The carnivore diet is an all meat and animal product-based diet that is something I have been using for the past few years. It is a vital tool that can be used to control your body composition. If you need a refresher on what exactly the carnivore diet is, check out my previous post How to Eat the Carnivore Diet: is it Healthy?. The below 14 tips for the carnivore diet are ones I have learned over the past few years by listening to people like Dr. Paul Saladino, Dr. Shawn Baker, and Mark Bell, as well as continuous research by YouTube, reading, and just trying it myself.
1. If you’re on a budget, buy cheaper cuts of beef like ground beef, chuck roast, stew meat and brisket.
Probably the largest reason I have heard for not doing the carnivore diet is that meat is expensive. This is something that I can tell you is not a good excuse because I started using the carnivore diet while in my undergraduate degree. It is definitely possible to do something like this on a tight budget. The worst my grocery bill ever got during college was about $80 a week, and this is because I very rarely went out to eat. So almost all of my food came from the grocery store. The 80 bucks was when I was trying to gain weight as well. I ate a lot of ground beef, chuck roast, and the other beef that was on sale at Walmart. The point isn’t to eat filet mignon and NY strip every day, you can definitely eat the carnivore diet on a budget.
2. Mix in organ meats: more nutrients and sometimes cheaper since few people buy them
Don’t be afraid to try organ meats as well. Some of them you won’t like, some of them you will be surprised about. I personally come from a family that never ate organ meats, and it wasn’t until I moved out on my own for college that I found out I actually really enjoy beef liver. Nose-to-tail eating is something that I am very interested in trying and if you would like to learn more, Ashleigh Vanhouten is someone you definitely need to look up. She has a cookbook called It Takes Guts that is all about nose to tail eating.
3. Go to the direct source if you can. Find local farms, ranches or even meat delivery services, and buy in bulk.
Try to get as close to the source as you can. One of the things I have noticed for me is that my body doesn’t care too much for the more processed meats. If you can find a local farm or ranch that will sell you meat, that is an amazing option to explore. A lot of the time they will want you to buy in bulk, but this option is cheaper than buying individual packages at the store. Meat delivery services like Butcher Box are also a great option. You can literally get a big box of meat in the mail every month. There are other ones out there, I just know my father uses Butcher Box and thoroughly enjoys it. They actually have really good cuts too. Another is Piedmontese beef that Mark Bell talks about on his podcast The Mark Bell Power Project. I haven’t used them yet, but I plan to try them out at some point.
4. Don’t be afraid to use the freezer. Use it
Your fridge has a freezer for a reason. This goes back on the above tip with buying in bulk. You can freeze meat for a long time. There are other ways of preserving it as well, but I usually just freeze it. An amazing consequence of freezing the meat is that if you put it in an air fryer while it is frozen, the outside will cook, and the inside will stay much rarer than if you had it thawed out. I prefer my steak rare to medium rare, and that is one thing I’ve noticed that helps me get my steak how I want.
5. Rotate through different protein sources. Venison, elk, buffalo, and salmon are other great choices.
There are other meats you can eat, not just beef. Venison, elk, buffalo, salmon, and multiple others are also great nutrient-dense sources you can have that will give you some variety to your diet. You can also check out one of my other posts where I go more in depth on the types of meat that are great for carnivore. (Click here)
6. Cook with bone-in cuts. Generally cheaper since not as much processing involved.
Just because it has a bone it in, doesn’t mean it’s a bad cut. Actually, sometimes the cuts of meat with a bone in it can be cheaper since there is less processing involved before selling. A great perk of buying and cooking bone-in cuts is you can make your own bone broth. This way you won’t have to buy it, and you will also know exactly what is in it. Bone broth is believed to reduce inflammation in your gut. This can improve the health of your digestive system, and on top of that, it can add more variety in your diet as well.
7. Your diet affects you, no one else.
Since this is a diet that not many people do, people will probably look at you weird. Just remember that what you eat does not affect other people. You are eating for you and you only. If you want to be average, then eat like average people do. But average people aren’t usually happy about their health and body composition, are they? If you want to be above average, then you will have to do things that average people do not normally do. This is one thing that can help set you apart.
8. Don’t be dogmatic. Be willing to try different things and see what helps you the most.
One thing I have always had trouble understanding is how dogmatic people can be, and this goes both ways. I have met people that are so into a diet, not even specifically carnivore, that they refuse to believe any change to their protocol is possible and if they even think of changing anything that it will ruin all of their efforts. This goes in the other direction as well. There are some people that believe even eating the smallest amount of red meat will kill you, 100% probability. Now, these extremes aren’t that common, but I have met people that follow each doctrine. Don’t fall into dogma, keep an open mind and be willing to try new things. If they don’t work, stop doing them. If they do, keep them.
9. It can take time for the body to adjust to eating a carnivore diet. If you get constipation, try salt and magnesium. If you get diarrhea, digestive enzymes may help.
This is an important tip. When the body gets accustomed to eating the same way, especially for years, it tends not to like straying from that diet. So, if you start the carnivore diet, it may start to change how things go, even in the bathroom. Using some salt and magnesium may help if you become constipated, and digestive enzymes may help if you consistently get diarrhea. I have not personally had either of these problems while on the carnivore diet, however, I have been adhering to a primarily meat-based diet for years. I have met some people who had the more standard American diet of fast food and soft drinks, and this was a problem for them. These are both things I was told they found out helped them.
10. Slowly transition into the diet.
Slowly transitioning into a new diet is good advice for trying anything new. Regardless of the diet, slowly transition into it. This piggy backs on the previous tip as it has similar reasoning. The body gets accustomed to consuming a certain diet throughout the years, so if you suddenly change that, it may have more drastic effects. By slowly transitioning into a new diet, you are better able to react to any unwanted effects it may have on you.
11. You can use spices!
Don’t be afraid to spice things up. No one said you have to only eat plain steak. I do this sometimes, only eat the meat without any seasoning, but no one says you have to. Feel free to be creative with your spices. Use whatever you want, as long as it doesn’t have any sugar in it. If you are a busy person like me, and don’t have time to use 5 different spices on every piece of meat, you can buy premade blends that are at the grocery store without any sugar or calories, and they tend to be pretty good. You can also put on the spices after you cook the meat. I do this when I am cooking meat in bulk. I will cook only the meat, without any spices, and I will just add the spices right before I eat it. This way I make the choice when I know what flavor I want.
12. Do further research. Read the books and watch the YouTube videos, just like you would do for any other diet
There are plenty of sources where you can learn more. If you want anything to work for you long term, you must be willing to constantly learn more about it. Listen to doctors who talk about the carnivore diet. Doctors like Dr. Shawn Baker and Dr. Paul Saladino are both great sources of information about the carnivore diet. Also check out YouTube channels about it as well. Forever be a student.
13. Counting calories may not be necessary. Weigh yourself every day and track that.
A big problem I have noticed a lot of people have with a diet is how much extra effort they have to put in. Counting calories is one of those things that everyone hears about when they start researching into the nutrition space. However, people are busy. They have kids, a job, hobbies, family functions, etc. So, sitting there and meticulously weighing your food and counting your calories and macros isn’t so feasible for everyone. Also, average people don’t really need to be as accurate as a professional bodybuilder would. What they really care about is how much they weigh. So why not just weigh yourself every morning when you get up? That way you are only weighing yourself once instead of weighing your food 3 to 5 times a day.
Caveat. If you have never dieted before, then weighing your food is a great idea. The reason for this is it teaches you how much food you are eating. By weighing your food, you will visually see what 6oz. of steak looks like.
14. Eat until you are full
For the final tip, make sure to eat till you are full, especially when you are starting out. Any diet will be significantly harder to follow if you start out in a calorie deficit and are hungry all the time. Just focus on getting used to eating the diet first. Get comfortable eating the foods and find the meal frequency that works best for you. Does eating once a day work best for you? Or is it five times a day? Once you find that out, then you can start dialing it back and slowly decrease the amount you are eating to help you lose weight. Change one thing at a time. One, that helps you understand how that specific factor will affect you. Two, it is much easier to control one thing at a time and this also makes it easier to adhere to the diet. Consistency is key, so you have to have your sights set for the long-term as it takes time to change your lifestyle and body composition.
Some final thoughts
The carnivore diet is something that has helped me personally and I still use it to this day. As I mentioned above, I follow a meat-based diet, so the majority of my food comes from meat. Nevertheless, I have found that going straight carnivore works very well when I am trying to lose weight and bring down my body fat percentage. I do not choose to be on the carnivore diet for health reasons. I do not have any autoimmune disorder or something similar that carnivore can sometimes help. My main reason for utilizing the carnivore diet is that it gives me a tremendous amount of control over my body composition that I did not have with a more standard diet. I hope you find my 14 tips for the carnivore diet helpful as I truly believe that the carnivore diet is a vital tool to have in anyone’s nutrition toolbox.
To your wealth, health, and future,
James Forsythe
I hope you found these tips for the carnivore diet helpful!!!
For more tips on dieting in general, Click here.
