Who Else Wants to Lose (at least) One Pound A Day? 

Another way to look at this is to turn the whole concept on its head and ask:
What ONE plant food, that is not supplemented in any way, could sustain
life for weeks, months, years or decades and show no clinical signs of deficiency?

– Robb Wolf

Losing weight has always been a problem for me. Not because I don’t like exercising, not because I lack the motivation to stick to a schedule of eating IF (Intermittent Fasting) and lastly not because I don’t have the discipline to do so.

Have you ever experienced, doing an hour of intense high intensity interval exercises (HIIT) only to step on a weighing scale the next day seeing that you’ve gained a pound or more despite the fact that you stuck within the eating window allowed in the IF program and you just ate the right macros (after carefully calculating it over and over again) following a Ketogenic diet?

Have you ever experienced feeling deprived with hunger pangs the force and velocity of a truck?

Have you ever felt that you’ve plateaued in your quest to lose weight that you’ve resigned to the idea that perhaps you need to do more?

Let me tell you the story of how I came across a better solution to losing weight, keeping yourself healthy, with no more hunger pangs, while keeping your sanity intact.

A year ago I wrote about the Ketogenic Diet, to tell you the truth, it did work. HOWEVER, it really took a lot of discipline and hard work, for me to achieve my targeted weight loss.

I also implemented IF with it, and ate food according to the standard 75% Fat, 20% Protein & 5% carbs.

My weight went down, but it went down really slow. And I felt hungry, REALLY hungry that all I can think of is the next meal yet also aware that I have to keep within my daily allowable calorie limit. (I use Yazio app for it)

(A disclaimer: Perhaps my only sin was that I also implemented a cheat day. Yes, a single cheat day)

Also, the migraine (keto Flu) would come back every time I re-integrate back into the Ketogenic program. I have to admit that it is also a pain to calculate all the time how much macros I am eating, especially when I am eating out.

The saddest part however is the speed of gaining the weight I lost, that’s the clincher.

It’s frustrating and hard for the soul, that it borders on depression and desperation.

Still, I stuck with it, losing, gaining and then losing again and then gaining.

Until I was already asking myself:

“Is there any point in continuing this way of feeding? Or is there a better way for me to lose weight without the added physiological, psychological and emotional cost it presents?”

(By the way I also integrated Paleo Diet in what I considered as my Semi-Ketogenic Phase.)

And then the inevitable happened.

My son was born. ^_^

I guess only first time parents will understand how hard it is to stick to a diet while taking care of a newborn baby.

Suddenly I gained more than half of what I lost, and then I went back to being fucking fat and heavy.

I was back to 200+ lbs even when I only eat rice sparingly and doing IF. I still gained weight despite working out and doing some heavy cardio exercises.

My arthritis was also consistently there, my left hip was still painful (albeit lightly as compared to when I wasn’t doing the Ketogenic Diet) my back was also mildly painful. To note, the only time that I have some peace of mind which means that I wasn’t feeling any pain was whenever I take Arcoxia, a pain reliever.

Perhaps the lack of sleep also added to it, or the stress of being a new parent.

Who knows?

(But guys, don’t get me wrong, The Ketogenic Diet WORKS, it’s effective as fuck, no disrespect to people who are doing it. I am just speaking from experience, however faulty, it was.)

Still, I listened to my body and searched for more questions rather than answers. Because I think that asking the right questions matter more than finding the right answers.

For a while my gut keeps telling me to go ahead and study on the Carnivore Diet. (Actually, I’d rather call it the Carnivore Fasting) I’ve kept the idea at the back of my head for some time, despite writing about it a year ago and telling my readers that I plan on experimenting with it and writing about it.
And then I decided to follow through with the Zero Carb Diet Plan I’ve been avoiding.

To tell you the truth, what made me hesitant about the idea of an all meat diet was because of its perceived lack of scientific research. (I was to be surprised afterwards see: Food For Thought: Meat-Based Diet Made Us Smarter)

Most of the information we know about it that are successful to say the least were as much considered as anecdotal evidences. But the same also goes for the Paleo Diet and Ketogenic Diet, until further research were carried out and was eventually accepted by the medical community.

These types of diets were either relatively new or was just rediscovered, but mostly ZC lacks the added academic push to make a convincing case.

Go ahead, check in Amazon about the Carnivore Diet and you will find only a handful of books about it.

To note, what made me decide to do this diet is mainly because of a few people I found on the internet and the controversy that revolved around them with regards to their experiences with the Zero Carb (ZC) diet.

They are as follows:

1. Dr. Jordan Peterson
2. Mikhaila Peterson
3. Dr. Georgia Ede
4. Dr. Shawn Baker
5. L. Amber O’hearn

Most of them were active proponents of the Low-Carb High-Fat Diet (LCHF) until they decided to shift to ZC and experienced the healing properties of the diet.

But what is a Zero Carb (ZC) Diet/Carnivore Diet/Carnivore Fasting?

In layman’s terms the ZC Diet is an all meat diet that removes ALL FORMS OF CARBOHYDRATES AND SUGAR. It has no specific macro measurements on how much one can eat as long as it satiates the person eating. This also means no eating of fruits and vegetables. While cheese, butter & milk are allowed as they come from animals.

It also uses WATER AS THE ONLY SOURCE OF LIQUID for feeding, and nothing more.

A typical ZC diet would consist of the following:

• Beef
• Salt
• Water
• Spices (optional)

It also encourages the intake of bone broth specifically from beef along with internal organs (optional, but preferably beef liver if available) for more vitamins and minerals.

There are a lot of branches of ZC, some are strictly confined to eating only beef while others are more open to other meats such as fish, seafood, chicken and pork.

Some are also strict when it comes to herbs and spices as they believe that plants are considered carbohydrates. (I personally find this a bit over the top)

So now without further ado, let me share my experience on ZC diet and how it dramatically lowered my weight and made wonders to my body.

Before starting the Carnivore Diet I first bought the following:

2 kilos of ground beef
2 kilos of ox tripe
1 slice of huge beef with bone
1 kilo beef cubes
2 Dozen Eggs
Overall spend: 1,200 Pesos

I mixed all beef, ox tripe and beef cubes in a huge pressure cooker and boiled them together with vinegar, onions, garlic, pepper, star anise, salt, Knorr beef cubes & ginger.

The ground beef I made into burgers smothered with butter that I can snack on.

I really thought that it’s not going to last as I am aware of how much I eat and I was sure that I will be very hungry, turns out I wasn’t able to finish eating all of them in one week.

Every night and every morning I boil it, while adding chicken to the mix.
I made the broth my comfort food when I feel some cravings coming on.
The first two days my feces were wet, but I didn’t feel any discomfort whatsoever, I also didn’t feel any constipation as I drank lots and lots of water.

After a few days I integrated eggs and cream cheese.

And that’s it, I ate the same food over and over and as you’ll see below my weight just went down and I experienced no hunger pangs, that I even forget to eat sometimes, aside for a day or two of migraine which I remedied by drinking Excedrin.

I also drank brewed coffee by the way when I felt like it.

Notice: I will continue posting my weight loss journey as the days go by and constantly update this post as well.

Pros & Cons of the Carnivore Diet:

Pros:

1. Deeper sleep
2. Boundless energy
3. No bloating
4. No inflammation (my arthritis are not as painful as before)
5. No brain fog
6. Clear focus
7. CHEAP! (Yes, this actually surprised me as well, I really thought it’s going to be expensive)
8. Easy to prepare
9. You can eat until you’re full
10. NO COUNTING OF MACROS (this I love)
11. You will need less ingredients as you progress because you will not be that hungry anymore.

Cons:

1. No food variety (yet, I will cook some soon as I progress with my palate and knowledge of what is admissible for the diet)
2. You might need to reel in your cravings a bit and keep yourself busy.
3. You might need to buy new clothes.
4. It’d be a pain to eat outside or be in a social setting where your choices of food are limited.
5. There’s always a danger of getting tired of what you’re eating.
   Overall, I feel that the medical benefits of practicing Carnivore Diet clearly outweigh the issues I encounter before I started the Zero Carb journey.

I have to admit that more often than not I’ve thought of breaking my diet and just bingeing for a day while calling it a “cheat day”.

However, what made me strong with my resolve in continuing the diet is the idea that I will be able to enjoy a cheat day after I reach my ideal weight and which I believe I will reach in a months’ time or perhaps lesser.

In ending if you are interested in doing the Carnivore Diet, I created a Carnivore Diet Philippines Facebook Group where we can share ideas and point of views.

You can also find a list of references HERE for your perusal but more so from the Carnivore Diet Philippines Facebook Group , just in case you want to learn more about this diet.

If you have any questions, comment below and I’ll come back to you as soon as I can.

BTW: the featured image is from Dr. Jordan Peterson’s twitter.

I also had some likes and tweets from Mikhaila Peterson and Dr. Shawn Baker.