Transitioning from one thing to another can be difficult. It doesn’t matter where you’re starting or where you’re going. Changes in relationships, jobs, and family situations are challenging, and diet is the same. The transition period is a stressful time on your physiology, and problems can often manifest in several ways. A new diet, regardless of its composition, affects gut function, causes a stress response, and induces some metabolic changes. But I can give you some ideas of what to expect and how to handle any issues.
Fatigue
One of the most common issues of the transition period to a carnivore diet is fatigue, lethargy, or poor energy. As you ramp up your metabolic machinery to deal with a new fuel source, you initially will be fairly inefficient. Your capacity to extract all the nutrition from meat may be compromised. Many people suffer from decreased stomach acid production or other digestive maladies, and those issues may take a while to resolve after you transition to a carnivore diet. While your body works on resolving those issues, you may find that you can’t eat as much as you need to, or perhaps you’ll eat quite a bit but won’t fully absorb it. Whether you’re undereating or not making use of all that you do eat, a lack of adequate calories and other nutrients can lead to poor energy or fatigue. Eating more is the most helpful solution for this, and it’s what I suggest as the first line of treatment. Increasing your meal frequency and adding salt to your diet often allow you to eat a bit more. For some people, digestive enzymes—like lipases, proteases, or HCl supplements—aid with the transition period. Most people can discontinue them after a few weeks.
Bowel Movements
Malabsorption, typically of fat, can often show up as steatorrhea, or fatty, loose stools. As you transition to the carnivore diet, your microbiome goes through a shift in its composition. The fiber-loving magical bacteria in your gut dies off and is replaced with meat-loving bacteria. One of the more common digestive issues as this happens is not constipation but diarrhea. Most people on a high-fiber diet are accustomed to daily (and often multiple daily) bowel movements. Going on a carnivore diet will dramatically reduce the volume of waste you produce, and it will likely lead to less frequent bowel movements. What many people mistake for constipation, particularly early on in the diet, is just a dramatic reduction in waste.
If you’re not having discomfort or pain when you have a bowel movement, you don’t have anything to be concerned about. Some people find that adding a bit more dietary fat or avoiding dairy can help things move a bit quicker. Can you suffer from true constipation while you’re on the carnivore diet? Sure, but it’s not common, and sometimes it’s a result of an electrolyte issue that has caused altered gut motility. Adding fat, fluids, and sometimes electrolytes can be helpful.
GERD
Gastroesophageal reflux disorder (GERD) is a common condition for many people. In most cases, the carnivore diet seems to clear up this problem. However, some people find that the diet makes reflux worse or that nausea or other types of dyspepsia occur. For some people, fat, or perhaps meat in general, is difficult to digest. Strategies to deal with this problem include lowering the fat content a bit and temporarily adding digestive aids as you go through the transition period. Hydrochloric acid supplements (most commonly betaine HCl) or a bile supplement (like ox bile) can be effective. Some people notice that not drinking water around mealtimes can help; the theory is that water in the stomach dilutes the stomach acid and decreases the acidity of the stomach, which leads to difficult digestion. Some people have observed that adding salt to their diet helps with symptoms of reflux as well.
Joint Pain and Gout
For the vast majority of carnivore converts, joint pain or other musculoskeletal pain diminishes or goes away completely. A small subset of people reports a temporary increase in pain as they first start the diet. One possible reason for this phenomenon of more pain is higher uric acid levels. We know that elevated uric acid levels are associated with gout, and a diet that puts someone into ketosis can sometimes lead to increased uric acid levels. The uric acid level likely increases because the body is inefficient at using the ketones, so for a while, more ketones are excreted as waste in the urine. The ketones the kidney excretes can competitively inhibit the excretion of uric acid, so the level of uric acid rises and potentially results in joint pain or other pains. Over time, your body becomes more efficient at using the ketones you produce, the uric acid levels often normalize, and the joint pain disappears.
Skin Conditions
Some people report that they develop a rash as they transition to the carnivore diet, but the incidence seems fairly rare. Skin issues are likely related to the elimination of ketones (as I describe in the previous section). In this case, the body excretes the ketones through the skin, which results in an irritation response. Skin conditions usually resolve with time as the body becomes more efficient with using ketones.
Headaches
One transition-phase issue I dealt with was headaches. Headaches are most likely related to fluid and electrolyte shifts that occur as your body adjusts to the new eating regimen. In my case, the headaches were sporadic and very mild; I had them off and on for about ten days. For those who experience headaches when they first start the carnivore diet, I recommend eating more food and upping fluid and electrolyte intake. Even if you don’t alter your habits, the headaches generally pass fairly quickly.
Muscle Cramps
Muscle cramps are another fairly common occurrence that seems to crop up with some regularity among carnivore dieters. Electrolyte or hydration problems may be at play here. For most people, the cramps dissipate with more time on the diet. I’ve been following the diet for years, and I get an occasional muscle cramp, but I can almost always relate it to having exercised very hard and without eating at an appropriate time in relation to my exercise. Eating relatively soon after you exercise—at least within a few hours—can sometimes help reduce the occurrence of muscle cramps.
Some people find electrolyte supplementation helpful. People have tried adding regular salt (sodium chloride), potassium, and magnesium and have found varying results. Some people soak in Epsom salts to alleviate muscle cramps. If you experience cramps, the first thing I suggest you do is to look at your overall food intake to ensure it’s adequate. Beyond that, you can add various electrolytes in the form of salt (such as Redmond Real Salt) or electrolyte supplement.
Ketosis
The point of the carnivore diet is not to achieve a state of constant ketosis, and artificially manipulating fat ratios is not part of the program. I believe it’s counterproductive to measure ketones because it usually leads to unnecessary anxiety and a waste of money that you could otherwise spend on food. If you have a medical condition that requires you maintain a minimal level of ketones, you’re in a different situation. For most folks, though, I recommend putting away both the ketone monitor and the scale. Remember, your ultimate goal is to be in a position where appetite and eating are naturally controlled, and you’re not constrained by some arbitrary number or a predetermined fasting window.
Energy Level
Many people say they notice a general increase in their energy and work or exercise capacity. People often state that they have very restorative sleep, but the overall quantity of sleep they get decreases. Perhaps people on the carnivore diet require less sleep because they have better materials with which to repair their bodies, and they might be less beat up metabolically. However, not everyone immediately has deep, restorative sleep as soon as they transition to the carnivore diet. Some people have a hard time sleeping, particularly early on. Some people feel the need to urinate, and it wakes them up at night. Eating more protein can require more water for processing the food, which can lead to increased thirst. Salt ingestion also likely plays a role here. Modulating salt intake might be another strategy for preventing fluid shifts at night.
Excerpted from The Carnivore Diet, By Dr. Shawn Baker.
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Reviewed & approved by
Dr. Shawn Baker, MD & Carnivore.Diet team.
17 thoughts on “Carnivore Diet Tips: Nine Tips for the New Carnivore”
is acidity of carnivore diet a concern for people with low GFR?
What’s the best thing to do for diarrhea and bubble guts after about three weeks of transitioning?
Great article. One thing not mentioned here though is oxalate dumping. I followed a keto diet for over a year before I switched to carnivore. I felt like a million bucks and had zero reservations about my decision to eat this way. But, about 18 months in, I had terribly painful kidney stones, which, at first, I assumed were uric acid stones and were maybe a result of eating so much protein. Thankfully, someone in the community made me aware of oxalate dumping, which I am almost 100% certain is what I was suffering. A big part of why I think this is because I have never had another bout of stones, and I didn’t change my diet. The pain of those stones was immense and if would have turned out that my carnivore diet was the cause, I would have jumped ship, which is why I am suggesting that this be included.
Keep up the great work and for providing such useful content.
Cheers
-Bjørn
Research does show that the keto diet u were on may have been dissolving your “already existing” kidney stones… it takes time for these to go away and often what happens is as the stone deteriorates a small piece can break off and “pass”, this confuses the person that believe they got the stone from keto when in fact they had it to begin with and it’s actually resolving… we must remember where we have come from before cha go g our diets – many of us had eaten a western SAD diet for decades or even 50 years before switching to the proper Human diet of mostly meat. Hope this helps and yes I agree with the oxalate process as that too could play a role in a number of symptoms but stones take a long time to create. Likely they were from your first half of life diet.
My stomach is so extended 2 months in. Severe acid reflux at night. No bowel movements at all. I don’t know what to do. I’m following carnivore exactly. Came from keto diet into carnivore.
Suffering from heartburn, and I’m going to be a carnivore my whole life, and hopefully stop over burping 24/7, or what I call vomit burps. By the way I wanna know all the ways as to how I can increase stomach acid to digest meat because I suffer from low stomach acid which therefore makes me constantly bloated.
For some reason I always feel full, but I’m constantly craving to eat carbs, And I believe this to be so because since my body isn’t producing enough stomach acid to digest meat or other foods high in protein and fat, it looks at the foods which don’t require a lot of stomach acid to be broken down and signals my brain to eat them which is essentially carbs.
I know that if I’m patient hopefully Inshallah I’ll get my stomach acid to be strong again It’s just I have to go through this extreme suffering to gain the rewards in the long run.
By the way I am 14 years old, and I have been probably suffering from gerd since I was 9 so that’s about 5 years of suffering.
Today is my first day I give this carnivore diet a shot plus I plan on intermittent fasting everyday until I get cured where I only eat lunch and dinner and they’re not too big of meals because I feel very full often.
Most importantly I will not consume the slightest bit of starches, carbs, or anything sugary like a fruit or vegetable. Vegetables make gas and I don’t like that so no to that.
My biggest regret in terms of my diet was not eating healthy when I was young, and listening to those liars who said meat is bad for you, and vegan foods are great when they are nothing but propaganda supporting fast food companies.
My tip for anyone reading this don’t believe whatever the American heart association says they’re a bunch of liars, pepsico sponsors them, and coca cola sponsors them.
By the way biggest tips for anyone reading this Shawn Baker, KenDberry are carnivores follow them they tell the truth. Maybe KenDberry is keto but I’m not sure regardless they teach the importance of following a low carb diet high in fat, and protein.
By the way I wanna end it off by saying great health is the richest form of wealth.
I believe as to what my problem with Gerd is that I have low stomach acid, but my poops are getting better on carnivore, but I’m still facing indigestion where protein fatty foods are fermenting in my gut making it hard to digest unlike carbs because they don’t require a lot of stomach acid but cause the most harm.
I’m still going to push through it on a carnivore diet until I get cured inshallah, be patient you’ll get rewarded.
I still seem to suffer from a lot of gas stuck in my gut(indigestion) where I have to burp it all out to the best of my ability because of low stomach acid, but regardless this diet seems to be doing the best to me, and I’m doing this while intermittent fasting to raise some stomach acid. No breakfast just lunch, and dinner.
Heartburn sucks, and this pain sucks but I know that if I was too be cured I could look back and be proud that I disiplined myself to eat healthy, and live life healthy.
I also seek to be cured so that during vacations I can spend time with my family eating what they eat, and not letting them have the feeling that I’m being disrespectful because I refuse to eat cheesecake or something like that.
It’s tough you know? I’m just 14 years old suffer heartburn every day I wish I could get help, and always giving it my best but I’m still going to be more patient for this is my second day. good luck on your journey to getting back greater health.
I also want to try apple cider vinegar diluted in water for Gerd but I’m scared, and I also can’t get it. I also struggle swallowing pills where I can assure you I never swallowed a pill in my life without secretly chewing it so that my parents wouldn’t get mad at me which I know is bad but I drink extreme amounts of water afterwards.
I probably haven’t attempted to swallow a pill in like over 5 years I think. Anyways Incase I ever do get my hands on betaine hydrochloric acid + pepsin is it possible if I can chew it or is it small to swallow whole with water please someone tell me.
Oh yeah I don’t know why people don’t talk about this but I also believe a symptom of Gerd is stuck gas in throat which is why I struggle swallowing sometimes, and find ease other times.
Anyways I’m doing good so far just want to remind everyone reading be patient and reward will come soon. Good luck!
Hello there end of 2nd day still suffering from this Gerd, and heartburn however I tried apple cider vinegar diluted in water for the first time unsure whether it made me feel better or worse, but I didn’t think much about it but I do have too say it taste disgusting.
Anyways I don’t know but I have stuck gas all the time in my throat, and belly where I have to burp to release it out because when I drink I can literally feel the bubbles in my throat.
By the way I did mess up on my carnivore diet because I ate a hot dog which had some garlic something so not good but anyways I”ll keep moving on forward and post results until I get cured inshallah.
Good luck on your journey!
Plus now while intermittent fasting or dry fasting until lunch I changed it to where I plan on consuming apple cider vinegar with water in the morning.
Warning for new apple cider vineager people do not drink it by itself, I didn’t do that but another warning which I did do is don’t put too much apple cider vinegar in water where it still burns your back throat.
I learned that the hard way but oh well we’ll just see how things turn out.
Please if anyone is still here and has additional advice for Gerd sufferers please help it would be fully appreciated.
Most important tip I have before I leave and that is sometimes less is more so don’t over do it.
More good luck!
3rd Day in the morning I took the apple cider vinegar and well I still cant tell whether I feel better or not.
Anyways I found out that people problem of having acid go to their throat was different from my mine where I just had pepsin stuck in my throat which was that gas bothering thing making it difficult to swallow.
If anybody knows anything I can do to help myself then please offer free advice!
Thanks.
I keep messing up due to severe sugar cravings, but I’m going to learn from my mistakes, and not repeat them, and plus when I get cured Inshallah trust me when I say this I will go back on this platform and tell everyone who can read this that I got cured from a carnivore diet, and that this is my way of dietary life. It is hard knowing that I live in America, and canola oil is in every product, infact my parents bought a smoked turkey and I looked at its carb and it had 0, and I was like wow this is a miracle my prayers have been answered to eating healthy.
But little did I know as I turned the thing around, and I looked at the ingredient I saw “Modified Food Starch”. My first thought that came to my mind is what psychotic individuals put sugar in meat/turkey or other animal food.
Reminded of my time when I went to school, I still go to school and I wanted beef jerky because I was hungry and I was about to take a bite when I decided let me check the ingredients just in case, and what I found was added sugars.
It’s so sad because as a person suffering from IBS, and Gerd you really can’t eat anything without starving yourself, and don’t even get me started on the sugar cravings.
Even harder when I go carnivore I get explosive diarrhea not that I really care because I always believed that is just my bodies way of getting rid of waste that was harmful inside of me.
Experiencing flashback memories of when I trusted a fart was gonna be a fart, but it turned out to be something else. Anyways lol moving on I’ll go back to carnivore and post regular updates on my journey which is extremely difficult, and hard because where I live it feels near impossible to find a way out, so I’ll just keep hoping, and try to make a way out for myself.
Good luck!
If you mess up don’t disappoint yourself over it just look back and see what you can learn, and as far as I can tell you I messed up a lot today like almost ate the box of Twinkies, and cupcakes because of sugar cravings. Just have your next meal be a carnivore one and don’t give up on yourself!
I really hope if anyone is on here they give me advice, oh and extra tip I ate a canned tuna but it had water, and vegetable flavor on it, which really gave me bad Gerd.
I would like to tell people that Gerd isn’t acid coming back up the stomach lining, but rather stomach contents. That stomach contents can consist of acid, but lets say you drink water you will feel that water bubble come to your throat because your sphincter isn’t receiving enough acid to keep it closed so it remains opened. In this case take apple cider vinegar diluted it with water before a meal wait 15-20 minutes and eat healthy proper human diet like steak, chicken or egg, or shrimp or anything like that like fish and see how you feel.
Good luck, and I didn’t forget my promise!
Took my diet seriously today where I intermitted fasting drank only apple cider vinegar diluted in water, and so far I still have to say I still suffer from heartburn, and too much gas stuck in throat but nonetheless I believe if I’m patient my reward will come, I just have to give time for my body to heal. I have to transform my body to a ketosis state where I burn fat and not sugar.
After all this time I finally figured out what was triggering my heartburn. For me it was actually a symptom of IBS, and not low stomach acid. No wonder because I always felt like I was having so much gas in my stomach it felt very hard to deal with constantly being bloated, diarehia and things like this. I drank apple cider vinegar diluted with water so my explanation is this has to be IBS cause I still got heartburn. In fact I get heartburn when I typically stand, when I sit I still get it but it is not as severe, but most importantly when I lay I don’t get it at all which sounds the exact opposite case as someone who has Gerd.
By the way doesn’t make too much a difference other than I know that the cure for Gerd, and IBS is carnivore but with IBS you want to avoid fiber at all cost. Diarehia+Fiber= One of the worst days of your life.
Good luck on your journey where I will still be posting updates till I get cured.
Biggest struggle is dealing with seed oils.
Never give up!
Hello there so actually as it turns out I believe I have candida which might be a cause as to my acid regurgitation burps, but regardless I’m sticking on this carnivore diet, and so far I’m getting slightly better with improved stool.
It was weird cause I went from explosive diarehia 30 minutes after eating an omelette being so yellow to know brown constipated poop. The solution would just be to increase my fat intake, and remain patient and hopefully the oral thrush goes away.
Good luck.
Actually I believe I have candida as a symptom, but SIBO as a root cause.
Remember that 70% of your immune system tends to hang around the small intestine, so it’s likely that my immune system has been somewhat partially compromised by SIBO allowing an increase of bad diseases to struck upon me, but I’m managing it by going carnivore eating 2 times a day, and fasting for 12 hours from morning till night, and from night till morning.
I will say if you don’t know this it is said garlic is great for people with SIBO, but it is not required if you go carnivore, and remain patient.
Anyway my plan is essentially to go carnivore, and when symptoms disappear gradually add 1 garlic clove, and hopefully the allicin in garlic kills SIBO, and then be a bit more free with my diet.
I hope that after going carnivore, I can switch to more of an animal based diet, and occasionally have a treat of cheesecake only for vacation, or a treat of anything for vacation because I just get sad thinking about my last vacation when I almost lost the ability to breath sleeping after eating so much cake because of my sister birthday.My heart rate was pounding so hard that day like 140 beats per minute. You might be wondering how did you sleep? I didn’t after that instead I was breathing heavily that night, but compared to right now I have to say I’m feeling a lot better than what I felt in Egypt.
In fact I’m not gonna lie I had the weirdest dream of a cat staring angrily at me the same day which I’m not gonna lie kind of stuck with me as a memory because I don’t know about you but I believe it was some kind of message, like maybe be patient, and hold on no matter how tough things get, cause you will face a lot of pain, but if you be patient it will be good in your favor.
I will say this however, and that is while I do plan to stick to carnivore diet until I get cured, the only time I’ll probably eat anything els(only if I’m cured)e for a short while such as a vacation is when I’m with family or friends, but as of right now and for so many upcoming years I will probably stick to the carnivore diet, and hope it does wonders for me to where I can now transition into the animal based diet, where I can include raw milk, honey, mangoes, and strawberries.
In fact what’s interesting is that before I figured out I had SIBO I was eating a ton of mangoes in Egypt one day which probably explained why I was coughing a barky cough the next day, and had the most dryest throat in the whole world to where I felt like I was chocking on air.
Best tip of advice never ever ever ever ever ever eat oatmeal. You’re belly will bigger than a pregnant lady even if you are the most skinniest person in the world. Oatmeal will feed that SIBO, its horrible food, if not the worst. Please if you have to eat something to live I would rather eat cup of noodles than oatmeal, it was the worst, you would be doing your stomach a great favor, but regardless both are horrible.
Just eat eggs, or find a grass fed beef, or if that’s out of your budget grain fed beef. In the end its just beef.
So to sum it up I’m being carnivore, then when I get cured I’ll follow an animal-based diet, and the only time I will cheat on the diet is when I’m on vacation. Me being 14 years old facing a ridiculous amount of pain with huge amounts of fatigue, and exhausting, and stuck gas in throat, and weird sucking of my stomach where when I breathe partially my gut feels like its getting sucked in making it hard to breathe, that’s really bad.
It’s just when you’re a teenager and everyone else can eat 100 chocolate bars in school, or eat a cupcake for breakfast, or do the worst of the worst to their health, and you see them laughing having a great time, contemplate how it is when I eat an egg and I am still suffering.
Oh well I have made great progress, but I wish I made it to the end right now where I am cured hopefully from this disease.
Be strong on carnivore!
Good luck on your journey.
Its been some time since I posted I think I have been going 4 days carnivore straight. My plan is essentially go on carnivore diet forever till I get cured.
I didn’t keep track of time well because I don’t need to because regardless of how long it will take I am sticking to this diet for this diet seems to be the only one causing the least amount of pain towards me at least that I know of.
Key Differences:
Less gas stuck in my throat.
My bowels feel worse kind of inflamed or maybe I’m noticing the pain more without the numb feeling.
Wondering what sickness I actually have.
Might be or might not be experiencing the die off symptom of methane sibo yesterday.
Starting to consider that maybe I have IBD due to the inflammation I feel when i touch my gut.
I’m still going carnivore so that I may get cured through this diet, and well see how long it will take if I do get cured.
Good luck.
Well I’m still going on carnivore, and while its helped heal my gut, I don’t think its fixed the root cause.
Now I suspect all this time I have hydrogen sulfide SIBO, but I don’t know what to diet to follow anymore, but I’m just gonna keep going on this.
Hydrogen Sulfide Sibo is where sulfur feeds the bacteria, which is high in eggs, meat, and other protein sources. So I feel like I don’t know what to eat, if anyone is there who cured their hydrogen sulfide SIBO, tell me what diet I should follow.