4 Years of Eating Only Meat on the Carnivore Diet ← Captain Erica

So much has changed in 4 years!

I previously explained why I became a carnivore, but haven’t done a great job of writing periodic updates during that time.

The way I do carnivore now is very different from the way I did in the beginning. But the issues I was working through were radically different at that time too.

In reflection, I believe it’s really important to remain open to changing your approach over time; as you heal and as you develop new personal goals.

Despite all the warnings, I haven’t died!

My doctors are pretty upset over that; they were absolutely convinced I would at least be in worse health from not eating any fruits, vegetables, roots, starches, grains or spices.

Instead, every health marker has improved since I started eating only meat.

Left: 5 years of plant-heavy Keto diet, bloated and intolerant of most foods. Bad immune system.
Right: 1 year of carnivore diet, bloating gone beginning to gain some lean muscle mass.

The first year I did a lot of healing.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves…

Within days I felt better eating only meat than I had in probably a decade. But then I went through a healing crisis that lasted about 3 months.

I caught every bug I was exposed to! Common cold, generic upper respiratory infection, sinus infection, the flu (twice, yeesh!), bronchitis, and even pneumonia.

My boyfriend thought I must be cheating on him; telling him I was sick and I was spending time with someone else. ?

Nope, I was just barely hanging on!

And then once I got through all of that, I didn’t catch so much as a runny nose for the next year and a half. Clearly something positive happened with my immune system after I survived the purge.

At nine months I randomly realized one day that I was no longer depressed. I’m not sure when it lifted but that’s when I became conscious of it. And my anxiety had also improved a lot.

Before carnivore, my anxiety was so out of control I couldn’t handle making a phone call to talk to somebody without having a complete meltdown over all of the what-ifs. Now I barely considered anything ahead of just doing it.

A few months into carnivore I had a really bad cystic acne outbreak. I wasn’t eating dairy and I couldn’t figure out what else would be causing it. I’d go get a facial every 2 weeks and take impeccable care of my skin but still I’d see a new fat bastard developing almost every day. The cystic acne took about 6 months to clear up.

But I then started having regular non-cystic breakouts for the next year. When those seemed to get under control the Covid mask-mandate was rolled out and I gave up all hope of ever having clear skin. That said, I am still working to heal my leaky gut and I assume they are related so I just don’t stress about having blemish-free skin all the time (though it’s improved a lot).

My stomach bloating that I’d had since I was a kid, went away very quickly. And I finally started gaining lean muscle mass without changing anything in my workout routine!

My food obsessions have disappeared (I previously suffered from disordered eating).

My hair grows faster. My thin brittle nails are no longer thin and brittle. If I get a cut or scratch it heals faster. My mental clarity is phenomenal and the energy I have through the day is consistent.

I spend almost no time doubting, second-guessing, worrying, or stressing about things. When something needs to be done, I just do it. Procrastination just doesn’t exist in my day-to-day and I absolutely believe that’s due to eating carnivore and the nutritional benefits of it.

The first year I typically ate 5-6 pounds of meat in a day. I had been nutritionally starved for such a long time (decades). I committed to just listening to my body and eating when I was hungry, stopping when I was full. I didn’t count calories or otherwise micro-manage how much I was taking in.

Despite that large volume of food, I remained about the same scale weight and dropped several clothing sizes. The body composition changes were surprising and effortless.

Now, I eat 1-2 pounds of food a day on average. Some days more, some days less. I rarely count calories. Occasionally I will track protein macros for a specific fitness goal when I want to be in nutritional ketosis. Most of the time I don’t track any macros. I don’t starve myself or over complicate meals.

My current goals are to continue gaining muscle mass and in general improve my physical health.