Subnostr

My carnivore experience began on Easter Sunday, 2023. Not because of any religious reasons, I just happened to be flying out to Orlando for a few days of work conference, and thought that would be an excellent time to test my ability to stick to it.

I was reading voraciously, everything from various experiences and testimonials, to the mega thread by The Bear.

I would say my approach is closer to The Bear's than to other more recent advocates. Basically, only eat what you need, and eat as much as you want. I've proven that I don't need vegetables or fruits, or any sugars. I mostly eat steak, but also eat a lot of shrimp, sausage, butter, even pepperoni and salami.

Not everything is optimal, and I could be more strict, but this is good enough for me. I see plants as generally either medicine or flavoring, and won't object to them when used as such, but I see no reason to eat them as a main ingredient or side, or snack for that matter.

I have a family, and don't expect them to follow my path. I cook them dinners that I won't eat, or may snack on the meat components if I want - but I typically eat earlier in the day anyway.

Feel free to share what works for you. I'm open to questions about my observations as I have changed my entire body chemistry and digestion. I don't have a gall bladder, and I am still overweight. I have no desire to return to anything even close to the standard American diet, or any plant-based diet.

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Discussion

Jac 2y ago

I think most people who are adequately fat adapted…blood ketone measuring tools are cheap and widely available, can eat one all you can eat meal every 48 hours and consistently lose weight. Maintainers can eat one meal every 24 hours and be satisfied and healthy. I do think vegetables can provide micronutrients and insoluble fiber to feed a healthy microbiome and provide volume for for intestines.

Sedj 2y ago

Adequately adapted to what? Not having carbs or sugars, so burning ketones? Yeah, I can go 48 hours without a meal, no problem. I tend to do this on the weekends, actually, and then eat twice a day during the week, but my earlier meal is more of a snack, like 12oz of ahrimp.

I haven't seen the need for fiber for myself. My theory is that is is ONLY useful if you are still eating plants. I don't want volume in my intestines, and since meat digests so well, the whole biome thing is much different. I'm not breaking down sugars, or much of anything with a cell wall. No flours, grains, etc.

I still take a daily multivitamin, out of habit mostly, but I'm not feeling any issues with vitamin deficiencies. What micronutrients would I be lacking, and why would I need them?

There's some evidence out there that you actually may need to eat more, and specifically more fats, if you are trying to lose weight and hit a plateau. I'm not really doing this for weight loss, although I think when I weigh less, I may be more tempted to have an occasional slice of cheesecake.

Thanks for replying though, just feeling out these communities on Nostr.

Jac 2y ago

Wow there is a lot here.

There are two metabolic pathways for producing the energy we need to survive. Ingested glucose and foods that digest into glucose, and fats if varying length carbon chains. Our bodies operate on fats, it’s the preferred energy source and the way we store energy long term. Free fatty acids produced by the liver and absorbed in our lymph lacteals are stored in adipose tissue. The hormone that causes issue with the system is insulin. Let’s imagine we are foraging, scarce food, no food storage, and we find a fruit tree full of ripe fruit. We eat as much as we can, sleep, eat some more, invite our tribe, and the fruit is spoiled or eaten quickly. Our blood sugar spikes, insulin is excreted to force stock blood glucose in the cells of the body. If blood glucose levels don’t retreat the liver starts converting blood glucose to free fatty acids that are stored as adipose tissue, because high blood glucose will poison you. No more fruit for a while, maybe no more food for a while. Insulin levels drop opening the metabolic pathways for FFA. This is key, when insulin is present you cannot metabolize fat.

Most people don’t realize that even complete protein is partially digested into glucose, and glucose always inspires insulin secretion. Our society eats all the time, therefore insulin is pretty much always present. Exercise all you want, when insulin is present adipose tissue cannot be metabolized.

Regarding fiber, feces are waste and often antagonistic to the epithelial cells in the gut. Keeping them moving makes irritation and immune response less likely preventing things like colon cancer and IBD. Also, feeding friendly bacterial colonies in the gut is key to having those cultures ie. lactobacillus outcompete destructive cultures like helicobacter pylori.

In short fasting is the healthiest and most effective way to lose adipose tissue, because it’s the way we evolved to function for survival, it also triggers autophagy at intervals over 36 hours which makes your immune system go in cellular trash patrol, metabolizing things like cancer cells for fuel. I hope this helps.

Sedj 2y ago

Well, this said it didn't post - well, it probably posted a few times, and then a shorter attempt. Sorry!