To the OP, it’s good to see that things are getting better for you. It takes some time to ween off the need for carbs but shouldn’t take that long. Definitely what you were experiencing is cause for concern. I haven’t really been around these forums much but decided to make an account after seeing your experience.
I’ve struggled with my health on-and-off for years and after coming to an all-time low about a month ago, decided to give the carnivore diet a second try. I’ve had a much better experience and by the end of the first week ended up feeling good enough to want to commit fully. But the first time I tried I felt much less good than I think I am feeling now. Was dealing with constipation then for who knows what reason. I was eating several different meats along with eggs the first time around.
This second time, I started with beef only. Some grass-fed but mostly standard supermarket meat. Also am eating most of my meals very rare as I think they taste better and there seems to be a slight difference in how I feel eating rare. It’s like I feel lighter eating the meat when it’s less cooked. I’m limiting water to before 30 mins of eating and after 30 minutes of eating, and I think i do notice that the closer to a meal I drink the more gurgling I have. When I drink too soon after it’s like the water is gurgling as it swishes past the meat that is being digested in the colon, and it lasts a couple minutes for each sip I take - at least that’s what it sounds like. My only problems so far have been finding a place to get clean organ meats and diarrhea Interestingly the first week or so my stools were the best. Then after that, it’s been a short but messy explosion every time I need to go. Not excessively uncomfortable but definitely inconvenient. Also very aperiodic. I think at most it’s been 3 days between stools and at least about 3 hours. Average is about 2 days per movement.
Not 100% sure what’s causing this lack of structure. I might try further restricting my consumption of water. Also, in the last week or so I’ve started introducing raw eggs. The first time I ate them my intestines went wild. Crazy amounts of gas and the same volatile stools experienced earlier. I tried soaking the eggs in grapefruit seed extract (a pretty strong antimicrobial) and water for a bit before eating them, but I don’t think that changed anything. The gaseous reaction has been reduced quite a bit but it’s unclear whether that was the effect of my system becoming more used to the eggs or the elimination of bacteria. If it was caused by bacteria, it’s interesting that it only caused 1 explosive stool during the day whereas when I’ve gotten food poisoning in the past I was on the toilet for the better part of the day. I’ll continue to experiment but the gas and bloating seems to steadily be getting better. There were a few days there though that there was so much gas and bloating I was worried something was going to hatch and break out from my intestines. I almost never had nearly that much gas on any previous diet.
I am taking no supplements. The only things I put on my meat are Himalayan salt and pepper. Once in a while if I start to get a headache I will add some salt to my water but there’s no indication to me whether this helps at all. My body still feels like it is lacking something as I wake up at night with my feet cramping but the cramping recently has been far less bad than the foot cramping I’ve woken up with in the past while taking multiple supplements daily.
I am curious to know who is eating raw meats. I’m very interested in how raw meats might affect gut healing and overall physical health. As I said, I’ve been eating meat mostly rare, with the exception of meat that is starting to sour (yes, I buy meat with noticeable bacterial layers on it because I’m curious and because it is discounted so I want to save a few dollars). No notable effect from eating this type of meat rare or well-done, though there is that very prominent high meat flavor. It is unbelievable that I didn’t end up in the hospital after this considering the stigma against meat getting old. Thinking about it though, it would make sense that it’s the old cooked meat that is dangerous rather than the old raw meat, as I would think that different bacteria would grow on cooked meat then on raw meat. Also if the bacteria doesn’t impregnate deep into the meat, it would make sense that even just searing the meat would kill the bacteria to the point where It’s not a problem. I am very much a novice in this regard though, so I will proceed with caution. If anyone has experience with raw, high, or meat that isn’t very cooked, I’d very much like to be directed towards reliable information on the subject.
Anyways, I know I don’t feel the best I’ve ever felt at this point, but I feel quite good and would be happy if I just felt this good for 75% of the time. I think that is one reason the carnivore diet gets so much praise by people with previous health issues - The feeling of consistent health, even if it is mediocre compared to someone in excellent health, is absolutely incredible. For those who struggle switching to it, definitely find out why and don’t just assume that feeling like garbage is part of the process. Some transition of feeling worse makes sense, but if you’re not continually improving past that brief transition, something’s wrong. Don’t let it get into your head that you need to just wait it out - if you feel something is wrong, listen to your body and make changes and search for information until you figure out what the problem is. Obviously there has to be a balance to this - quitting a fast because you feel hungry in the first 30 minutes is rather silly, but there should be at least a semi-intuitive difference between experiencing withdrawals and experiencing a toxic reaction or complete lack of nutrition. Why the carnivore diet doesn’t work for some people is beyond me, but don’t let yourself fall into the trap that the die-hard vegans fall into in assuming that if you are doing everything “right”, things will eventually get better even if it feels like they are getting worse. You’re only as healthy as the nutrients that you are absorbing and if a step in the process is missing so that absorption can’t happen, then at best it will have a neutral effect on your overall health. At worst, your health will just get worse.
To the above post, I might suggest cooking your meat less and seeing how that feels. I am not completely sure what I am doing differently this time around that makes me feel so much better than the last time I tried going carnivore a few months ago, but the main differences are I’m cooking my meat less and that I’m only eating beef and the occasional raw egg. Also, I haven’t been microwaving my food to reheat it. And to be honest, I have only had two reheated meals in total including today. Not sure there is anything more than paranoia to it, but a lot of people swear that the microwave is the devil in terms of what it does to your food. And I think that the histamine content gets higher in meat as it ages, though I don’t know if this is true of cooked food that is being refrigerated for a few days. I may be way off the mark here so I don’t suggest you try these suggestions except out of curiosity.
Wow I completely rewrote this post to be a summary of what I originally posted and it still ends up being one of the longest posts on this thread… Sorry guys.
. I “go” every 3-4 days, but feel “heavy” in the abdomen in the last day or so before I 
movements. They are every couple of days - six days! I often feel very heavy lower gut pressure for a day or so then “go”. I have reduced reliance on herbal laxatives.
