Dan is 38 years old and has been on a carnivore diet for over three years.
He had severe acne as a teen, but he didn’t link his diet to his skin, so he used antibiotics to treat it. After college, he set health and fitness goals. He experimented with foods he believed to be healthy, such as yogurt, oats, beans, and wraps. In his 20s, Dan transitioned to a paleo/primal lifestyle, which included lots of greens and P90X workouts.
Dan ate what he described as a very veggie-heavy version of paleo, with lots of big salads. After a few years, he started having IBS issues, orthorexia (he worried a lot about what he was eating), mental fog, and cold hands and feet. He says he can be dedicated and stubborn, so he continued eating salads.
In 2017, Dan tuned into the podcast Corporate Warrior, whose guest was Shawn Baker. This was the first time Dan was introduced to the concepts of the carnivore diet and zero-carb. “I thought it was crazy” and brushed it aside. But the ideas stuck, and he followed Dr. Baker and others in the community. Eventually, he gave it a try.
In May 2018, he bought meat, eggs, butter, and cheese. It was an animal feast, and it felt good. After that day, he finished up veggies in his fridge and then just didn’t buy anymore.
For the first three months, he ate pork, chicken, lamb, ground beef, eggs, cheese, butter, canned sardines and salmon, and some liver.
Dan experienced some digestive upset when he went from eating three ounces of meat at a meal to two or three pounds daily. He expected it, though, and says it wasn’t that bad.
To help his lingering digestive issues, Dan eliminated dairy, pork, and chicken. He likes the way beef fills him up. Today, his go-to meats are strip steaks, ground beef, back ribs, neck bones, and ribeyes when they’re on sale. Dan uses egg yolks like a sauce for steak.
Dan enjoys the “freedom in the simplicity” of the carnivore diet—there is no meal planning, shopping list, or stress about what foods to eat.
Eating to satiety is easier on carnivore. Dan trusts his body to tell him when he’s full, although it took him a while to identify his hunger and fullness cues. Now, he doesn’t have to “police himself around food,” and he has fewer thoughts related to disordered eating.
Before carnivore, Dan found that some days he didn’t feel like exercising. Now he’s motivated to exercise. He got stronger and built more muscle. He has more sustainable energy during workouts, and his recoveries are better too.
His digestion has largely improved. But Dan is still working on his gut health, as he recently had a gut infection. He recovered more quickly from this infection than he did when he got one and was eating a lot of greens.
Dan encourages you to network with others in the Revero community. He says this journey is “not exactly linear,” and you may want to seek out others to ask questions and share experiences.
“I am a work in progress.” He emphasizes that you don’t need to be perfect, and your journey will evolve. He truly enjoys helping people on their carnivore paths.
