All Animal April (Advanced Experimenters)

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Replies

  • FIT_Goat
    FIT_Goat Posts: 4,224 Member
    We had my mom's birthday last night. They had a huge Carvel [ice cream] cake. Now, it helps to know that I love these cakes. They have always been one of my favorites. But, since moving to low-carb, I haven't touched them. Also, people pay no attention to the serving sizes. This cake was meant for 18 people. There were 4 adults and 3 children at the party. Considering that they knew I wasn't going to eat, that amounts to three servings per person!

    They didn't finish the whole cake. But, there was pressure for me to have some. You know, it's my mom's birthday. Clearly, I should have something. I told them about my recent dairy-free experiment and made it clear that I wasn't going to have any.
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    I am in too. I have ben easing into it for a few days. Meats, eggs, and I am going with some cococnut oil in my coffee. I have used a bit of HWC, mostly because I didn't want to throw it out, and I may use butter on some meats or eggs.

    So far I have notice no real difference. Maybe a slight drop in appetite.

    It is tricky to focus so much on meat after decadeds of trying to cut back on meat. The funny thing is that we do our own butchering so I have everything wrapped to appropriate family sizes... That isn't working out so well now that meat is my main focus. LOL I need extras at everymeal.
  • Kitnthecat
    Kitnthecat Posts: 2,075 Member
    I had a good first day yesterday. I went out for supper and had a bunless burger with bacon and cheese that was delicious, but also a vodka and soda and a small glass of red wine, really enjoyable.

    The wine won't happen very often in the future, but vodka intake might reoccur occasionally. I mainly drink water and black coffee, but I'm OK with the odd drink while participating in this challenge. I can't drink very much eating this way anyway, but it adds to my enjoyment while out socializing, so I'm not going to stress over it.
  • kirkor
    kirkor Posts: 2,530 Member
    Goes without saying for the vets, but for people reading the thread, make sure to keep fat high: don't drain the pan, use butter or ghee in good amounts, get the 80% ground beef, don't get cuts like filets or loins, etc.
  • ChoiceNotChance
    ChoiceNotChance Posts: 644 Member
    It's been going really well for me. I actually started this past Monday. We went to a birthday party last night. I knew there wouldn't be anything for me there, so I had a burger with butter, hot sauce and Bleu cheese before we went. I just drank water while there and no one even noticed that I wasn't eating. I wasn't even tempted by the sickeningly sweet looking cake.
  • LuizH
    LuizH Posts: 211 Member
    Because of my foul mood yesterday I ended up fasting until I got home from work at 7pm, by then I was more than ready for food and really enjoyed my pound of rare rib-eye with extra butter :p. Today I have mostly been eating bacon with a nice big chunk of brie I found in the fridge. I also added back the coconut oil to the first coffee of the day and have been adding double cream to my coffee for the rest of the day. I feel much more human today :)
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    kirkor wrote: »
    Goes without saying for the vets, but for people reading the thread, make sure to keep fat high: don't drain the pan, use butter or ghee in good amounts, get the 80% ground beef, don't get cuts like filets or loins, etc.

    So true. I don't know if I am a vet yet, but making sure my fat is high enough is a bit of a challenge without cheese. Plus I am guessing at all of my cuts' macros because we butchered it ourselves. I tried to make evrything fatty but the family kept trimming the meat when we weren't nagging them LOL
  • tlflag1620
    tlflag1620 Posts: 1,358 Member
    Things are going pretty well. Appetite has picked back up. Made chicken Parmesan tonight; I always leave the breadcrumbs off of mine, but there was some incidental tomato sauce (maybe a quarter of a cup). I browned all the chicken pieces in lard instead of my usual palm oil. Not really feeling any different at this point (no keto-flu symptoms).
  • Sunny_Bunny_
    Sunny_Bunny_ Posts: 7,140 Member
    Well, I hit an all new low scale weight for whatever that's worth. I'm not stressing the scale one bit. I actually thought it might go up since I'm not counting calories and I'm certainly never hungry. So I'm prepared for whatever it decides to do and will be ok as long as my clothes don't start feeling smaller. Which doesn't seem to be s concern. :smile:
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    Very nice @Sunny_Bunny_ :)

    The scale has dropped a bit for me too. Close to 2lbs in 3 days. Some of it may be water weight from dropping carbs from ~20g to ~5g, but either way I'm happy.
  • Sunny_Bunny_
    Sunny_Bunny_ Posts: 7,140 Member
    edited April 2016
    nvmomketo wrote: »
    Very nice @Sunny_Bunny_ :)

    The scale has dropped a bit for me too. Close to 2lbs in 3 days. Some of it may be water weight from dropping carbs from ~20g to ~5g, but either way I'm happy.
    That's great! I gotta say, I'm enjoying the "new" of this. It's like when I first started Keto all over again! That was such a great experience. I'm glad to be feeling such an increase in satisfaction even though I felt pretty darn good before.
    I didn't really expect there to be much difference. Very surprising so far.
  • danidanibobani
    danidanibobani Posts: 125 Member
    I am starting to realize how unconsciously I have been eating for the last few months. I am regularly catching myself opening the cupboards looking for snacks or nearly licking the knife when I make food for my kids. I haven't lost any weight, but its shark week and I had two nights of zumba that I don't normally do, so I probably have some inflammation from that. I am looking forward to weighing next week.
  • WhatLouAte
    WhatLouAte Posts: 155 Member
    Good luck all, I am not ready for that yet but I´ll be reading along.
  • ChoiceNotChance
    ChoiceNotChance Posts: 644 Member
    Day 8 for me: The scale came down a few for me last week but has been bouncing around the past couple of days. I have been feeling hungry off and on. I feel like I could definitely eat more, but, I know that would put me way over what I "think" my calories are, since I'm not logging either. Also, there has been some bathroom shall we say, unpleasantness these past few days. I find I miss nuts. I will endeavor to persevere.
  • Sunny_Bunny_
    Sunny_Bunny_ Posts: 7,140 Member
    Last night was the first time I ate something when I wasn't actually hungry. But I know it's because I was craving salt and I had a very not hungry day in general, so I ate some pork rinds after dinner.
    My dinner was chicken breast but I cut it up into pieces so I could increase the surface area for added butter to grab on to.
    I was quite full with just about 5 or 6oz chicken.. Just guessing, and probably 1.5 tbs butter.
    I know I could've had broth but I think my calories were probably very very low yesterday and figured the few I would get from the pork rinds would be a good thing. So I guess calories were being considered in that. But not in the "gotta spare them to lose weight way". I was particularly active yesterday too with running errands and getting about 3000 more steps than average for me. Probably doesn't seem like much, but my average is only 6000... So....
    Anyway, I'm feeling great on carnivore so far and I have had to REDUCE my magnesium because it started to go through digestion in not so fun ways. I don't know if carnivore is to credit, but I'm maintaining better mag levels obviously.
  • ChoiceNotChance
    ChoiceNotChance Posts: 644 Member
    @Sunny_Bunny_ I think the magnesium may play a part in my disturbance as well.
  • kirkor
    kirkor Posts: 2,530 Member
    Day 4 update: Yep, still miss coffee :-/
  • stillonamission
    stillonamission Posts: 140 Member
    Day 4. Eating meat isn't too tough... cutting out the sweetener is. I have cut down, but not out. My first cup of coffee for the day needs to be a little sweet, and I had a cup of coffee with creamer yesterday for dessert which is a no no, but oh so comforting.

    I did 'accidentally' eat hot dog chili the other night. I didn't even think about it having other 'stuff' in it until I finished it. Oh well, its an adjustment to my thinking, I need to work on the 'did this come from an animal' question, before I eat it, not after!

    All-in-all I feel good. I think I have lost some water weight, but I won't step back on the scale until Thursday. I have gone way over my calories just about every day, but I'm not going to worry to much about that for the first couple of weeks.
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    I am having, er, bathroom issues too. It's not horrible but I wouldn't want to be too far from a toilet. Probably too much magnesium, and a sudden cut back on dairy is part of it. I also had a bunch of coconut oil last night because I can't seem to get my fats up enough. I'm cooking with ground meat tonight so I'll be able to add in fats easier.

    Scale was down a bit again this morning despite my huge amount of coconut oil yesterday... I like how I can overdose on fat and it doesn't negatively affect the scale. :)

    I've still enjoying it too. The hardest part is adjusting my meal planning and quantities to this. It's like adding another adult meat serving to every meal. LOL
  • tlflag1620
    tlflag1620 Posts: 1,358 Member
    Day 4 went very well; we had breakfast for dinner so that made things easy. Not having any issues - those who are having bathroom issues: were you supplementing with magnesium prior to starting? I don't supplement (too lazy to remember), and haven't noticed any changes in that department. Go to the gym tomorrow (first time since starting this experiment). Don't think it will effect my performance, but will let you all know.

    Saw a new low in the scale this morning. Figure I'm losing water at this point tho.
  • Sunny_Bunny_
    Sunny_Bunny_ Posts: 7,140 Member
    tlflag1620 wrote: »
    Day 4 went very well; we had breakfast for dinner so that made things easy. Not having any issues - those who are having bathroom issues: were you supplementing with magnesium prior to starting? I don't supplement (too lazy to remember), and haven't noticed any changes in that department. Go to the gym tomorrow (first time since starting this experiment). Don't think it will effect my performance, but will let you all know.

    Saw a new low in the scale this morning. Figure I'm losing water at this point tho.

    I have been supplementing magnesium for many months. My issues are definitely related to a decreased need for it because they come on within 20 of having the mag. As soon as I lowered my dosage it never happened again.
    That's how you know you've exceeded your body's magnesium needs. It gets rid of the excess through digestion and since magnesium pulls water to it, you get a watery bowel...
    I've experienced it other times as I was slowly increasing dosage to determine my needs.
    So, either consistently meeting needs for so long has made my daily need lower or the food I am eating more of now is meeting more of my need.
  • tlflag1620
    tlflag1620 Posts: 1,358 Member
    Okay thanks @Sunny_Bunny_ that explains it :)
  • KarlaYP
    KarlaYP Posts: 4,436 Member
    I've been a carnivore, primarily, since the Meativore May challenge last year! I will say that this April challenge can be life changing, like it was for me! Good luck to everyone taking on this challenge!
  • kirkor
    kirkor Posts: 2,530 Member
    Well, poop: are olives animals? ;)

    I had to eat at my desk yesterday, which meant hitting up my stash of sardines. I was almost done with the 2nd tin when I realized they were packed in olive oil! :grimace:
  • Time2LoseWeightNOW
    Time2LoseWeightNOW Posts: 1,730 Member
    This is the jumpstart my body needed...It looks like I almost dropped a pound! Holding off for a day to see if I see it more than once on the scale...I have been fooled before ,by that dastardly thing. Looks like Everyone is doing awesome!
  • Sunny_Bunny_
    Sunny_Bunny_ Posts: 7,140 Member
    kirkor wrote: »
    Well, poop: are olives animals? ;)

    I had to eat at my desk yesterday, which meant hitting up my stash of sardines. I was almost done with the 2nd tin when I realized they were packed in olive oil! :grimace:

    I literally laughed out loud! Too funny!
    I was kinda bummed yesterday when I passed on the tiny amount of tartar sauce I like on my tilapia.

    It is a challenge to completely avoid any non animal foods in trace amounts. I think I've quite well since I've only eaten at home so far. I guess I won't stress trace amounts too much if they can't be avoided. But I could avoid tartar sauce, so I didn't even have a little bit.
    I am still using MCT and coconut oil as supplements and I'm still eating cheese and rarely HWC. The cream was already becoming less and less frequent.

    Not that I had much tummy trouble, but every now and then I would feel a little bloated, nothing major at all, but I would notice it. It wouldn't last too long. But, that's not happened at all this week, so it seems the vegetable fiber or something was to blame for it. Maybe it was just certain vegetables??? I don't know. I'll probably find out at some point the next time I have some.
    I still haven't taken measurements or a new pic, but I lost all of the almost 2 pounds I had been up the last month, plus another half pound, hitting another new lowest TREND weight this time. Probably had some intestinal inflammation I guess...
  • TexasJohnnyBravo
    TexasJohnnyBravo Posts: 25 Member
    So here's my 4 day assessment.
    33 yr old male.
    5'8
    Current weight is 252lbs
    Started this AAA at 258lbs
    Goal weight is 200lbs

    I won't be taking my body measurements again till next weekend so I won't have the before and afters until next week.
    I've been carb crashing for the first 3 days. I was eating mostly 73/27 ground beef with the fat included. Used my handy food scale to measure out near perfect 8oz portions of 6oz meat and 2oz of fat. I dont have cravings for anything else really which is good because I know I'll be able to stick this out for the next 26 days. I suspect most of the 6lbs I lost was due to waterweight which is fine. Usually when I'm going low (<10g) to no carbs my body will consistently drop 3-7lbs a week. Right now I'm aiming for maybe 2lbs per week. We will see where I am next Sunday!
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    I actually managed to get zero carbs today. I don't think I've ever done that before.

    My oldests is eating a LOT more meat now that I am too and it is available. Between us, I almost have the quantities figured out. I'm dreading it in a few more years when I have 3 teenaged boys to feed... I'm picturing 4lbs of beef just to cover dinner. LOL
  • tlflag1620
    tlflag1620 Posts: 1,358 Member
    Did pretty good today... Eggs for breakfast, hamburger patty for lunch, snacked on some dubliner cheese, meatloaf for dinner (incidental amount of onion, no breadcrumbs, and I didn't put the topping on my portion). Went to the gym - cardio went well (I never do much anyway, maybe 20-30 min, moderate intensity), felt a bit weaker though... But that was probably more to do with having not gone in over a week than my diet. I find myself craving almonds and cashews from time to time, but there is a big bag of almonds on the counter and a jar of cashews... Haven't touched them. So cravings must not be too bad, more like an occasional yearning, lol.
  • ChoiceNotChance
    ChoiceNotChance Posts: 644 Member
    Today is actually day 9 for me. Still feeling good. I've had some mayo and a couple of shots of hot sauce as my only non-animal items. I think my protein is way higher than my fat, even though I'm adding fat to everything. The scale is still playing tricks. I'm enjoying this, though. :p