CARNIVORE Diet (Beginner's Guide) All You Need to Get Started - 2024

have you heard of the carnivore diet yet it's becoming quite popular because of the amazing transformations in both health and weight loss that people experience when they give it a try in this longer video i'm going to try to give you a comprehensive list of everything that you should consider and plan for when starting a carnivore diet i'm dr ken berry a family physician with 20 years of clinical experience and over a year and a half of experience with the carnivore diets and this video is going to help you understand hopefully every facet of a

carnivore diet and what you should do to start it and continue it properly you might not want to sit and watch this entire video right now you can sit down your phone or tablet and listen to it like a podcast or you can save it to your social media and use that as a bookmark to come back later when you have time now let's jump right into this comprehensive list and if i've left anything out please put in the comments what else you'd like for me to cover about the carnivore diet number one is commit

to a time period to do this and there's several reasons why i started the carnivore diet as a 30-day challenge on my facebook page and at the end of that month i felt so much better even over and above carnivore i mean even over and above keto that i decided to do it for an additional month or two and i just kept tacking on months until we're probably at 18 19 months now but some people notice some of the benefits of a carnivore diet almost immediately within days other benefits take weeks if not months to

materialize and so i would encourage you to do at least a 30 day carnivore challenge if not a 60 or 90 day depending on what health or weight issues you have next is to when you do eat a carnivore meal is to eat until you're comfortably stuffed and for the first few days or weeks on carnivore i want you to push this a little bit i want you to actually try to eat more than you think that you should eat uh there is no calorie counting there is no portion control on a carnivore diet there's

really no macro counting on a carnivore diet you are to eat as our ancestors did when you're hungry you sit down and eat and you eat until you're comfortably stuffed then you stop eating so do not be don't be saying oh i'll have a four ounce portion of this don't do any of that eat until you're comfortably stuffed and in the first week or two try to push that a little bit so that you're maybe even eating a little more because i think many of us our entire life we've been worried about portion size and

calorie counts to where it's almost become an unconscious thing where we try to limit how much we eat on a carnivore diet you don't have to do that you get to eat until you're comfortably stuffed next is i want you to eat anywhere from one time a day up to three times a day now if you'll if you'll follow the guideline i just gave you about eating to your stuff there won't be any snacking in between and indeed there shouldn't be any snacking if you're used to three meals a day with snacks right now then

just say okay i'm gonna eat three carnivore meals a day and i'm gonna eat until i'm really stuffed and there's gonna be no snacking in between now many carnivores find that as the weeks go on they forget a meal and so they'll go they'll convert to a two meals a day strategy and that's totally fine if that's what happens to you if you continue three meals a day that's fine as well some carnivores will wind up just eating one very large meal a day because they're not hungry for the rest of the day if that

happens to you that's fine but that's definitely not a requirement the next tip is to focus on fatty meat whether this is fatty seafood or fatty cuts of land meat you always want to opt for a fattier cut this i try to keep a one-to-one ratio between fat and protein in my carnivore diet uh one to one with regards to the weight of what i'm eating and i don't measure i just guesstimate and i think that's fine for for you to do that as well if if you feel like your meal your meal needs more

fat then add more fat if you feel like it's too fatty then add less fat next time this is one of many things you get to play around with and experiment with on a carnivore diet now the next i think this is important especially if you've been eating a high carbohydrate junk diet for years and years is to transition slowly to carnivore i don't think this should be a tomorrow i'm going 100 carnivore i don't think that's necessary and for many of you i don't think that's probably ideal you need to transition slowly over one

to three weeks maybe even a little longer and i'll i'll tell you more about why i think this is in a minute but uh there's bound to be some carbohydrate withdrawal symptoms if you're eating a high carbohydrate that now a diet now and i don't want those to hit you too hard and all at once because that can make it very hard to stick with a carnivore diet the next tip is to give your stomach your gallbladder and your liver time to adapt to this if you've been eating a high carbohydrate diet for years in

a in a very low fat diet for years then your stomach has gotten lazy your stomach is supposed to have a very high acidity to your stomach acid it should be 1.3 to 2.0 on the ph scale which is very very acidic but if you've been eating just grains and sugar and crap then your stomach may have gotten used to just keeping a ph of three or four or five and that's not going to be able to digest meat properly so give your stomach time to ramp up its acid production and if you're if you're

currently taking an acid blocker you'll probably no longer need that own carnivore and you'll need time for your stomach to to start making that acid again your gallbladder its function is to store and concentrate bile if you've been eating a low-fat diet for years then this the smooth muscle in your gallbladder has gotten very weak and it's its storage and concentration abilities have probably all already weakened a little bit as well you need to give your gallbladder time to strengthen back up its smooth muscle because when you eat a high fat meal your gallbladder has

to contract very forcefully some people have pain in the gallbladder for a few days or a few weeks when they start to ramp up the fat on a good healthy carnivore diet this doesn't mean you should stop it just means you need to give your gallbladder time to kind of blow out the sludge strengthen up its smooth muscle and ramp back up its ability to concentrate bile and then if you don't have a gallbladder you need to give your liver time to develop the storage capacity which you can do in its bile ducts they'll actually

dilate and you can store bile in these bile ducts in your liver but that takes a few weeks to happen so if you're if you've been eating a high carb diet it's going to take a few weeks for you to develop that ability you may have some diarrhea for a few weeks on carnivore until your liver is able to dilate those ducts and start to store and concentrate bile like the gallbladder you used to have did next is to cook in animal fats so throw away all the vegetable oils all the shortening all of that

junk that stuff is very inflammatory and bad for you i want you to cook in beef tallow in bacon grease in butter or ghee uh you need to use an animal fat to cook in bicentennial is also wonderful these are that's going to increase your fat to protein ratio and it's also going to be a great source of vitamins and minerals that you otherwise might not get in your diet next is to use plenty of real salt in your diet salt is not bad for you it's good for you i use redmond's real salt because

it's a it's a very trustworthy salt that's protected from any kind of ocean pollution or any other kind of pollution i'll put a link down in the show notes if you want to check that out but do not be afraid of salt salt to taste if your meat is not salty enough add more salt and this is very very important to help fight the carbohydrate withdrawal symptoms but also to give your body enough sodium and chloride both of which are essential elements that your body needs on a daily basis in order to function optimally do

not be afraid of salt another tip is i would clean out the pantry and the fridge and i would tell my friends and family that i'm about to do a 90-day carnivore diet challenge to help improve my health you may not even want to tell them you're doing it for weight loss you may want to say i i feel like i can be healthier on this diet so that they'll be more apt to be on board with you but if you've got carbs in the pantry or in the fridge or your family and friends aren't

aware of this they're going to be trying to shove carbs in your face but if you if you take these precautions it makes it much easier to complete your 90 day challenge without messing up another tip is to focus on electrolytes and minerals having a good source of electrolytes and minerals is going to help you with the carbohydrate withdrawal symptoms that you'll probably experience and it's also going to help you fight the cravings for junk food because very often cravings are a sign of a mineral deficiency some people use two different products for this they'll

use an electrolyte drop like ketochow's electrolyte drops and they'll use a source of minerals i worked with ketochow to formulate their daily minerals now this contains all the electrolytes you need plus all the minerals you need and you can add a few drops of this to a steak i put a few drops in each glass of liquid i drink and that way i know i'm getting all my electrolytes and all my minerals on a daily basis carnivores have to think more about electrolytes because back when you were eating a high carbohydrate diet you were holding

anywhere from five to 25 pounds of unnecessary unhealthy fluid in your body and that fluid stored some electrolytes just because that's the way fluids in your body work when you started a low carb or a ketogenic or a carnivore diet you diurest away that extra unhealthy fluid and you can ask anyone who started a ketogenic diet or a carnivore diet in the first week or two they would lose anywhere from five to twenty pounds that's not fat that's just the unhealthy fluid that they're able to get rid of because they've decreased their blood sugar and

their insulin levels and their degree of chronic inappropriate inflammation so they can get rid of all that fluid and urinated away with that fluid because of the way the human kidney works a lot of electrolytes have to go with that fluid and that's why on a carnivore diet you you have to pay attention to your electrolytes and i think it's very important to pay attention to the minerals as well the next tip is to eat the highest quality meat that you can afford if you can afford grass-fed grass-finished panda massaged meat from the himalayan mountains

that are raised by monks that's great buy that that's good that's going to be a little bit better than cheaper quality meat but if all you can afford is hot dogs and bologna and potted meat and spam you can still do a great carnivore diet on that as well always buy the best quality that you can currently afford and always be looking for higher quality but there's no reason if if your funds are limited that you can not also benefit yourself from a very healthy carnivore diet the next tip is don't forget about eggs don't

forget about liver don't forget about seafood don't forget about shellfish these are all carnivores if anything if any uh food comes from an animal that's carnivore okay and some people add insects they eat crickets in their carnivore diet and i think that's perfectly ancestrally appropriate i personally don't do that at least yet i don't but do not forget these great sources of fat and protein eggs and liver liver is a superfood multivitamin if you can find some kind of liver that you love and you eat that two or three times a week that's going to

be an excellent source of vitamins and minerals that otherwise you may just not have access to many people worry about vitamin c deficiency scurvy and other vitamin deficiencies on a carnivore diet but i know people who have been doing a carnivore diet for over a decade and they've not eaten a shred of plant food in that time and they don't take supplements and they have not developed scurvy or any other vitamin deficiency there are several theories as to why this doesn't happen in carnivores how they're able to be so healthy when they're not eating oranges

or kiwi fruit for vitamin c we don't know exactly why that is yet but we just know it is so because there are thousands upon thousands of people who haven't eaten any plants any source of that kind of vitamin c in over a decade and they're doing fine there is some vitamin c in liver uh and other vitamins that are present in fresh meat but not quite in as high quantity as it is in liver that's why i really want you to find cod liver or chicken liver or beef liver some kind of liver that

you enjoy and make that part of your carnivore diet from day one i think that's very very important the next tip is what to drink i want you to drink water as much as you possibly can i don't mean force water when you're not thirsty i mean try to make that the majority of what you drink it can be still water or it can be sparkling water i think that's fine many carnivores drink black coffee or unsweetened tea as part of their carnivore diet and they do great i don't think those things are off limits

although some carnivores might tell you otherwise the next tip is to get to know your local butcher or your local meat department manager and there's many many reasons for doing this they can help you discover cuts of meat that you never knew existed they can also very often me to ship to your local butcher or meat department in bulk form and then they cut it up and in many cases they'll trim off fat and throw it away but if you're if you're on a first name basis with your butcher or meat department manager you can

say hey don't trim that fat leave that fat on there i want that or if you trim the fat off for other people save that fat for me i can cook with it or i can just fry it up and eat it that's an excellent strategy also there are that that this is a way that you can eat more nose to tail which i'm highly in favor of um often they'll throw cuts of meat away only recently did i discover oxtail or cow tail and it's if cooked properly it's absolutely divine carnivore feast that's full

of collagen and all kinds of joint building uh and repairing things in in the oxtail or the cow tail so buddy up with your butcher or your meat department manager that's very very important i think the next tip is to seek out local sources for your carnivore diet i promise you if you'll just look you will find someone who has chickens in their backyard or you'll find a local rancher who has sheep or goats or cows or some other animal that they're happy to sell you that meat and it won't be as expensive as you

think it might be also local sources local ranchers are an excellent source for organ meats that you just may not be able to buy at your local supermarket the next tip is been very important for me and i i hear from the carnivore community that it's very very important for them as well is to try to focus on ruminant animals as the majority of your meat intake so this would be cows sheep goats venison uh any animal that has a is a ruminant that has a multiple chamber stomach magic happens inside that room an animal

when they eat plants and turn that into tasty meat and it seems that many carnivores just do better on a ruminant heavy diet this is not to say that pork is bad or poultry is bad or seafood's bad but most carnivores seem to have to experience their optimal physical shape and form and mental ability when they're focusing on ruminant meat mostly the next tip is to eat as nose to tail as possible i think this is very very important because of the vitamins and minerals i talked about earlier i think it mirrors the way our

ancestors ate animals they never left the liver behind they probably never left any organ behind they ate all that they cracked open the bones and got the marrow they used a big rock to crack open the the cranium and get the brain they ate all that because though all those are excellent sources of nutrition and we want to be the best shepherds we can for the animals and for our planet and eating nose to tail that that's puts less waste out there right you're using that animal more completely and i think that's a a great

way to honor that animal that no part of it went to waste and that you also gleaned the very meaningful nutrition in that organ meat as well the next tip is to don't fret if you slip up if you have friends come over and they bring a casserole and you're like and you eat that don't worry about that one meal what you don't want that meal to do is to turn into you falling off the wagon for a week or two or three so if you do slip up at a meal or you you eat

something you're like oh crap i thought that was zero carb and they added some sugar and i didn't know it that don't don't beat yourself up about that don't have negative thoughts about that just immediately refocus and re-center why am i doing this carnivore diet what are my goals and then get right back on the carnivore wagon and do not let that dissuade you from doing that next tip would be to consider a carnivore diet versus a ketovore diet so a ketobor diet is when you eat a very very meat heavy ketogenic diet but you

still have some plants in there not many some people do better on a keto or diet some people do better on just a meat only carnivore diet experiment and play around with that another experiment that i think you should play with is spices and rubs and condiments onion garlic some carnivores have to eliminate all that stuff and only use salt or mineral drops for their condiment other carnivores seem to do great by they can use spices they can use zero carb sugar-free rubs they can put a little bit of uh chop minced up garlic or

onion with their meat and it doesn't seem to affect them or cause inflammation at all but you may not be one of those carnivores so you have to experiment with that yourself another thing to experiment with on a carnivore diet is your protein to fat ratio i personally do better when i get the fat ratio as high as i possibly can and i'll do this by cooking in animal fat by adding butter to to the meat uh and i often i'll give the little center cut that's just pure lean meat i'll slice that up and

give it to our dogs who are also carnivore because i like the fattier cuts and i feel like that mentally and physically i do better when i focus on those fatty cuts another experiment that you can do on your carnivore diet is dairy some people on a carnivore diet do great with heavy cream in their coffee and they use butter and ghee they some carnivores even do great with full fat dairy in the form of kefir or yogurt sour cream cream cheese but i would caution you to only use full fat and then if you're

getting some benefits from your carnivore diet but it's not as ground shattering as you thought it was going to be you might want to try a month dairy free or only dairy free with only butter and ghee is your only only dairy sources because they are effectively the pure fat from the dairy they don't have any of the proteins of dairy which some carnivores find to be inflammatory another thing i really would counsel you to do when you start your carnivore diet is to save every bone from every meal and i don't care if it's

ruminant bones or if it's pork chicken even fish bones get a gallon size ziploc bag and keep that in your freezer all bones go into the bone bag in the freezer and then once or twice a week when your bag gets full use all those bones plus or minus some spices plus or minus some onion and garlic via our previous experiment and make delicious bone broth not only is it amazingly delicious but you'll be able to unlock more minerals and vitamins that are locked up in the marrow and inside the bone itself that you would

otherwise waste again we're we're honoring the nose to tail honoring of the animal and we're getting the maximum nutrition out of that animal by eating more nose to tail now that's that's the all these came from comments and questions that i've gotten from viewers so anytime you have a comment or a question always put in the comments below because i i'm always reading those i may not respond but i am reading those and i'm always looking for questions that i can answer for people to help them have better health