I Went Carnivore for a Week... Here's What Happened

 I am not a health professional and nothing here is medical advice.

Hey Guys!

You know me...I was curious. I had to try it. Who are we kidding? It was only a matter of time. I went carnivore.

Carnivore, also sometimes called zero carb, has been making its rounds and has been on and off my radar for quite a while now. I held off, I researched it, I dabbled in it for a few days here and there, but never really gave it a shot. Finally, I decided to try it for a week.

I'd been stalled out on keto and the whole covid quarantine saw my weight sneaking back up. I was bored. It seemed a good time to give carnivore a whirl!

Now, in case you don't frequent the parts of the net that I do, what is carnivore? Basically, carnivore is a diet, a way of eating, that is exactly what it says: carnivore. You eat like a carnivore. As with anything, there are varying versions of it: those that seem to eat only ribeyes, those who stick to only beef, those who stick to only meat, those who include all animal products, those who insist on eating nose to tail as a more complete version, etc, etc... But basically it's an animal protein based diet.

So, I set out to try it for a week. Actually my original intent was 10 days, but I am writing this after my first week on carnivore. Not sure if I'll continue or not, but wanting to share my experience on the diet.

The Plan

First, how did I "do" carnivore? I wasn't what I would call strict carnivore, as in no plant products at all. I ate mostly meat, I relied mainly on ribeye steaks, chicken breast, and turkey burgers because that's what I had on hand. I also ate eggs on a few days and grass-fed beef burgers once. I allowed 2 keto coffees per day consisting of coffee, 1 tablespoon of Keto Creamer, 1 scoop of collagen, and a packet of Truvia (and a dash of cinnamon occasionally). The keto creamer contains: MCT oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter, ghee, and sunflower lecithin (so, not strict carnivore). I also allowed some herbs and spices, obviously of the plant kingdom. Things like chili powder, basil, and turmeric. I used avocado oil and grass-fed butter to cook my meat in. I drank mostly plain Pellegrino and a little herbal tea (that's normal for me). I did not track or worry about portions. I ate when I was hungry and how much I felt like eating. I took magnesium and potassium and used sea salt on all my meals (this is normal for me on keto, so I just kept it up).

As for workouts there weren't many. I took it easy. Went for a walk once or twice. I tried one intense workout, more on that in a bit.

The Results

So, what happened? It was pretty interesting actually. 

First, I lost 7 pounds. This was the most interesting part for me. As I said, I'd been stalled and even gaining here and there previously. I was already keto at about 20 to 30 grams a day of total carbs, so this shouldn't have been the water weight from dropping carbs. A pound a day!? Except, it wasn't. I dropped 7 pounds in the first 4 days and then nothing the last 3. Fascinating. 

The second thing that was pretty interesting is that my appetite totally died. Gone. Kaput. Again, already keto, this surprised me. No munchies. No bored quarantine eating. No cravings. Nothing. I ate 2 meals a day (3 on two days) and had my coffees, but my appetite was virtually nonexistent. Again, fascinating.

My fasting blood sugar hung out around 91 all week. That's a tad high for me, I'm usually in the 80s, but I think that had a lot to do with the lack of workouts. Good by any standard though. I did not check my ketones because I'm out of testing strips.

I felt great all week. Good energy levels, focus, etc. Except when I tried that one intense workout... I set out to row 1,000 meters hard mid-week and completely bonked. This was the worst workout of my life! As I have talked about before, crossfit and keto have been no problem for me. As long as I'm getting 20 grams of total carbs I don't notice any performance issues. Absolutely no bonking or running out of gas like people talk about. In fact, this was the first time I've ever experienced such a thing! It was miserable. I felt sooooo weak. I couldn't push. I felt exhausted. I ended up doing 1,000 meter row in 4 minutes 30 seconds, which is not a great time for me. I was so weak and shaky post workout that I could barely shave my legs in the shower afterward. It was kind of nuts for me. 

Final Thoughts

As I said, I'm on day 8 this morning and I'm not sure if I'll continue. First, my main issue is I look in the fridge and everything I could eat looks completely unappetizing to me. I don't want. another. steak. Boo hoo, right? It's not that I'm really missing anything though, it's like I'm just bored. The second issue is the workouts. I love me some intense workouts and had been looking forward to dabbling in a bit of crossfit again (the Games always do this to me!). NOW, it's entirely possible that my body will adapt if I stick with it and I'll be fine in a week or so as it did with keto. I see a lot of the carnivore community kicking butt at workouts so I have to think that would be the case. But am I willing to stick with it and find out? I'm not sure.

So, what do you think? Would you ever try it? Have you tried it? Advice? Should I continue? Tweet me!