World Carnivore Month
Just before the New Year arrived this year, I heard through the grapevine that January is World Carnivore Month. Several of the people I follow in the health and nutrition world issued a Carnivore Challenge, encouraging people to try the Carnivore diet for the entire month of January.
The circumstances were favorable for me, and I figured “Why not?”, so I dove in head first, and had my last carbohydrate on New Year’s Eve.
As it may sound, eating a Carnivore diet is pretty straightforward. You eat meat. That’s pretty much it!
Ok, there’s a little more to it than that…
The basic guidelines were to eat only meat, eggs, full fat dairy, butter, and healthy oils (Olive oil, cocount oil, etc. See my post on Inflammatory Oils for more information.)
What I Learned…
I learned A LOT during this “experiment”, but my biggest takeaways were these:
- Eating essentially ZERO carbs for an entire month took discipline (My son’s birthday is in January, which I hadn’t considered. No cake and ice cream for me!)
- Eating LOTS OF FAT is CRITICAL (Eating cuts of meat like lean pork chops or beef without much marbling meant I got WAY too much protein, which left me craving MORE food, without having any room to put it!)
- I felt GREAT! (It’s basically Keto, turned up to 11!)
- When eating Carnivore, my personal serving size is about 2 pounds of meat per day! (And since I do Intermittent Fasting and only eat once a day, meals were pretty incredible. 2 pounds of yummy steak, chicken thighs, pork butt. Lots of delicious, fatty meat!)
- Although I don’t plan on making this way of eating permanent, I will DEFINITELY be doing it more often. Giving my body a complete break from carbs feels wonderful!
I was also pleasantly surprised to see that I didn’t lose any significant weight over the course of the month. My inflammation was incredibly low, which I could see clearly in the mirror every day, but I was getting enough calories that I maintained my healthy weight. Meat is a dense food, so I was worried I might unintentionally eat at a significant calorie deficit (even though my body doesn’t really CARE about calories, as discussed HERE).
An Extended Fast
I also successfully completed my first 48 hour fast early in the month. I wasn’t specifically planning on doing this, but after one particularly satisfying meal on a Friday evening of eggs cooked in coconut oil and butter, with plenty of bacon, I decided on Saturday that I wasn’t very hungry, so I would just wait until Sunday night to eat.
This was a VERY enlightening experience, and taught me something critical about my body:
I learned the difference between my body being HUNGRY and my body CRAVING FOOD.
When Saturday night at meal time rolled around, I was thinking A LOT about food, and salivating a noticeable amount. I WANTED food! But upon closer inspection, I realized I wasn’t feeling the physical sensation of hunger in my stomach. A pinch of salt curbed the craving, and I was fine all the way through Sunday.
On Sunday I even considered extending it to 72 hours, because I still wasn’t experiencing actual HUNGER, but decided to save that for another time.
Conclusion
Overall, my month of Carnivore was extremely instructive, satisfying, and downright ENJOYABLE. I felt great the entire month, had boundless energy, slept soundly, and enjoyed eating every delicious type of meat I could imagine, with LOTS of wonderful, delicious fat!
10 out of 10. Will do again!
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