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My Experience Eating Keto/Carnivore

JasonR

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Have you checked or tracked changes in your cholesterol levels?
 
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Darius

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Have you checked or tracked changes in your cholesterol levels?

I haven't yet since starting. I'll probably get one this month.

I plan on eating some sweet potato pie this month, so I'm going to get the test done before that. That way it's not skewed due to having over 10-20g of carbs for the first time since March.

Here's what I'd expect on the cholesterol front based on what I've read:

- Total cholesterol & LDL to be high (compared to what's normal) since I'm still losing weight fairly quickly. I'm going to also try to get an LDL particle size test. Not many people get that done and the particle size is a better indicator for potential heart problems.

- Triglycerides in the normal range. I think this will depend on how carnivore-ish I am before the test and if I add more omega 3's to my diet.

- HDL in the normal range

I'll likely get a CAC (coronary artery calcium) test done as well. As long as that test is low I probably won't worry about cholesterol until I'm at a stable weight due to the likelihood of it being skewed.



Since we're on the topic of blood test, I've become very skeptical of our knowledge of what blood test are direct markers/strongly correlated and which ones are proxies.

I said this in another post in this thread but when we (humans) start isolating things by themselves, we tend to be wrong due to missing other contributing factors and variables.

As a species, I do think we're going to get enough data and make enough bad guesses that we'll get it right eventually. We have to if we plan on becoming an interplanetary species.

But at this moment in time, I think we're still in the stage of making a lot of bad guesses (probably due to a mixture of studies being funded by the people selling the products and just human error).

With that said, I don't have any better ways of tracking overall health (outside of just how I feel, which can be unreliable for specific problems) - so I'll be comparing my blood tests to what is deemed to be normal.
 

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Update: Cold like syntoms, think I got keto flu, felt like crap yesterday and still trying to get over it. Energy level has dropped down a lot.

Worked like usual yesterday, but was very tired when getting home. Went to bed 4hrs earlier than usual.
 

Darius

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Update: Cold like syntoms, think I got keto flu, felt like crap yesterday and still trying to get over it. Energy level has dropped down a lot.

Worked like usual yesterday, but was very tired when getting home. Went to bed 4hrs earlier than usual.

Sounds good that you listened to your body and went to bed earlier.

Try putting a pinch of salt in your mouth and seeing if it taste too salty. If it doesn't, keep putting more in until it does.
 
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Darius

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A study that was published stating that low-carb diets would increase cardiovascular risk was recently retracted due to problems with data integrity and conflict of interest by the lead author (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/clc.23047)

While it's great that the study is being retracted, a lot of the damage has already been done. The media reported on that study heavily and will likely not report on it being retracted.

Anyone who doesn't have time to stay up-to-date with nutritional studies (most normal people) will probably continue believing the study's conclusion and alter their diets (or use it as reinforcement) based on that study.

Just another reason to be skeptical of what you read (regardless if it supports or goes against your current WOE). The issues with this study were noticed and dealt with. There are likely more of these studies that were/are not noticed.

The study's conclusion before being retracted was:
One-year lowered-carbohydrate diet significantly increases cardiovascular risks, while a low-to-moderate-fat diet significantly reduces cardiovascular risk factors. Vegan diets were intermediate. Lowered-carbohydrate dieters were least inclined to continue dieting after conclusion of the study. Reductions in coronary blood flow reversed with appropriate dietary intervention. The major dietary effect on atherosclerotic coronary artery disease is inflammation and not weight loss.
 

Sheens

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Thank you for the quality of your posts and skillful writing Darius!

Have you come across the book "How to Beat The Heart Attack Gene" by Bradley Bale, MD and Amy Doneen, ARNP?

It's a great guide on inflammation, cardiovascular health, and taking a more proactive approach in requesting testing/labs.

It discusses CACS but also warns that it is unable to detect 'soft' plaque and "less reliable in younger patients." There are ultrasound tests (ex. cIMT) that try to spot soft plaque and gauge the thickness of arterial walls.

A couple other tests that struck me were the Myeloperoxidase (MPO) enzyme they refer to as the joker because with it all cholesterol is more inflammatory (including HDL).

Also, an inexpensive blood test NT-proBNP neurohormone marker for heart stress that qualified "as an 'independent-predictor' of cardiovascular-risk." Less than 125pg/mL gives a 98% chance of a "happy" heart.

Sleep disorders place a big strain on the body and anyone with signs or symptoms (even a large neck circumference) would be best tested!

(As mentioned, an individualized approach for testing with help from professionals is always advised!)
 

Darius

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Thank you for the quality of your posts and skillful writing Darius!

Have you come across the book "How to Beat The Heart Attack Gene" by Bradley Bale, MD and Amy Doneen, ARNP?

It's a great guide on inflammation, cardiovascular health, and taking a more proactive approach in requesting testing/labs.

It discusses CACS but also warns that it is unable to detect 'soft' plaque and "less reliable in younger patients." There are ultrasound tests (ex. cIMT) that try to spot soft plaque and gauge the thickness of arterial walls.

A couple other tests that struck me were the Myeloperoxidase (MPO) enzyme they refer to as the joker because with it all cholesterol is more inflammatory (including HDL).

Also, an inexpensive blood test NT-proBNP neurohormone marker for heart stress that qualified "as an 'independent-predictor' of cardiovascular-risk." Less than 125pg/mL gives a 98% chance of a "happy" heart.

Sleep disorders place a big strain on the body and anyone with signs or symptoms (even a large neck circumference) would be best tested!

(As mentioned, an individualized approach for testing with help from professionals is always advised!)

Thanks for all of the info!

I'll look into the tests you mentioned as well as that book.

The MPO enzymes sounds interesting. I'm assuming it causes more cholesterol to penetrate the artery wall and trigger inflammation?
 
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Sheens

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No problem!

The book will give suggestions on diet and genetics as well. However, I truly think that because science is always evolving we are all best to take the most evidence-based and reputable sources to create a custom diet and health plan.

I went back to the book for more in depth answers on MPO! At the basic level it is one of our immune defenses at an infection site but the warning sign is when it is found high throughout the body.

The oxidants it produces are the inflammatories for all cholesterol (and HDL no longer helping to protect form plaque buildup). It also interacts with hydrogen peroxide to make the active ingredient in bleach (hypochlorous acid) and reduces production of nitric oxide in the body, both of which can weaken the endothelium (blood vessel lining). The easiest way to think of it might be that it makes it easier for plaques to enter vessels that can then cause heart attack or stroke.

I don't want to sidetrack your Keto/Carnivore discussion so I can give you a few more tests/labs if you'd like but will keep to a minimum!
 

Darius

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I don't want to sidetrack your Keto/Carnivore discussion so I can give you a few more tests/labs if you'd like but will keep to a minimum!

No worries, I love hearing about things I've never heard about.

As far as labs, I think I'm going to get something simple done this month. I'm thinking just lipids and fasting insulin since I have easy access to it - just to have the data.

I'm having a hard time finding an affordable CAC test, so I may wait on that. Locations by me do it for free, but only under a physicians order. If you don't have a recommendation, they're charging $500+.

There are way too many possible tests to take that won't provide any definitive/actionable information including the lipid test for cholesterol.

I'm going to check out that book though! It sounds interesting.
 

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I am not a fan of Kerrygold since it is pasteurized. I have been trying to find unpasteurized butter here in Singapore but it is against the law to sell/buy it here.

I completely understand.

Although Kerrygold cows are likely not 100% grass fed (I think they get grains during their winter months instead of hay) it's probably the best supermarket butter out there. I hear Organic Valley has a good pastured butter but I haven't tried it.
 

Darius

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@Darius , do you follow Shawn Baker or sv3rige? Do you eat raw meat and organs?

I've seen content from both of them.

I've tried raw meat, fat, and organs. It's easier for me to tell the quality of a food when eating it raw. When cooking foods, even bad quality foods still taste pretty good.

I eat mainly cooked foods.
 

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Darius

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@Darius , besides electrolytes, do you also take vitamin B5 during your first few weeks of keto? I find that my body needs B5 besides electrolytes when I am on keto. Below video from "Dr" Berg explains why you need B5 during keto.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl1KZ4hfruI

I didnt/don't supplement anything besides Vitamin D and I sometimes take some cod liver oil for Omega 3s & magnesium if I'm trying to go to bed early.

I guess I can see how one could be low on water soluble vitamins if you're eating mainly white meat and cooking it dry (which is hard to avoid in order to kill bacteria).

I don't see the water soluble vitamins being a problem for me since I mainly eat red meat (including organs) and eggs.

But I also never experimented with them so who knows, maybe I could feel even better with them. I probably wouldn't supplement just one b-vitamin, I'd take a b-complex unless I did a blood test and was deficient in a specific b vitamin.

If I was deficient in just one b-vitamin, that would raise even more questions as to why just this vitamin.
 

babyballer

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Maybe that explains why. Organs are full of vitamin B. I don't generally eat organs since it is hard to find a butcher that sells organs here in Singapore, believe it or not. I only eat muscle meat here like ribeyes and minced meat.

I didnt/don't supplement anything besides Vitamin D and I sometimes take some cod liver oil for Omega 3s & magnesium if I'm trying to go to bed early.

I guess I can see how one could be low on water soluble vitamins if you're eating mainly white meat and cooking it dry (which is hard to avoid in order to kill bacteria).

I don't see the water soluble vitamins being a problem for me since I mainly eat red meat (including organs) and eggs.

But I also never experimented with them so who knows, maybe I could feel even better with them. I probably wouldn't supplement just one b-vitamin, I'd take a b-complex unless I did a blood test and was deficient in a specific b vitamin.

If I was deficient in just one b-vitamin, that would raise even more questions as to why just this vitamin.
 

Darius

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Maybe that explains why. Organs are full of vitamin B. I don't generally eat organs since it is hard to find a butcher that sells organs here in Singapore, believe it or not. I only eat muscle meat here like ribeyes and minced meat.

Ribeyes have a good amount of vitamin b too. How do you usually cook it? What veggies do you eat with it?

The minced meat has vitamin b but I wouldn't be surprised if most is lost during cooking due to water loss when needing to kill most of the bacteria.

Side note: Raw 85% pastured raised ground beef is delicious. I don't recommend it because of the possibility of getting sick but I tried it anyway.
 
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babyballer

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Ribeyes have a good amount of vitamin b too. How do you usually cook it? What veggies do you eat with it?

Medium rare or rare. No veggies at all.

The minced meat has vitamin b but I wouldn't be surprised if most is lost during cooking due to water loss when needing to kill most of the bacteria.

Side note: Raw 85% pastured raised ground beef is delicious. I don't recommend it because of the possibility of getting sick but I tried it anyway.

I eat grass-fed ground beef that is free of antibiotics or hormones. It contains 15% fat. I can't get the ones with more fat content. Sometimes I eat them raw, sometimes I eat them fully cooked. I prefer the taste of cooked ground beef though.
 

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Medium rare or rare. No veggies at all.



I eat grass-fed ground beef that is free of antibiotics or hormones. It contains 15% fat. I can't get the ones with more fat content. Sometimes I eat them raw, sometimes I eat them fully cooked. I prefer the taste of cooked ground beef though.

Got ya. This may fall into the "every body is different" category but there should be a reason you're not absorbing enough b vitamins from the food. Sadly, I don't know.

Getting high-fat grass fed ground beef is difficult (even buying directly from a farm). The farm I purchase from only sells 90/10.

I've been thinking about just purchasing a grinder and grinding up fat trimmings I have and combining them with the ground beef.
 

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For me the hardest part of Keto is not so much of the carb eating (never ate to many carbs) but eating too much protein and not making me be in ketosis. Do you have that issue as well?
 
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The Abundant Man

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For me the hardest part of Keto is not so much of the carb eating (never ate to many carbs) but eating too much protein and not making me be in ketosis. Do you have that issue as well?
Protein is not an energy source. I don't think it has anything to do with ketosis.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 

Darius

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For me the hardest part of Keto is not so much of the carb eating (never ate to many carbs) but eating too much protein and not making me be in ketosis. Do you have that issue as well?

I don't check my ketones so I can't say with 100% certainty, but no, I don't have those issues.

Based on my understanding, Gluconeogenesis is a demand-driven process. If your body doesn't need any glucose, it won't convert protein into glucose.

I'm more concerned about too much protein causing an acceleration in aging, not knocking me out of ketosis.
 

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Protein is not an energy source. I don't think it has anything to do with ketosis.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

It does have an affect on ketosis. Just look up "Keto mistake too much protein" and you will be able to find plenty of articles about it. I would but I'd have to sort through them before providing a link here.
 
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I don't check my ketones so I can't say with 100% certainty, but no, I don't have those issues.

Based on my understanding, Gluconeogenesis is a demand-driven process. If your body doesn't need any glucose, it won't convert protein into glucose.

I'm more concerned about too much protein causing an acceleration in aging, not knocking me out of ketosis.
If you are not checking ketones regularly then how do you know you are in ketosis and not just low carb? Or are you full carnivore and not keto?
 

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If you are not checking ketones regularly then how do you know you are in ketosis and not just low carb? Or are you full carnivore and not keto?
.

I tracked my macros for years (even before keto) due to weightlifting (I don't track them anymore).

When I first started Keto, I kept them under 20g total a day (not net).

Now, the food that I eat with the most carbs is liver, but I don't eat anywhere near enough to come close to knocking me out of ketosis.

I don't eat vegetables (except on the rare occasion where I'll have a salad or tomatoes on a burger patty).

I eat mainly meat, cheese, eggs, and organs. So I've been more on the carnivore side lately.

I feel like checking ketones for most people is one of those things that gives you a confirmation that your body is producing ketones but means little in the grand scheme of the diet at this point in time.

Ketosis is a sliding scale, not an on-off switch.

The longer you're on the diet, the fewer ketones show up in your blood. There have been anecdotal cases of long-term keto-ers not registering blood ketones at all.

While it's cool data to have, we don't know what it means (we can mainly guess and say your body is using them more efficiently).

So I choose not to check them.

Is it possible that I'm not in ketosis and I'm getting these benefits due to just being low-carb? Yeah.

So, to answer the question (sorry for the long-winded answer) - I don't know.
 

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What's up everyone! I haven't posted here in a while but thought I'd give you guys some insight on my experience doing lazy keto (8 months so far) and the Carnivore (~2 months) WOE (way of eating). I'm not a doctor, this post isn't medical advice, and I'm not telling you to do Keto or Carnivore. Do what you want. This post will simply show you my experience and what I think I've learned from my research.

What is Lazy Keto?:
Lazy Keto is basically when you eat less than 20g of carbs per day, but you don't track it. You don't try to hit 'strict' macros, restrict calories, or measure blood ketones. Just stay under that carb amount and you’ll enter a metabolic state called ‘ketosis’ (basically when your body starts to utilize stored body fat and convert it into an energy source called ketones)

What is Carnivore?:
Carnivore is when you only eat animal products. This excludes all plants. Some people still use plant seasonings and drink coffee/tea, but that’s technically not carnivore. You can incorporate more carbs from animal sources to see how they affect you (think raw honey and milk).

Why I started eating Keto and Carnivore:
I’m always trying to be healthier. I heard good things about Keto via Reddit and thought why not. Once I did some research and figured Keto probably wouldn’t kill me to try for a couple months, I went straight to Keto. Carnivore just became a gradual transition that my body steered me towards. I had no diagnosed medical problems and was not overweight (my body fat percentage was probably between 20-23% depending at the time of starting - now around 15%). I definitely had fat to lose.

Issues I had before Keto/Carnivore:
  • I was always slightly tired regardless of how much sleep I got. Some days better than others, but more tired than not. I now believe this was a sign of insulin resistance. However, all of my blood work was normal. I figured this was just the way it was supposed to be.

  • I would get tired after a carb-heavy meal, think pancakes with syrup. Another sign of insulin resistance. I also figured this was normal for my body, due to it happening when eating a 'healthy' meal of steel-cut oatmeal, egg whites, and 2% milk.

  • CICO (Calories-in-Calories-out) no longer worked for me and despite weight lifting ~6 days per week, I couldn’t lose much stomach fat. I now believe this was an early sign of metabolic syndrome. At the time, I figured I just needed to drop my calories even more (my lowest was 800 per day in order to lose .4-.8 lbs per week at ~152lbs).

  • I could barely breathe out my nose. They said I needed surgery in order to fix it but it shouldn’t cause any major problems to just leave it - that was 5-6 years ago.

  • Eczema & seborrheic dermatitis (I had asthma as a child and dermatologist said they’re related). She gave me steroids that I refuse to take.

  • Acne (figured it was normal)

  • Eyes sensitive to bright lights (had no idea why)

My Experience (short version):
  • Went from eating 800-1200 calories to 2800-3500 calories per day. (keto + carnivore)

  • Went from 155 lbs to 135 lbs - lost primarily water and fat, strength and muscle mass has increased. (keto & carnivore)

  • 5-year fatigue issues resolved (keto & carnivore)
  • One of my nostrils would always be closed and the other nostril would only be ~50% open. This is no longer a problem. Both nostrils fully open now and no longer a mouth breather (keto & carnivore)

  • Never ‘hangry’ (keto + carnivore)

  • More focus and energy when I don’t eat. (keto & carnivore)

  • Hair grows faster (carnivore)

  • Acne is mainly cleared (keto)

  • Eczema and Seb derm did not clear up from diet. However, it does clear up on days I get a lot of sun.

  • I’m not sure if the eye sensitivity was fixed from diet or since I stopped wearing sunglasses often.
Typical Things I Eat:
  • 2-4 oz liver with eggs/butter/cheese

  • 0.8-1 lb ribeye with butter

  • 5-8 oz burger patty with cheese and butter (depending on how lean the meat is)

  • Liver, kidney, heart, spleen, and chuck ground mixture for burgers or taco meat

  • Smoked sockeye salmon with eggs/butter/cheese

  • Occasional chicken wings

  • Slow-cooked brisket with cheese

  • Broccoli & green beans (during keto)

How Often I Eat:
I started eating 3 meals per day. Now I typically eat 1 or 2 meals per day. I usually eat 2 meals on days where I feel sore from working out or if I'm eating out with friends unexpectedly.

Month #1 - Keto:
It was fairly easy for me to keep carbs under 20g just by eating meat, veggies, and cheese. Not the ideal way to keto in my opinion (organs should be included for vitamins), but I ate what I had available. On my 5th day, I got lightheaded for about 1 hour. After a few Google Searches, I learned that electrolyte imbalances are common in the early stages of keto. These imbalances can cause symptoms that people call ‘keto flu’. I kept swallowing a pinch of salt until it tasted too salty. This got rid of the symptoms within 30 mins and I didn't’ have any other keto flu symptoms afterward. I also lost 8 pounds.

Month #2-#6 - Keto:
After the first month, body fat kept dropping even though I started eating more calories. I started adding more fat to my diet, specifically butter and avocados - which made my consumed calories rise to around 2300-2500 calories. I was nervous at first due to previously being able to gain fat at anything over 1200 calories. That didn’t happen, so I kept slowly increasing the amount of food I ate until I was full. I did notice some days I’d have digestion issues after eating too much roasted broccoli.

Month #7 - Keto + Carnivore:
The first-day doing carnivore felt wrong mentally. Who in their right mind thinks not eating vegetables is a good thing? Regardless, I pushed through the mental thoughts. After the first week, those thoughts went away and I started to feel even better than I did on Keto. All through my time doing Keto I was learning about nutrition trying to put the pieces together as to how it’s causing me to lose fat while eating more and helping the issues that I thought were normal. But, when carnivore started making me feel even better, I really got focused on learning because I didn’t understand how this was even possible.

I learned a ton about vitamins (both plant & animal versions) and the foods that contain them, plant defense mechanisms, plant diversity, gut microbiota, the quality differences between meat, and a ton more. I probably spent 2-3 hours daily learning/trying to break down different studies and their methods due to it being so interesting.

This is the month I started to limit my animal consumption to beef, dairy, eggs, and the occasional salmon. I started purchasing grass-fed pasture-raised beef and pasture-raised chicken eggs. I was already purchasing ‘wild caught’ salmon.

I also began incorporating offal into my diet at this point after researching how nutrient dense they are (and bio-available) from a grass-fed pasture-raised cow. I purchased liver, kidney, spleen, and heart.

Month #8 - Keto + Carnivore:
In month #8, I started purchasing a good amount of my beef & chicken from a local farm. I’m actually surprised at the differences in quality. The muscle meat has no marbling and taste beefier (I’m still getting used to it), the beef fat is extremely soft, melts, and taste really good, the beef organs taste normal but I’ve been buying high-quality offal since my first time trying them so I don’t know what others taste like.

I try to have at least 2 servings of offal (preferably liver) per week as a ‘multivitamin’ due to its vitamin profile (it has every fat-soluble vitamin and water-soluble vitamins depending on how you cook it. Some is lost when cooking). I tried eating liver raw and it’s ok. It’s chewy and can be ‘minerally’ tasting at times, but it’s fine. I prefer pan seared.

I’m still losing body fat and can now fast for multiple days at a time on accident due to being busy. I rarely get hungry unless I fast for 1-3 days.

Towards the end of month #8, I started incorporating a couple ‘cheat’ meals during a house move - which are basically keto friendly foods that are more processed - such as a quest pizza. I noticed some bloating from the fiber but other than that there was no immediate weight gain or issues.

Overall
It's been a cool experience and this WOE has been fixing some issues that I didn't know could be fixed from diet. I'm slowly learning a lot about nutrition and realizing how much humans don't know about nutrition. Most studies are biased for whoever funds it, even if detrimental to our overall health.

But, I don't really miss any carbs except for Sweet Potato Pie. I'm planning on eating some in November but going right back to carnivore after.

Questions:

How did you use the bathroom without fiber during carnivore?
On carnivore, I go to the bathroom a lot less (every 3-4 days) but never felt constipated or bloated. If anything, it's easy and quick to use the bathroom when I need to.

Don’t you feel bad eating animals that have to be killed?
I know a good amount of forum members are vegans so I figured this question might be asked. Of course. But I also feel bad when a lion hunts and kills an animal for his family. Death, in general, makes me feel bad. I try to limit the number of animals that have to be killed by mainly focusing on beef for organ & meat consumption. One cow can feed 1 person for 12+ months just off of meat and fat. Most people don’t eat organs so I pick those up for cheap so it doesn’t go to waste.

How is your blood work?
I haven’t had it done yet since starting keto (I had it done right before). I’ve been waiting until the 1-year mark but might get it done in January. So, it’s possible my blood work could be on the brink of heart disease and diabetes.

How did you give up carbs/sugar?
Honestly, I just stopped eating them. The day before starting keto I had over 250g of carbs. I didn’t think about it.

What about vitamin deficiencies since you stopped eating vegetables?
The vitamins in vegetables are controversial at the moment. They’re not bio-available (meaning we don’t absorb them well). The rate at which someone can absorb them is on a person by person basis. Some people can get enough from plants and others can't. High-quality liver has most of the vitamins needed to survive (in a bio-available form). I say most due to vitamin loss based on cooking methods, vitamin d (In my opinion, this should come from the sun), and possibly vitamin K2 (which comes from fermented foods like cheese or ‘spoiled’ food - they call this ‘high meat’ I think). I believe the same mechanism that allows our body to make vitamin d from the sun also triggers other mechanisms to run - I read about some of the believed mechanisms but haven’t read any studies on it.


I've been curious about the carnivore diet ever since I heard about it.

Have you found that you've put on muscle mass at all from eating carnivore?

I hear thats not particularly uncommon actually.
 
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Darius

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I've been curious about the carnivore diet ever since I heard about it.

Have you found that you've put on muscle mass at all from eating carnivore?

I hear thats not particularly uncommon actually.

I have put on muscle and lost fat at the same time.

One thing interesting about carnivore when it comes to weightlifting is that I get less sore compared to when I was eating more carbs from veggies in keto.

Today is actually a workout day where I'm going to try to destroy my upper body with a shit-ton of volume to see if I can induce soreness.
 

CherryRedBoi

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I have put on muscle and lost fat at the same time.

One thing interesting about carnivore when it comes to weightlifting is that I get less sore compared to when I was eating more carbs from veggies in keto.

Today is actually a workout day where I'm going to try to destroy my upper body with a sh*t-ton of volume to see if I can induce soreness.

Sounds to me like your testosterone has increased.

I would be interested to see a blood test on both keto and carnivore separately to see if there's any measurable difference in testosterone levels.
 

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Sounds to me like your testosterone has increased.

I would be interested to see a blood test on both keto and carnivore separately to see if there's any measurable difference in testosterone levels.

It's possible!

I can't remember if I've ever had a testosterone test done.
 
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I went and got some blood work done Friday (lipids, A1C, ferritin, vitamin d) and just got the results back, so I'll list them here along with my thoughts:

Total Cholesterol: 277 mg/dl
Range lab deems 'normal': <200 mg/dL
My thoughts: I expected this to be higher. I've been losing weight which should be raising this number. Total cholesterol means very little in the context of heart disease, based on my research. However, based on cholesterol's function, I wouldn't be surprised if more is better in the absence of severe inflammation.

HDL: 66 mg/dl
Range lab deems 'normal': >40 mg/dL
My thoughts: I expected this to be in the 'normal' range

Triglycerides: 75 mg/dl
Range lab deems 'normal': <150 mg/dL
My thoughts: I expected this to be in the normal range

LDL: 193 mg/dl
Range lab deems 'normal': <150 mg/dL
My thoughts: I expected this to be in the higher range due to weight loss

Triglyceride/HDL ratio: 1.13
My thoughts: This wasn't on my lab results, I calculated this. From what I've read, the closer this number is to 1 (or lower) - the less likely you are to develop heart disease. Here's some info on it: Cardiorespiratory Fitness, the Triglyceride:HDL Ratio and Coronary Heart Disease Mortality Risk in Men - Cooper Institute

Hemoglobin A1C: 4.9
Range lab deems 'normal': <5.7
My thoughts: I'd expect this to be pretty low since my blood sugars should consistently be low. Most of my family has type 2 diabetes, so I'll mainly use this as some kind of credibility when telling them they shouldn't eat that extra piece of pie or ice cream.

Ferritin: 338 ng/ml
Range lab deems 'normal': 20-345 ng/ml
My thoughts: I mainly got this test since @Nelow asked about iron & I cook everything in a cast-iron skillet. It's on the higher end of normal but that 'normal' range looks huge. I'm curious as to what are the optimal levels instead of 'normal' levels. As far as I know, I haven't had any symptoms related to too much iron, so I won't worry about it.

Vitamin D: 51 ng/ml
Range lab deems 'normal': 30-100 ng/ml
My thoughts: This test has the same problem as the ferritin test, the range is too big. The lower end of 'normal' may prevent symptoms but the optimal range is likely much higher in the normal range. I've been shooting to be around 80 ng/ml since my test of 30 back in February. I'm currently taking 10k IU a day, which is moving the mark. I would really like to dump the supplements, stop taking vitamin d, and get more sun - but in Ohio, the sun is always hidden. So for now, I'll settle for chasing a number on a test.
 
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Decided to get some sweet potato pie yesterday after a full body workout due to missing Monday's workout.

I ate 15g of carbs worth (~45g total weight) in an attempt to stay in ketosis and not shock my system. It was the only carbs I had for the day so I figured it should be fine.

I don't know what my carb intake limit is that will knock me out of ketosis - could be 20g, could be 50g. But, this was the most carbs I've had in months.

Sweet potatoes taste a little different than I remember. And since I'm used to high fat foods, my mouth felt pretty dry without oil coating it.

My plan is to eat the whole pie over the course of 1-2 weeks. Today I'll eat 30g of carbs worth after cardio and see if the head tingles come back.

Here are some photos of the size of last night's pie:

60f5135506a68f52f35e162ff333ff71.jpg


55fd67f30da770394ca3c052f606b602.jpg


bc5789932c85c4598b1afb8730f50a40.jpg
 

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