My journey so far, not easy

(Chris) #1

I’m 50+, I have GEDG/reflux and Barret’s esophagus which can turn into some nasty stuff. I’ve read very negative things about PPIs, which are the common treatment. At the same time I heard about carnivore so I jumped in with both feet. I am not doing a keto diet, per se. I get it and what it’s about but I’m just trying to get rid of this GERD naturally. Not anti-keto or anything just saying I heard about carnivore before keto. I do not want to stay on PPIs and don’t believe that the human body needs to be medicated all the time.
6-4 221lbs. It’s been 4 weeks and i’m down to 200. I eat bacon, steak, eggs, uncured salami ground beef and pork rinds. ZERO sugar, no carbs at all. I do use some seasoning that may have sugar, hmm…need to check that. I don’t use much. bacon fat and good butter are my friends. I am not dieting…I eat a good amount of food.

my 1st 2 weeks…SLUGGISH and flu-like feeling. Started drinking black coffee again because I needed something that made me feel good. 3rd week it started being bad day, decent day, with one day where I just felt GREAT. Just tons of energy. I am not a high energy person at all so this was a pleasant surprise and I was hoping it was the turn in the road.

My movements are either pure liquid or constipation (had that problem for ever). I’ve been using ketochow which is an salt/mag/electrolyte drink and that kind of cleans me out. It kind of helps how I feel but my energy just kind of sucks and I just don’t feel UP most of the time.

I heard 2 weeks or so for the flu-like symptoms but I’m on 4 now.
Just wondering if this is unusual. I do not want to quit because I’ve got to get hold of these GI problems and I want to do it naturally. I don’t know if the reflux is completely gone, but it seems to be happening less. I originally went to the GI because I had some real problems swallowing and now that is not gone…but it is 80% better, which is great because it’s pretty scary

(Robin) #2

Welcome… sorry you’re having issues. I am sure you’ll get some good input from some of our more experienced/knowledgeable members.

You’ll get it figured out. Glad you’re here.

(Alec) #3

Chris
I don’t have any experience with your ailments, but my advice as a 2 year carnivore is to stick with it. If you are seeing some improvements it sounds like removing the carbs/plants is taking you in the right direction.

Re energy… your body is building the appropriate fat burning machinery, and this takes time. Jumping straight into carnivore can be a big jolt for the body, so please let it take whatever time it needs to build the machinery and adjust.

Take care and good luck!
Cheers
Alec

#4

You never should have any flu-like symptoms on keto (including carnivore. carbs are low so it’s keto IMO) but it’s understandable if your body needs time to adapt, it’s a big change, even if one just go to keto from low-carb but from carby diet to carnivore, that’s especially huge. It shouldn’t be keto flu but energy problems, other problems (oxalate dumping is common) easily may happen.

Of course you eat sugar, just not much and hopefully mostly from animals and that doesn’t matter, probably :slight_smile: My body never complained about sugar from eggs but it is fine with lactose as well, lucky. Most bacon has added sugar, sadly but not all. Condiments vary, some are half sugar, some only have a tiny bit and some has none. I am at the point where I had enough of sugary condiments (even though I used extremely little of them) and just make my own (except mustard, I can’t make good mustard and buy one with erythritol. not carnivore but good enough for me).
But whatever you do (except eating excessive amounts of sugary condiments but why would you do that when you have nice, tasty carni items? :D), your carb intake must be quite low, I wouldn’t worry about it at all. But I am me, I am not even carnivore just try to stay close, some people aim for some super low total carb intake for some reason. As I don’t feel animal carbs doing the same as non-animal carbs, I don’t care about carbs on carnivore at all. I try to keep my dairy low for other reasons, even lots of lactose rich dairy feels good, it’s very different from the same amount of carbs from plants.
But you have no dairy so a few potential problem less :slight_smile:

Good luck! You probably will feel better later but if you have keto flu, focus on electrolytes… You never should have that problem as far as I know. I never had it myself.

(Chris) #5

If I eat sugar it’s only natural sugar. I check everything I eat and there is never sugar. When I started this diet I visited r/carnivore on reddit (now banned) and people said to expect a 2-week burn in period where you would feel like crap, which I most certainly did. with others saying the same thing. . I had no transition, I just quit eating everything but the new diet on day 1. My only condiment is bacon fat, grass-fed butter. I do use a Weber rub for steak occasionally and a sweet n spicy rub (that probably has sugar in it which I will stop using. I am really careful not to eat any obvious sugar because I know myself and If I allow myself any concessions or cheating this early on there it will make it much easier to cave when my daughter makes cookies, like last night. I don’t crave the cookies, but when I see it…I want one. Totally want to take a sip of her soda.

(Chris) #6

thanks for the encouragement. The jolt is real!!! But I’m sticking to it.

(Marianne) #7

I wouldn’t sweat that - it’s so minor that it’s a non-issue - to me anyway. We can’t stop living and we need to prepare our food in a way that we enjoy it.

Certainly not a scientific opinion, but from day one, I ate healthy portions until I was pleasantly full and completely satiated. Every meal was a treat. I believe this is why I never experienced keto flu. You said you are eating enough, but just throwing this out there in case you are somehow calorie or food restricting. For any way of eating to be sustainable in the long term, it has to be something that is livable.

Good luck! Hope you start to turn the corner soon.

(Chris) #8

Yeah! I am and was eating a LOT. r/carn said eat eat eat and I did. I had no cravings and the food tasted good and I most definitely felt better when I ate. The electrolyte drink did help, and it did seem like a missing link.
I feel pretty good today. Went from 200 to 197.50, Saturday morning to Monday morning. I really need to start working out or something but I’ve been feeling bad. Get so tired walking my dogs or if I’m up and down the stairs. My muscles just WHINE like I’m hiking up a mountain, but it doesn’t feel good like hiking does.
Gonna go get my annual physical and get blood work done.

Do you know if there is anything in unusual that I should ask for in the blood work?

(Robin) #9

Hurray for a number that begins with 1!!! I remember that feeling.

Take your measurements now…. They are often more reliable than the scales. My personal advice/experience is to weigh yourself only once a week or every two weeks. The longer you wait to weigh, the more realistic the trend. Because the scale goes up and down even when we are not “dieting”. It can really mess with your mind when you have been 100% on track with food and suddenly see a jump or stall on the scale.
Many of us go by our clothes, and how we look and feel.

Another personal opinion, I did not add exercise until I had a firm grip on my diet. Several months after beginning. It was/is important to me that I not add something I might not keep up forever. You can lose a substantial amount of weight without any exercise. Maybe tackle one thing at a time. It’s all about keeping your head in the game.
It’s an inside job, Good luck.
You got this!

(Marianne) #10

I felt the same way (low energy) when I started until I became fat adapted. That took a 2-3 months, I don’t exactly remember. Believe me, you will know it when it happens. Like night and day and unmistakable. You will have tons of energy. Up to you, but I think what you are experiencing is normal. At this point, I don’t think you need bloodwork.

Hang in there!

Agreed! It can wait until you are ready and feeling better.

(Edith) #11

Don’t have a heart attack if your cholesterol and triglycerides don’t look great on your bloodwork. While your body is getting fat adapted your numbers can look terrible. They usually settle down around the 6 month mark.

This is all part of getting fat adapted. Your cells have to adjust to the new fuel source and it takes time for the cells to increase their mitochondria to do this. Changing from the standard American diet to keto or carnivore has the same effect for the most part. You can still get the “keto flu” transitioning to carnivore because it is all about the electrolytes. You still have to get fat adapted.

For me, fat adaptation wasn’t a sudden switch getting turned on. It was more gradual. I noticed that lead-like feeling in my body gradually lessened until one day it was gone. I noticed my energy started to improve around the 8 week mark, but it was probably four months before I really felt fat adapted. I was 51 when I started keto. I think the older we are, the longer it takes to adjust.

(Chris) #12

Cool … thank you for the info. The ‘flu’ isn’t that bad anymore.

#13

Fat adaptation is individual. It was sudden hunger change to me (I needed it! I love my new, softer hunger), I never got energy.

(Bob) #14

I think you should be coming out of the “keto flu” or funk soon. You’ve already described some improvements. It’s 2-4 weeks and varies per individual. Hang in there.

Same with the bowel movements. Mine oscillated back and forth between faucet and gravel for about 6 weeks and then returned to normal.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #15

The human stomach is supposed to be quite acidic, since our early ancestors apparently started their meat-eating career as scavengers. So inhibiting stomach acid seems rather counter-intuitive. There are data to suggest that a higher level of stomach acid actually helps the sphincter to remain closed, thus preventing the acid reflux.

That will most likely help, but don’t give up if the results are not instant. First, changing to a diet like carnivore requires a period of adjustment in itself, and my impression from the posts of forum members with acid reflux is that that condition also takes some time to heal. So give yourself plenty of time on this way of eating before deciding it isn’t doing what you want.

I began eating carnivore a couple of months ago, after six years on keto. I am finding I don’t want sauces or seasonings on my meat, other than salt. I used to be a big fan of steak sauce, but now I find butter to be the best-tasting steak sauce there is, lol!

If you want my advice, it would be not to worry about seasoning your steak. In time, you will most likely not need to any longer, but if it helps you adapt to the new way of eating, don’t worry about it.

The flu-like feeling is most likely from lack of sodium. When we stop eating carbs, that ends the inhibitory effect on sodium-excretion by the kidneys, so we need to work to keep up our salt intake, especially at first. Most (though not all) carnivores eventually find, however, that they just naturally want to stop putting salt on their meat. (I’m not there yet, myself.) But don’t cut out salt on purpose, just let it happen.

It may or may not be, at three weeks, but it is encouraging, isn’t it? Be sure to eat enough. Don’t try to fast, don’t restrict your intake, don’t time your eating, just eat meat. The advice to newbies to carnivore is that almost every problem is cured by eating more meat. If you think you might be hungry, cook a meal. If it doesn’t taste good, you’re not hungry; put the meal away for later. If it tastes good, continue eating until it stops tasting good. That’s how to tell whether you’re hungry or not. It works for me, anyway.

You might want to go easier on the Keto Chow. It will take your bowel a while to settle down, so give it some time. Constipation is one of the effects of low sodium, so again, work on keeping your salt intake up a bit. Also, eating plenty of fat helps grease the skids, I’m finding. Dr. Anthony Chaffee says that the liver makes enough bile to absorb the amount of fat the body needs, and any extra gets excreted. So he says to eat a bit of extra fat, so as to help the stools remain softer.

Not at all. You’re doing fine. Keep calm and carnivore on. Things will settle down at some point.

Remember, most people arrived at carnivore from eating keto, and they still had to adjust to the new way of eating. Going from the standard diet to carnivore is quite a leap. Your body is probably rejoicing, but it will need some time to sort itself out.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #16

Don’t worry about exercising, for the time being. When you have the energy and want to do something with it, that’s the time to start hiking again. Right now your body is going through a lot of stress, so don’t overdo things.

(Chris) #17

Faucet and gravel :rofl::rofl::rofl:

(Chris) #18

Makes sense. The whole reason I’m doing carn is because of my esophagus. Really need to get under control because it can lead to cancer. Even if this diet doesn’t work for that I’m still going to stay on it.
‘Regular’ (not great) eating was a roller coaster. My moods are SO much more regular now. No good-energy to lunch and then massive crash and then sugar cravings. No dinner then hit the couch and try not to nod off. NO 11pm bedtime snack. Literally eating a giant pb&j or sugar cereal and then immediately going to bed. I don’t even think about it now.
I am a sugar fiend. If I had an glass of coke on my desk that refilled itself…I’d weigh 500 lbs.

Also…I’m drinking the Keto Chow because of the salt. It made me feel better. I started doubling it once I realized I was feeling slightly better. I had a meeting on Friday and I tripled, or more,the dose, after eating, and it absolutely rocked me. Had to cancel the meeting and went home and crashed for 3 hours. Now I don’t really want to drink it; thinking about it makes me want to hurl.

(Karen) #19

I would definitely hold in there. Maybe i could suggest that you stick to plain meat and whrn you feel settled in only then, if you want to, try a spice or two, or rub. I went all in carni but was able to tolerate spices, however just recently i have cut out spices/rubs and have felt so much better. I had been getting a nasty urine odour which i thought may have been cheese or mayo (not had any since beginning sept) the odour stopped finally until i had some spicy chick wings and it was stinky again. I made the decision to stop eating any spice and no dour now atall. I think those odours are stating a clear message and that message isn’t positive! Only my opinion … good luck x

(Chris) #20

nah…spice isn’t bothering me it’s more me trying to be ZERO sugar. I feel PRETTY good today, and I’d keep going even if I didn’t feel good.
Excellent lunch of grilled rib eye, from last night, fried in bacon fat. So good…