12 Things They Don’t Tell You About the Carnivore Diet

There are a few things they don’t tell you about the carnivore diet, or at least things that don’t get talked about much. These are some of the things I’ve learned either through personal experience, or that I’ve gleaned from listening to, or reading about the experiences of others. These twelve things often don’t get discussed enough. I made a video with the same title (at the bottom of this page) but wanted to also share a written version for those who’d rather read.

So let’s go…

1. Carnivore is Not a Weight Loss Diet

More and more people are talking about the carnivore diet online, and many people do get miraculous weight loss results from this way of eating. Because of this, there’s a lot of people out there looking at the carnivore diet with a view to losing weight and that’s great. However it must be said that the carnivore diet is NOT a weight loss diet!

The truth is that the Carnivore diet is a healing diet, and so while many people do lose weight fast on carnivore, there are also many of us who don’t. Carnivore is a weight optimization diet that will usually (but not always) allow your body to eventually find it’s sweet spot when it comes to your perfect weight.

Whether you lose weight easily on the carnivore diet, or not, often depends on where you are with your health when you start. It depends on what your body needs to heal, as that can affect your ability to lose weight on the carnivore diet.

For some of us, the weight loss is frustratingly slow… That has been my personal experience, but my body IS changing! However, some people need to tweak things, and experiment with different forms of carnivore to get their weight where they want it.

For some it may be changing fat to protein ratios. For others, just dropping dairy from their diet will allow them to lose all the weight they want. Many incorporate intermittent fasting as they find they’re less hungry, and fasting comes easier on carnivore. Some may find they need to move more.

We’re all different, and things like our age, genetics, and overall state of health can, and DO, make a difference.

2. Your Body May Heal Things You Don’t Expect

My personal experience on carnivore has seen things healing in my body that I didn’t expect to heal. For example, I’ve had moles and other things on my skin, that have been there for years, flare up and become inflamed for a few weeks, and then disappear completely.

I’ve also noticed that the fibrosis that began to appear in my body fat a number of years ago, along with a number of lipomas, and which had been getting worse over recent years, is now reducing. That wasn’t something that I even thought about correcting when I started eating a carnivore diet!

Also, some of the symptoms I was experiencing prior to carnivore began to resolve so quickly, it took me by surprise. I originally thought I’d try carnivore for 30 days to see how I went with it. But because of the changes I experienced in that first month, and even though I gained weight initially, I stuck with it, and I’m still here 18 months later.

3. You Might Not Change as Fast as You Want or EXPECT To

It’s easy to become despondent when you see the super fast, miraculous changes that some people get on a carnivore diet. I know that feeling only too well!

Especially when it comes to weight loss….

All the pictures, and the videos, of obese men and women who after a few months are sporting new, muscular, lean physiques can make us feel like we’re doing something wrong. And maybe some of use are. But if you’re eating all, or predominantly animal based foods, mostly fatty meat, and your health is improving (whether that’s slowly or quickly), then you’re on the right track.

I do my best to remember that patience is a virtue, and slow and steady wins the race… If it’s taken years or decades to get to where you currently find yourself, then it might just take some time to undo that damage.

Personally, I’ve had such improvement in some areas of my health, I am absolutely on the right track. I could possibly do with some tweaking, maybe tracking my food intake for a while, or experimenting again with protein and fat ratios, or longer fasts. I could also do with moving more. But things continue to get better for me anyway. And I know from experience that when I try to force my body, things usually go in the opposite direction to where I want them to go! So, slow and steady is simply the way it needs to be sometimes.

4. ONE WAY? No Way!

There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach here. For the same reasons stated above, I believe there will never been one version of carnivore for everyone –

• Some people do all meat.
• Others eat all animal products including dairy.
• Some allow themselves herbs and spices.
• Some do condiments, or low carb veggies.
• Others eat berries or even a little fruit.

We each need to find what works for us, and while some people insist on arguing over what a perfect carnivore diet should be, we need to do what will keep us satisfied enough to continue eating a predominantly meat based diet, and also learning, and staying away from what might set us up for a return to old (bad) habits.

The truth is that some of us can moderate well, and so including a little carbohydrate can work. Others can’t even drink raw milk without going on a sugar filled binge!

Some feel great on just red meat and water, while others feel unwell, or deprived.

We all differ in not only our starting places with our health, but also our genetics, what motivates us, and what drives us. So experiment and find what works for you. Be aware also, that what works for you now might just change over time as your health improves, your tastes and mindset change, hormones shift, and your body begins work on its next healing project! An example of this is the oxalate dumping that can cause misery on a strict meat only diet initially. But a couple of years down the track, once oxalate levels are lower, you may be fine on meat only and feel great.

My advice? Be like water…. Go with the flow. Move around the obstacles. Find your personal path to better health, and your version of the perfect carnivore diet, whatever that looks like.

5. You Might Not Feel Great All the Time

Some people are lucky enough to start feeling great when they first start on carnivore, and then it just gets better from there. But for many of us, it’s kinda up and down…

The most common problems for those who have them are oxalate dumping, and/or histamine.

The common carnivore diet symptoms cause by oxalate and histamine are connected, they are common, and if they’re really making you miserable, I can tell you from personal experience that you probably need to focus on your gut health.

Oxalate dumping will get better over time, but it can cause symptoms that range from joint, muscle and tendon pain, to anxiety, diarrhea, and mood issues. Histamine intolerance can also cause many of these same symptoms!

Check out my YouTube channel for more information on how I’ve handled the debilitating symptoms that I experienced, and how I ended up coming to the conclusion that my biggest problem was SIBO – or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Addressing SIBO helped to resolve my oxalate and histamine intolerance symptoms. I have many videos on this topic, and I was quite open about what I was dealing with. Here’s one where I’m talking about how I cured SIBO naturally. Which brings me on to the next thing people don’t talk about enough…

6. Sometimes You Need To Be a Detective

If you have health challenges, or you have some kind of exacerbation on your carnivore diet, you might need to be open to looking at lots of information, listening to other peoples stories, listening to your own intuition, and trying different ways.

Unless you’re lucky enough to have a great doctor (a rare find), you’re probably going to find they’re not much help. Even many naturopaths and nutritionists just don’t understand what the carnivore diet is, or how it has the healing benefits that it does.

If you need help, you’re best to find a coach within the carnivore community who understands what you’re going through, and I know from personal experience that that can be hard to find. A couple of months into my carnivore journey I joined a paid group where there were great coaches, but ended up leaving in frustration as no-one could help me with what I was going through. I had many, many months of continuous diarrhea that was making my life incredibly stressful, and it seemed that no-one had any suggestions for me apart from eat less fat and don’t eat liquid, melted fats….

That’s great advice for some people – but not for me. No-one seemed to have any real understanding of what I was actually dealing with.

But that’s been the story of my life. So as always, I just had to get on with it and work it out for myself! Be the detective!

My advice is to find people who’ve been through what you’re going through. Listen, learn, and experiment. And be patient with your body while having total faith that it knows what it’s doing. Our bodies are always doing their best to heal – we just need to get out of the way and give our body what it needs.

Don’t be fixed on only one way, and then say ‘carnivore doesn’t work for me’. Be patient and pay attention. Be willing to take total responsibility for your own health. No-one understands your body like you do. You live there! Listen to your intuition and experiment.

7. Pooping is Different

On the carnivore diet, pooping is different. Even for me! When I first started on the diet, the decades of chronic diarrhea I’d been living with actually got worse! Not straight away though… I had a couple of weeks where it seemed that things might be improving, and then suddenly they weren’t. I lived in hope that I’d have the same sort of miracle that many with chronic bowel issues do, but sadly that wasn’t to be the case. So even though I was having other amazing results on carnivore, the IBS diarrhea wasn’t quitting.

I actually have a whole lot of videos about my IBS diarrhea problem on my YouTube channel, and if followed sequentially, you’ll see that I was doing a lot of trying to figure out why things were not only not changing, but actually worse than they’d ever been. It’s a long story, but it was all a combination of oxalate dumping, histamine intolerance, and SIBO.

One day I’ll put it all together for those poor souls who have similar issues!

But my experience was an unusual one. Most people will have a bit of diarrhea for a couple of weeks, and then their bowel often works better than it ever has. Many people only poop every few days on carnivore, but they have no constipation. There is no feeling of bloating or discomfort, and no struggle to go to the toilet.

For those who do feel constipated, the problem is usually not enough fat. If this is you, try adding more fat to your diet. This can be in the form of tallow, lard, ghee or butter, or fattier cuts of meat.

However, if constipation continues to be a problem, I recommend that you read the Super Gut book. Then try making and consuming SIBO yogurt. It’s a true miracle food! And if you need a good yogurt maker that can be set for 36 hours, I can highly recommend . I have one and I’ve been very happy with it!

The other bonus that comes with this part of the carnivore lifestyle is that we use less toilet paper. Now that’s a saving!

8. Your Brain Works better

This has been something that hubby and I have both noticed since being on the carnivore diet. Our brains work better! My personal experience has been that my clarity of mind has improved, my memory has improved and also my ability concentrate. These were things that I’d noticed were declining in recent years.

I’ve also seen many others saying similar things, and the resolution of (sometimes many years of) brain fog also seems to be very common among those on carnivore. My guess is that the increase in nutrition, and reduction in sugars and carbs is the reason for this.

9. Eyes Get Clearer

When I was younger, in the healthier times of my life, I used to get a lot of comments on my eyes. In fact my friend used to always say my eyes looked like our friends cat’s eyes. The cat was one of those fluffy Siamese breeds with striking blue eyes. My eyes back then were quite intense, clear and vivid blue. But over recent years, that had changed. They’d lost their intensity, the whites were more muddy, and the blue more muted.

However that seems to changing! I’m once again getting the occasional comment on my eyes, and I see the vivid intensity of my blue irises returning. Our eyes are a sign of our health, and so for me, my eyes returning to something like they used to be is exciting!

Also, many people find their eyesight improving on carnivore. I feel sometimes that mine is, but sometimes I’m not sure. I guess I’ll find out when I have my eyes checked next…

10. Faster Recovery After Exercise & Muscle Growth

Now this is really interesting! At the time of writing this my sixtieth birthday is just around the corner, and I haven’t done much exercise for quite a long time. I’d pretty much stopped exercising about five years ago, and I’m still not exercising consistently at this point in time…

But what I found when I started on the carnivore diet, was that I put on muscle, and got stronger without exercising!

Prior to carnivore, I’d really noticed that I was getting quite weak and I’d lost a lot of muscle due to my lack of exercise. I’d gone from being very strong through many years of consistent weight training and other exercise, to struggling to get up off the floor, and straining my back carrying a bucket filled with horse manure! It was becoming quite concerning… But I just didn’t have the energy to get back to any kind of exercise program.

Now, eighteen months down the track, I’m feeling energy return to my body and my ability to exercise is increasing. Which leads me to the next interesting thing…

I hardly get sore after exercise!

All the pre-carnivore years that I was an exercise junky, I was constantly sore. I thought the constant muscle pain I felt was normal! And if I had a couple of weeks off weight training, my first lot of squats when I came back would always see me struggling to sit on the toilet because my quads were SO painful! And I know that’s really, really common.

However all that has changed. I can now do a leg workout, squatting and lunging until I can’t squat or lunge any more, when I’ve done no exercise for weeks, and I have almost no pain after.

It blows my mind every time!

This one amazing benefit of the carnivore diet helps me to KNOW that eating this way is doing something amazing in the bodies of those who are open enough to try it.

Remember – I’m sixty years old, still obese, and really unfit right now! But I can do a random leg workout without getting sore after it!

11. I Feel Like I’m Aging Backwards

When I was in my thirties, after I quit smoking and starting regaining my health, I felt like I was aging backwards. I had that feeling for quite a few years, and because my health was so bad in my late twenties, all the evidence corroborated what I was feeling. I was slimmer, fitter, healthier, and I looked younger.

And that’s the way I feel now.

It’s not as extreme as it was back then. I guess that’s because I’m older, and for me my changes have been slower. I’m also not exercising consistently – yet. But the feeling is definitely a thing, and the evidence points to my feeling being accurate.

Once again, I’m gradually getting thinner, my skin is healthier, I look better, I feel better, and my health is improving. My biological age IS reversing. I don’t need any scientist or doctor to tell me that. I can FEEL it! And I can SEE it.

12. Carnivore Is THE MOST SIMPLE Way To Eat!

I guess that eating a standard diet is simple – just eat whatever crap is in front of you without thought. That’s the way many people feed themselves, and (sadly) their kids.

But more ‘healthy’ diets are often complicated. They often require new learning, recipes, and understandings of what to eat and when.

But Carnivore isn’t like that. It’s not complicated at all. It can be as simple as ‘eat meat and drink water’. That’s it!

There are of course other variations, and depending on you and your lifestyle, the ‘eat meat and drink water’ version might not be for you. However, even at it’s most complicated, carnivore is incredibly simple – so simple, a caveman could do it!

Eat lots of fatty meat, and anything that comes from an animal. If you want to include herbs and spices, do that. If you want to include tea or coffee, do that. Don’t eat plants.

That’s it!

Personally, we find that cooking is incredibly simple. Most of our meals are cooked in our Ninja Foodi, on air fry, for 20-30 minutes. There’s no vegetables to prepare, or recipes to read. It’s as simple as pull some meat out of the freezer, season it, and chuck it in the Ninja!

Large roasts get cooked in the oven, and sometimes we’ll grill our steak on the barbecue outside.

We might cook some eggs to go with our meat, and we only eat once or twice a day because we’re satiated and intermittent fasting comes naturally.

Shopping is also much easier. We shop on the outside of the supermarket, buying just meat, eggs, and cheese, occasionally seafood, and venturing into the inside aisles only for coffee, toilet paper which we use much less of now, and maybe a jar of organic, sugar free gherkins.

It’s so easy that in fact, some carnivores live on just ground beef! And it truly can be that simple.

If you have any questions or comments, pop them in the comment box below, and if you’re considering giving the carnivore diet a go, I can highly recommend it!