Carnivore diet update: What worked, what didn’t and what now?

For those that have been following along my journey you will know that in December last year I set out to do 3 months on what’s called the lion diet; red meat, salt and water. Apart from the occasional tea (this girl got desperate) I stuck to this diet and while I had some amazing results, I also had some not so amazing results.

As with everything I post, this is not medical advice. I never advocate for one single diet, this is just my experience. You do you boo.

Firstly - WHY did I choose to follow a carnivore diet?

My autoimmune flare ups were becoming increasingly regular to the point of most days feeling like an autoimmune symptom storm. Constant brain fog, joint pain, bloating, body aches and fevers. The medication I was taking was no longer was as effective and the choice was to either start a round of another type of medication that I have been on before paired with a round of steroids or to try one last attempt at this extreme version of the carnivore diet that has helped so many get their symptoms under control. It had helped me when I tried it in 2023 for 6 weeks so I knew it could help again.

I got so bad I couldn’t breathe as my lungs and chest were so inflamed and I was desperate at this point to try everything I could to not blast my system with steroids and medication so I dedicated 3 months of eating only meat to heal my body.

What worked?

I had a list - a loooong list of symptoms I was struggling with. Here is a summary;

⁃ Dry eyes

⁃ Brain fog

⁃ Lethargy

⁃ Feeling heavy

⁃ shoulder and spine inflamed and stiff

⁃ Knee pain

⁃ Swollen finger joints

⁃ Sore swollen wrists

⁃ Shallow breathing and shortness of breath

⁃ Bloating. Like 5 months pregnant type bloating

⁃ Constipation

⁃ Waking in the night several times

⁃ Peeing 3x per night

⁃ Dry itchy skin

⁃ Popping joints

⁃ Muscle fatigue constantly

⁃ Stitch when walking

⁃ neck pain

⁃ Wired but tired

⁃ Achy muscles

⁃ Fever

⁃ Craving sugar and caffeine

⁃ Painful heavy periods

⁃ Lower back pain

⁃ Anxiety

⁃ Low mood

⁃ Low libido

⁃ Dizziness at random points of the day

⁃ Low motivation

⁃ Excema on arms and hands

My list got very short within 2 weeks. Here were the benefits I felt;

• Inflammation was gone. I was moving & breathing easy

• More mobility in general

• Bloating down, flat stomach

• Cravings vanished, wasn’t thinking about food all the time as I felt satiated.

• No more achy muscles or fever

• Only waking up once, if that, to pee in the night

• Brain fog lifted

• Joint pain went away

• Sleeping deeper most nights 


What didn’t work?

Despite all of these great things I will also share the not great things I experienced as a result of going all meat;

• Although bloating went down I was struggling to do number twos without an enema or laxatives. I also ended up with haemorrhoids. Not ideal.

• Anxiety was up and down

• My period disappeared, I think due to not being able to meet my calorie need as meat feels so heavy to eat and I get so full

• I started to experience symptoms of low thyroid after 2 months; feeling wired but tired, increased anxiety

• Thirsty all the time as I couldn’t seem to balance my electrolytes despite trying all the things that experienced carnivore practitioners shared.

• Liver felt sluggish with all the fat

• Mental health started dipping

So what now?

After 3 months I started to think about what I wanted to do - did I want to continue with this way of eating or add some food back in? I decided the latter. Eating one thing day in and day out takes a huge toll on your mental health, it’s such a mind game and the repetition grated on my creative soul. I love variety in life, I get bored easily and I was so bored of this diet. I was also desperate for some colour on my plate and to get my period back.

Some will say that I didn’t try it long enough but I have tried enough diets in the past to know my body well enough to know that my time being so strict was up.

I will continue to use the carnivore diet along with periods of intermittent fasting as a way to soothe joint swelling and autoimmune flare ups as it’s the fastest and best thing I have found to help. The rest of the time I hope to find a more balanced approach eating seasonally with a big emphasis on meat still as that is what seems to work best.

Final thoughts

I don’t believe there is any one diet that fits all - you have to find what is right for you and it constantly changes due to where you are at.

I share everything so that it helps others going through similar journeys. There is a lot of hate towards the carnivore diet from vegans, dieticians, nutritionists. What I have to say to anyone is don’t judge someone trying a diet to see if it helps and don’t shame a diet that is helping thousands of people. Unless you have been in their shoes and in their amount of pain you have no idea what lengths you would go to, to feel better.

I encourage everyone to use food as your medicine when holistically healing autoimmune disease. It can make a huge impact on your health ❤️