Stopped losing weight after 1 week on Carnivore

(Linda ) #21

My husband lost the first week and then nothing but he was enjoying the meat so kept going…
Ppl at work started saying wow what are you doing you lost so much weight he would say well I haven’t but thanks… but he had dropped two pants sizes and still weighed the same… then jumped up 9 lbs even lol

Then the scale started dropping 5lbs at a time he has now lost over 50lbs had gone from a '44 pants to a 38…
But more importantly he has diabetes and was on 3 meds he is now off one his a1c went from over 7 even on three meds to 5.8… for me thats huge and worth staying regardless of weight loss…

So you won’t always see the results straight away on the scale so def take measurements take photos and go by how your clothes feel…and if ppl comment maybe its cos your dropping size lol…

(Bob M) #22

I think you have to be careful about people who lose weight very quickly. Do those people exist? Absolutely. Are you one of the them? Maybe not (or at least I’m not one of them).

I see people on Twitter (anyone know Dr. Tro?) who lost incredible amounts of weight and look great. When I have less to lose, why don’t I look as good?

Probably for many reasons: genetics; how you got heavy; what drugs (if any) you’re still taking; too many more to mention, many of which we probably don’t know.

When I see short time frames like a week, I know that people are looking for quick fixes, when there aren’t any.

(Though I do think saying something like “you should be on carnivore for 6 months to see a benefit” is kinda useless. I give up after 1 month, maybe 2. If an intervention does not work in this time period, I assume it doesn’t work.)

(Michael Adams) #23

Polite response… Confusion abounds with reply’s of don’t watch weight.
50-60# overweight IS a health concern. And many of who I watched and researched were like me, very overweight. And touted the major benefit of losing that weight made everything else fall in line.
I know my wife is very pragmatic, and needs to see some improvement to signify that what she is doing is working.
I appreciate the comment, and am trying to respond as if we were sitting on a park bench having a conversation which includes questions to clarify the conversation.
I have taken pictures when we started and again now, 3 weeks later. No difference.
And I don’t expect to see any visual difference until about 15# is lost.
Thanks. : )

(Michael Adams) #24

Thanks for the discussion to all… To be clear, we are NOT looking for a quick fix, we know there is not such a thing and losing then maintaining on the diet is expected. And our love of meat makes this a quite viable and livable situation.
But it is hard for my wife especially as we are a visual and result orientated couple. I want to be able to keep encouraging her and provide answers.
Again Thanks…

(Robin) #25

I appreciate your polite but firm response. Sometimes I need to rein myself in. My enthusiasm can come across as a know-it-all, and I am far from it. All I really know is what works for me and I’m still learning. I too had significant weight to lose. I started keto 14 months ago. (218 lbs and 5’7”. I’m 67 years.) Keto took a couple months before it kicked in. I’m now down to 162, but it’s been slow and steady. I’ve seen many health benefits. But like you, my main motivation was to shed the pounds.

I understand your wife’s need to see results. I have lost weight many times, many ways, often very quickly… but usually gained it back just as quickly. With keto (and now carnivore) I have no urges or cravings. In fact, I’m rarely really hungry. That’s a first. So as long as it’s working and I can at least maintain, I will stick with it.

But of course you are the only ones who can know if carnivore is for you. If speedy weight loss is your priority, it might not be the diet for you. No matter what, I wish you good luck. You’ll eventually get there because you have the motivation and that’s the most important step. Good for you.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #26

The confusion here is that while obesity associates with cardiovascular disease, Type II diabetes, hypertension, fatty liver disease, arthritis, and a host of other chronic illnesses, it does not cause them. The central tenet underlying a ketogenic diet is that these diseases are caused by excessive serum glucose and the consequent insulin response, which is the body’s attempt to drive the glucose out of the blood stream so that it can no longer cause damage.

Insulin being the primary fat-storage hormone, elevated insulin causes some of that excess glucose (usually resulting from a high-carbohydrate diet) to be stored as fat, hence the obesity that associates with all those other diseases. Lowering serum glucose by cutting carbohydrate intake not only causes serum glucose to drop, it also lessens the insulin response. When insulin drops low enough to allow some of our excess fat out of storage, it also stops causing the other types of associated damage.

As Dr. Robert Lustig points out, nearly half of the obese population has no metabolic disease (these are called MHO, “metabolically healthy obese”), and over half of the non-obese population suffers from the same metabolic diseases we say are caused by obesity. And there are actually more “thin sick” people (which doctors call TOFI, “thin on the outside, fat on the inside”) than there are “fat sick” people. Which is yet more evidence that the understanding underlying our government’s dietary advice is just plain wrong.

(Shadi Na) #27

I agree with you. I have same problem here and I hadn’t same issue when I started keto. As a matter of fact I lost weight from the 2th week in keto but carnivore isn’t working for me and I’m surprised why?!

#28

I realise this is an old thread but it seems full of good information.
I am sorry the OP did not see results fairly quickly as regards to weightloss. I was in a similar position. The only way I got meaningful weighoss was to fast 3 days a week after trying l sorts of WOE from calorie restriction through fruitarian, keto, OMAD, 800 kcal weeks and now carnivore.
I found, by accident, my blood sugar rose precipitously after even a meat-centric English breakfast.
I wondered if high insulin could be the cause and found my fasting insulin was 22. Asked my GP for assistance and the NHS advice made me put back on the 56lbs I had lost in 6 months basically not eating. My fasting insulin was now 25 but because my A1C was low my doctor was not concerned just told me it was because I was fat and I should lose weight. Arrrgh!
Back to Carnivore, but still no progress so a summer of resignation. Finally got some inspiration to do more research and found, for women in particular, small meals with small amounts of protein were suggested as larger amounts and OMAD or twoMAD raise insulin too much (excess protein is turned to glucose) in those who have the ‘survival’ gene for storing fat in times of famine.
So it seems I was right that insulin is the problem.
I went onto 3-4 meals a day with only a max of 150g of raw weight meat per meal with fat. Things finally started to move. Only, slowly, oh so slowly. 12lbs in 2 months but each lb reduction came with a loss of body fat %, currently a whole 1%!, according to my cheap scales.
I started hard core carnivore at 256 and 5’7" and am currently 244.
Sadly, no dairy, kefir, cheese. I avoid chicken and eat mostly lamb leg steaks or ground beef (80/20), eating the cooled fat with occasional kidneys or liver and belly pork. Some smoked mackerel, tinned anchovies and tinned wild salmon. Too much salt gives me odema. I realised I rarely ate eggs despite choline being excellent for the liver. Breakfast is now 6 egg yolks with a scoop of hydrolysed marine collagen and 10g of butter in black coffee.
Not fantastically exciting but Finally losing fat. 100lbs to go.
To note, triglycerides are super low, HDL in a good range and GP is handling me about my LDL, now, not my obesity. I can’t win LOL.
I hope this helps someone. YouTube has some fantastic educators, go for science, avoid hype.

(Robin) #29

My diet isn’t remotely fantastically exciting either. And that means we have finally lost the emotions previously attached to eating.
I’ll take blasé anyway.

(Megan) #30

Welcome to the forum @Lotusbridge, I think this thread is worth resurrecting too.

Here’s my n=1. It might be a great n=1 for some and is undoubtably an unworkable n=1 for others, but there may still be some useful tidbits for everyone.

When I first started in May 2022 (a few weeks keto then moved to carnivore) I was frustrated initially when weight didn’t start falling off, especially when my friend who’d just started keto lost a bunch quickly even though she wasn’t overweight, and very quickly dropped too low (BMI 17). Here we are at the end of November and I am down 16.1 kg (35 pounds). I am 60 years old, female, 6 foot 2 inches tall (188 cm), sedentary and have another 10ish kg to go. My body may want to lose more, who knows, but in very fitting clothes (tights and t-shirt) I’m already starting to approach the bean pole look.

Maybe I am lucky that the way I do carnivore is working for me, as far as weight loss goes. I eat what I enjoy eating, whenever I feel like eating, and in whatever amount I feel like eating. I’m a bit of a night owl and eat late at night, which is not considered “ideal”. In fact many days I eat more of what I consume in a day long after the sun has set than when it is still up. Yes, I might be lucky to be “getting away with this”, but the biggest woe/“diet” killer for me, by far, is feeling deprived. If I want to eat, whether I am truly hungry or not, I eat - the only limit I have in place is it needs to be carnivore.

I don’t calorie count and I don’t track my protein to fat ratios. I just eat. Some days that’s a lot, some days not so much. Some meals are smallish, some are large. It all depends on what I feel like in any given moment. I’m not a fan of a lot of animal protein sources and am constrained by cost, so I mostly eat cuts of fatty pork (my main meat source), some rump steak and cheap beef roast cuts, some beef or lamb liver if I feel like it, eggs, some very low carb greek yoghurt most days, a few slices of cheese a couple of times a week, and heavy cream in my coffee.

My biggest non scale victory is I have reduced how much inflammation is in my body. My CRP is normal for the 1st time in decades, and I no longer need a knee replacement. Overall pain (arthritis and fibromyalgia) is a lot better. I’m sure carrying less weight around is helping with the pain as well.

I’ve also weaned myself off the antidepressant I have been taking for years and am doing fine, mood wise. Stopping the 2 meds I take at night that help me sleep, especially to stay asleep, did not work at all so I restarted them. 2 months of waking every 30-90 minutes every night was terrible for me physically and emotionally. Maybe one day I can reduce and even stop them, but I’m not going to try to force that again.

I take magnesium at night (have done for many years) and 3 or so times a week I’ll remember to take a fish oil/vitamin D supplement and a comprehensive multivitamin/mineral tablet. I decided to take the multivitamin fairly recently as a bit of insurance because I don’t eat a wide variety of animal foods, especially seafoods and organs. When the bottle is empty I’ll see if I notice any difference not taking it.

Anyway, that’s my n=1. A very relaxed approach that is working well for me.

(ConnorGreg) #31

Good for you and your partner for giving the Carnivore diet a shot. It’s normal to hit a weight loss plateau, even after seeing progress in the first week. But don’t worry. There are a few things that might help you get back on track.
Have you tried tracking what you’re eating to see if any patterns or sneaky calories are slipping in? Also, your body might have adjusted to the diet, so switching things up with different meal combinations could boost you.
But if you’re still struggling to lose weight, have you heard about Reverse Health? It might be worth checking out, especially if you’re experiencing hormonal changes affecting your weight.

(Robin) #32

Welcome to the forum! Look forward to hearing your personal keto or carnivore journey.

(Guinevere Sturridge) #33

It’s common to experience changes in weight, even on a Carnivore diet. Several factors could be kept in mind. Firstly, ensure you’re consuming enough calories to monitor your calorie intake you can use any tool available on internet like tdee calculator to maintain your metabolic demands; eating appropriate meals can cause your weight decrease to stop. In addition, hormone changes, stress, sleep quality, and hydration levels can all affect weight. To make sure you’re getting all the nutrition your body needs, think about keeping a record of your meals. Also, consider the quality of the foods you choose and keep an eye out for foods high in fat or hidden carbohydrates. Finally, engage in some physical activity to help your metabolism and general well-being. Recall that losing weight can not always be straightforward, so have patience and be consistent. If the worries continue, speaking with a dietitian or medical expert could offer more information targeted to your specific requirements.