Carnivore Newbie: But Wanting to do Occasional Periods of Carnivore

(Michaela) #1

Hi, all.

I’m new to this forum and new to the idea of the Carnivore Diet. I’ve lost 55 kilos doing different degrees of lower carb. Basically, I don’t eat any processed carbs, and I eat whole foods and good fats. I’m not Keto, though. However, I have about 10 kilos to go but I have been ‘stuck’ forever at my current weight.

I have just found out about the CD (Carnivore Diet) and have been reading quite a bit about it. My experience on my current diet has been really positive, and my cravings have reduced so much, but I still have occasional cravings (normally when I’m trying to reduce my calorie intake to try to get rid of those last 10, which makes me hungry because I know I’m not staying full enough for long enough). So, I’m pretty sure eating the CD way is going to totally kill my appetite.

Here’s the thing, though: I don’t want to do the CD diet forever. I’d like to use it as a temporary tool to get rid of the last of my weight, and to take off any small amounts of weight I might put on in the future. Health-wise, I’m really good. Most of my health issues have disappeared since dumping the processed carbs (YAY!!!). So I’m not interested in the CD for reasons of health (although I’m sure there will be some positive health effects from it, for which I’ll be very grateful), but for weight loss.

I’d really appreciate some advice on how to start, bearing in mind that I don’t need to do an elimination diet. Am I good to go just starting with fatty meats, cheese and butter?

What have been your experiences in terms of weight loss? Do I need to consider calories at all or will the CD have its predictable effect and naturally cause me to want to eat less, thereby reducing calories ‘naturally’? I’ve always had to consider calories, because free-eating simply doesn’t work for me.

Thanks in advance for your responses. :slight_smile:

(TJ Borden) #2

Carnivore is certainly an option, but many would characterize it as even stricter than keto. I’d say try keto first, then progress to carnivore if that still doesn’t do the trick.

(Michaela) #3

Hi, TJ. I actually really would like to try CD as an experiment to see how my body will react. I’m not so interested in Keto, though. But if I couldn’t handle CD, I could certainly try Keto. :slight_smile:

(TJ Borden) #4

I’m mostly carnivore, so I don’t want to come across as selling against it, because I love it, but I’m curious if you’ve already tried low(ish) carb, why the hesitation about keto?

Depending on what your normal carb intake is now, going carnivore can be a pretty big shock to the system, so be prepared to give it a couple months for your system to adapt.

I went to it from keto, and still had an adjustment period because my system had to readjust from 20 grams to zero. That was after being keto for over 6 months and having gone through that adjustment already.

(Debra Holmberg) #5

I keep my carbs under 10 and eat 95% carnivore. I feel much better with a meat diet. I use bacon/egg/butter fat bombs at work.

(Omar) #6

Few months back It never crossed my mind that I would consider carnivore diet.

Until few weeks back I eat large amount of kale and gotten so sick and terminated all vigitables from my diet. I never like vigitables any way I just was trying to follow Dr Eric advice of 10 cups of vigitables.

To my surprise I feel much better on carnivore diet than what I thought.

(Michaela) #7

Probably because I want to kill my appetite completely, BJ, and lose the weight as quickly as possible. Plus, I want to get away from weighing and measuring (so sick of that) for a spell. Like I mentioned, I don’t intend to do CD permanently. When I’ve seen how I cope with it, and if it is successful for weight loss, I will, when finished, go back to the way I eat now (except pull it back a little…carb-creep and all that…lol). :slight_smile:

(Teresa (turtle)) #8

Please see the comprehensive resource for zero carb / carnivore at www.justmeat.co

(Julie Harrington) #9

Would you share your adjustment symptoms in your transition to CD? I’ve been keto for nearly 20 months, and it’s stopped working for me. Mind you I’m extremely diabetic, and suffered tons of damage from the medications I was prescribed when first diagnosed. Any of us who are familiar with Jason Fung know that we areare iinjecting diabetes into our bodies when we use insulin. Anyway, I need to get even more extreme with my diet and CD is how I’ve decided to do it. I’m nearly a week in. I’ve been feeling poorly for much longer than a week, but feel even more so now. Just curious if the diet difference is what could be causing some of my symptoms. Thanks in advance!

(TJ Borden) #10

For me, it was basically like keto flu all over again. I’d get that “empty” feeling where I wasn’t really hungry, but it felt like I needed more.

When transitioning to keto, I’d just pop a handful of macadamia nuts or olives to get through those times, but that’s not really an option on carnivore. One of the aspects to carnivore, and what helped get through it is I didn’t have to worry about going over on protein, so I would just eat more of anything I wanted.

For me, the scale went up a bit for a couple weeks, but then it went back down. Pretty sure it was just water weight as my system was trying to figure out what the hell I was doing now. The fact that transitioning from 20 carbs to zero caused nearly the same response as transitioning from hundreds to 20, was pretty interesting to me, and made me realize that although 20 grams is super low, and was low enough for ketosis and to become fat adapted, there was clearly some part of my system that was relying on them.

I’ve loved the simplicity so far. I’ve never been a “tracker” of what I eat, other than counting carbs early on. I stopped doing that once I was avoiding most sources anyway, and knew I wasn’t going over 20 anyway.

I was an unmedicated T2D. The docs wanted me on stuff but I refused because I had seen my dad follow that downward spiral. My blood glucose levels are still higher than I’d like (fasting 110-120), but they’re regular. Very rarely am I ever over 130 after a meal.

(PrimalRhino) #12

I would agree with Baytowvin. I was keto for a while and it was working great for me. Lost some weight and felt great. I was curious about ZC/carnivore… I love meat. It’s only been 3 weeks for me and it’s been rough. Adapting to keto wasn’t to bad for me. This has been bad. Heading into the 4th week and I’ve just now got most of my energy back and wanting to start trainging again. I’m going to stick I out for another couple weeks, but after some research, the adaptation period could be weeks to months for some.

#13

Why do you think that going carnivore will ‘totally kill your appetite’?

It hasn’t ‘killed’ mine.

(I had absolutely no negative symptoms when I started carnivore, it just felt like normal, from the start. The only thing I missed was the variety of textures and flavours, and that didn’t set in for weeks. Then a few weeks later i started needing to use digestive enzymes. Other than that, fine)

(Michaela) #14

Hi, Brunneria.

In answer to your question, because when I first started eating lower carb (though not as low as keto), that’s what happened. It’s only when I allowed carbs to creep in more over time that I noticed my appetite returning. I’ve just finished day 4 of Carnivore, and my appetite has gone. That’s huge for me. I’ve really had no problems (at least as yet) adjusting. I feel pretty normal. I eat three meals a day with no snacks. So far, so good, but it is early days yet.

BTW, when I went from a typical western diet to cutting out all grains, refined sugar and processed carbs (my carb intake was around 50-100g/day), I also didn’t have an adjustment period…at all. No headaches, no carb flu, etc. I don’t know if it’s just me or what. I’m just glad about it, though. It sounds pretty awful when others talk about it.

#15

I have nothing useful to add, but I wanted to say your dog is super cute.

(PrimalRhino) #16

I wouldn’t say it has killed my appetite, I have no problem eating. But it has definitely Killed my last few craving. Zero response to the treats left or brought into the break room at work.