Cheryl's 90 Day Carnivore Challenge: Started on Nov 01 going through to Feb 29, 2020


#603

Hi and welcome.

Thing is with carnivore there is no “does this sound like enough for me?”

In carnivore this does not exist. A very hard concept for many to ever understand.

See when you go meat/seafood and fat only………your body WILL ask you to eat the amt. it requires to heal your health. In that you could be eating a ton of junk all day long and into very high kcals like 3-4,000 of food your body doesn’t want. So when you switch to carnivore, eating the meat and fat your body absolutely does require for survival, it might ask for a hell of a lot of it.

Some gals easily eat 2-3 lbs per day when starting. I did :slight_smile: I thought OMG how can I eat this much? truly and it healed me and I was happy and I thrived.

So the thought of ‘how much do I require to eat’ is never a question or guideline ever in carnivore.

You eat when hungry. You eat ‘REAL’ meat first…as in if you find yourself hungry eat a steak. Eat a few massive lamb chops. Never pull back. It is eat your fill. Your body is asking that of you. You do that, you won’t eat again until your body says it needs more. And when you truly hear that calling of hunger, you eat just as much as you need to be happy and full.

One concept on carnivore that I love. You eat what the body is asking. You never limit yourself.

Normal is around 1.5-2 lbs. for a lot of people but many and I mean many can easily go over this kinda line and do well for themselves. Being individual we are just that way.

Many eat way more than one would ever think and improve themselves so much and that is the gals here LOL

Carnivore drops it all. All the diet baggage at the door. We don’t macro, we don’t count kcals ever, we don’t do anything but eat meat/seafood as we need. We will all then change as we must on plan to suit our bodies needs. That is why one might struggle longer than another but if all hold plan tight the one struggling catches up with the one that had an easier walk.

I hope some of that helps you :slight_smile: One thing about carnivore, ya go in it you must do it for best results. Going in and out of carnivore never will truly help you much. You think you are there in a way but you really ever are not. Only meat and seafood on a carnivore diet will give the results you want to know if you do the plan as it should be.

So if ya give it a go, go all in :slight_smile: Chat up as you want or need here and we can all help ya thru it!

Now also remember, you don’t have much weight to lsoe which is a good thing :slight_smile: but you might gain a bit on carnivore. Cause your body is malnourished thru years of tricks/tips/fasting/kcal counting and limiting/whatever your life is as in what meds you are on, stress, disease/diagnosis situations we battle thru life. SO WE are all different so if you gain a bit eating all the meat you want, then your body is needing that. It wants that. So if you put on some lbs it is actually OK cause your body wants to go that way…….you hold the line and all of the sudden your body will drop those lbs. You will balance out all your hormones and heal internally. But this is ALL very personal to each of us from where we come from. Beauty of carnivore also is that we each walk such a personal walk on it :slight_smile: We learn so much from each other but if we hold carnivore, we find in the end we all end up in the best darn place ever.

hope some of that gives you an idea of how we roll in carnivore :slight_smile:


(Andrea) #604

Many thanks. That’s such a helpful response. Even after having done Whole 30 and then Keto over the last 6-ish years, it feels like such an alien concept moving to carni.

Key thing is that I want to be healthy and fit…weight isn’t the issue. I do feel like I’ve got passed the sugar/carbs issue. I now just need to get passed the constant stream of eating cheese and HWC.

This sums me up:
Kuchisabishii (Korean word) - “when you’re not hungry, but you eat because you mouth is lonely”


#605

Yes. Unfilled in other areas of our lives. The mouth will eat and ingest but it won’t verbalize our true needs for a truth of a natural life we require within us. A fulfillment we desire and lack. A true purpose to propel forward.

That is my take on that :slight_smile:

Carnivore is hard. There is not one small thing about that part in those few words. Ever. Many will and can’t go here.

But it is also about beliefs of our ‘what is healthy eating’ and more. So if we don’t ‘see’ something as bad how can we go carnivore for all out healthy eating? And if we ‘love to live life on some other food terms’ and more how can we delete it all from our menu?

It is a very personal road to carnivore. It can be lonely in our thoughts of why one wants to come here if we ‘don’t kinda have to go all the way’ but many DO need this. In that carnivore eating is a lifesaver for them.

Depression is a biggie. Depression and other thoughts are rampant out in life. Going LC, into extreme lc can help SO many. Some need to walk the carnivore lifestyle to make it right for their personal bodies.

So it is how and why you want to go here. It is personal and how ya roll is where you find the best of the best for YOU. After all, no matter what goes down, this is all about you and not truly one other person.


(Mark Nelson) #606

Welcome Andrea!
Fangs wrote a really good post above and It really sums up my experience so far in carnivore. I started on Nov 7th 2019 by the way.

I want to emphasize my personal experience around how much to eat.
I too struggled with eating to much or not enough fat or to much protein ect. I started to stress out about it. Fortunately in reading others experience, I decided to just lean into the process and wait for results. I’m evaluating as I go but not adjusting to much until the end of Feb where I’ll take a hard look and see how things are.

So at first I was unconsciously limiting my food intake from a desire to keep calories down or not overeat. I started to go to bed hungry and that wasn’t what I was reading others experiences were. So I started allocating 3lbs of food a day. Some days I’d eat half and some days I’d eat more and once or twice I ate all of it!

Then there were the days where Kuchiabishii kicked in. My body told me I wasn’t hungry, but I ate anyway. Oh the stomach cramping and nausea kicked in the first two times. The third time I made 3 eggs cooked in bacon grease, one of my favorite things. I took 4 bites and the thought of taking another bite filled me with such physical revulsion I had to dump the rest of the plate. I’ve never experienced that nearly a feeling of hatred of food before!

The next morning that feeling was gone.

My take away is that at 60ish days I now trust my body to tell me when I’m hungry and I eat to that. Sometimes I stop before I think I’m full and wait for that 30 to 60 min window and eat again if I still feel hungry.

I hope my recent experience on this way of eating helps!

Glad you’re doing the work to find out what works for your body.


(Mark Nelson) #607

Food check in for yesterday.
Way crazy busy day at work but here is what I had

20oz coffee
1 1/2 lb rib eye
2TBSP of butter
1/4 lb of GF/F ground beef
60ish oz of water
2 mugs of bone broth*

I may have mentioned this earlier but I’m surprised at the how I’m wanting my meat cooked more rare than usual. Also thinking of going and finding chicken hearts and livers and adding that to egg dishes.

*almost boredom overate but ended up having 2 ice cubes of bone broth heated up in water with a pinch of salt and that urge went away.


(Daisy) #608

Alright, my friends, I don’t have the discipline to try that metabolic confusion diet. So I am back on carnivore as of today. Fat bombs are legit calling my name all day, but I’m taking it minute by minute. This last week has reminded me of how truly addicted to food that I am. I have real issues that I can’t keep writing off or ignoring. I must make a decision & stick with that decision. It’s going to be a real challenge for me the next few days.


(Edith) #609

I’ve had a flare up with my spine, especially lower back this week. I’m wondering if it’s oxalate dumping related. I’m going to take a page from your book and really up my magnesium and B vitamins and see if that helps.


#610

I did have some aches around the body including lower back. But they are transient and shifting.

Only just waking up. Magnesium I understand. During carnivore, so far, I can never reach gut tolerance (laxative) threshold. So this, dare I call it, detox must be very magnesium demanding heavy.

B vitamins? My brain bell tells me we might have discussed this before?

I take 500mg Vitamin B3 twice daily and some zinc. It’s a surfer, sun skin intervention.
———
@Fangs I went to look at a Keto food thread. What’s happening (below)?

What Did You Keto Today? The Trilogy!

A lot of it does not appear appetising and feels, not sure if feels is correct, seems a bit superfluous.
———

Some thoughts. When making the move from Keto to carnivore. Andrea, you look like you may have had a good lead in via ketocarnivore rather than high oxalate carnivore based on spinach and nuts. Joint aches can flare up with the ‘clean up’.

Carnivore can make people who are not carrying excess body fat, or that are not fully fat adapted (e.g. newbies who jump straight in from SAD) quite hungry due to insulinogenic amino acids e.g. glycine kicking off the hunger hormone cascade. Prof Ben Bikman explains that higher protein in a fat adapted, ketogenic state, is not insulinogenic. But if carnivore eating drops a lean person out of ketosis, then hunger can come into play. So some dietary fat juggling can come into play to maintain at least a low level of nutritional ketosis.

I mention the importance of fat in the carnivore approach to arthritis because a PaleoKetogenicDiet (PKD) fat to protein ratio (2:1) approach may be more effective for the goals? PKD is a higher fat carnivore, no dairy approach. But you’re 6 years in, so you’re probably full bottle on all this.


(Andrea) #611

Thanks for the reply. PKD is something I need to read more about. I do worry about not eating enough fat. Currently most of my fat probably comes from heavy cream and I’m going to cut it out for a while. I’ll just have to eat more ghee.

Yes, knocked the nuts on the head a few months ago, as well as anything green :wink: Feel keto has considerably helped with inflammation but my wrists are damaged. I’m trying to do more weights, swimming etc to see if I can give them a bit more strength so they hurt less.

I had a month before Christmas of eating keto 3/4 days a week and fasting the rest of the time. Found that helped too.

But thanks for the PKD reminder. I need to go read more about it.


(Andrea) #612

So to get close to 2:1 I think I’m going to have to start eating chunks of butter again…what a shame :wink:


#613

Today experiencing what some ketocarnivore practitioners might call a whoosh.

About to have a massive T-bone steak for breakfast at 2pm.

Fasting blood glucose is 4.7mmol/l (84mg/dl). Usually on Keto it’s about 5.2mmol/l and in prev carnivore tests, about 5.8mmol/l.

Fasting blood ketones are 0.7mmol/l. Usually on Keto they are between 0.1 and 0.5. Previous carnivore tests they are just detectable at 0.1mmol/l, just enough to tell me my insulin is low.

Waist measurement is down 3cm from post Christmas feast time. Looser clothes.

I’ve been sleeping 8 to 9 hours solid sleep a night these past few days. I’ve been out in the sun everyday being active, with extra activity in the ocean these past 3 days, enough to create post activity muscle soreness.

Yesterday I was less active than today and it was a two meal egg day for a total of:
5 eggs
Black coffee without dairy but dash of medium chain triglycerides oil.
1 x sheet of nori seaweed
Salts = pink and Lite
1 x tin of sardines in olive oil
About 120g of hard cheeses = mix of local mature cheddar and nutty Norwegian
2 slices of bacon

Now I’m typing with my mouth full. I beg pardon. But the rim of fat on this T-bone tastes glorious.


#614

I am watching how you are doing and from what you are typing, wow you are catching the carnivore changes and how they come down.

Your eating more, eating less, eating when not truly hungry and finding food repulsive etc. This is what I experienced also back in the day starting hardcore carnivore. I was a ‘fry that steak til shoe leather’ type and on carnivore, I am always heading more to blue rare. Haven’t gotten there just yet, still way more rare is my fav now. And me, thinking no one could get me off my over fried to death chewy steaks HA

Your takeway took time to get there but that old standby of trust your body and your true want of hunger is key. Hey we all come in with emotional and physical damage to our bodies and mind. It is hard to find the true ‘eat when hungry til full, and don’t eat when not’ cause one would think it IS SO simple, yet we can make it hard, but once we ‘fall into line’ and ‘get it’ this plan becomes just so simple and easy and fulfilling. I enjoy reading your updates for how it is going for you! Very cool!


#615

I enjoy eating butter.

But if we’re thinking PaleoKetogenicDiet with that 2:1 fat to protein ration (I think it’s caloric), butter may be off the menu. Those PKD eaters eat raw beef fat. From around the beast’s kidneys, perirenal, also called suet. Or, there are all the rendered animal fats, tallow, lard etc.

@ReneeRC might be here soon with corrections about my butter bad news. It’s a butter pill to swallow as New Zilunder might say.


#616

I hear ya loud and clear. My food issues were tough also :frowning: It can make one friggin’ crazy sometimes. Which way to go? How can we find that good balance to help us? What to do next and why isn’t this working faster and good results coming quickly? and more…oh yea I know that, I had massive troubles in the food area.

It truly is an addiction.

One thing I did when I started my change to carnivore was eat. I ate so much. I ate because if I did not eat as much as I needed to have a full belly I would default to crap junky food. I ate as much as I needed to ‘satisfy’ my head as much as my belly.

I ate tons of bacon cause I love it and it satisfied me.
I had no guilt doing this LOL

I ate big steaks. If still hungry and wanted sugar I would then eat bacon, or steam up a lb. of shrimp and snack on that.

I made sure every single bite of food I ate was meat or seafood. I also knew I would allow myself to eat at every single time I needed to eat when I was craving or going to eat crap off plan.

I allowed this to myself. I allowed all the meat and seafood I needed at all times in a day to never eat the sugar crap.

This is what it took for me. Yes I ate monster big :slight_smile: Yes I ate to super full. Yes I had to fight like a dog to hold carnivore but in the end I did and when I got thru that addiction and adaption time, it changed so well for me. That calmness of having my sugar addiction out of my body. That peace that comes with ‘hey I accomplished something good here’…‘not quite sure what that all is right now, but LOL, I know something good is going down for my efforts’

Hold strong!! You got this. Sometimes it is just crazy in the storm but when that storm is over, ahhh, great nice days are coming your way :slight_smile:


#617

Now why did you go there HAHA
I don’t read Keto eating threads much. I did more when I came to the forum cause I was looking around, but now I just kinda keep to the carnivore section. I just can’t stomach weeds on a plate anymore, it ain’t a pretty pic to me, but those meat pics, ohh lala baby HAHA


#618

food yesterday was

1 lb. ribeye steak
4 large country style spare ribs
5 slices salami

trying desperately to find ribeye sales now. I am running low and am checking all around to see who has the lower price. I live on ribeye and love them, me best be finding some more.

hit store tho and stock up on good hamburger meat on sale at one store.

feeling wonderful. sleep is great. only thing is I am cold. I got that BRRR to the bone type cold happening. Need winter gone, like right now HA


(Mark Nelson) #619

I really appreciate the way you post. It’s encouraging and I’m starting to believe that I too can be more intentional about how I measure and track changes to myself as I go about this journey.
Thank you.


#620

@FrankoBear Nope, no corrections I’m sad to say. I LOVE butter but on the PKD you can’t have any dairy and that included butter. Definitely a bitter pill to swallow but worth it if it gets rid of auto-immune issues.


#621

food yesterday was
1.5 lb ribeye
can of tuna
1 chicken breast

Seafood today. I am beef and chicken’d out kinda. Need my day of seafood to make me happy.

Salt, I was trying to cut it out, but didn’t do that. But I cut it down a lot. I am doing better on that now. Some days tho, I salt very heavy cause I feel like I need it, other days I listen to me and just salt a little. I don’t think I am the type that can go saltless. I just like the darn stuff too much :slight_smile:

All rolling along well.


#622

Whoa! Ate a fillet of white fish with butter last night as it had been cooked for me. I wasn’t hungry due to massive T-bone steak and 2 fried eggs for 2pm breakfast. So I ate the fish. It was nice. But it switched on hunger. So I ate some cheese. I just felt hungrier. Dessert was presented. It was blueberries and whipped (unsweetened) cream. I had 2 helpings. Ugh. Heart burn and GERD all night. Ah well, lesson learned.

Surf was messed up by a 7:30 am sea breeze, so I had a straight black coffee, no cream, and went and help build a rainwater storage tank. By 11 am I was ready for breakfast and went on a hot date with a sexy little Sicilian chick I’ve been married to for 20 years (even though she tried to poison me with blueberries). 4 scrambled eggs, goats curd, mushrooms cooked in butter, bacon, and… @Fangs look away now… half an avocado.

After brunch we went for a swim on the calm side of the cape in water so clear and turquoise blue you think you could breathe it. It was a hot, sunny, summer day. The Christmas tourists have gone back to work. There are still a few summer holidaymakers, but the crowds have ended.

There is a 2 inch thick porterhouse steak sizzling in butter in the pan. I’ll cook it rare, and I feel like some eggs. I’m eating at sunset to let it land and hope my stomach will behave when it’s time to lie down. There’s a new series of “Vikings” to watch on the telly.

Hey thanks @Marknel. I just heard one of those engineers who have brought problem solving to nutrition and health say something like, if you don’t measure it is hard to fix. Or something like that (I think the quote is higher up the thread). I like looking at the biomarkers and puzzling out what the physiology is happening underneath them. If it is an approach that helps, then try it.