Don’t Go Bacon My Heart: What I Learned by Eating Nothing but Meat for 30 Days

Nutrition

Mar 21

  MARCH 21, 2021
    |  
 WORDS BY FRANKIE RUSSO

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Carbs, A Love Story

There are LOTS of different ways to eat, and in the past 5-6 years it seems that a lot more “diets” have started popping up left and right. One of the biggest “new” ways of eating is the Ketogenic diet. The broad strokes of this way of eating is high fat/protein and very low carbs...I’m talking 20-30g per day and those should be almost completely veggies to ensure your body is getting vitamins and minerals. In this low carb state, your body shifts from burning carbs to burning fat as a fuel source and enters into what is called Ketosis.

This is a style of eating I NEVER considered trying for a few reasons. First and foremost...I love my carbs. I don’t discriminate: starchy veggies, rice, greens, cookies, and even a cold beer all fall into the realm of delicious carbs that I enjoy eating regularly. Another reason is it is easy to fall out of Ketosis and throw your body out of whack for a few days if carbs are over consumed. That means I could stay in ketosis during the week when temptations were minimal and if I were to meet up with some friends and have a beer and some fries I could in theory take myself out of my fat burning state and back into a carb burning one. While this wouldn’t completely sideline progress, it brings me to my next point: sustainability.

Not eating carbs or eating very low carbs is not a lifestyle I would be able to sustain long term (see section title). That means I would constantly have to keep jump starting my body after a weekend of eating carbs even if I wasn’t going crazy overboard!

So then Frankie, why did you try the Carnivore Diet? Well folks, keep reading and I’ll tell you.

A High Steaks Diet

I’m a big podcast guy. I have a roughly 2 hour round trip commute from San Francisco to our gyms in the South Bay Monday through Friday which means I’ve been listening to A LOT of podcasts. I stumbled upon a Joe Rogan podcast that had Dr. Paul Saladino on as guest (EP: 1551). In this podcast Dr. Saladino outlined and explained his style of eating which is called The Carnivore Diet. This focuses primarily on eating nothing but meat, animal fat, animal organs, some low metal fish. Dr. Saladino believes and has found research that by eating predominantly high quality meat (grass fed/ grass finished), animal fat, and animal organs our bodies will get all the nutrients it needs to survive and flourish.

Dr. Saladino goes on to discuss that all fruits/ plants have different toxicity levels and he believes that most of the highly toxic fruits/ plants shouldn’t be a part of our human diet. He states that if we do want to eat veggies and fruits that we should stick to the low toxic ones to maximize our body’s abilities and to lower overall inflammation in the body. This would not be considered a Carnivore Diet, rather an Animal Based diet where you would be getting the majority of your calories from animal fat (50%), the animal protein (30%), and round everything off with a small bit of carbs (20%). This differs from Keto because the primary sources of fat/protein are again all animal based. With Keto you can get fats/proteins from a much wider variety of foods.

Whoa, pump the breaks...that seems dogmatic. Little to NO veggies and our bodies and still function and potentially function better? While this seemed pretty wild to me I was interested and after listening through that podcast I bought and listened to Dr. Saladino’s Book “The Carnivore Code” where he dives into the research and deeper science behind his style of eating. I ran through that audiobook in 1.5 weeks and grew even more interested in giving this diet a shot. From there, I continued to read articles I could find and listen to more podcasts to try and get as much information as possible. By the end of December I was committed, I was going to try Carnivore for 30 days...and even more I was going for the top tier of difficulty of 100% carnivore.

Nice to Meat Ya!

After all the reading and listening I did, I was pretty fired up for this challenge...30 days of meat and organs only. This new style of eating was so different from anything I’d ever tried I was really interested to see how my body was going to react! I found a butcher at the local farmers market near me that did bulk orders from his farm and ensured that all his meat was grass fed/ grass finished. I bought 20-25lbs of meat and loaded up my freezer to prepare for this undertaking. I made sure to have plenty of Topo Chico or La Criox on deck too. I love sparking water and it has always helped me feel “full.” I was freakin ready! This shouldn't be too challenging right?! Ehhhh kind of.

I quickly found out this EXTREMELY restrictive way of eating was mentally harder than anything else. My previous style of eating allowed for a lot of variety across my macros of P/C/F and allowed for a lot of creativity when putting together meals. Carnivore made it very easy for me to make food choices: “Is that meat?” - “Yes.” - “Ok you can eat it.” but it left me craving the variety of how I used to eat.

I know, don’t get me wrong, I loved getting to eat the higher fat cuts of meat that I normally didn’t indulge in as often but I craved something sweet...and peanut butter, dang did I ever miss that. I also shot myself in the foot a little by abstaining from coffee for 30 days...while it didn’t cause me too many issues fatigue-wise it was one more restriction I placed on myself that made the entire process more mentally challenging.

It was also very challenging for me to re-learn what “full” felt like. When I was eating higher carb I was able to eat volume foods like bags of lettuce and veggies that would add minimal cals and carbs to my day and would leave me feeling full because I could eat so much. Transitioning to Carnivore the volume of my food significantly decreased because I was just eating meat. A meal would satisfy me, but I didn’t have that “full” feeling I was used to so I would want to eat more...or rather my brain was telling me I wanted to eat more. This was one of the toughest hurdles for me. We shouldn’t need to feel full after a meal, but our minds can be hardwired to that feeling of fullness and use that as an indicator that we are full. This is something I have always struggled with and will continue to try and learn to listen to other cues in my body to tell me when I am full.

While I was fighting the mental battle I also was fighting the physical one as well. Remember Ketosis and your body using fat as energy? Getting enough fat to have a readily available energy source is crucial especially if you are an avid fitnesser like I am. I unfortunately fell short of the mark when trying to get enough fats in. After about a week on Carnivore I noticed my body would slow down during a workout sooner, and the bodybuilding I was doing was taking a hit...weights felt heavier and max rep sets were smaller. This was a sign that my body was running out of fuel and didn’t have anything to use. Throughout the day my energy was fine, but when it came to working out I definitely took a hit. I did cook with animal fats but even then I was falling short of my fat goals day to day because I was committed to only using animal fat so options like ghee or butter were out of the equation for me. In hindsight, I should have been a little more lenient with those options to make sure my body was getting what it needed to perform.

Let’s soldier on into the final portion of this article and review the pros and cons. Hopefully I can leave you all with some knowledge nuggets.

My Medium-Rare Take on Carnivore

While 30 days might not seem like a long time, I learned quite a lot about myself and my body. Below I have outlined the positives and negatives I experienced while going full carnivore.

Pros:

Quick loss of weight (dropped from 173 to 165 in the 30 days)
Improved body composition
Simplified food choices
Minimal grocery shopping after initial bulk purchase
Great mental challenge to stick to it
Opportunity to eat cuts of meat normally wouldn’t
Low body inflammation

Cons:

Restrictive food choices if going strict Carnivore
Slight drop in athletic performance*
Challenging to stay on plan during social gatherings
Sweet cravings
Lots of daily food prep
Relearning what “full” felt like

*I believe this is a result of me not getting enough fat in my daily consumption. Will need to retest.

At the end of the day, I am happy that I embarked on the challenge to try a strict Carnivore diet for 30 days. It was a great way to reset after the holiday months where I definitely was loose around the edges with my eating habits. It challenged me mentally to stick to an extremely rigid eating style and let me know that, even while I might have had a recurring dream about peanut butter, I could stick to my guns and not fall to temptation.

Lastly, and most importantly, it opened my eyes to important farming and health issues going on in the world such as regenerative farming and the lack of nutritional education both from the consumer and the producer.

For anyone thinking about diving into a Carnivore diet my biggest piece of advice is to DO YOUR RESEARCH. This should go with any change in eating habits...doing your homework to be better prepared will set you up for success, help you navigate common pitfalls, and allow you a better understanding of what is going on internally by changing the foods you’re putting into your body.

I would also recommend trying an Animal Based diet (50% Animal Fat/ 30% Animal Protein/ 20% Low Toxic Carbs) for 2-3 weeks first to see how your body adjusts to this style of eating and if it seems sustainable and you want the extra challenge, then try the full Carnivore. Easing into something so restrictive will be easier on the body and mind! While it was a challenge I will return to an Animal Based style of eating each January to reset my body for the new year.

Thank you for reading through this long article about my adventures into Carnivore. For now, I’m going to head out and try to find a steak and some sweet potatoes to go along with it...until next time NCFIT!

"GETTING ENOUGH FAT TO HAVE A READILY AVAILABLE ENERGY SOURCE IS CRUCIAL ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE AN AVID FITNESSER LIKE I AM. I UNFORTUNATELY FELL SHORT OF THE MARK WHEN TRYING TO GET ENOUGH FATS IN. AFTER ABOUT A WEEK ON CARNIVORE I NOTICED MY BODY WOULD SLOW DOWN DURING A WORKOUT SOONER."

  