How Do You Start a Carnivore Diet? A Family Physician's Beginner's Guide 

How long should you try the carnivore diet?

Commit to a time period. I started carnivore as a 30-day challenge on my Facebook page, and at the end of that month I felt so much better, even better than on keto, that I kept adding months. Some benefits of carnivore show up within days. Others take weeks or months. I encourage you to do at least a 30-day carnivore challenge, or 60 or 90 days, depending on your health or weight issues.

How much should you eat on carnivore?

Eat until you're comfortably stuffed. There is no calorie counting, no portion control and really no macro counting on a carnivore diet. When you're hungry, sit down and eat until you're comfortably stuffed, then stop. For the first week or two, push this a little and eat more than you think you should.

How many meals a day should you eat on carnivore?

Anywhere from one to three. If you eat until you're stuffed, there won't be any snacking in between, and there shouldn't be. If you eat three meals a day now, eat three carnivore meals. Many carnivores find that over the weeks they forget a meal and move to two meals a day. Some end up eating one very large meal a day because they aren't hungry the rest of the day. That's fine, but it's not a requirement.

What kind of meat should you eat?

Focus on fatty meat, whether fatty seafood or fatty cuts of land meat. I try to keep about a one-to-one ratio of fat to protein by weight. I don't measure; I guesstimate.

Try to make ruminant animals, like cows, sheep, goats and venison, the majority of your meat. Many carnivores seem to do better on a ruminant-heavy diet. That's not to say pork, poultry or seafood is bad.

Buy the highest quality meat you can afford. If you can afford grass-fed, grass-finished meat, great. But if all you can afford is hot dogs, bologna, potted meat and Spam, you can still do a great carnivore diet.

Don't forget eggs, liver, seafood and shellfish. Liver is a superfood multivitamin. Find a liver you love, whether cod liver, chicken liver or beef liver, and eat it two or three times a week from day one. Eat as nose to tail as you can. Our ancestors never left the liver or the marrow behind.

Should you go carnivore all at once?

No. If you've been eating a high carbohydrate junk diet for years, I don't think going 100% carnivore tomorrow is necessary or ideal. Transition over one to three weeks, maybe longer. You will probably have some carbohydrate withdrawal symptoms, and I don't want those to hit you all at once, because that makes carnivore very hard to stick with.

Why does digestion take time to adjust on carnivore?

Give your stomach, gallbladder and liver time to adapt. Your stomach acid should be very acidic, 1.3 to 2.0 on the pH scale. After years of grains and sugar, your stomach may have gotten used to a pH of three, four or five, which can't digest meat properly. It needs time to ramp up acid production.

After years of low fat eating, the smooth muscle in your gallbladder has gotten weak. Some people have gallbladder pain for a few days or weeks when they ramp up the fat. That doesn't mean you should stop. It means your gallbladder needs time to clear the sludge and strengthen.

If you don't have a gallbladder, your liver needs a few weeks to dilate its bile ducts so it can store bile. You may have some diarrhea for a few weeks until that happens.

What should you cook with on carnivore?

Animal fats. Throw away the vegetable oils and shortening; that stuff is very inflammatory and bad for you. Cook in beef tallow, bacon grease, butter or ghee.

How much salt should you use on carnivore?

Plenty. Salt is not bad for you; it's good for you. Salt to taste, and if your meat isn't salty enough, add more. Salt helps fight carbohydrate withdrawal symptoms and gives your body sodium and chloride, both essential elements it needs every day. I use SALTR.

Why do electrolytes matter when you start carnivore?

On a high carb diet you were holding anywhere from 5 to 25 pounds of unnecessary fluid. When you start low carb, keto or carnivore, you urinate that fluid away, and many people lose 5 to 20 pounds in the first week or two. That's not fat; it's fluid. Because of the way the kidney works, electrolytes go out with that fluid. A good source of electrolytes and minerals helps with carbohydrate withdrawal and with cravings, because cravings are very often a sign of mineral deficiency.

Will you get scurvy on a carnivore diet?

Many people worry about vitamin C deficiency. I know people who have eaten carnivore for over a decade without a shred of plant food and without supplements, and they have not developed scurvy or any other vitamin deficiency. We don't know exactly why yet. There is some vitamin C in liver, which is one more reason to eat it.

What can you drink on carnivore?

Make water the majority of what you drink, still or sparkling. Don't force water when you aren't thirsty. Many carnivores drink black coffee or unsweetened tea and do great. I don't think those are off limits.

How do you set yourself up to succeed?

Clean out the pantry and fridge, and tell friends and family you're doing a 90-day carnivore challenge to improve your health. Otherwise they'll be pushing carbs in your face.

Get to know your butcher or meat department manager. They can show you cuts you never knew existed, like oxtail, and save trimmed fat for you. Look for local sources too. Local ranchers and backyard chicken owners are often happy to sell to you, and it won't be as expensive as you think.

Save every bone in a freezer bag, and once or twice a week make bone broth. It's delicious and gets you the minerals and vitamins in the bones and marrow.

What should you experiment with on carnivore?

Try carnivore versus ketovore, a very meat-heavy keto diet with a few plants. Experiment with spices, rubs, onion and garlic; some carnivores have to drop them and use only salt. Play with your fat to protein ratio. I do better with fat as high as I can get it. With dairy, use only full fat. If your results aren't what you expected, try a month without dairy except butter and ghee.

If you slip up, don't fret. Don't let one meal turn into falling off the wagon for weeks. Refocus on why you're doing this and get right back on.