How To Lose Weight On A Carnivore Diet

Since the Carnivore Diet is referred to as a diet you’d be justified in thinking you’ll automatically lose weight, right? Not so fast.

Sure, perhaps you’ve followed a “healthy diet” of lean meat, dark leafy greens, and fiber-rich whole grains, but sadly this low-fat, carb-focused dietary advice is not ideal for optimum human body function and repair.

And if you’re like me and have overindulged in the coffee, booze, and sugar snacks for years, your hormonal signaling may be so out of balance that your body is barely getting by and is depleted of vital nutrients.

Carnivore Diet: Benefits And Risks

While this meat-based, fat-centric dietary path is commonly called the Carnivore Diet, that is a bit of misnomer. Committed carnivores often adopt the mindset and word-choice of calling it the Carnivore Way of Eating (WOE).

“Way of Eating” generates thoughts of commitment and time-tested patience. The mindset shift that comes with changing our word choice is the key to harnessing the staying-power of being a carnivore.

At this point, most of us accept that muscle weighs more than fat and higher bone density is better than brittle bones associated with lower density.

Why Everyone Is Talking About The Carnivore Diet

To be fair, there is also a notable portion of folks who find their way to the Carnivore Diet in an effort to “gain weight”. In this context, people are often seeking to become weight restored after battling ill health from chronic illness or an eating disorder.

This comes in the form of repairing internal organs, increased bone density and muscle mass, and even increased fat accumulation for healthy hormonal regulation.

Let’s face it, I know myself enough to know that the fluctuating number on the scale would do more harm than good. Sure, it may have let me know that my weight was creeping up from too many sugar-laden snacks, but I didn’t need a scale to tell me that.

Barnes And Noble The Carnivore Diet For Beginners: Recipes And Meal Plans For Weight Loss, Health, And Healing

Between the fit of my clothes and the mirror, I can get the same information. Why let a number on the scale determine how I feel about myself at the start of each day?

I did the Scale Dance back in high school when I was still living with my parents (and their bathroom scale) and it only served to encourage restricting, which inevitably led to binging.

So, I’d highly encourage that you “Put the Scale in Jail”! (I first heard this phrase from one of the moderators, Sally Bowers, in the loving and encouraging carnivore community of the Steak and Butter Gang, and I love it!)

Days On The Carnivore Diet

If you absolutely must, then take your weight, write it down somewhere, and put the scale in jail for at least 3 months.

1. Take progress pictures. This has been my go-to method. Using a picture collage app can allow you to view these pictures side-by-side to see how your body is changing shape.

2. Try on the same (infrequently-worn: so as not to become stretched-out or overly-shrunken with repeated washes) outfit. I have a pair of white denim shorts I’ve used for this purpose. And honestly, they don’t fit at the moment. (More on that in a minute.)

A Low Carb Carnivore Diet And Fasting Diet Helped Me Lose 35 Lbs.'

3. If you really need numbers, then pull out the measuring tape and take measurements. I’ve done this before when trying to slim down before my wedding and while the decreasing numbers were motivating, the times that I saw no change or even an increase in my measurements tanked my motivation.

Sugar turns to glucose. The increase in blood glucose triggers the pancreas to release enough insulin to push the glucose (sugar) into the cells, thereby lowering the blood glucose back to safe levels.

If your body relies on greater amounts of insulin to clear the blood of excess glucose on a regular basis, then the pancreas may overshoot the amount of insulin needed. More glucose is pulled out of the blood and the level drops lower than your body’s ideal.

The Carnivore Diet For Beginners (spiral Bound)

You can feel lightheaded, dizzy, and ready to eat more. If you’ve ever felt “hangry” then you’ve experienced how powerful this sudden drop in blood sugar can be in cueing our bodies to eat.

The carb cravings begin again and your hunger signals cue you to eat so as to bring the blood glucose level back up.

However, when we eat in a way that allows our blood sugar to become stable (high fat, adequate protein, and low to no carbs) our cells’ sensitivity to insulin increases, less insulin is needed because there’s less excess glucose in the blood, and blood glucose levels remain within a stable range.

Just How Fast Can You Lose Weight On Carnivore?

One would think that when you adopt a carnivore way of eating, and blood sugar becomes more stable, fat-burning (and resulting “weight loss”) would be guaranteed to occur. This happens for some.

When the energy-intensive work of mitigating damage from toxic plants, harmful seed oils, and hormone-imbalancing carbs is no longer a tax on your system, the body can use the incoming nutrient-dense food to repair.

Insulin levels may no longer reflect the peaks and valleys of a carb-heavy diet, but they do increase and may remain at a higher level while healing occurs. Elevated insulin increases hunger, which is the body’s way of guaranteeing that you will continue to provide it with enough nourishment to keep up the necessary healing.

Carnivore Diet: A Complete Guide For Carnivores To Lose Weight, Strengthen The Body, Learning The Secret For Best Cooking And The Best Recipes (audio Download): Alan J. Morris, Damian Kemper, Morgan Bordon:

Your body knows what it needs and is making sure you continue to fuel it appropriately to keep up with the metabolically intensive work of healing.

Your body needs to know it can trust that nutrient-dense food will continue to be available. Otherwise, it it will stubbornly hold on to any remaining excess fat in fear of the coming “famine” that you’ve signaled it to prepare for.

If your body thinks food is going to be scarce, it will begin to downregulate healing and metabolic function as a way to conserve energy.

Carnivore Diet Pros And Cons: Is It Really A Safe Option For Weight Lo

If you signal that times are good, and food is in plentiful supply, it will continue to heal, repair, and eventually let go of the excess fat stores.

When following a carnivore way of eating, bone density increases, internal organs heal and repair, hormones come back into balance, joint pain lessens or disappears, autoimmune issues reverse, and mitochondria function more optimally.

In one of the Steak and Butter Gang meetings, Coach Raymond talked about how we are inundated with photoshopped pictures promoting unrealistic body and beauty standards. In a world of altered images, it can be hard to know what a real human body looks like.

What Is The Carnivore Diet? Benefits, Risks, Food List, And More

Plain and simple: what you see in the mirror when you follow a carnivore way of eating is exactly what you are meant to look like in this given moment.

Your size, shape, and body composition may shift over time as healing continues to occur. It may not change. Either way, you can rest assured that what you see is a reflection of a REAL, properly nourished body.

When I first started carnivore (following 4.5 months of eating a ketogenic diet), I immediately lost all of the belly bloat that was hiding my keto “results”.

The Carnivore Diet: Shed 15 Pounds In 3 Weeks By Eating Meat (+ Meal Plans!):

I looked in the mirror and thought, “Wow, if this is what I look like in the first week, I’m gonna be so slim by September.”

First of all, being slim is not necessarily ideal, especially for women who rely on their fat tissues to help regulate hormones.

I did. I was convinced (thank you society) that in order to love and accept myself, to have value, to be worth taking up space- I had to be slim.

Carnivore Diet: A Step By Step Guide To Lose Weight Safely, Burn Fat And Improve Your Lifestyle With A Carnivorous Meal Plan Diet By Scarlett May

Okay, that may not be entirely true because deep-seated body image issues have long since sunk their claws into my view of myself.

But now that hormonally-induced anxiety and depression is gone. The negative self-talk that used to play in a loop in my head is gone.

When I see my “before” picture, a week into carnivore, I see the result of months of restriction: a slim woman who suffered with confidence, irritability, mood swings, self-doubt, binge eating behaviors, and digestive distress.

The Carnivore Diet: Learn How To Lose Weight In Just 30 Days With A Low Carb, High Protein Diet. Includes A Meal Plan

When I see my “after” picture, 6.5 months into adhering to a carnivore way of eating, I see a strong, grounded, confident, capable woman who chose to lean into her biggest fears in the pursuit of putting herself, her health, her sense of wellness above all else.

I am proud of this woman in the “after” picture. She worked relentlessly to pull herself out of a hopeless, hormonally-imbalanced, anxiety and depression-ridden life. She learned how to heal. She persisted in the face of struggles. She trusted the process, gained the extra fat, and decided to love and accept herself just as she is.

Your body will tell you what it needs. As you tune in to your hunger signals, you will even be able to instinctively know if you need more protein, more fat, or both.

Why Am I Not Losing Weight On The Carnivore Diet? 5 Common Culprits

When you follow your hunger, trust your hunger, fuel your body accordingly to what it needs, your body learns that it can trust you.

Become fully nourished, and your body will heal. Heal, and your appetite regulates to only ask for what it needs for optimal function.

After 4.5 months on carnivore, suddenly I no longer needed to eat 3 meals a day. I comfortably settled into 2 meal a day, occasionally needing only one meal a day.

Barnes And Noble The Carnivore Diet

Had I not