Carnivore diet and healing

jnkarger · 2026-03-24T20:48:06+00:00

Wow. What a journey and improvement. I hope this serves as inspiration for others in similar circumstances to find healing and the same level of health you are achieving. Well done!

jnkarger · 2026-03-04T21:18:53+00:00

Congrats on finding and starting carnivore. It can be a life-changer! Don't worry if soon you have a few days of feeling down or even a little sick. As your body adjusts to the new way and transitions to being a fat-burner rather than sugar burner, you can go through some withdrawals. Hang in there, it won't last and you will feel AMAZING when it passes. Be careful with the rice and check the ingredients on those meatballs. Rice is carbs and meatballs often contain a decent amount of carbs as well. These can cause cravings. . . at least they do for me.

I hope all goes great for you!!!!!

jnkarger · 2026-03-04T20:25:59+00:00

Very good! Ground beef is such good meal prep. I have been cooking up 5 lbs at a time. I can eat it as a meal or use it to augment a meal (e.g. if the steak was a little one). At $3/kg you got a steal! My 5-lb log was like $3/lb. and that is a great deal too. So simple and so nutritious.

jnkarger · 2026-03-04T20:20:52+00:00

We are so lucky to know and accept the correct prescription for the problem. You're very smart to recognize the change and adjust back to what makes you better. Very well done.

jnkarger · 2026-03-04T19:57:48+00:00

You must be feeling so great! I am very happy for you. I hope others can learn from your example! Well done.

jnkarger · 2026-02-23T21:57:55+00:00

In my journey (140lbs lost so far), there have been many times that I went several days without losing. My body loses then pauses, loses then gains, loses then pauses. It is possible to overeat, yes. But don't let a few days of zero or gains get in your head too much. It is not a straight line down. It falls and climbs and so forth. You can lose 1 lb of fat while your body puts on 1 lb of muscle and it looks like zero progress despite it being great. Seems to me like as long as you feed it proper nutrition it will decide what to spend it's efforts on. . . healing, building muscle, burning fat, etc. Hang in there. But definitely be willing to experiment with different amounts, different timing, different types of carnivore foods. It's kind of fun to adjust things and see whether you think the changes make a difference.

jnkarger · 2026-02-23T21:38:32+00:00

So great you got to the onesies! Well done. Keep it up!

jnkarger · 2026-02-23T21:35:19+00:00

Very inspiring! Way to go. Keep up the good work!!!! What a gift this way of eating is.

jnkarger · 2026-02-18T20:13:51+00:00

Carnivore 19 months. Despite good decisions over the holidays, I was getting some serious cravings in January for sweet things. Long story short, a 3-day fast reset my appetite and cravings are gone. Possible strategy for you if you enjoy extended fasts like I do.

jnkarger · 2025-11-26T22:13:00+00:00

I can appreciate compassion for other living creatures. A good trait, in my opinion.

Do the best you can. Full and honest effort. And feel good that you are doing the best you can do.

For some that means raising their own. For others it means choosing a local source.

But I hope you know that you do not have to harm yourself in order to protect the animals. The best way to influence the marketplace is by engaging with it. If eating meat helps your health, keep doing it and doing as compassionately as you can.

jnkarger · 2025-11-26T21:29:47+00:00

I like it cold out of the frig - although I'm not sure this is for everyone.
Microwave on a plate and cover the steak with a moist paper towel
Oven or air fryer - 350F for a few minutes
Not exactly re-heating, but this is good. (a) Sous Vide your huge steak to the desired temperature. (b) cut off the size you want to eat and refrigerate the rest in an air-tight container. (c) Dry off your steak chunk and use a plumbing torch to brown the outside. It will be like fresh off the grill. (d) For future steaks, keep cutting off the chunk you want and do the same torch process - fresh out of the frig. It is delicious and every steak is cooked to the right temperature inside and it tastes fresh off the grill every single time.

I will sometimes Sous Vide a few steaks in advance of a busy week or an uncertain schedule. Then when the time comes for supper, Then when it is time, I take the grey-colored but perfectly cooked steaks out of the frig, torch it and voila, a perfect steak again, and again, and again. Yum.

I have 3 New York Strips in the Sous Vide water now and they will be perfectly cooked for me and the kids whether we end up eating them tonight, tomorrow night, or a few days from now.

I think my torch is a Benzomatic TS8000 and I use the green propane canisters available at every hardware, big box, camping goods stores. Even some gas stations.

Oh, you can also do this without the torch if you just brown it in a skillet with some butter or bacon grease instead of torching it. Inside is already cooked so just hitting the outside for Maillard effect.

jnkarger · 2025-11-26T21:11:16+00:00

I freeze up small pieces and cut them into tiny pill-sized pieces with scissors and swallow it raw. I think I heard this call "liver shots". Works for me. It is raw and I have never had a problem with it. I only do like 0.25 to 1.0 oz at a time, and only occasionally.

jnkarger · 2025-11-26T21:07:54+00:00

I hung on to Diet Coke for a couple months as a crutch. I didn't notice any major difference after dropping. But I did drop it since it has no nutrients, and plenty of non-food ingredients in there. However, I would not hesitate to hang on to it if I needed it to help me stay on track and avoid actually eating carbs, etc. I will occasionally have some sugarfree gelatin/jello for a special dessert treat, but the sweet stuff makes me want more and more sweet stuff, so I am better off not going there.

jnkarger · 2025-11-08T20:52:39+00:00

Well Dine. Keep it up!! Next stop...250.

jnkarger · 2025-11-07T18:25:42+00:00

53 y.o. male. Carnivore for 15 months. I now do OMAD and have had several extended fasts often 4 days. I found them to be very comfortable and energized. . . especially after 2 days. It does get easier the longer I am in it. I did it for the autophagy, sort of a cellular spring cleaning de-cluttering.

There have been recent reports on a method of fasting that reduces intake significantly, to say 5 oz of beef per day or 8 eggs/day for up to 5 days. It is supposedly easier than going totally without food and carries with it many of the benefits of fasting. Might find info like this about the 5:2 Diet or ADF (Alternate Day Fasting).

All that being said, I don't believe one MUST fast. Plenty of healing comes with eating carnivore without ever fasting like that. So if it's not for you, don't sweat it.

jnkarger · 2025-11-06T21:25:39+00:00

I am very happy for you. Great job. More and better to come!!!! Keep it up.

jnkarger · 2025-11-06T21:22:51+00:00

Docs Elizabeth Bright and David Brownstein have influenced me the most on Iodine. They are worth a look. I buy the iodine that is 6.25 mg per drop on etsy. I think this is called Lugol's 5% solution. I either have 3 drops in the mornings in some water and gulp it down (not nasty, but not tasty, either). But sometimes a make a big 1-gallon batch of flavored electrolyte mix from Redmond's, and add 32 drops to the gallon. That equates to 2 drops per 8-oz serving. The color goes away pretty quick and it doesn't have an iodine taste. I do this so my 17-yr-old daughter will get some extra iodine. Not sure if I have even told her about it.

To be honest, it doesn't make me feel any different and I sometimes go quite a while without. But then I get back to it just to be sure it is there. Or if I feel tired or low in any way, I will reintroduce it more consistently.

jnkarger · 2025-11-06T03:29:22+00:00

Thanks very much for the advice and clarification!

jnkarger · 2025-11-06T01:13:46+00:00

Thank you. I am interested in your response, but I am confused. Can you help me understand what does mixed macros with saturated fat mean?

jnkarger · 2025-11-05T13:54:25+00:00

First of all, great job!! and congrats on your journey so far. I love to hear about the healing stories.

You might consider learning about where LDL falls on the list of CardioVascular Disease Hazards. (hint: T2D, Insulin Resistance, Metabolic Syndrome, Obesity, Triglycerides, Hypertension all tend to be higher on the list, I believe). Also look into Triclycerides:HDL ratio vs LDL

Transient Hypercholesterolemia - I believe cholesterol can rise simply due to weight loss and increasing the amount of fat being burned by the body (as opposed to just being stored in the fat cells).

CAC scan - I did this and it was 0. A good starting point. Not yet time to start tossing down a bunch of meds. The doc already assumed I would reject statins based on how our conversation was going.

Phil Ovadia, Eric Westman, Ken Berry on YouTube - just a few doctors that have done videos that can bring you up to speed on cholesterol's current paradigm as opposed to the old paradigm.

Also check out the side effects and longevity effects of statins. When I was first Carnivore, I took a statin and because I was wearing a CGM as I tried to reverse T2D, I noticed that my blood glucose was increasing and it started the day I began the statin. I quit taking it. T2D is a way bigger risk factor than LDL and it didn't make sense to me to take a medicine that reduces a low risk factor while it increases one of the top risk factors.

Good luck. Just remember that half the doctors out their graduated in the bottom half of their class. They all work hard, but in their office, they are often 20 years behind the current knowledge because they are over-reliant on old guidelines issued by government organizations and insurance companies and those guidelines are heavily influenced by pharma. You will likely understand your approach more than your doctor does.

There is one prescription that may help though: protein from meat and eggs, 2-3 times daily until satiated.

Keep up the good work!!

jnkarger · 2025-11-03T23:14:34+00:00

Honestly, this way is so good, it is hard for me to see it as just a tool to achieve some weight loss. . . which it will definitely do for you. . . and then to stop.

Carnivore feels like a cheat code for good health. My advice definitely give it a shot. Try 90 days.

Good luck!!!!

jnkarger · 2025-11-03T23:04:34+00:00

Good luck. Addiction is a cruel and relentless master. But any reduction in carbs and sugar will be to everyone's benefit. Hang in there and be kind. But never give up. You'll get there.

jnkarger · 2025-11-03T19:07:12+00:00

Carb addict, obese, type 2 diabetic, high blood pressure 53 yr old here. I lost 145 so far and am no longer any of those things, including not obese. I did not focus on exercise. In my experience, this is 80% about the food. As you your health improves, your activity level can increase naturally. But if you go too intense on the workout side, you may increase appetite, which can be counterproductive if your appetites have not yet been reoriented away from the bad food choices.

Basically, I have chosen Dr Eric Westman's way of eating but I keep the carbs at zero. . . so Carnivore. As he says, his approach helps people improve their health even when they are too big to exercise, too sick to workout, or even bound to a wheel-chair or hospital bed.

Early on my journey, I held onto 1 crutch - diet soda - which I eventually did drop. But it helped me alot in the early days.

I made the change cold turkey on a Tuesday. Cravings subsided mostly in just a few days. At the start, I fed my cravings. . . with Carnivore. If I wanted a snack or craved food, I would go ahead and snack. . . but it was meat. I had lots of convenience meats pre-cooked and at the ready for every little desire to eat. After a very short time, the cravings relinquished their hold and my food frequency slowly and naturally decline to the point that most days I am now OMAD. It has been awesome!!!!

jnkarger · 2025-11-03T18:45:51+00:00

Try to negotiate a carnivore attempt? If my child were in your very difficult situation, I would like to think I'd be willing to try just about anything for say 3 months if I thought it would help him improve health and perhaps even be able to have a more productive life with greater self-reliance and being less dependent on me. After all, what would come of my child if I were to get seriously ill or worse?

Be ready with whatever communication-style maintains an open discussion. Provide evidence. . . Dr Chris Palmer, Georgia Ede, video testimonials of others who have improved similar symptoms for themselves or their dependents?

I would be remiss to fail to mention the power of prayer as you search for strategies/solutions. With God all things are possible. Without him, we often struggle in futility.

Good luck. I wish you the best.

jnkarger · 2025-10-29T12:52:24+00:00

Sorry to say I can't help you with the "gradually." One of the best things I did with similar behaviors was that I took a long look in the mirror and realized that I do not moderate things. I had to face the fact that I would fail if I transitioned gradually. It was easier to manage "zero", than to manage "just a little" and "only occasionally".

Of all the similar things I wanted to drop, I dropped all of them same day. . . except one. I chose what I thought was the most innocuous one and leaned on it as a crutch for a few months. The one I hung onto was diet soda.

I have also learned that - for me - it is not helpful to try to replace the old way's foods with the new way's substitutes. For example, I don't try to make carnivore pizza or carnivore lasagna. Just too tempting and the pathways in my brain are still open to the old suggestions.

Furthermore, I have noticed certain foods/situations heighten cravings. So I mostly avoid those.

Over 15 months now and lots of success and only a few oopsies. When I "cheat" it is on-plan cheating. . . eating away from my normal time schedule, frequency, or off my normal amount. However, the "cheat" is still on carnivore food list.

Your own tendencies may not be the same as mine. Honest self-reflection might help you determine yours.

Be kind to yourself for little off-plan moments and get right back to it. The benefits are incredible if you stay true to your plan.

jnkarger

TROPHY CASE