Will these symptoms go away? 4 Days in on Carnivore Diet

zerocarb
carnivore
(Mike) #1

I was on a sort of a Keto diet for about 9 months (with a couple of slips) I certainly ate more carbs than I should of done but kept everything really healthy, and lost around 100 pounds. I then hit a plateau where I was struggling to lose more (current weight 321 pounds). 4 days ago I decided to go full carnivore for an initial 90 day period and then see how I feel. If good, then I plan to make it a lifestyle change permanently.

I have already noticed that I feel less hungry. bacon and eggs at 8am, and no cravings or want to eat until the evening around 6-7pm. Even then I don’t feel starving or mega hungry, but I eat as I guess I should considering I haven’t eaten since the morning. So I’ll have a steak, or some Salmon.

Today though, I had the most horrendous diarrhoea while I was out. I had to run into a shop and use their toilet it was that urgent. Is that normal?

Secondly I seriously struggling with the fluids. I used to be a diet coke fiend, drinking 2 litres of the stuff a day (which I haven’t done since January) and drinking water is boring me so much. I do have a black coffee in the morning, and I don’t really know if I should be drinking that. Is there anything else I can drink that works with the diet?

Good news though, only been 4 days and I’ve lost 5 pounds which is kinda insane. So I know potentially this will work.

Exercise I’m doing is at home with free weights and resistance movements, which I normally do every other day for about 45 minutes.

Any helpful advice would be great, if its going to be drinking water and diarrhoea for the next 90 days I don’t know if I’ll be able to hold on and keep going.

(Bob) #2

Sorta. For the first 3-6 weeks, you might have unpredictable stools. Less if you were doing a clean, very low carb keto, or longer if you were lazy keto or low carb. It’s an adaptation process. I oscillated between either complete diarrhea or zero-poo constipation, back and forth, before things leveled out and became normal again. You’re going to have to wait this out until it subsides, and never ever assume it’s just gas.

So this is a department where I still am failing, but it’s not hurting me any. I still drink tea, diet soda, and unsweetened beverages. I have definitely decreased the amount of those I consume and have increased my water intake, but I haven’t been able to give them up completely. I don’t think they are harming me much anyway.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #3

It can happen, as your body adjusts. Two things to try: salt your food a bit less, and cut back on the fat somewhat. Too little sodium in the body causes constipation, too much can make for a watery stool. And fat can have unpredictable consequences. It should settle down, in any case.

I just went full carnivore a couple of months ago, and I’ve been having the opposite problem to yours. But my situation is complicated by the pain killers I’m taking for nerve pain and ankle surgery. However, I did have one episode of diarrhoea the other day, which surprised me, all things considered.

By the way, “constipation” means hard stools and struggling to move your bowel; a longer period between bowel movements is perfectly fine, and to be expected. After all, meat is almost completely digestible and contains little bulk. Forget the concept of “regularity” that the laxative manufacturers have taught us to worry about.

Don’t overdo things; simply drink to thirst. Some carnivores eschew coffee, since it’s derived from a plant, while others are more of the “you can pry my coffee mug from my cold, dead hands” variety. It’s up to you. I used to find plain water terribly boring, so I used to drink Seltzer water, which is basically water with carbon dioxide in it. We also have a product in the U.S. called club soda, which is the same thing but with a bit of added salt. Either might work better for you than plain water, and they are both an awful lot cheaper than the big brand-name bottled waters. You can even get a syphon and charge your water with CO2 at home.

I seriously doubt it will be that bad for that long.

Be careful of too much exercise until you adapt better, since your body is already being stressed by the new way of eating (it’s a good stress, but still).

Moreover, if you ate a great deal of fruits and vegetables in the past, be on the lookout for oxalate dumping. There are ways to combat it, by strategically consuming oxalate-containing foods (certain fruits, tea). One well-known carnivore was fine for a year-and-a-half, until his body started dumping oxalates, and he now needs to consume some fruit in order to control the rate of dumping. Look up Sally K. Norton’s Web site for more information. You want to clear oxalates from your body, but at a slow enough rate that they don’t cause further damage on the way out.

#4

Also you should avoid consuming liquid fat at first because it tends to go straight to the other end with no resistance. So no broth until your digestion normalizes. And I also can handle cold meat better for the same reason.

(Alec) #5

Changes to bowel movements can happen when you first go carnivore, especially if you got cold turkey and change suddenly. A better way is to ease into it gently over a few weeks, but if you’ve already started, I would stick with it.

But you should expect your BMs to normalise soon. If they don’t, you should get some medical help. Remember you need more fluids if you have diahrroea. But it is worth a bit of short term pain for the benefits if carni, so stick to it…

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #6

This is usually not a problem on carnivore, since vegetable oils (and even fruit oils) are not part of the diet. Animal-based cooking fats, such as bacon grease, butter, lard, and tallow, are solid, because they tend to be at least 50% saturated fats.

#7

Well, these fats render out during cooking or swim on top of a broth as long as they are still warm.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #8

They seem to mix with the broth, mostly (and you can stir), but often they solidify as a layer on top in the fridge. You can either remove the layer, which becomes quite hard and stiff, or carve off pieces to go with your broth. It doesn’t seem to sit on top, particularly, after a goodly dose of microwaves. :bowl_with_spoon::bowl_with_spoon:

#9

Fat is swimming on top. It is very hard to stir it in and even if you manage to do that (you’d need a food processor to break up the fat into small particles so that they stay inside the non-fatty broth part for some time) it does not stay that way for long. Apart from that, generally you do want to consume the fat. Just maybe broth is not the best carrier of fat if you are not fat adapted yet.

#10

It is on top. And it probably depends on the person and circumstances if it’s fine or not.
I definitely had no problem with liquid fat before fat adaptation but I didn’t do carnivore then.
In the very beginning of carnivore, I had only a problem with much fat, liquid or not, for a few days, my body missing the usual ballast.
And I dislike fatty soups/broths but it’s my individual taste. It’s easy to get the solidified fat from the top, thankfully :slight_smile: As sometimes I can’t avoid putting something fatty in my soups.

We often just can give tips and those may work or may not, we aren’t all the same but we have our individual experiences and they may help. If one has diarrhoea on carnivore, I think it’s very normal to think about fat. I would think about the amount but maybe liquid fat is different, I heard from people that it matters for them, I don’t remember what differences it made though.

Hopefully things normalize soon…

(KCKO, KCFO) #11

Just want to welcome you to the forums and say a big congrats on that 100 lb. loss. That is AWESOME.

Try to find the carnivore videos on youtube by Amber Ohearn, she created the first of the carivorefests and has a lot of good info up there as well as her blog. Here is one to get you started:

(Mike) #12

Thank you for all the replies. Things have got better since I posted which is good.
My bowel movements have calmed down a little, and yeah I mean I feel great. More energy, better mood, and I managed to go to a wedding yesterday, and when the huge buffet was revealed with all sorts of things i couldn’t eat, I managed to find a tray of meats including salami, chorizo, ham, and beef that I dived into, and some chicken wings. Was kind of funny sitting at the table and seeing everyone with all these plates filled high with sandwiches, and pastry items, and here was me with plate stacked with meat lol.

I also drank sparkling water most of the night which is actually not bad. I think i prefer it to still water. I did have one double whiskey on the rocks in the evening, but then it was straight back to the water.

Looks like I’m in for the long term now with carnivore. I’ll post again in about 4 weeks with an update on things.

(Alec) #13

Eating out can be difficult sometimes as a carnivore, but you seem to have found a decent meal at your event. When I had a company meeting and I was asked whether I had any special dietary requirements:

I said yes: I don’t eat plants…
the reply I got was, oh, so meat sandwiches OK?
Eeermmm…. No, bread is made from plants….
is it?? oh, I suppose it is… so meat tray, is that OK?
Perfect!

#14

On carnivore diet I was advised to take electrolytes 2-3x day, with a minimum of 3 grams of sodium. I use LMNT sachets which contain no sugar and have a balance of sodium, magnesium and potassium.
Stopped diahorrea for me.

#15

You’ve really made a positive health change!
Based on my personal journey, digestive issues are par for the course but progressively disappear. Moving to keto and then carnivore requires a lot of time for you body to get used to. Also, if you were consuming lots of carbs and diet cokes (let’s be honest, that’s a chemical poison), your metabolic health must also want healing; you need to take that into consideration.
Our bodies do a tremendous amount of work to get us back on track, and the weight loss is the probably the only viewable piece of that metabolic reconstruction iceberg.
I’d suggest you concentrate on eating fatty meats, eggs and dairy to ensure you have enough calories and nutriments for the day. Avoid putting put yourself in too much of a calorie deficit; you don’t want you body’s metabolism to get used to too few calories. Stick with eating fatty meats and only when you’re hungry; don’t force anything; be patient; and your body will take care of all the rest.