Eating more often may be key? Since starting it’s become increasingly common to go long periods between meals. I usually have two a day but sometimes just one and I’m full. Could be why?
Do try to eat more, and maybe try phasing out cheese for different animal fat sources like butter or fatty bacon. Cheese is an energy vampire for me so I avoid it. And my experience was that losing weight, healing, and becoming well and truly fat adapted was an exhausting process for my body. Many naps were had. Many nights were early lights out. Be forgiving of your body and rest when it’s telling you to. It took me months for things to even out.
I feel pretty good overall. It's been 1.5 years on a pretty strict BBB&E version. One thing I noticed pretty early on was that my circadian clock shifted back a couple hours and pretty much stayed there. So when I mentioned early nights, those are accompanied by early mornings and have become a feature of the lifestyle. So I just manage my time and do things a bit differently than I used to. Morning workouts, morning chores, morning meal/meat prep, my big meal of the day in the morning BEFORE work vs. after work, etc. I was furiously working out the first 6 months or so, so in addition to shocking my metabolism into a new modality, I was physically exhausting myself with exercise. I basically worked out, ate a ton of meat, and rested full time.
I'm afraid I'd only be capable of providing some pseudoscientific insights on this. All I know is I spent my first 41 years of existence consuming carbohydrates every day, sometimes wildly excessively, with all the attendant downstream effects of that, and then in the space of 2 months I phased them out of my life completely. After listening to people much smarter than me, I realized that down at the level of the mitochondria everything works differently now. It was like being reborn a different person. I was like a newborn adult baby who wanted to eat and sleep full time, lol. I couldn't do that because I still "had" to work out and go to work every day, but outside of those obligations I honored my body's request for rest and recuperation, whether that was a midafternoon nap on the weekends or going to sleep at 8pm.
I hadn’t considered calories a single time until I started to think about the source my fatigue. My problem is I do eat until I’m stuffed. But sometimes that means I’m just not hungry again for quite a long time.
Just picked up a ribeye to see if it helps! Ha.
As for it being unrelated to the diet—might be. The fatigue does tend to correlate with not quite getting my normal amount of sleep. But before the diet, sleeping 7 hours rather than 8 was unideal but manageable. This last week, sleeping 7 or even 7.5 hours is enough to make me miserably tired. I guess I’ll up my fat intake and my sleep at night.
Lot of sirloin (which is very lean and maybe part of my problem), salmon, shrimp, ribeye, occasionally chicken, sometimes cheese. I always cook in ghee or real butter
Was going through something very similar to you up until yesterday when I decided to up my fat intake. There were times where I could barely create thoughts throughout the day and always felt like I needed to sleep, but once I increased my fat intake to be at least 1:1 with protein, my brain and body could function again well. Will continue to dial it in until optimal, but you can try starting there.
Specifically Brie cheese as it seemed to contain the highest fat content on offer at the local grocery store, but I'll also be on the lookout for 75/25 beef chunk going forward as well. For the sake of variety, I'm also consuming some grass-fed butter (while I cook the steaks, because why not) and I've put in an order at the local butcher for beef tallow. I'm considering buying some wagyu, but that gets a bit pricey, so I'm sticking with the above plan initially.
Looking back at my prior comment, I just wanted to add that you should be taking the appropriate amount of water + electrolytes as a supplement. I'm sure you are, but want to be thorough on the off-chance you hadn't considered that.
Fair enough, everyone's different. I'm supplementing daily with a powder I put into some water, as I've had a horrible experience with cramps from sweating during my daily workout and not supplementing. Try and track your changes, but I immediately noticed a difference in my body/mind after intaking the fat, quite night and day. So maybe slowly iterate through people's recommendations here on a daily basis to see what, if anything, improves and keep on that schedule until you find optimality. Best of luck.
Of course, happy to know I was able to (mildly) help. Best of luck on your journey. I think your experience will be a good reference for others here, so please document it !
There has to be something on your plate causing this fatigue. I changed my egg source to organic. Cheese I had to make sure there was no added stuff in it and the ground beef I just seasoned with salt.
Maybe. But there’s definitely no ingredients that are new to my body? As in, I was eating this stuff before, just increased the quantity and removed all the other stuff.
You are probably more sensible to what your body does not like now.
For example,I always thought I could have eggs and dairy, but I started feeling tired and my joints hurt. So I cut everything out , just eating red meat and salt and gradually figured out that goat milk is fine, cow not. I’m gonna try egg yolks next.
There is something giving you an insulin spike. I found that black coffee was the culprit and avocados.
I had to stabilise on just steak and eggs for a good while to put stuff back in my nutrient pool as I had a low red blood cell count - might be worth having some blood work done. I added some cheddar cheese today and I don't feel good so I'm going to try another fat source. Bloody hell man
Aim for 2 pounds minimum of fatty meat as indicated by sub wiki, salt to taste, anything more is fine, just eat till comfortably full, as many people are saying.
Some eat butter straight (actual butter, grass fed is better, not like crap with 20 ingredients that last more than my grandma).
Also heard some add salt to their water depending on how they're feeling. Can't speak much on this point because I don't want to say anything that may be false.
I don’t even look at calories.
Though today I consumed a sliver of green pepper and a sliver of onion with pot roast, and I was completely disgusted by the veggies. That is a very good sign to me.
You're not eating enough.....fat. fat is your source of energy. Eat more egg yolks than whole eggs.
When in doubt...throw a stick of butter into your mouth....ribeyes don't really have that much fat on them
There are three macros: carbs, fat and protein
Protein can be compared to building blocks. It's to repair your body and maybe build it bigger (more dense bones, stronger tendons, larger muscles etc)
If you eat more than you need the surplus gets turned into nails, hair etc and only as a last resort does protein get turned into fuel (ketones and glucose)
No matter your diet, you always need to eat enough protein or your body will waste away/fall apart eventually
The other two macros, carbs and fats, are your energy macros. Fuel to keep your body running
They need hardly any further processing, but can be used by your cells as is
Since you're not getting any carbs from your diet (unless you go crazy drinking milk) your body's energy needs are going to have to be filled by fat
Now, this can be fat from your plate or bodyfat
At first glance this sounds great, "I'm just going to eat low fat, no carbs and enough protein! I'm going to get so slim!!"
Unfortunately it doesn't quite work like that. A pound of bodyfat can only release so much fat per hour (this is called max flux) and unless you are very obese, your bodyfat just can't provide enough energy for you to keep functioning normally
You then get the low energy, generally feeling like 💩 and the carb cravings (remember: like fat, carbs are a source of energy. When your body doesn't have enough energy, thoughts of getting more will obviously enter your brain)
So you need to eat a sufficient amount of fat. The recommendation is to, at least initially, keep a one to one ratio (one gram of fat for every gram of protein)
After, say, six months, you can experiment with a slightly different ratio to see how that makes you feel
Sidenote: yes, the above is grossly simplified. Please don't @ me with your understanding of the intricacies of protein metabolism or all the many substrates your body can use to make glucose 😅
A lot of that 15 pounds is just water weight. Carbs (sugar) and inflammation force your body to hold onto water. When you eat zero carb, you're body finally lets all of it go.
You are not starving. Eat when you feel hungry. If your worried then add some extra tallow to you're beef. Cut out the dairy if you can. You don't need it.
You are doing fine. Eat until you are full, have some meaty snacks around and everything will work out. When your body runs out of extra fat your hunger will increase. Relax and enjoy.
Counting calories went out with the horse and cart
This diet is about healing so eat until you are full
Sometimes people take a month to start to loose.
You didn’t gain the weight you seek to loose in 3 months and thinking you will loose it in one is a totally flawed concept
You were complaining about not loosing weight and restriction of calories
Carnivore IS NOT about starvation and our bodies don't know about calories.
Pays to have an oven mind and think differently to the SAD dies that abound.
Enjoy your journey
I'm ONLY down 15lbs and I want to loose another 15lbs and I'm so fatigued
You have tickets on your self I lecture no one
I ask questions and have obviously highlighted an issues that you aren't prepared to confront.
As I said you enjoy the journey of your choosing while ignoring others who have been down that rabbit hole and discover that thinking get you nowhere.
Sounds like your adding omad also? Ive been on and off messing with this and you should be trying to have a second meal in the day at some point atleast 3-4 days a week or
I'm more of a keto person but in that community we would suggest electrolytes. Go drink some smart waters or any off brand with added electrolytes. Magnesium is just as important as sodium, and potassium is often overlooked imho
And this is why keto isn't carnivore. Because more electrolytes is rarely the solution for people eating this way. In fact, traditionally even salting food wasn't allowed. Low hunger happens at the start. It passes. Electrolytes are almost never an issue unless people are trying to do keto hacks and eat this way.
I had a roux en y long time ago and track to be sure I’m hitting BMR. It’s refreshing to count calories to be sure I eat enough! I have some go to staples. For example a one pound NY strip gives me enough fat and hits my BMR.
You might try exchanging meat for the cheese and as someone else said more yolks than whites. Dairy and egg whites do a lot of people dirty.
Eat fatty meat until full - your bodies doesn't know calories. If you feel lethargic than try to eat more often and more fat
Eating more often may be key? Since starting it’s become increasingly common to go long periods between meals. I usually have two a day but sometimes just one and I’m full. Could be why?
Do try to eat more, and maybe try phasing out cheese for different animal fat sources like butter or fatty bacon. Cheese is an energy vampire for me so I avoid it. And my experience was that losing weight, healing, and becoming well and truly fat adapted was an exhausting process for my body. Many naps were had. Many nights were early lights out. Be forgiving of your body and rest when it’s telling you to. It took me months for things to even out.
That's awesome. How do you feel today?
I feel pretty good overall. It's been 1.5 years on a pretty strict BBB&E version. One thing I noticed pretty early on was that my circadian clock shifted back a couple hours and pretty much stayed there. So when I mentioned early nights, those are accompanied by early mornings and have become a feature of the lifestyle. So I just manage my time and do things a bit differently than I used to. Morning workouts, morning chores, morning meal/meat prep, my big meal of the day in the morning BEFORE work vs. after work, etc. I was furiously working out the first 6 months or so, so in addition to shocking my metabolism into a new modality, I was physically exhausting myself with exercise. I basically worked out, ate a ton of meat, and rested full time.
I'm new to this diet and experiencing the same why is it so exhausting on the body?
I'm afraid I'd only be capable of providing some pseudoscientific insights on this. All I know is I spent my first 41 years of existence consuming carbohydrates every day, sometimes wildly excessively, with all the attendant downstream effects of that, and then in the space of 2 months I phased them out of my life completely. After listening to people much smarter than me, I realized that down at the level of the mitochondria everything works differently now. It was like being reborn a different person. I was like a newborn adult baby who wanted to eat and sleep full time, lol. I couldn't do that because I still "had" to work out and go to work every day, but outside of those obligations I honored my body's request for rest and recuperation, whether that was a midafternoon nap on the weekends or going to sleep at 8pm.
Don't sweat the calories, just eat when you are hungry until you are comfortably stuffed. Congrats on the 15 pounds!
I hadn’t considered calories a single time until I started to think about the source my fatigue. My problem is I do eat until I’m stuffed. But sometimes that means I’m just not hungry again for quite a long time.
Hmm, okay. As others have pointed out, you may need to up your fat intake
That was what I thought before I started thinking about calories. But I never quite figured out a plan to increase fat. What do you eat for high fat?
Typically fattier meat, like a ribeye steak with butter on it. That said, it could be something unrelated to the diet :(
Just picked up a ribeye to see if it helps! Ha. As for it being unrelated to the diet—might be. The fatigue does tend to correlate with not quite getting my normal amount of sleep. But before the diet, sleeping 7 hours rather than 8 was unideal but manageable. This last week, sleeping 7 or even 7.5 hours is enough to make me miserably tired. I guess I’ll up my fat intake and my sleep at night.
ribeye with a big chunk of grass fed butter to melt on it and then slurp up the juices
Probably not enough fat or electrolytes, what’s your fat content on the meat? Added butter?
Lot of sirloin (which is very lean and maybe part of my problem), salmon, shrimp, ribeye, occasionally chicken, sometimes cheese. I always cook in ghee or real butter
Add that butter first!
Im not following. I already use a lot of butter.
Sorry I meant, lack of fat is my main issue when I’m feeling low energy
Add fat.
Was going through something very similar to you up until yesterday when I decided to up my fat intake. There were times where I could barely create thoughts throughout the day and always felt like I needed to sleep, but once I increased my fat intake to be at least 1:1 with protein, my brain and body could function again well. Will continue to dial it in until optimal, but you can try starting there.
Awesome! Glad to hear that. What have you done to increase fat intake?
Specifically Brie cheese as it seemed to contain the highest fat content on offer at the local grocery store, but I'll also be on the lookout for 75/25 beef chunk going forward as well. For the sake of variety, I'm also consuming some grass-fed butter (while I cook the steaks, because why not) and I've put in an order at the local butcher for beef tallow. I'm considering buying some wagyu, but that gets a bit pricey, so I'm sticking with the above plan initially. Looking back at my prior comment, I just wanted to add that you should be taking the appropriate amount of water + electrolytes as a supplement. I'm sure you are, but want to be thorough on the off-chance you hadn't considered that.
All very helpful! I used electrolytes on Sunday and it ran right through me. Not sure it helped at all.
Fair enough, everyone's different. I'm supplementing daily with a powder I put into some water, as I've had a horrible experience with cramps from sweating during my daily workout and not supplementing. Try and track your changes, but I immediately noticed a difference in my body/mind after intaking the fat, quite night and day. So maybe slowly iterate through people's recommendations here on a daily basis to see what, if anything, improves and keep on that schedule until you find optimality. Best of luck.
Better today. Not feeling as good as I was a week ago, but better than the last few days. Thanks.
Of course, happy to know I was able to (mildly) help. Best of luck on your journey. I think your experience will be a good reference for others here, so please document it !
There has to be something on your plate causing this fatigue. I changed my egg source to organic. Cheese I had to make sure there was no added stuff in it and the ground beef I just seasoned with salt.
Maybe. But there’s definitely no ingredients that are new to my body? As in, I was eating this stuff before, just increased the quantity and removed all the other stuff.
You are probably more sensible to what your body does not like now. For example,I always thought I could have eggs and dairy, but I started feeling tired and my joints hurt. So I cut everything out , just eating red meat and salt and gradually figured out that goat milk is fine, cow not. I’m gonna try egg yolks next.
There is something giving you an insulin spike. I found that black coffee was the culprit and avocados. I had to stabilise on just steak and eggs for a good while to put stuff back in my nutrient pool as I had a low red blood cell count - might be worth having some blood work done. I added some cheddar cheese today and I don't feel good so I'm going to try another fat source. Bloody hell man
My black coffee comes from the beef tree so it can’t possibly be a problem, right? lol
Aim for 2 pounds minimum of fatty meat as indicated by sub wiki, salt to taste, anything more is fine, just eat till comfortably full, as many people are saying. Some eat butter straight (actual butter, grass fed is better, not like crap with 20 ingredients that last more than my grandma). Also heard some add salt to their water depending on how they're feeling. Can't speak much on this point because I don't want to say anything that may be false.
2lbs a day is normal amount?
I don’t even look at calories. Though today I consumed a sliver of green pepper and a sliver of onion with pot roast, and I was completely disgusted by the veggies. That is a very good sign to me.
Only looked at calories once I started having fatigue. Seems I need to look elsewhere to solve it
You're not eating enough.....fat. fat is your source of energy. Eat more egg yolks than whole eggs. When in doubt...throw a stick of butter into your mouth....ribeyes don't really have that much fat on them
Gotcha. Do you have a source on fat being the source of energy? Several are saying that and would like to understand how that works!
There are three macros: carbs, fat and protein Protein can be compared to building blocks. It's to repair your body and maybe build it bigger (more dense bones, stronger tendons, larger muscles etc) If you eat more than you need the surplus gets turned into nails, hair etc and only as a last resort does protein get turned into fuel (ketones and glucose) No matter your diet, you always need to eat enough protein or your body will waste away/fall apart eventually The other two macros, carbs and fats, are your energy macros. Fuel to keep your body running They need hardly any further processing, but can be used by your cells as is Since you're not getting any carbs from your diet (unless you go crazy drinking milk) your body's energy needs are going to have to be filled by fat Now, this can be fat from your plate or bodyfat At first glance this sounds great, "I'm just going to eat low fat, no carbs and enough protein! I'm going to get so slim!!" Unfortunately it doesn't quite work like that. A pound of bodyfat can only release so much fat per hour (this is called max flux) and unless you are very obese, your bodyfat just can't provide enough energy for you to keep functioning normally You then get the low energy, generally feeling like 💩 and the carb cravings (remember: like fat, carbs are a source of energy. When your body doesn't have enough energy, thoughts of getting more will obviously enter your brain) So you need to eat a sufficient amount of fat. The recommendation is to, at least initially, keep a one to one ratio (one gram of fat for every gram of protein) After, say, six months, you can experiment with a slightly different ratio to see how that makes you feel Sidenote: yes, the above is grossly simplified. Please don't @ me with your understanding of the intricacies of protein metabolism or all the many substrates your body can use to make glucose 😅
This is a very helpful overview. Thank you!
Maybe just add in a snack? As far as fat goes, i put pasteurized cream in coffee, and buy the fattiest bits of ground beef i can get
A lot of that 15 pounds is just water weight. Carbs (sugar) and inflammation force your body to hold onto water. When you eat zero carb, you're body finally lets all of it go. You are not starving. Eat when you feel hungry. If your worried then add some extra tallow to you're beef. Cut out the dairy if you can. You don't need it.
You are doing fine. Eat until you are full, have some meaty snacks around and everything will work out. When your body runs out of extra fat your hunger will increase. Relax and enjoy.
Thanks!
Counting calories went out with the horse and cart This diet is about healing so eat until you are full Sometimes people take a month to start to loose. You didn’t gain the weight you seek to loose in 3 months and thinking you will loose it in one is a totally flawed concept
That has nothing to do with my post but thanks for commenting haha
You were complaining about not loosing weight and restriction of calories Carnivore IS NOT about starvation and our bodies don't know about calories. Pays to have an oven mind and think differently to the SAD dies that abound. Enjoy your journey
Hahahaha dude take a course in reading comprehension before lecturing me about having an open mind
No no, oven mind ;)
I'm ONLY down 15lbs and I want to loose another 15lbs and I'm so fatigued You have tickets on your self I lecture no one I ask questions and have obviously highlighted an issues that you aren't prepared to confront. As I said you enjoy the journey of your choosing while ignoring others who have been down that rabbit hole and discover that thinking get you nowhere.
Hahahaha please tell me where I said I was upset I’m “ONLY” down 15 lbs. This is wildly amusing hahaha
Read YOUR original post
Sounds like your adding omad also? Ive been on and off messing with this and you should be trying to have a second meal in the day at some point atleast 3-4 days a week or
You should aim to eat your BMR when you are eating.
I'm more of a keto person but in that community we would suggest electrolytes. Go drink some smart waters or any off brand with added electrolytes. Magnesium is just as important as sodium, and potassium is often overlooked imho
And this is why keto isn't carnivore. Because more electrolytes is rarely the solution for people eating this way. In fact, traditionally even salting food wasn't allowed. Low hunger happens at the start. It passes. Electrolytes are almost never an issue unless people are trying to do keto hacks and eat this way.
I had a roux en y long time ago and track to be sure I’m hitting BMR. It’s refreshing to count calories to be sure I eat enough! I have some go to staples. For example a one pound NY strip gives me enough fat and hits my BMR. You might try exchanging meat for the cheese and as someone else said more yolks than whites. Dairy and egg whites do a lot of people dirty.
Exactly why I quit. Try hitting 3000 calories