5 Things I Learned as a Carnivore

My healing mission looks different today than it did 20 months ago – it’s changed even in the last six months. Hell, I’ve changed things up in the last two months! Here are some key items I’ve learned along the way. 

Slowwwww and Steady

5. It’s ok to make gradual changes. We always hear about how people just want instant gratification these days. Let me tell ya, when you add that societal trend to my life-long glaring lack of patience, I get a bit frustrated. I’ve learned that our bodies just can’t keep up if we change too much all at once. Aside from potential adverse effects, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what worked and what made no difference at all. If you change too much all at once how do you know what is helping or hurting your progress? Wanting instant gratification gets in the way of that.

I know my clients get frustrated when I tell them that I have several suggestions for them, but only give them one or two at a time. It’s not that I’m trying to stretch out their time with me. I want to take the one or two things that are likely to make the biggest impact and have them work on them for one or two weeks. Then we can gauge their progress and adjust as needed. 

Addiction Began in Childhood

4. Sugar and carb addiction is just as real as any other addiction. Maybe it doesn’t damage relationships or cost you your home or your job, but it does destroy your physical and mental health. I had this revelation somewhere around 1992. Man, that was a long time ago! I was sitting in my apartment, just 20 years old, fighting a mental battle no one else knew about. This unyielding urge to scrape up what change I could find to go to the store and buy whatever cakes and candy I could get. Not just once, not just some days. This was every damn day. It always felt like I was possessed. I remember talking to my mom about it and she was sympathetic, if not a little confused, but had no solution for me. I had no idea what to do about it.

A solution didn’t come for a few more years. Though the solution I chose out of desperation ended up being more disordered eating and I was still addicted. Rather than being obsessed with consuming these foods, I became obsessed with counting and tracking fat grams. Low fat was all the rage at the time. I became very thin but I was only eating carbs and sugar, very few calories. No fat or protein, no nutrition at all. I began developing arrhythmia, urinary problems, I was sick all the time, and lost my period. My moods were horrendous and I could barely function. 

Binging on Carnivore Foods

3. Binging absolutely can still happen on carnivore. I’ve heard so many influencers say that you can’t overeat on carnivore. That’s a dangerous claim for a binger. I’m trying to get used to smaller meals since people in the high-profile carnivore communities have been telling us to just eat as much meat as we want because it absolutely did trigger my binge eating disorder. It gave me the freedom to binge without guilt. Yes, I needed to actually nourish my body and not fear weight gain so I can begin to heal. But it also gave me permission to continue the disordered eating habit of binging.

I’ve heard some say it’s not possible to overeat fat. Somewhere in my subconscious, my brain said, “Challenge accepted! Hold my steak and watch this!” This was not a conscious decision. In some circles, it’s believed that the concept of priming is supposed to break the binging habit. That was not the case for me. The act of eating is a comfort for me. Doesn’t matter what the food is. The feeling of fullness equates to love, dopamine, and a really nice high. 

High Fat and Gut Health

2. High-fat carnivore may be the ideal approach for you – but you may need to heal some gut issues first. If you are not seeing results, or if your blood glucose increases dramatically when taking the ‘eat all the meats’/high-protein approach, you may need to adjust. If your body is converting more protein to glucose for energy, it’s fighting against what you’re attempting to do.

I think this happens a lot in those of us who are severely damaged metabolically. I put my body through hell with a lifetime of a very high-carb diet, chronic dieting, eating disorders (binging, restricting, bulimia, and a brief bout of anorexia), Hashimoto’s, sugar and carb addiction. So when my body takes in protein, it improvises so that it can comfortably continue to do what it’s always done by using glucose for fuel. While I’m healing, I’m not utilizing stored fat for energy. I argue this with my body every day, but we speak two different languages. So it’s my job to try to communicate what I want my body to do.

When I began doing this high fat/moderate protein version of carnivore, my body rebelled in a not-so-pleasant way. We’ll call it gastric distress. After weeks of making 6 – 8 trips per day to the bathroom with this ‘gastric distress’, I also caught some stomach virus – I think. I couldn’t stand the thought of eating any fat. My only nourishment for more than a week was eggs, plain gelatin flavored with electrolytes, and plain full-fat greek yogurt that I also flavored with electrolytes. I’m not recommending this tactic, but I think these foods helped heal and balance my gut microbiome. Now I can eat very high fat and not have any bowel issues at all. Yay for stomach viruses!

I’m joking, of course. It was not fun, I do not recommend it. But it caused an unintentional experiment and I learned something. I didn’t lose any weight at all during my illness, despite the amount of time I was on the toilet and despite the limited intake of food. I think it’s fascinating though! So, if you are feeling that you need to try the higher fat version of carnivore but your digestion is uncooperative, you may be able to add some gelatin and/or yogurt for a short time to balance things out so that you are able to process fats. Start reintroducing fat at a 50/50 fat to protein ratio of your calories and slowly increase the fat from there.

Individuality Matters

‘Just eat meat’ is becoming the new ‘eat less move more’ mantra.

1 . The number one most important this I’ve learned is this: Not everyone can carnivore the same way. Huge companies in the diet industry have been selling diets, supplements, pre-packaged ‘foods’, and the promise of looking good in a bikini for decades. These days, there are some big influencers promoting a one size fits all approach even when it comes to keto or carnivore. Maybe those plans work for the majority, but making a blanket statement urging people to just eat meat could be doing more harm than good. While ‘just eat meat’ is excellent advice, and will absolutely help kickstart the healing process, it’s not always just that simple. The carnivore community stands to lose people that way when they don’t get the same results. Each health mission is different, each body is different.

I wholeheartedly agree that it shouldn’t be overcomplicated – but it’s potentially detrimental to over-simplify as well. Particularly so if the person has an autoimmune issue, eating disorder, insulin resistance, or gut issues. It’s so important to take your own health issues into consideration, do your research, and work one-on-one with a coach if you have some specific challenges to navigate. Groups are wonderful for their support and camaraderie! Even small groups are great for coaching. But please take what you hear in large groups – or even what I write here! – with a grain of salt and use it as a launching point for your own mission. And if you’d like some one-on-one advice tailored specifically to your challenges and goals, you can reach me HERE!