Tell me about carnivore

(Little Miss Scare-All) #21

I couldn’t help myself. Maybe I have a future in being a door-to-door rower sales person. I could demonstrate the rower by means of Mime-ing on their dining room floor. Either I’d make a killing in sales or have the cops called on me for removal and mental evaluation.

#22

Nah…you’d be good at it, natch.

#23

best lifestyle that suits me to a T and best health I have ever entertained as I get older and older, I get better and better :slight_smile:

read up on it all: Zero Carb Information Videos

(Robin) #24

I’m a rower too. Nothing fancy, just one in the basement. I have arthritis (in theory). Since I started rowing a couple years ago, my joints are flexible and without pain and I have gained muscle and strength. (At 68, my goal is to always be able to get myself up from the floor without assistance.)

Plus, I just watch watch something on tv and the time zooms by.

#25

Sometimes I wonder if I am the only one who easily do 20g carbs on carnivore (usually not but I always had such days regularly)… 10g is super low! I can do it, I have 3-5g days sometimes but only if I drastically lower variety (or use insignificantly tiny amounts of certain items). Time changed me though, dairy isn’t a necessity for me anymore, apparently…

I don’t eat more than half of these (or very, very rarely). There are so many options :smiley: If one doesn’t like either eggs and meat, well that’s tricky. It’s still possible they will love carnivore just get little enjoyment from food… I heard from many people that food is only fuel for them so it may be okay for that type…

(Little Miss Scare-All) #26

Here’s a question, would it still be considered carnivore if I use condiments such as mustard mixed with mayo? I’m kind of addicted to dipping. Often, it makes the meal satisfying for me.

So if my meal were hamburger, taylor ham, bacon and a sizeable plop of mayomustard, would I be a carnivore wannabe? :grin:

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #27

A lot of long-term carnivores found themselves just naturally coming to prefer food without condiments, but I don’t think anyone would condemn you for using them, especially in the beginning. Many carnivores refuse to give up coffee, and the carnivore community does not condemn them, even though many other carnivores find it best to stick with water as their only beverage.

I would consider mayonnaise made with bacon grease as the fat to be carnivore (not to mention really tasty!), but of course the mustard is inescapably a plant food. Why not just see how things go for you?

Your experience as you go along is likely to depend on your reasons for going carnivore in the first place. If you are trying to heal medical conditions that are unresponsive to drug treatment, there may be chemicals in the spices that might interfere with your healing. If you don’t have any such condition, then you may not need carnivore at all, but you still might prefer to eat mostly or entirely plant-free. It’s completely up to you.

If you’re looking for advice, mine would be to use your condiments for now and not worry about it, but be open to a change later on. You might find yourself simply not wanting them down the road, or you might do an experiment and find that you’re better off without them. Or you might find yourself going back to eating more plants. No one else is entitled to judge any of those paths. Do what works best for you.

For what it’s worth, Amber O’Hearn coined the term “carnivore-adjacent” for people who are attracted to the idea of eating a meat-only diet, but who don’t want to give up plant foods entirely.

(Little Miss Scare-All) #28

You know what? That fact escaped me completely. I’m really glad you pointed that out for me. It’s really the mayo base I’m after. I could lightly flavor it with something else. The mustard is pretty inconseqential.

Originally, it was to shake things up a bit and witness my body’s response. But after reading people’s reaction to better sleep, I kind of wish that would happen for me. I fall asleep just fine, but I wake up far too much for my liking.

I guess my main reason is carnivore for experimentation. I struggle with depression and poor energy. I’d like to see if perhaps dropping the veg would make a difference. Also, I’m still thicc and would like to be less so. Maybe this will kickstart some further leanining up. I’m a lot leaner than when I started 3 years ago, but I’d like to drop some more chub.

I think this is great advice. I think that’s what I’ll do, sans the mustard. Thanks!!

(Robin) #29

Don’t get hung up on qualifying for the title of carnivore. If you need condiments, go for it. It may change over time, it may not. If you want to be a purist, you can. I live in carnivoreland but I add seasoning that most def is plant based. Who cares?

(Megan) #30

Hey Dena, I started keto in May this year and have been full carni a few weeks. I don’t do “strict carni”, I do “ordinary carni” or whatever it’s called - meaning no plants and oils (except a bit of black pepper sometimes), but I eat a bit of dairy (heavy cream, cream cheese, colby cheese and greek yoghurt) and I drink coffee. I didn’t drop veggies because I became convinced they are bad for humans to eat, I dropped them for simplicity and because the more meat I ate the less I wanted them. Which was weird b/c I (used to) love veges and was really annoyed, when I 1st started keto, how little I could eat and still keep my net carbs below 20g. Not talking about wanting to eat potatoes etc, but having to limit green leafy and cruciferous.

It’s been a good 3 weeks since I last ate cabbage, cauli, chinese cabbage and celery - my 4 daily go to’s on keto. I’ve just realized how much better my tummy feels. No uncomfortable gripey sensations. And no wind. Hard to explain. It’s like my stomach and intestines feel super relaxed and there is zero discomfort.

I never thought I had any issues with eating these vegetables, and it’s taken not eating them to show me I did. Not that I’m now suddenly thinking they are bad for me, more I’m appreciating how my body feels not eating them

(Alec) #31

I can’t agree with this more…this is a quantity game, it is what we eat mostly that matters. I just love horseradish sauce with my steak (and I have a lot of steak!). Clearly not carnivore, but do I care? Nope. And there is no carnivore police patrolling to make sure you qualify!

#32

Some people have problems even a tiny plant matter (all or some kind), they should ban it, sure. We others can handle a little extra - I still don’t eat those without a very good reason when I am serious but it really helped with variety and freedom (when a part of mine feels okay and not restricted, it’s very bad with the latter and things get nasty if I don’t keep it satisfied. it got pretty silent as time passed).
I even eat onion (less and less as time passes) as it’s a requirement for all Hungarian stews. It’s not carnivore, I am well aware and fine with that. I very rarely eat stews nowadays as I am happy with my roasted and fried meat most of the time (I needed them much more in the beginning) but if my SO cooks a lovely rabbit stew, I won’t skip it just because it has a really tiny amount of onion and lots of paprika… It’s still mostly meat and I only eat a little. But I do carnivore-ISH, exactly because I don’t see the point to make an easy enjoyable woe to a restrictive one that I can’t handle and quit - and gaining nothing in the process. I feel quite okay being close but I try to make pure times to check that out too - but only if it requires no noticeable sacrifices. (I would make sacrifices if I clearly needed it for health, my priorities are mostly right and health and energy level are on the top.) I still don’t go and make scrambled eggs with onion as they don’t NEED it - and it’s horribly sweet anyway even if I use little :smiley: I loved the stuff in the past but that was so long ago… I even avoid stews as much as comfortably possible as I don’t need them anymore but sometimes they happen in this household and I don’t say no.

We all should figure out and decide what we need and what we are willing to do. It’s fine if no label fits our woe :slight_smile: I try sometimes but it’s an experiment and curiosity, simplicity… Not the really important thing. I want to feel good and be healthy for a looong time. If I don’t get badges and proper impressive labels, so be it.

But in my case, the attitude is important. For my mental and physical configuration having a strict (but not too strict) woe as a plan is quite important. I will mess it up eventually and maybe right away but only a tad. But if I have a relaxed plan, I relax it more and at some points the carbs start to mess with me and things fall apart…

If someone is good at self-control, they may choose what works for them even as a plan. I need a stricter one. It’s even easier to be strict sometimes. Simpler. Cleaner. Easier to lose old, not quite good habits…

(Edith) #33

Hi @x-Dena-x, I did a seven month carnivore trial. It might be almost two years ago already. I tried it to see if it could help my back trouble / arthritis. I do think it helped, but I’m not sure if it was carnivore that helped or just the fact that carnivore is the ultimate low (as in no) oxalate diet. In the years before I started my carnivore trial, I had been eating a lot of oxalate containing food. I do think the benefits I received from carnivore were from all the oxalate that ended up getting dumped out of my body during the trial.

For me, though, carnivore was not something I could sustain. I developed some very strange problems. It’s possible they may have cleared up over time, but I wasn’t willing to wait. The worst thing that happened was that my histamine intolerance became WAY worse. It really reared its ugly head when I ate beef. When I stopped my trial and added a little bit of fruit back in (more carnivore adjacent) the histamine intolerance improved. Vitamin C is important to synthesizing the enzyme that helps our bodies break down histamine. For me, I seem to need that extra bit of Vitamin C. Well, that’s my theory as to why fruit seemed to help.

Many people eat carnivore for years and don’t have any problems. I also could never seem to eat more than 1.5 pounds of meat a day. The carnivore experts claim we should be eating about two pounds a day. It could be that I just wasn’t eating enough to give my body all the nutrients it needed to be a successful carnivore.

Lastly, keeping heart palpitations at bay has been a challenge for me since I started the keto diet. It was no different on carnivore. I really have to work at getting enough sodium on keto and on carnivore. With that being said, I think some of my electrolyte trouble was related to drinking diet soda. Diet Coke always went right through me and I think it took electrolytes with it. I don’t need to supplement as much salt since I finally kicked the Diet Coke habit, but my need to supplement salt and a bit of potassium is still there.

I guess I just wanted to share my experience to let you know that carnivore doesn’t always work out for everyone. I am glad I did my trial and it definitely had an effect on how I eat now. The oxalate dumping was hard, but I do think my body is better off for having gone through that. I am still carnivore adjacent, just not pure carnivore. My body is definitely happier with a touch of fruit each day.

(Little Miss Scare-All) #34

That is also one of my troubles. It seems like nothing I do can keep them at bay. But you know when they disappeared? When I went off the rails for a month and ate whatever carbs I wanted. That was slightly discoraging lol. Heart palps are soooo uncomfortable and they were lasting hours at a time. Night was the worst because i’d be laying down and waiting for it to happen, so my sleep was super disrupted.

Did you try supplementing a whole food vitamin C? Aka not solely ascorbic acid?

(Edith) #35

I’d rather just eat the fruit, but I am not over weight, and eating the fruit does not push me into uncontrollable cravings. I also exercise a fair bit and lately I’m finding I’m feeling better with more than just a serving of fruit or veg a day.

Yes, I believe that. It happens to me, too. This past Sunday I REALLY wanted some carbs, so I decided to listen to my body. I ate fruit and veggies on and off all day. I also ate some peanut butter. When I went to bed Sunday night, my body felt nice and settled. Was it the carbs or that I actually ate more?

So, I’m back to experimenting again. I just listened to a Diet Doctor podcast with Dr. Ted Naiman and I am going to try a version similar to his PE diet. Higher protein, less fat, and carbs in the evening. I also think I was possibly not eating enough, so I’m upping my intake, as well.

(Little Miss Scare-All) #36

You know, this is the most simple, yet scary thing. I guess we get it in our heads to be militant because this book said this, and this podcast said that, and the entire time we put zero faith in the signaling of our own bodies. Granted, some of us have to learn the discernment of signaling in our bodies, but we actually get anxious about eating a plum or experimenting contrary to a set definition of Keto. I’m totally guilty of this, myself. But I can lose sight that the most important thing for me is to feel good and not feel like the walking dead.

(Edith) #37

Yeah, I’ve been keto for five years. Whenever I start something new I am a fanatic. It has taken me five years to calm down and relax a bit. :laughing:

#38

You body probably knows what it wants at this point and communicates it well.
I never have this. Okay, I stray a lot but still, my body is very serious about liking extreme low-carb. And it’s not THAT great as my mind is a tad different… But I am working on synchronizing my various parts…

It’s so odd to me. I never cared about authorities let alone articles, of course my body knows better and I am an individual! Protein was the only part where I tried to went against my body and tried to eat adequate protein at some point. I failed all the time so no harm was done. My body wants high protein, it gets high protein, I really have no power there… But now I don’t mind it anymore.

I don’t even remember the signals of my body on HCHF as it was so very long ago. I imagine it gave me signs just fine but as long as poor thing had no other experience, it couldn’t tell me high-carb isn’t okay. It only knew that. As soon as I tried low-carb, I lost my ability to stay on high-carb for more than a few days so these “I ate a slice of cake and 6 months later I still binge eating carbs” things are quite far from me. Okay, I never ever wanted to go back to high-carb but things happened here and there and it’s impressive that my body kept me from it. I didn’t need low-carb years for it to happen, it was quite sudden. And it’s cool, I need that level of help and it’s not like I sacrifice anything I want.

Exactly. Well, feeling good and doing good things to our health but let’s suppose they two are about the same. I am sure there is usually a strong correlation between them.
That’s why I couldn’t care less about numbers (I don’t know anything. I never even go to doctors so totally nothing. I only have a scale and that’s it. it always shows 75kg in the morning so I don’t even need to use it). I only listen to my body and use my experience about its signs to figure out how to eat. And if I don’t do stupid things (of course I do but not always), I feel quite okay.

(Little Miss Scare-All) #39

Same. I don’t weigh myself or measure, because knowing myself as I do, I will fixate and the point of feeling good becomes secondary, or even lower.

To be honest, the only numbers I semi-care about are dress sizes, because I’m something of a clothes whore, and a certain thing I want may only be in a certain size that I’ve not yet gotten to. That’s one of the things that loosely keeps me on track, are my weird gothy dresses that look like they’ve been shredded by knives :joy:

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #40

For me, it stands to reason that a couple of million years of evolution might have prepared the body to deal well with the circumstances that applied during that time. Hunger, famine, feasting, all of them have to have occurred with some frequency as we evolved, so listening to my body makes sense for me.

However, I do know enough not to listen when it tells me to go ahead and eat those three dozen glazed doughnuts I’ve been craving . . . :smiley: