Hey everybody,
I watched a video of Steak and Butter Girl on youtube and she explained that she was healing in the beginning of the diet, that’s why she was eating so much. Mostly because of all the toxins that come from plants and carbs.
Do you guy’s experienced the same? I just can’t fast when I’m doing keto. The longest I went was 4 month’s until I went to Rome and ate some carbs. Never doing that again haha.
I have wondered whether it might not be the toxins, but the increased bio-availability of nutrients in meat. That is, plants may seem to have a lot of nutrients, but a lot of those are locked away or hampered by anti-nutrients. Meanwhile, meat provides much better access to nutrients (though not 100%).
I found that I reduced my exercise, ate as much as I wanted, and lost weight. Lost the most weight at the beginning.
This.
I actually did incorporate EF into my weight loss protocol while on keto - I found it a lot easier to fast without difficulty once I wasn’t craving carbs every 2-3 hours. I don’t think it’s necessary and it needs to be used with caution to keep metabolism from slowing, but it was an effective tool for me.
I’m now at a stable and satisfactory weight with a meat-heavy keto diet, eating primarily ad libitum but with an eye on the scale. I can overdo the fat if I serve myself portions that are more than I actually want, and then feel obligated to clean my plate, so I take smaller portions and wait to see if I want more.
I’d still like to incorporate an occasional fast for what I perceive as “clean up”, but I haven’t done so for a while and don’t know what fasting will be like at this stage.
It seems fasting tends to be easier for ketoers but I had the opposite experience. The less carbs I eat, the harder fasting gets (and the more meals I need per day on average, sadly. at least if I don’t focus on it at all), of course there are other factors but the trend was very noticeable… EF got hard on keto and I totally lost the ability to do it after carnivore (no matter if I go off, I still can’t do it). I don’t really use willpower for these things, I need the huge help of my body and it just refuses to give it to me.
Until fat adaptation, I was hungry when not eating as much as before so I lost no fat in the first months (or ever since but at least I lost my bad hunger due to fat adaptation. things get easier but not easy enough for me). Many people have this, they need fat adaptation first. Others find keto very satiating from the beginning. And surely there are other cases but these two must be quite common.
I don’t care about “healing” as I never believed I needed much of that. But I just don’t care, I don’t really know. I try to eat the way my body likes now, that’s definitely the good attitude, no matter if and how much healing I may need. I felt very healthy (and satiated, I am a hedonist and don’t stay hungry if possible) on high-carb, low-carb, keto and carnivore alike but low-carb and carnivore made me feel better (just because I have no complaints - beyond low-energy, my problem on every woe - , I always can feel even better!).
I don’t think I have problems with plants (beyond carbs if it adds up too much) but I definitely find it better to stay close to carnivore when possible (and indulge and enjoy the hell out of it when not). Carnivore is loads better (and often easier, surprisingly. or maybe not, plant carbs mess up things for me…) than my old vegetarian keto even when I eat just as much carbs and way more simpler sugars (as carnivore makes eating starches and sugar alcohols impossible 
it’s all sugar there. I easily do 40g sugar now and it feels loads better than eating vegs - and I feel pretty okay when eating vegs but it’s still different, mostly satiation wise and mentally).
So my experience is that plant carbs may cause problems even on keto. I never had very low carbs on my original keto but I have so many years of experience and it shows that it’s not the carb intake, more like the plant carb intake what is important for me on low-carb. But some people feel way better with more carbs and plants so it’s individual as nearly everything when it comes to our eating.
I guess I’m confused by the question?
So she is saying the reason she was eating so much “in the beginning” was because she was healing? Like internally? I’m not sure what she means.
I healed a ton in the first 6 months of this diet but I wasn’t eating “so much”. I just made sure to get my fat macro met every day so that I could avoid carb cravings and hunger pains, which can be the worst in the very first couple of weeks. I ate until full but I did restrict my calories too. That’s just what I did it’s not necessary. Once I was fully fat adapted (for me that took about two months,) everything became a lot easier. I wasn’t hungry all the time, I suddenly didn’t need breakfast, or anything really before noon. I had no cravings except for meat and fat. I ate fibrous veggies and dairy and cheese and nuts too but never craved them. It was all unintentional and I naturally fell into a 16:8 IF after my first year on Keto. I didn’t do it sooner because I wanted to get good at one thing at a time and not throw another curve ball into the mix by adding fasting too soon and then screw up all of it having too many challenges at once straining me and my will power and focus. I like how I did it.
But I had started the diet while I was taking 13+ prescriptions for over 20-25 years. After 4 months I was off of ALL of them. So I think that’s pretty indicative of “healing”
Was she saying that the only reason she did Keto was to heal in the beginning and then she would stop? If she said anything like that I’d say I have a son that shows how that isn’t a good idea at all. This is a way of eating for health benefits, not a quickie diet to be patched in on occasion. You want what is reversed to stay reversed and going back to the way you ate before will cause all the unhealthy symptoms to return. My son had better mental health, lost all his weight, cleared up his acne, and then when he went back to eating like he used to it made him unhealthy again. He is heaviest he has ever been, his acne is really bad now, he’s desperately relying on pharmacological treatments for his mental health, which just exacerbates all the symptoms again and kills his motivation, will power and hope. He knows it’s the food and wishes he never stopped the diet.
You don’t mean the longest you fasted was 4 months, right? Did you mean the longest you have been on Keto was 4 months? If that’s what you meant I would say it’s not long enough. Fabulous things will happen as your body repairs itself but it won’t do it miraculously all at once. It takes time. And some things you won’t realize need repairing because you hadn’t yet had an outward indication of the poor functioning, but you will notice something good happened when you start feeling fantastic. After 2-1/2 years I’m probably still healing. Lol
I didn’t do extended 2-3 day fasting, or even 24 hour fasting, until after a solid first year on the diet without stopping or cheating. First time I did a 24 hour fast it actually lasted 3 days! 
Every day I felt better and better. I didn’t want to stop. Now after 2-1/2 years I’m not good getting past 48 hours on a fast. I just get too hungry. My carbs are a tad higher right now and I think that’s why. When I was strictly controlling my carbs keeping them really low fasting was a breeze without hunger (except at the 18-22 hour point, for me that’s the hump of hunger I have to overcome, but once past it I’m home free.) However, with a bit higher total carbs each day the past few months I’ve not been able to go longer than 2 days. That’s ok tho because when you have been on Keto for a really long time you get the same benefits at 1-2 days that previously might have needed 3-4 days.
I only do an EF once a month now. But I do IF every day.
I’m not sure if I misunderstood your questions. I hope I answered ok?
Hi Jim,
When I started carnivore in May 2022 I ate heaps for the 1st 9 or so months. At least 2 kg of meat a day plus cream in coffee, cheese and natural greek yoghurt. (6’2" female, 60 years old, sedentary, no eating window, no cut off time for my last meal for the day). Despite this I lost 19 kg. It was crazy. It was a weird kind of hunger. Not an emotional soothing need to eat, and not actual true physical hunger some of the time. It was like my body kept on telling me I needed to eat that much meat. I too read it might be because my body was doing a lot of healing.
Bodies are weird huh.
By the way, Steak and Butter Girl is carnivore, not keto - unless she’s now changed what she’s eating.
Interesting…I know she’s a big advocate of priming. Could that be what she was referring to? I could certainly see eating more in the beginning to stay satiated and help resist cravings.
Have heard where eating more to heal.
It’s complicated, and different for everyone. Once I went keto, I continued eating the sorts of almost-belly-rupturing quantities of food I had been eating on my high-carb diet, but suddenly my appetite dropped, and I started wanting less food. The difference between eating to satiety and eating to the bursting point was startling. There is a big difference between being full and eating enough. I reckon my stomach is about half-full when I stop eating, now. I have room for more, but I don’t want more.
Moreover, a few months after I started eating to satiety, I stopped wanting three meals a day, and I automatically dropped to two. Occasionally I forget to eat until supper-time, or want to have breakfast at eleven-thirty in the morning, and then another two meals on my regular schedule.
Interestingly, now that I am plant-free, my appetite still varies a bit, but the carb cravings are absolutely resistible, whereas on keto, they would sometimes get the better of me.