Zero Carb eating

I guess I am lucky. I go 1-2 times a day.. no change, based on grease. If I eat over 80% fat for more than a few days, I do get diarrhea, but without adding LOTS of mayo or butter, to LESS protein, 80% fat is impossible. Meat and eggs tend to be around 67% fat. So I had a few days of diarrhea at the start of Keto, but not on ZC at all.

I tend to be 62-70% fat, and it works great. Diarrhea was never a problem, just something I was told to expect after they took my gallbladder out. The grease with the ground beef was delicious, and when I drain it, it is kind of dry, and I feel like I am choking it down. It was kind of like the chicken and broth I had for breakfast. Not quite as soupy, but close.

Ground beef soup for the soul!

ccrdragon.. I am only taking a 250 mg tablet. I take diuretics, and of course ZC has a diuretic effect as well. I take a lot of potassium already, prescribed by my doctor, due to all the Lasix I take, but if I am excreting potassium, surely magnesium, and sodium are being depleted as well. I can add a bit of salt to take care of the sodium loss, but foods high in Mg, tend to not be on my diet. So I am taking the basic 250 mg pill, but not looking to add any more. I get probably half the magnesium I need from the meats & eggs I eat, simply due to eating 2 lbs. of food most days. This barely gets me to the RDA. I'll watch for diarrhea, and if it happens, I will know why, but I have not had any issues with low magnesium, so not doing more than the basic dose, just to get to my RDA.. the goal is to feel better, so this is sort of an experiment.. to add some of one of the few vitamins and minerals I know I am low in. Not sure it is necessary, but I'm exploring the nutrition of eating this way.. what I am high in, and what I am low in.. to see if the diet is OK nutrition-wise. Amazingly, many of the vitamins & minerals on this diet, are way above the RDA. Some just aren't possible. Doing the same with Vitamin C. I have to buy some, but 100 mg, should cover my basic needs, even if the upper limit is 2,000 mg. No food I consume, has a drop of Vitamin C.

If I find something else, I can't fix with diet, I'll post about it.

AKTipsyCat.. I too am glad this is working for me. Not just low carb.. which I know works, but more importantly, that I am coming up on a month, and still ON this WOE, which is my biggest issue. Consistency. Even small losses add up, if you don't stop doing the diet. This feels like something I could do permanently. Other LC plans tended to work great, but I felt deprived after a month or 2, and let myself be talked into eating off plan.

Also want to add in something else I discovered, watching videos.. tryptophan.. knew it was in turkey, but I rarely eat turkey.

Guess what it is in.. Chicken, Turkey, Beef, Fish, Pork, and eggs. I get my RDA of tryptophan just by eating my morning eggs. This amino acid, helps us sleep better, and improves your mood.. simply put, it is why eating meat makes us happy. I am sleeping a bit better too, but it was interesting to see that there is a scientific reason, people eating high protein foods, say they feel better.

I do have to wonder if so many depressed people in the world, are do to not enough tryptophan in there diets.. even though there are plenty of higher carbs sources, like milk, squash & pumpkin seeds, oatmeal, boiled soybeans, and firm tofu. I checked another source, and that added peanut butter. As a kid, I could see myself eating p.b. & j sandwiches, with a chocolate milk for lunch. Maybe that is why kids are happy.. BUT, the other things on the list, are not part of the average person's diet. Wonder if tryptophan might be a better choice than pills for anxiety, or depression.

Last 2 days I have gained 1.2 lbs. I had some sausage, which had a lot of Na., and some carbs.. so maybe that is why?? I have also had cheese more than I normally do. For some reason, if I eat cheese more than 1-2 times a week, I tend to stall.

My blood sugars are fine, and I am not hungry, or have cravings, so hopefully, I start losing again soon. 24.4 lbs. lost in 27 days is still good.

I got a few miles in walking yesterday, but today is rainy, so tomorrow, I start lifting weights in the gym.. 2 days on, 1 off, so I do 4 workouts in 6 days, for total body workout.. so 4 easy workouts, and I'll still walk when the weather is OK. Supposed to be nice the next 3 days.

Eggs again today for breakfast, then I had some tuna and mayo for lunch. Tonight I have some filet mignon. I wanted some red meat, but not any cheap, tough steak, since I have weak & damaged teeth from my diabetes. It was on sale for $15.99 a lb., so I splurged and got 2 lbs. My other option was lamb, but it was almost as expensive. When did lamb get expensive? Anyways, filet mignon tastes a lot better to me, so I got it. My grocery bill was low this week anyways, because I made some substitutions last week, so already had half the meat I needed in the freezer. Got a little extra butter, eggs, and mayo, and the bill was still under $100. At first I thought that $400 a month was a lot, but it's $15-20 a meal to go out to a restaurant, so I actually spend less to eat this way.

I think there is some variation, due to differences in food.. I can buy 73/27 GB, but most often, I get 80/20, and I drained off the 2 cups of broth, and only mixed 2 TBSP. with the mayo, to make it more of a creamy sauce.

That may explain some of the extra calories, but also I am using the calories on the package, or MFP. Calories don't really matter, but 300 difference was noticeable. Probably the leaner GB, and removing the 100 calories of broth. That was actually interesting.. I wouldn't have considered broth to have calories, almost like water.. or think of nutrition in it, although that should be obvious.. but 2 Tbsp. would have a small effect.. in the end, maybe I probably lost some nutrition.

This is one thing that I have been trying to do.. eat more meat. The nutrition is in the meat, and many of my fellow ZC'ers eat 3-4 lbs. I tend to eat about 2 lbs. max, plus my eggs. On this day, I was eating leftovers, and made up a lot of calories with added fat.. when i should be eating a lot more protein ( meat ).

I have trouble eating more than 2.5 lbs. of meat a day. Supposedly, I'll adapt. most days I eat more meat, and less fat.. today, I am having 5 eggs with butter, 2 ozs. cheese with 1 lb. of Haddock. Then 12.54 ozs. of beef chunks. Still probably not enough meat for ZC, but on many vitamins and minerals, still plenty.

Some of these are managed because I am a heart patient.. potassium I get, and I am on Coumadin, so I don't want a lot of Vitamin K.. if I don't get enough, it probably means I just cut my dose of Coumadin. Vitamin D can be got from sunlight. I walk outside a lot. That is something they measure, and I am fine. My brother is low. He eats moderate carb, with fruits, but his got so low, he started getting moody, and had to take huge pills to get back in range.. an issue living in northern climates. I'm OK though. I walk outside more.

That leaves a few.. after I supplement with Magnesium. My one pill a day is about 60% of the RDA.

So.. Thiamine, Folate, Vitamin E, and manganese are problems. A few others were low on this one day.. calcium and copper about 2/3rds..

With thiamine, I will be low. I eat pork maybe once a week. Also a small amount of beef liver once a week for Vitamin A, but also has some thiamine.. but not that much. I may need to address that.

Folate.. eggs and beef liver are my only sources.. so I will be low.

Vitamin E.. I would need to eat a lot more fish, namely trout, which has quite a bit.

manganese.. other than mussels, which I don't eat.. you get this from plants apparently.

Calcium - I guess I could just eat more cheese, and some sardines, but I'm good at 68%.

Last is copper.. a 4 oz. serving has 18x the RDA.. I eat a 3.2 oz portion once a week for lunch. I'd eat double that, but Vitamin A, and copper toxicities might become a problem.. the biggest problem with beef liver is that while it is rich in a LOT of vitamins and minerals, that would benefit a low carber.. these ones are so high, that they make eating a lot of the meat toxic, before they help with other nutrients. Every time I eat this beef liver, I get 14.4 days worth of copper, so I'm great. I got 67% on a day without beef liver..GB is roughly 15% of the RDA per 100 grams.. so I was about 30% from this small 7 oz. portion.. more likely to eat double that normally.

So a few of these would improve, if I ate 3-4 lbs. of meat. This was only about a lb. max. Not very ZC. Even my normal 2 lbs. of meat most days, would up some of these.. including all the ones which are above 100% already.. they would go up 2-4x what they are now, for many of them.

Other things to discuss/consider.. one job of Vitamin C is to help absorb the Iron from plant foods, which I don't eat.. I get my Iron mostly from meat, fish, and poultry. So I would need less Vitamin C than a person eating plants. I have NO idea how much is needed to do this, and how much Vitamin C is for other purposes.. my foods have trace amounts of Vitamin C, and long term ZC'ers say that it is enough. My doctor will let me know, but I find it interesting when someone has eaten this way for 10 years, and has no issues with Vitamin C.

Lastly, as shown with the copper, variety over multiple days would fix several of these.. you are short one day, and higher on others. Which also would help avoid upper level toxicities on the ones I was pretty high on today. Most have large ranges though, so I am mostly worried about hitting minimums.

I did go sign up at Cronometer.. I found this very interesting, and doing this over a week, might help me highlight the nutrients I am low on EVERY day, and would need to address with testing, done by my doctor.

I do want to note that I have been on very low carb off and on for years, and HAVE been tested, and in range on all my nutrients. This WOE, is not that much different, but obviously, being able to have a few berries, non-starchy veggies, macadami nuts on top of what I eat now, would help several of these nutrients, and I simply can't meet the minimums now.. so it will be interesting to see if I see that when I get tested in a few months. Then I'll know definitively, and will supplement what I am low in.

I do think that most people are low in as many areas as I am, on any diet. I'm always amazed at how much of some of these I get. Proteins are not a problem, as you would expect, but now I'm worried about eating more meat, since even with 1 lb. I am over 300% on some.. is 600% OK? Obviously, I know people who eat 4 lbs. every day. That makes the RDA's just numbers, like with my cholesterol, which I get 10x what I need, yet my Tchol is 100-125, and my tris, and LDL are low. My HDL is up, due to exercise. Niacin helps in that regard. I know some low carbers see big spikes in the lipid panel numbers.

It will be interesting to see what numbers come out in coming days, because I am kind of settling on 2200-2400 calories right now, and normally I eat more meat, and less fat. So more nutrition. Butter and mayo aren't very nutrient-rich.

Thanks for sharing Dante_80, especially the way you did it, just posting it. If you have any ideas about it, which led you to post, I think that I do want to hear them.. were you simply being helpful, or did I miss you making a point? If so, be more blunt, and let me know you think it is dangerously high or low in something, or whatever else you wished to convey. I, of course, used it in a way which helps ME, and from my POV, but it's always nice to have another viewpoint when looking at this much data. A different way of looking at it, that I completely missed.

I lost the weight I gained yesterday.. back down to 255.4, the same weight I was 2 days ago.. still up 4/10ths from my recent low.

Today, I had 5 XL eggs, scrambled in 3 Tbsps. salted butter. Lunch is 16 ozs. of Haddock, cooked in a non-stick skillet, and 2 ozs. extra sharp cheddar on the side. Dinner is 12.54 ozs. of beef chunks, cooked in the crockpot. That was the sizes of the packages.

So 1.75 lbs. of meat. According to MFP, that's 2,190 calories. 39% protein, 60% fat. 1% carbs ( 7 g ). Protein is 212 g. The fish drops the fat %. It's only 9-10% fat. I actually like it better swimming in butter, but then I tend to not be able to eat as much protein, because I feel full quicker.

Hoping that by only eating butter with eggs, I start eating more actual meat, which is where all the nutrients are. Currently, i am hanging on to my buttery eggs in the morning. I switched to Haddock, instead of cod, even though it is twice as expensive, because it has 20% of the sodium. Wouldn't be an issue, if I bought fresh cod, but the packaged stuff is very salty, compared to other packaged fish for some reason. So I am at 1,564 mg of Na.

I do use some spices.. on the fish, I added an 1/4th of a tsp. of salt, and a dash of garlic powder, and black pepper. Fish isn't my favorite, and I know the garlic, and pepper aren't strict ZC, but I use them a little. I use salt mostly, and add it on days when I am low. I try to stay at or a bit above 1800.. maybe 2,300 tops, because like Magnesium, and Potassium, I lose electrolytes from the diuretics, and diuretic effect of this diet. I supplement the other 2, but a little bit of Na, is easier to add back in.. you don't need much to up it quite a bit. This adds 590 mg, to the 1,564 mg, for 2,154 mg.. still less than the RDA, and it makes my food tastes good, and hopefully replaces enough Na, that i may be losing. To be honest, when I ate Keto, I salted more actually, which is why I am concerned about dropping too low.. I probably did 3,000 mg most days, and my Na was in range.. not sure half of that is enough. Maybe it is not a real problem, but I worry, that's what heart patients do.

Today is supposed to be 72 and mostly sunny. Nice day for a bike ride. I am borrowing one from a friend. If I like it, maybe in the spring, I'll buy myself a bike, but I haven't ridden one in 10 years. I wasn't riding in 2001, when I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. I worked 80 hours a week, and was 361 lbs. Either one could be the reason. It took me about a decade to get off oxygen, get through 3 surgeries for a gallbladder, burst appendix, and hernia, and build up enough cardiovascular health to do exercise, to where I wanted to ride a bike again. My second pacemaker/defibrillator in 2010 helped with my breathing, even though I was still 330 lbs. So I bought a mountain bike. I hadn't ridden since maybe 1995.. 15 years, and I struggled a bit, around the neighborhood. After a month or so, I decided to go on a long ride with several friends, and my brothers, so we met up, and left. Along the way, a driver got too close, and I veered off the road to avoid them, and went into the ditch. I was a bit embarrassed, having so much trouble getting up off the ground, but that wasn't half as bad as what my weight did to the bike. Several other drove into the ditch, with no ill effects to their bikes.. I bent the wheel in half.. and mine was a sturdier bike, since I knew I was heavy. I never even fixed the bike.. sold it cheap after removing the wheel, and sold it as is.. got $100. Almost brand new, so I lost $500 in value, but I wanted it out of my sight. That is one reason i discovered Atkins. After 10 years of being a 330 heart patient, I realized I hadn't done a thing to lose weight.. and make it easier on me. I only did the meds, tests, and surgeries, and that kept me pretty busy. No doctor did more than say yes, I should lose some weight. They were a lot more concerned about my health from my bad heart, and diabetes, and ignored my weight most of the time.

So I'm 255. I think I will be able to bike 10 miles or so, and hoping for no issues. Since I am short, I fit her bike, and I was worried it wouldn't be sturdy enough, but it seems to be. It's red, but at least it isn't pink, and I would be OK if it was, but better that it isn't.

I have to go eat lunch soon, then plan on doing the ride, so I can get home, and watch some U-M football, and my beef chunks should be done by then.

age_is_just... your statement is is false.. we don't need vitamins & minerals which we get from fruits and vegetables.. we need vitamins and minerals.

Often, meat is a MUCH better source of these vitamins and mineral than plant sources.

Every diet has some nutrients in which we are low in. A vegetarian, for example, has to worry about being low in vitamin B12, calcium, iron, and zinc. On Carnivore, I am low on Vit.C, manganese, and Folate.

I explained that a huge reason the RDA of Vit. C is so high, is you need it to help absorb plant-based iron, which is poorly absorbed, compared to that in meat. So I do not know the RDA, if you are NOT eating plants, because you do not need Vit. C to help absorb the Iron in meat. It would be less though, and there is some Vitamin C in meats, especially raw meats. I like my food cooked, but my lunch, which is 1.5 lbs. of pork steak, has 4 mg of Vitamin C.. not a lot of the RDA.. just 4.44%, but if I don't need as much per day, then how much is enough? There is also small amounts in fresh beef, and more in beef liver. The test is whether you get scurvy though. This would take about 3 mos., if you had a deficiency to present problems, yet I know people who are past a decade without any fruits or veggies.. so we either need less on Carnivore, OR we get more than you think.. ENOUGH.. on this diet. If I get scurvy, trust me.. I will tell people, and go back on Keto.

Sometimes a lack of nutrients is due to food preferences. Mussels are a good source of manganese. 251% of the RDA in 3 ozs. I am not a fan of seafood, other than fish. I eat a serving of liver once a week.. not enough to get an avg. of 2.3 g a day.. BUT, changes in diet change RDA's.. different food sources have different absorption rates. Sometimes the RDA is higher, if the source of the nutrient does not absorb well.. if you only get 25% absorption, you might need 4x as much, for example.. so let's not assume the RDA for a high plant/carbohydrate diet applies exactly, on an all animal source diet. There would be differences. Still, you could eat 3 ozs. of mussels, and get 2.5 days of the RDA, and 3.5 ozs of steak has about .2 mg of manganese. The RDA is 2.3 mg for an adult male, so if I eat 18 ozs. of beef.. a normal meal on Carnivore.. that's 1.2 mg., well over half your needs.

Part of the problem is.. some of these nutrients don't have a lot, in a serving, so we hear another food, which is more dense, is a better source.. you usually get 10-20 sources.. so Folate, manganese, and Vitamin C don't list any food on a Carnivore diet, as a source of these nutrients, because we see a serving as 100 grams.. or 3.5 ozs. On Carnivore though, we eat meat in lbs.. so a small amount, adds up. So you can get over half he manganese from a poor source.. beef, but get a lot of servings at a meal.. 6-8. So you may be short on a daily basis, but then get 251% from eating mussels one day.. or you eat 6 ozs., and get 502%. Maybe you like mussels, and eat 5 servings at a time, like we do beef, and that is 12.5 days of the RDA. You could do this once every 10-12 days. One meal.

I think Folate & Vitamin E is a major issue for me.. Vitamin C, and manganese I think have a lower RDA for someone on Carnivore.. but I think much of the problem is tracking, not actual amount we consume..

With variety, and looking at a week, not one day.. we get MOST of our nutrients on average.. probably more so than the average person, because our diet IS more restrictive, and we constantly get reminded about nutrient deficiency, so we work to correct the problem.

Meanwhile, you probably assume you are just fine with all your nutrients, and might be deficient in as many, if not MORE nutrients, but you won't ever check.. like most people, you will assume you are fine, until a doctor tells you otherwise.. after all, if there are no effects you can see, you probably think all is well. Everyone says you eat the right way, just like the majority, in a nation getting fatter, and sicker.

I think a person on Carnivore, probably gets better nutrition, even using YOUR RDA's for YOUR diet.

You might want to go take a class on nutrition, and learn about interactions of nutrients, and why some are needed to process others, and how they come up with RDA's. I'm not saying my diet does not have ANY deficiencies, but they are few, and no more than on other diets. The difference is I actually know about mine, and I don't sit around talking about the flaws on your diet, because unlike you.. I hope whatever you are doing works well for YOU. I am not looking to prove mine is better, or yours is not, and it always makes me wonder why people feel to talk about diets they know nothing about, as if they are nutrition experts, instead of simply people with an opinion, based on discussions they had with like-minded people on the internet.

It's amusing that you have such conviction when you make these statements you think are fact, as if nutrition is not complicated, and is settled science, and that you know what you are talking about.

I admit I know little about a " normal " diet. I don't study it, or care if it is healthy, since I don't eat it. I might be able to note where possible deficiencies might occur, and we have general guidelines, which I ight borrow, since they do apply to YOUR diet, if you are eating things in moderation, as you say, and assuming you are at least trying to eat a healthy diet, but blanket statements like you feel so confident making, would be just as wrong coming from me.

Each diet, needs to be studied, and done in ways to get as much nutrition as possible. You think your diet is easier to do that with. Guess what, I do as well. I get most of my nutrients far beyond the RDA. Variety covers some of the ones we have a deficiency in on a daily menu, and we are left with a few we need to address, or at least think about, and discuss with our doctor.

Yes, you have no experience with ZC eating. Yes, you find my diet too restrictive. No, you are wrong about sources of nutrition. there are MANY sources, many better than plant sources. Your personal is simply your opinion, and what you prefer.. enjoy what you want to. Moderation is often NOT OK, as we see. Moderation often leads to trigger foods, and overeating. Variety is good, but not completely.. some foods should not be eaten at all, because they lead to other problems. YOU may not have these problems, and that is wonderful, but apparently more than half of America, and most civilized countries get obese because when they add variety, which includes certain foods, moderation becomes impossible. That line ... everything in moderation.. is just a toss away line, which people say, but many times is VERY harmful.

I hope in the future you think a bit more, before you say things which have no basis in reality, because they are simply your opinion, or something you heard a lot, so you think it is fact.

I do want to say Thank You for wishing me Good Luck.. I hope you have much success as well, and get healthy, eating in a way you can stick with.