Carnivore poop question

zerocarb
carnivore
zero-carb-carnivore
#1

I’m on my 4th month of a pure carnivore lifestyle and I noticed my bowel movements and stools changing, which I expected. However, the fact that I only poop once every 1-2 weeks is a bit concerning (I used to go daily on SAD). The texture/consistency is a Bristol Type 4, but is very voluminous to the point where it causes slight discomfort around my anus when I pass it due to the large circumference, although it passes very quickly and easily since it’s very smooth. This is coupled with constant pain in the right lumbar abdominal region almost daily, which I have never experienced before in my life, so I went to my doctor to ask him this and he said he has no clue on the carnivore lifestyle so he doesn’t know if this is normal or not, but ran blood tests anyway and all the results came back normal and that was that, he said it’s probably a side effect of eating so much meat? But wasn’t sure.

Just wondering if any other carnivores experienced something similar?

#2

1-2 weeks seems to be a little much man, you eating enough?

Nothing normal about that one! Sounds like your digestive system just doesn’t like what you’re doing. I only did carnivore for a couple weeks and my body sure as hell didn’t like it. It also didn’t like the lack of fiber the whole time on keto. Maybe in your case digestive aids? Some of that evil fiber maybe?

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #3

I’ll let a real carnivore share experiences, but I do know that people on a carnivore diet tend to move their bowel less frequently. I find that simply switching to keto made a difference, since I was eating far less carbohydrate. I tend to allow my body to do what it wants, unless something feels wrong.

As far as the pain you are experiencing is concerned, abdominal pain is difficult to diagnose, since the pain is often “referred” to a different spot from the organ that is actually causing it. It is possible that your kidney has a stone in it, or some such thing. Keto is supposed to help kidney stones, eventually, and I imagine a carnivore diet even more so, since you are taking in no oxalates whatsoever. You might wish to go on YouTube and see what Dr. Annette Bosworth (“Dr. Boz”) has to say about stones, because she has done a couple of videos on the topic. I just don’t remember her advice well enough to try and repeat it.

I had repeated episodes of nausea and vomiting during the eighteen months before my appendix flared up for good. The symptoms were severe but not chronic enough to get a diagnosis out of. Eventually, however, the symptoms became unmistakeably those of appendicitis, and they operated just in time to keep the appendix from bursting inside me (the surgeon got it out literally in the nick of time). I suspect you are at the very beginning stage of something like that and will just have to wait until the symptoms become clear enough for a useful diagnosis.

(Vic) #4

1 or 2 weeks never happened to me.

I dont go every day, sometimes its up to 3 days and then there are times its daily.

On SAD I had diarea 2 to 3 times a week, on carnivore nearly never.

Regularly I have the feeling I have to go and then it turnes out to be falls alarm, that can be anoing.

Poop type 2 or 3

(Laurie) #5

Are you drinking enough water? I hope you can find the solution.

#6

I do like what Paul said it could be a few medical issues truly other than carnivore but at the same time, every 1-2 weeks is concerning.

I am daily. So regular and fine in the poop dept. it is great for me actually LOL but thing is your best bet is increase your fat intake. Fat ‘moves’ things more easy and slides stuff faster down the chute. Another is take some magnesium, it also increases speed at which your bowels move and flush and another is it might be good to increase a little more salt into your diet.

Dairy can slow and bind and make for some extra constipation for some so if you are eating, say cheese daily, you might wanna cut that off a little.

Those are 3 things that truly can move things along. a week I can say is more normal than 2…2 weeks is pushing it kinda cause from zero carb forums no one really goes that long but being newer it could ‘be you’ but try some of the above and see if it helps you. 4 mos is wonderful but adaption time can be longer for some as we are very individual on what changes are effected for us thru adaption into this plan.

#7

Your doctor should request some abdominal imaging. Usually ultrasound.

Based on your delayed bowel emptying, it may be related to the ascending colon. 1 + 1 = ?

Gall stones, kidney stones, liver issue, a tumour are all things to rule out.

I developed a calcium oxalate kidney stone when experimenting between keto, keto-carnivore and carnivore. The pain was as you describe, even for weeks after surgery to remove the stone.

#8

I would have also suggested seeing your doctor, but it sounds like you already did.

I have a history of various forms of constipation and intestinal irregularity, and the pain and stool you describe sound like what I’ve felt when my intestines are similarly backed up. The pain is an uncomfortable cramping feeling. I use acupuncture pressure points along my ascending, transverse and descending colon to relieve a bit of the pain. (But if that does not feel good, might be good to return for further medical evaluation.) I also use high quality probiotics to stimulate more frequent movement.

Good luck figuring things out!

#9

I stop eating just before satiety, and I’ve been tracking on Cronometer that I eat just a little below my maintenance calories so that I can move down to a healthier weight (I am obese).

Funnily enough, I started carnivore last year because I started getting abdominal pains randomly that I’ve never experienced before and after some research came to the conclusion it was the carbs since I was at my heaviest weight ever in my life. I did have bowel movements almost daily on SAD, but I read that on carnivore fiber is unnecessary and perhaps even harmful so I stopped consuming it.

I also asked my doctor about this and he said chronic appendicitis is incredibly rare and is only cited in very few medical journal papers. He said to come back to him in a few months if the pain persists or go to urgent care if it becomes worse but so far it’s always been mild. Never had nausea or vomiting before except the last time I got food poisoning a few years ago and that was just diarrhea but no nausea or vomiting.

I have been experimenting with water because I read conflicting accounts of how much water carnivores need. I’ve read that thirst signals can be false, and we can be addicted to sipping on water just like being addicted to sugar or carbs, and drinking too much water will actually dry out the intestines like when you take a bath for too long and your skin gets all wrinkly. So I’m still unsure of how much water I actually need

My current regular meal proportions are about 70% fat and 30% protein. Once I tried to do a bit more, like 85% fat and 15% protein in a single meal and I felt a little sick. I am not sure I can up the fat content more.

I’ve already been taking a daily 300 mg magnesium supplement (80% Albion® dimagnesium malate and 20% TRAACS® magnesium lysinate glycinate chelate), plus this salt electrolyte mix that also gives me about 200 mg of magnesium more (magnesium malate and magnesium glycinate). I’m not sure I should consume any more than this daily since I’m afraid more might be dangerous

I currently intake about 4-5 grams of sodium per day (about 9-10 grams of salt) since I am inactive and sedentary for the most part and rarely exercise (I know, I will start exercising more). Most people seem to tell me that this is already a lot since I don’t move around much. Should I try to add more?

I consume no dairy at all whatsoever. Only beef. Sometimes eggs. I used to also eat chicken but now exclusively beef

I think I will probably get a new doctor since my current one doesn’t seem that good. I wish I could find a doctor in my area that is well-informed in keto/carnivore

#10

you know my mother in law fractured her lower back area ‘just a little’ bit in a car wreck she had. It was the kind of thing you ‘just heal’ with a body cast thing etc. but her Xrays showed a small fracture and she healed up thru the years…then yrs later she actually got a very severe right side pain that ‘was a mystery’ pain and she went back to the Dr over and over about ‘this pain’ and they couldn’t find a thing and then come to find out they attributed it to her back fracture area and put her back in the back body cast thing and actually it handled that pain.

I have NO IDEA if this could correlate to you :slight_smile: :slight_smile: but a back/gut area mystery pain can be so many issues ya know.

just throwing that out there

so you said eating below maintenace kcals? how much are you eating in a day? what are you actually eating and how many times? just curious on your real food in your day.

#11

So an interesting thing happened this weekend. I had my weekly bowel movement this past Saturday, and I decided to do some light calisthenics the following day on Sunday because I felt good and wanted to start exercising more since I never do. This was the first time in a couple months I ever exercised, so I took it easy but being so out of shape it was still a bit strenuous and got my heart rate up a bit.

I had a bowel movement several hours later, and I thought I had found a solution, but…it started out normal (my usual type 4 stool), and then complete liquid/water afterwards. I guess the exercise induced digestion a bit too quickly. Then yesterday morning on Monday, I had another bowel movement which was again first half solid (but this time type 1) and the latter completely water. About an hour later after this, I had complete 100% diarrhea. And then nothing so far until today. Not sure what this means

#12

Gonna be honest, I started tracking on Cronometer when I first started but got complacent and stopped tracking for a while. I check in every once in a while but not as diligently as I should. I basically just eat whenever I feel like it nowadays, but last time I checked I was doing something like 1600 kcals daily? Very sedentary lifestyle though I’m trying to fix that. I’m about 169 cm. tall and 168 lbs. I started at around 210 at the beginning of the year and my weight has been dropping consistently since. I almost exclusively eat beef (not sure what the cuts are, but generally they are different daily since I just get random ones), and sometimes fried eggs. Everything cooked in a healthy amount of ghee because I want to get more saturated fats in. Usually twice per day, once in the afternoon (~12pm) and once in the evening (~5pm). I take some supplements like magnesium, iodine, vitamin C, vitamin D, fish oil, etc. I used to do only one meal per day but some of these supplements say to split them into two different meals and I kind of wanted to eat more meals anyway so I started doing two meals. And then water with electrolyte supplements. That’s pretty much all I eat every day

#13

a way forward ------and this is me personally on how I would proceed-----and just take as suggestions of course :slight_smile: ----I would drop ALL supplements. Get off everything.

Now let me ask…did you got into carnivore when ya started 4 months ago OFF ALL supps or did you come into it on these supps and just kept them?

total recommendation is drop ALL supps and do the plan. Then you can adjust and add if required etc. but key is to dump it all to see if/when/maybe/what ifs etc, you do need any type of support from any supps. You might be one who needs not one bit of that truly in your body and yes, all that could be screwing you up.

Elimination menu like carnivore is go all in with meat/seafood/fish/fowl and nothing else…with beef obvy being what most gravitate towards, is usually the dense and best fat/protein ratio in cuts etc and it is a standard to start with ‘beef and water’ for at least a month and nothing else at all…but of course ALOT OF US don’t come into carnivore that way :wink: Heck I did not. But one thing I did do was drop every single supp I was taking, dropped my multi vitamin, magnesium and everything else…and I did not put any supps back in my life at all so?? Just more money to put to meat instead of buying pills is how I think of it LOL

I think get off supps. Dump all.

Just eat fat, protein amts, salt as you like, and just start with a clean eating zero carb menu and let the ‘guts heal’ cause to me it is now sounding like you are ‘healing but changing’ and one of the simplest always thing one can do is ‘go back to absolute basics’ and start fresh and new.

that would be beef and water and drop all other crap.

do that for a few weeks and see how you do and re-evaluate cause I know you know we have to walk thru adaption times and change things around a bit and wait for healing of our internal bodies and this can be such a different time frame for all of us.

just think on it and find kinda a pattern on how you want to ‘go at this’ but ‘back to simple basics’ usually is the best way to then figure out additional troubles/issues we might be having ya know.

hope some of that helps :slight_smile:

#14

A lot of these supplements I had been taking since high school (I was an athlete competing in professional climbing then, as well as into college), and then I stopped taking them in my late 20s (when I started letting myself go) and then a couple years later the problems started to emerge (I am 31 now). So I don’t know if it was because I stopped taking the supplements or because my daily diet consisted of Halloween candy and energy drinks every day, or perhaps both.

So when I started eating “healthier” (still SAD, but with without the junk food I was normally eating) last year, I began taking my supplements again. And then I started carnivore and continued to take them. I started tracking on Cronometer the stuff I needed because as I was researching the carnivore lifestyle, I read some horror stories about accumulated years of deficiencies on carnivore that didn’t show symptoms until years later when it was too late, so I wanted to prevent the problem before it occurred like it happened to these people. I’m just afraid if I drop all my supplements, 5-10 years later the lack of certain nutrients will have done irreversible damage to me and I wouldn’t even know it. Like this one guy lived a normal life until one day he woke up with yellow skin and it turns out he needed an emergency liver transplant even though he had never exhibited any liver failure symptoms until that morning even though his liver had been scarring for years.

Also another reason I take supplements is because my salary is below median household income range so I don’t make a lot of money. Plus I live in NYC so almost half my income goes towards beef, and whatever I have left over goes to rent, bills, etc. If I had more money I would drop all my supplements and just buy real food like seafood, fish, other animals, etc. But my Excel spreadsheet calculations say that supplements are the most financially efficient way of getting what I “need.”

For a few weeks, I wouldn’t mind experimenting though. I guess maybe I should start maintaining a log/journal?

#15

yea horror stories are out ON EVERY DIET that is on the internet LOL

low carb horror, keto horror, JUDDD plan horror, the Zone Diet horror and of course zc/carnivore horror LOL

There are 15 plus yrs people like Charles Washington and Dana Spencer and Kelly Hogan and Andersons who are way over 20 yrs now and more that are thriving!!! Plus remember you are not the horror story people, WHO KNOWS truly what their medical issues really are in their lives ya know or what environmental exposure and more ya know…so take horror stories truly with a grain of salt.

Think back tho what carnivore is. It is OFF EVERYTHING and reset the hormones and heal the body. So if we ‘start there’ then we can ‘grade up and change and bob and weave’ cause we KNOW thru our personal experience what no supps, no plants, no sugar, NO anything is with us ya know. We start clean. We can grow from that initial start.

So the elimination start to carnivore is truly priceless cause it gives us paths to follow and be able to make true decisions on how we need to change it up a bit or do XYZ for us.

Supps while we ‘think and guess’ we might ‘need’ without a true Dr. report for vits/minerals do you have no clue on what your ‘body needs’ ya know. And it truly can do harm vs. help but we don’t know cause without tests? who knows LOL

I think for what you think you ‘might need and guess’ about supps and putting that money there, I would opt to drop that money and put it into real live fresh seafood and meats. The value is on your food intake ya know and ‘again start there’.

Now alot of this is HOW I WOULD ROLL :slight_smile: :slight_smile: On how I think if one starts clean and learns how one then needs to progress it is a simpler issue than starting into carnivore more jumbled with ‘what ifs I take more of this or that’…just a personal view on how I see it so take that too with a grain of salt :wink:

One of THE BEST ways to find our best path is to chat it out like this in forums. Just chat up what ifs, and maybe do that and when something clicks with us we can move forward and try new situations…so I love chatting this stuff out with you :+1:

Since you are NYC do you think, if by chance?? in any way would a meat order delivery company like ButcherBox etc. be cheaper than buying in your stores? Have you looked that way at all on having delivery come from online and ‘maybe that could’ end up being cheaper in the end from your expensive NYC stores and restaurants? I know pricey locations are tough!!!

What a carnivore needs in simplicity is fresh meat/seafood/fowl/fish.
Supps (and who knows the true quality of those things you are getting in truth) and what ‘good you guess they do’ isn’t worth it, IN MY MIND to give up real good food intake.

Carnivore supplies ALL you need. Vit C requirements on carni are lower and we get vit c on carni. All those ‘save us supps’ and ‘save us anti-oxidants’ are things people might require when we ate TONS of sugar and were wrecking our bodies or having ‘inflammation issues’ with plants like lectins or oxalates and more and us zc people don’t eat that junk anymore, so ‘our requirements’ on ‘what we need daily’ will absolutely never be a standard normal for what is ‘recommended on a SAD menu or even a plant based menu’ and all the ‘experts who recommend’, ahh, those experts right? ugh

One thing everyone on zc and doing so well told me was to put in the faith on the plan. I did. Yr 4 and no supps and feeling the best I ever friggin’ have on an eating plan and of course being older now, yea I feel younger also :slight_smile:

But these are truly things we have to process and think about ya know. How to move forward. What to drop? Add? Change our eating and more and alot of that is told by us from our bodies if we truly listen and zc gives us that with time on plan.

And think a month–at least–Off all supps for 1 month. A few weeks never shows much to effect a change, and the ‘first few weeks’ off supps could be more of an adaption where ya get icky results a bit and you think, darn, but if you had gone a few weeks more you would have great results…so bit longer term thinking cause changes never go ‘according to the time we slap on them’ LOL

I am enjoying this chat with you :slight_smile:

#16

I actually currently order from ButcherBox now, because there aren’t any local farms around here obviously, and the nearest local butcher (which is 3 bus rides away, and I don’t think I can carry dozens of lbs. of beef back and forth constantly) charges way more than ButcherBox. There are some farms on the outskirts of the city that deliver, but my studio apartment is too small to fit a freezer for entire cows and such. Not that I could afford a freezer that large.

The supplements I get are from companies that used to sponsor me during sporting events and competitions whom I still have good relations with, so I get massive discounts and free stuff as well. I generally understand what kind of stuff goes into their products since they were reviewed by some scientists that used to be part of our team, so at the very least they’re not terrible quality, but yea, I’m not entirely sure I actually need them either though.

Ok, so I’ll aim for longer than a month then…and will report if I start to feel better or worse during that time period

#17

oh yea being caught on that ‘need a decent extra freezer’ for buying bulk etc. And you can’t do it. UGH feel for you on that one! I love love love my freezer truly and it ‘puts big ease’ on me with this eating lifestyle.

It is great to hear your sponsoring companies you dealt with have good reps on their supps. At least you are doing better than ‘off the walmart shelf supps’ than others :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

You are on that fence. You are on that ‘I NEED’ but what the heck do I actually NEED?

and that is cool. You are walking a path to know what you need. We all done it and you are kinda here now also so just ‘enjoy the ride’ LOL

Just always think fresh meat and seafood and chicken and turkey and fish of all kinds and tins of sardines if ya love them, oysters and more.

And if you drop supps right now and start I WOULD LOVE to hear how you do for sure!!! We zc people stick together and we got each other’s back and we progress so you go for it, smile thru it all cause it is a great thing you are tackling!! and you eat very well, as best you can on what you enjoy and check back and let us know how ya do!!

oh and on beef…IF YOU buy lower fat hamburger, like buy a 90/10 or 85/15 version you might find it is just as tasty and textured as great in a patty like ‘eating a steak’. I walked thru all kinds of burgers but price per lbs. on ‘my lower burger meat’ IS WAY CHEAPER than buying a ribeye or Tbone ya know. Even that few bucks per lb. cheaper saves me alot on the bill but ‘being lower fat meat’ it also gives me a huge difference in texture and taste vs. higher fat burger…I make a 1/2 lb. 90/10 burger and it is to me like eating a steak. I make a 80/20 or 73/27 burger and it to me is like eating grease now. SO THESE are things we find as we change it up ya know.

#18

To be honest, I don’t really care about the taste at this stage, moreso about the health benefits, i.e. eating to live rather than living to eat. I just went for varied cuts because I thought that was the best way to balance out all the nutrients I needed. I did notice that ground beef was the cheapest and would live on it if it didn’t affect my health, but it didn’t seem intuitively healthy to just eat ground beef and water for long-term health

#19

AHHH but on carnivore you can have both :slight_smile:

we don’t limit, we eat til full and happy.
we eat what we love to eat and IF YOU can hold carnivore most likely you were ‘more of a meat hound’ than anything else in your meals thru your life and wanted meat ya know…like me maybe? I was always a meat hound but I paired it with crap obvy and suffered, got rid of the crap and it left me wtih meat!!! My food of choice in life :slight_smile:

OK you can ‘be a very well rounded person’ ya know.

Your focus is nutrients. Minerals. Vitamins and what ‘makes overall health’ better and yet you have ‘no glaring horrifying med issues to handle’ so you might wanna think…re-balance the brain.

Go back.

Basics. Food is life. We all have to eat. Food should be enjoyable or why bother? cause we can’t 'sustain a thought of ‘I must only eat for health’ and not enjoy truly any of the food I am eating long term, NO ONE can make that long term, we just crash and burn.

So think more like, NOW OPEN yourself up to other options. You can have both enjoyable food, satisfying filling foods, no cravings and you get massive health benefits from this plan and it isn’t ‘so narrow on a micro nutrient you have no clue’ if you can control. No one can. We just can’t but thru your overall eating and mindset of enjoying your way of life knowing it IS all encompassing to give ya great benefits, maybe you can flip the brain to grow more about ‘why ya do all this’ ya know.

Mine was super focus on the scale. 1 lb. off the scale meant my entire life. I got wrecked to the max cause of that. I realized I was so super focused on one narrow item that I missed the entire forest on the entire planet LOL well duh for me in a way but it took time to see it but just chatting with others I realized I had to 'let it go, put faith in food I can do well on and my body wants, enjoy eating and ‘being more normal’ in my approach, and it being one I could long term. 4 yrs on zc…longest my butt has ever been and stayed ‘on a plan’ and thing is more I stay on plan tight, the more I realize I don’t have to ever narrow focus again. I can be ‘big and wide and have options and grow and change’ and it is the ZC Zen mindset we get when we change.

So alot of great changes come to us ZC people! Not a doubt about that. Being 4 mos. you got alot of time still to change and you will…just chill thru it and let the plan work for you at all times and never against ya.

there are long term people living on burger as their mainstay per day cause they love it. nothing more than that. total satisfaction. there is ‘no set meat/seafood/fish/fowl’ that takes royalty in truth, it is WHAT do you like and what do you want. Leave it to your body to decide what ya need when ya need it, believe me it will guide you.

#20

I’m new to carnivore.

On keto I’d go 1-2 times a day, sometimes 3. On carnivore, only once and sometimes there’s a day in between.

Even if your blood test didn’t show anything abnormal, it can’t be good to have waste inside you for so long.

I’d go for an exam of my insides ASAP. Endoscopy. And I’d tweak my diet until I’d be going at least once every other day.

And drink enough water.

Good luck!