Today I had 250g smoked cod loin (because it was reduced in the supermarket) with my beef mince and my stomachs fine. No noises or odd feelings coming from my gut. Whats that about?! It makes no sense to me. I’ve still eaten 1kg of red meat and fat as usual. Just with a bit of cod on the side…

(Nathan Toben) #23

Food and the correlating gut bacteria which breaks down that food is like the game Marco Polo.

If we keep reiterating the same caloric source, whether that be snickers bars or grass fed beef, our guts in turn prepare and react proportionally with bacteria (or I guess more accurately, our guts house this proportionate response). I don’t have experience yet with the carnivore diet - I’m excited to try it in the future - but I can imagine that those of us who have had a lot of success with it cycle through a diverse array of animal sources and implement fasting strategies so as not to overpromote any one strain of bacteria.

If indigestion persists passed an adaption phase, I would imagine diversification of meat sources and/or fasting to neutralize overgrowth would be buoyant tactics. Thoughts, criticisms? @oward12, inspired by you and hope to follow suit after some months of keto.

#24

Could be. Weird thing is my Depression has reappeared from nowhere at the same time. Like it’s obvious to me. Not in control. I think the two are correlated somehow. Such a tough ball game this one. Determined to work it out.
And thanks @Nathan_Toben. Not as much I am you. It’s a dream of mine to run a 100 mile ultra one day. Got major respect for anyone that has the character to do it.

#25

Update:
I had to add back in some carbs, difficulty breathing and heavy chest, could this be due to Potassium shortage? I used to eat tons of avocados and broccoli.

#26

I think a lot of these symptoms that we are experiencing are just adaption if I’m honest. Days 1-5 I was a slouch. Barely able to stand. Then yesterday I was depressed and overwhelmed by cravings. Then today I’m great, best I’ve felt. I’ve even been out on a 10k run and enjoyed it! But I’ve kept to the mantra of ‘eat meat, drink water’ whenever I feel like crap. Adapting from any amount to carbs to none will be a shock to the body initially. If you keep adding small amounts of carbs you’ll never go through that adaption, any plant food that may be causing you unknown problems will continue to and you’ll just stay stuck feeling as you are. Most people say 30 days. I’m going for 90 to give it a fair go. In reality it’s so early on I should wake up and expect to feel 50% every day at this point. Definitely seeing improvements though. Drop salt, it causes fatigue and for some reason scabs in my nose! So weird. Whenever I drop it they clear. I am supplementing B Vitamins, Magnesium and Potassium everyday at least for 30 days because I believe my break down and digestion of meat is so bad currently, combined with suspected leaky gut that I’m just not absorbing these things through my diet. But hopefully that will rectify itself once I give my body enough time to heal. It won’t do it in 13 and a half days. Not after years of abuse.

#27

On the plus side I managed to ride out the most horrendous depression and urges to indulge in my old disordered eating behaviours yesterday that I feel so good about myself. For the first time in a long time I didn’t succumb to that voice in my head and now I feel great for it and I’m still working towards my goal. I actually sat with my emotions rather than act upon them. Pretty Rad! You guys don’t know what an achievement that is for me. Had to share that!

#28

Good for you. Honestly I am fearing for my well being, shortness of breath and heart problems are not to be taken lightly, I’d rather have a few lbs on me but healthy. At this point Im thinking if I need to visit my dr to check things out.

#29

I agree. Do what’s best for your health, not the waist line. I’m not doing this for weight loss but serious health issues so that helps motivate me. Other experienced Carnivores might be able to give you more specific advice on your experiences.

#30

Thank you, I am hoping someone would be able to. I’ll do a bigger carb up today to see if it helps. Good luck on your health journey.

#31

Day 15: 2 weeks down
Week 2 Weigh In: 171.7 lbs (77.9 kg)
Feeling great. Cravings almost disappeared.
Still supplementing B Vitamins, Pottasium and Magnesium. Probably keep that up until my digestion has sorted itself. Bowel movements still haven’t settled but still early days. Very stable mood and getting more productive each day. Physical performance isn’t bad either. Good stuff!

#32

Day 22: 3 weeks down.
Week 3 Weigh In: 173.3 lbs (78.6 kg)

Morning all. So this is why I started this journal. For days like this. Gained weight during week 3. Don’t know where. Don’t know how. But it’s knocked my motivation. I’ve been so strict. Just meat and water. Cut all supplements and salt on Day 16. Been through a rough adaption with that. Feel like I’m coming out of that now. No Dairy. Press up rep has remained the same so can’t say I’m getting stronger or gaining muscle. Pretty p#ssed. This is when I’m at risk to myself for self sabotage. To throw in the towel and eat junk. I don’t eat more than two meals a day. Sometimes only once.
Stomach still isn’t great. Get some gas still. Bloat. Bowel movements aren’t good or regular. Feel stable and cravings are significantly reduced. I’m eating to satiety like is so strongly promoted on this woe, especially through adaption. But now worrying I’m eating too much and need to calorie restrict.
I keep telling myself it’s only 21 days and my bodies still changing. Just hard to override my way of thinking. Seeing improvements in other areas of my being. I know it’s not about the scales but it’s an indicator of something. Help

(Peter Schmitt) #33

This fluctuations are very small : This could even be water. You are still in adaption, which means that you may have lost a greater amount of water at the beginning. Now your body learns to hold it in your new WOE. In addition, weight-loss is not linear.
Try to eat to get healthy - weightloss is secondary.

(Chris) #34

This has more to do with a poor mindset and misguided goalsetting than a diet failing. The number on a scale is meaningless without the context of bodyfat percentage, waist size, overall health and wellbeing, inflammation, gut health, digestive health, and a number of other very important factors. It is so incredibly insignificant without looking at all of that. Muscle and bone of volume weight more than fat of the same volume. So you could have gained 2 pounds of muscle and lost 1 pound of fat, the number on the scale goes up someone in this mindset thinks they’ve made negative progress or failed in some way.

You haven’t. If you’ve stayed strict these 22 days you’ve made progress somewhere. Look at the big picture and the long term.

#35

Thanks guys. Needed some straight talk.
I’m feeling better with each day subjectively and I know I’m over the worst of the adaption now. I’ve got no chest pains. My nose sores have cleared. I’m keeping a daily journal and I can see the improvements. Depression has all but vanished. I’ve stayed strict. I’m an all or nothing kind of guy.
Think I just put the fact that I’m eating 3lbs of meat a day (which seems a lot for someone my size) and a slight weight gain together. Definitely a poor mindset. But I’m trying to counter it and making small progress. It’s the reason I only weigh in once a week.

Thanks again. Needed a bit of community today. Chilled out again now and heads back into why I’m doing it. Guess I just want it to feel like a lifestyle rather than a challenge. Still feels like a challenge currently. What with fighting cravings and adaption fluctuations in mood and energy. I’m sticking with it.

#36

I fucked up. Yesterday was Day 27. I woke up great. I ate as normal. Lamb chops, Sirloin, Beef Heart, Beef Fat Trimmings. I was fatigued. Bloated. Gassy. Stomach discomfort. Feeling really crap. I realised I hadn’t passed a good bowel movement for the whole 27 days. My energy hasn’t really improved. I’ve just stayed stable. And stable was nice. But I was falling asleep midday for 3 hours. Where’s the euphoria everyone speaks about? Where’s this dynamic digestion where everything just works? I get you don’t go as often. But I was constipated. I wanted to go and couldn’t. Day 27! Sticking to it religiously. No dairy. Where’s the zero carb utopia? So I’ve slipped back into my old eating disorder ways and now I don’t know where I stand. Everytime I eat on Carnivore I feel worse than beforehand. Fuck my life! So fed up of living in this no mans land of nutrition where nothing works. People will say eat more fat. Others more protein. Others will say your adaption just takes longer. How long do I go on this diet with the ups and downs expecting a transformation that may never appear. I don’t know if my fucked up brain needs ketones. I don’t know anything anymore. I’m in such a hole and I’m about ready to just fill it in on top of me rather than keep clasping at the sides in vein to get out. I repeat. Fuck my life.

#37

Can someone give me some advice on staying in Ketosis on Carnivore/Zero Carb?

I’ve made the mistake of thinking I’ve cracked it and then taking 5 steps back. I need to try again. I saw so many benefits in so many ways but still was making mistakes.

I’d be feeling great right up until eating. Worked out I was consuming in excess of 100g of protein per meal. Not quite as much fat. Eating twice a day. I’m guessing I was feeling bad after eating because I was getting kicked out of Ketosis with the accompanying response in blood sugar and insulin because of my protein.

So I know it’s individual to everyone but how much protein should I be able to manage with each sitting without the effects? So keto calculators advise 140g - 150g of protein a day. Should I try space that out over 3 meals? Any advice would be appreciated.

I know Carnivore is Eat Meat. Drink Water. But that didn’t work for me. I need some closer care to stop my old habits and feel well.

Apologies to anyone I’ve spoken to like I know my shit on Carnivore already. Been taught a lesson over the last few days. Knocked down several pegs. Always learning.

(Chris W) #38

Generally, when following the carnivore diet, the goal is becoming healthy by nourishing the body, it’s not about chasing ketones, or trying to stay in a continuous state of ketosis. That said I can relate to your description of not feeling your best if you consume too much protein in one sitting,
I recently did an experiment where I switched from eating 2x per day (Early 7-9 hour window) to eating every 16 hours to avoid any eating when I was not hungry. This resulted in eating fewer larger meals. After about 6 weeks, I stopped the experiment and went back to 2X per day because I believe my protein per meal was higher that my bodies personal protein load tolerance, and I would feel brain fog for a few hours after some meals. This wasn’t a big deal on the weekends, but on workdays, it was effecting my work.
I can say that over the 18 months I have been eating carnivore, my personal threshold for protein has increased significantly. When I 1st started, I would see a mild increase in blood glucose (about 10 mg/dl) if I went over about 45-50g of protein in a meal, so at that time, I spread my daily protein over 3 meals, within about a 10 hour window.
I now can tolerate about twice that much in one sitting without feeling funky, and I no longer see the blood glucose rise at all, I get more of a “fuzzy in the head” feeling, if I eat too much.
There have been a couple of times when I feel like I have more rapidly expanded my capacity for protein by increasing the amount of food I eat and opening up the feeding window a bit. One of these times was a 10-day cruise, where I stayed carnivore, but ate breakfast, lunch and dinner to satiety+ for 9.5 days in a row. I did gain a few pounds during that time, but I came out of it with a noticeably higher capacity for protein in one sitting. The weight dropped right back when I got back to my “normal” routine, so I think it was likely just water retention, perhaps partially due to losing control over the oils (most likely seed oils) used in cooking my food in the ships kitchen.
I’m not sure if any of my N=1 anecdote helps, but I thought I’d share. At 18 months in, I consider myself to be a beginner, minimally qualified to give advice to others.

Chris W

#39

very helpful!
I too have found that my capacity for larger portions of protein in one sitting is slllooooowwwwwlllyyyy increasing.
There was a point 3-4 months in when I really struggled, and started using digestive enzymes (which helped a lot), but now at 9 months, I am using them less often and can eat a 10oz of steak without that dreadful leaden feeling. I still feel better with a digestive enzyme tab, but no longer feel rotten if I don’t have it…

(Tubeman) #40

Hey, hope you’re still making progress with carnivore. Reading through this thread, I wonder if one problem may have been not drinking enough water. I have been doing carnivore for a year now, and it has been profoundly life changing in the best kind of way. Anyways, I found sometimes when my mood or energy was down, what often helped was water, sometimes salt. Proper hydration is also important to have good bowel movements.

Don’t be afraid of salt. If you like your meat salty, do it, especially if you feel like you’re craving it. Lots of athletes even swear by salt as a performance enhancer. That said, if you don’t like salt or feel averse to it, lots of people seem to do fine without it.

I’ll reiterate something others have said here too: don’t chase ketones or numbers on a scale; chase health.