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Can one live on only meat?

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  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
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    Is OP by chance an Eskimo?

    Curious too if still sticking with it and what side affects are now..
  • BinaryPulsar
    BinaryPulsar Posts: 8,927 Member
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    Some people are into weird diets. I have heard of this all meat diet. People eating this way think plant foods are poison. Other people eat only fruit. They think you should only eat fruit because if you were born out in the wild and didn't know what food is you would naturally choose fruit as the most appetizing food. These are some bizarre ideas.
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
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    Still eating only meat, eggs, and coconut oil. I'm finding it fairly enjoyable. The hardest part has been adjusting the amount of meat I cook per day. I am not used to eating this much meat; I have almost doubled my meat intake. (I ate a ketogenic diet before, and only ate 2-3 servings of veggies per day - by preference - so this was not a huge change for me.)

    I am finding it more challenging to hit my fat macro without nuts, cheese, and avocado in spite of my increased meat intake. I miss cheese a bit. I have been grain free for most of a year and don't miss that. I'm not a fruit eater so no problem there. I miss raw veggies a bit - they just taste good.

    I went stevia free when this challenge began and I am used to no sweets now. I plan to keep it this way for the month.

    I feel quite good. My blood glucose is very nice. Over the last few days the highest I've seen is a 5.3, with it usually being a high 4 (80-90). My energy is fine.

    No dehydration and I am taking more salt since carbs were lowered (yesterday was zero carbs).

    In the last 24 hours I had coffee with coconut oil (about 4 Tbs), around 10 oz of ground beef, 2 slices of bacon, about 200g of salmon, a teaspoon of butter and some spices.... Cooking is pretty simple.

    A day before I had lamb, eggs, liver sausage, and a lot of sirloin.

    I am eating between 1400 and 1900 kcal. I've lost just over 2 lbs; definitely could be partially water weight.

    TMI:

    My BMs are a little loose since dropping plants and fibre and are less (less fibre and bulk?). I was taking a bit more magnesium citrate than normal so that could be part of it.

    So all good except BMs are looser than normal.
  • BinaryPulsar
    BinaryPulsar Posts: 8,927 Member
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    I couldn't do it. Nerve pain in my face increases from meat (histamine reaction). The only meat I eat is fresh chicken (I can freeze and reheat left overs). My diet is omnivore now. But, predominantly plant foods. Mostly veggies and nuts. I can't eat grains either. I have a medical injury.
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
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    I went a bit off plan this weekend. I was staying with family on their farm so it was a situation of eat what is there or you are SOL. Plus I did not want to offend. I had a layered salad, and a coconut muffin while butchering. I don't feel worse because of it, only hungrier.

    I still skipped the desserts, rice, fruit, icecream, yogurt and hashbrowns. Besides the salad and muffin, I ate eggs, meat balls, coffee with whip cream, lots of pork - we were butchering a few pigs - and some pepperoni sticks I brought for the drive.

    I'm back on meat eggs and coconut oil for the remainder of the month now that we are home.
  • tincanonastring
    tincanonastring Posts: 3,944 Member
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    @nvmomketo - Any chance you had bloodwork done prior to starting this? I'd love to see a before/after for this diet.
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
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    tincanonastring wrote: »
    @nvmomketo - Any chance you had bloodwork done prior to starting this? I'd love to see a before/after for this diet.

    Afraid not. I last had blood work done prior to going LCHF (keto). I do have a lab requisition I plan on having donethis month, which will be after eating this way for a few weeks, but all I'll have to compare to is a couple of year ago. That could be interesting - my blood work has always been really really good even after I became prediabetic. The only thing that was a bit high was Lp (a).

    I'll try to remember to post it here in ase anyone is interested.

    Overall, this is quite a dull challenge to watch. The cooking is easy, the food is tasty, I had lost a bit of weight (although it is probably back because I ate a lot this weekend, ate carbs so I may retain water, and their well water has a very high soda content so I KNOW I retained water), and I feel good. No drama for entertainment. The most drama I've had so far is my hubby being unimpressed with how rare I cooked a monster steak one evening.
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
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    @nvmomketo I'm curious and thanks for sharing.
  • Ange_
    Ange_ Posts: 324 Member
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    Good way to get bowel cancer. You would go into ketosis unless you eat really freshly killed raw meat like Eskimos do that still has glycogen in the muscles.
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
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    Ange_ wrote: »
    Good way to get bowel cancer. You would go into ketosis unless you eat really freshly killed raw meat like Eskimos do that still has glycogen in the muscles.

    Bowel cancer. Seems like a rather vague reference. Is there research to support this?
  • petitxpapillon
    petitxpapillon Posts: 14 Member
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    I know of someone who ate only meat and high fat dairy products. They said that they felt good on that diet, but it wouldn't be sustainable as you wouldn't get enough of the vitamins and minerals you need.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    auddii wrote: »
    Ange_ wrote: »
    Good way to get bowel cancer. You would go into ketosis unless you eat really freshly killed raw meat like Eskimos do that still has glycogen in the muscles.

    Bowel cancer. Seems like a rather vague reference. Is there research to support this?

    Epidemiology. Usually conflating "red meat" and "processed meat" into a single category. Association not causation.

    For example "The results showed that those who ate the most processed meat had around a 17 per cent higher risk of developing bowel cancer, compared to those who ate the least."

    "Those who eat the lowest amount of processed meat are likely to have a lower lifetime risk than the rest of the population (about 56 cases per 1000 low meat-eaters)" with the highest processed meat group having about 66 cases per 1000.
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
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    yarwell wrote: »
    auddii wrote: »
    Ange_ wrote: »
    Good way to get bowel cancer. You would go into ketosis unless you eat really freshly killed raw meat like Eskimos do that still has glycogen in the muscles.

    Bowel cancer. Seems like a rather vague reference. Is there research to support this?

    Epidemiology. Usually conflating "red meat" and "processed meat" into a single category. Association not causation.

    For example "The results showed that those who ate the most processed meat had around a 17 per cent higher risk of developing bowel cancer, compared to those who ate the least."

    "Those who eat the lowest amount of processed meat are likely to have a lower lifetime risk than the rest of the population (about 56 cases per 1000 low meat-eaters)" with the highest processed meat group having about 66 cases per 1000.

    Ah. I feel like most things are linked to cancer. Including talc.
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
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    nvmomketo wrote: »
    I did not really complete this challenge. I think I was eating meat and eggs for just over half, to maybe two thirds, of the time due to vegetarian house guests, visiting and busy scheduling, and some poor planning.

    What I did notice was almost no difference in how I felt compared to when I ate a very LCHF ketogenic diet (<30 or 20g of carbs per day). I lost a few pounds but it was water weight that came back. I would have been shocked if I lost since I have been eating over 2000kcal per day.

    My blood glucose was basically perfect while eating carnivore. I can get some higher than wanted fasting BG, even while eating LCHF, and that disappeared while eating animal products only.

    My appetite dipped a bit early on when I was eating carnivore all the time. Carbs, even nuts or veggies with a cheese dip, leads to eating more for me. The lower the carbs the less hungry I am. On carnivore days I was eating 1500kcals or so, and on days with carbs it was over 2000kcals. A part of that was because I was entertaining or visiting at other people's homes, but a large part of it was just having carbs - they make me hungrier.

    I did find that I missed veggies a bit. I am not a huge veggie eater but I like to eat them. Nuts and avocado too. It's just enjoyable to eat them. They trigger hunger, and smellier BMs, but I like them.

    It seems that because I was not "supposed" to eat veggies made me want them more. If I have a good reason for cutting or limiting a food, I can easily do so (gluten and high carb foods) but having the arbitrary line drawn in the sand made it a bit tough for me. If I was told I could not eat veggoes for a medical reason, it would be easier, in my mind, to do.

    I found cutting veggies, and carbs, led to looser BMs. Almost too loose. I guess the fibre in my veggies bulks it up more than I thought. On the bright side, the volume of BMs is noticeably reduced when there are no veggies in my diet.

    Others in the LCD group were also doing a carnivorous challenge. Sme had better success than me and are going with it, others will continue to be mostly carnivore while others have dropped it entirely. Results varied on a person by person basis, just like I would imagine eating vegetarian agrees with some people more than others.

    It did lead me to the book, Fat of the Land by Vilhjalmur Stefansson. A really interesting read for anyone who wants to try a carnivorous diet.

    So overall, for me, a carnivorous diet was a pretty neutral experiment. No great benefits but no down side either. YMMV

    Thank you for the update :)
  • ReaderGirl3
    ReaderGirl3 Posts: 868 Member
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    ForecasterJason wrote: »
    DorkothyParker wrote: »
    I can't believe their are people who never eat raw meat. Thinly sliced beef with a raw egg on top (I had in Korea, can't recall the name) or kitfo (no citrus, but hella spices) is like heaven. Now I want kitfo again. QQ
    The funny thing is that I'm almost never intentionally had meat that was even close to being raw.

    I've never, ever had raw meat. Even thinking about it makes me queasy :p
  • BinaryPulsar
    BinaryPulsar Posts: 8,927 Member
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    ReaderGirl3 wrote: »
    ForecasterJason wrote: »
    DorkothyParker wrote: »
    I can't believe their are people who never eat raw meat. Thinly sliced beef with a raw egg on top (I had in Korea, can't recall the name) or kitfo (no citrus, but hella spices) is like heaven. Now I want kitfo again. QQ
    The funny thing is that I'm almost never intentionally had meat that was even close to being raw.

    I've never, ever had raw meat. Even thinking about it makes me queasy :p

    Meat in general makes me queasy. I definitely couldn't eat it raw. I was vegetarian for long periods of time. I need to eat chicken now because of a GI injury limiting my diet. But, I can't even cook it because raw meat grosses me out so much. My husband cooks it for me twice a week and I freeze leftovers in between.
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,160 Member
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    Thanks for all of the links. Kind of drives home how lame peer reviews can be since they are mainly personal opinions. Man made it to this point eating what he could get to his mouth which was in many parts only raw meats. If carbs were required for good health in humans then they would be a required part of every macro.

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