The Carnivore Diet Experiment
I've conducted an interesting eating experiment or two this year and since the experiments are over I can share the details with any who may be interested and or helped by it.
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If you're looking for something to try these last 100 days of the year, maybe this?
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In January I decided I would eat only meat, cheese, eggs and drink water...aka the carnivore diet.
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Fish could be included on such a diet but if it's not breaded, I'm not eating it.
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Not sure where I first read of a diet like this but it sounded interesting...there were several huge Facebook groups with people extolling the virtues...saying they felt great...blood work was great... even after years of eating exclusively that way.
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I looked at the calendar and saw no family birthdays I'd be invited to in January...meaning I wouldn't have to miss any birthday cake...so starting on January 2nd (lots of sweets on January 1st) I started the carnivore diet.
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Here's my journal entry from Day 1...
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1st meal...11AM…. 4 hardboiled eggs and 7 strips of bacon
Snack 2:30...some pork rinds
Dinner 5:45...some sizzle steak and a piece of MJ cheese
9:22...end of day 1...feeling good and full.
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Day 31...
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10AM 4 egg omelet and 7 strips of bacon
Snack around 2PM...final bit of pepperoni
No dinner tonight...had a meeting and drank water and by the time I got home I wasn’t feeling hungry.
My inventory leftover inventory is 4 eggs...two pounds of bacon, 1 cheese stick and 1 stick of butter so I seem to have ended it at just the right time.
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Lots of bacon cheeseburgers too. Pork chops and steak were common.
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At the end of the month I could make an omelet...something I'd never been able to do before.
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I also had never prepared my own steak or pork chops at home prior to this month.
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Such growth!
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I did have a few pieces of gum every day too.
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I ate most of my breakfasts around 10 or 11 AM so by default I was intermittent fasting as well.
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I can't say that I noticed a difference in my energy levels.
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Bathroom requirements were very different. Let's just say...less often.
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On Saturday, February 2nd I woke up and had a delicious bowl of sugary cereal and some toast.
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Which cereal I can't recall. And from then on I was back to the standard American diet.
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Lots of sugar...lots of microwaving etc.
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At the beginning of January I weighed..198.8 At the beginning of February I weighed 186.2
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That's right where I was in high school and college.
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Note to self: you don't make friends when you tell them you weigh the same now as you did in high school.
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Unfortunately, I don't know what my blood work looked like at the end of the month of carnivore.
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The previous March my total cholesterol was 172 but that's all I would know until my next blood work about 40 days later.
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I had a hunch that a carnivore diet would be OK for me since I have more neanderthal in my DNA than 99% of the 23 and me customer base.
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I'm practically a caveman!
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This is what my blood work looked like on March 7th...40ish days after the end of the carnivore experiment.
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Cholesterol total 193
Triglycerides 96
HDL 41
LDL 139
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Most of those numbers are as high as they've ever been.
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As my doctor handed me the results, he said..."this is what the caveman diet does for you."
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He wanted to prescribe a statin but I said "my mouth got me into this, let me see if my mouth can get me out of it."
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I weighed 192 at my March annual physical.
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He wanted to see me again in six months...September 11th.
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Some time in April I decided I was going to adopt AND adapt the WF/PB eating plan to improve my cholesterol.
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WF/PB= Whole food/plant based.
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Again, not sure where I first learned about it but probably on Facebook.
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I ate WF/PB at home only. I ate whatever was available away from home but mostly WF/PB at home.
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My one indulgence at home was 1 Reese's pieces cookie for desserts. (if you're local they're at Hannaford. You're welcome)
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It should be noted that "out in the wild" I made no special adjustments to my diet.
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If there was salad available I might have had some in addition to the hot dogs and hamburgers, cakes and cookies.
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If there was a buffet, I stuffed myself.
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Which is all a long way of saying I wasn't militant with my WF/PB WOE (way of eating)
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Breakfast at home is oatmeal or grape nuts...typically with a banana and almond milk.
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Lunch might be a veggie burger, french fries (cooked in an air fryer) said cookie and water.
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Dinner, whole wheat spaghetti...tomato sauce, cookie and water. Sometimes a salad but rarely. Tomato sauce was plain old tomato sauce.
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My guides are strongly anti-oil...olive, sunflower etc. Most spaghetti sauces in area stores have some sort of oil so I passed on those.
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There are lots more exciting options for eating this way but I'm lazy and usually hungry.
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For dinner... 1-3 times a week I would go out and grab a slice or two of pizza or a burger or two + dinner at my parent's house on Sunday if I was invited.
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Again...I was far from strict.
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These were my guides...
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https://www.drmcdougall.com/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1116860811765784/
http://www.dresselstyn.com/site/
https://engine2diet.com/ (he is a son of the guy above)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/176142352798557/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1116860811765784/
http://www.dresselstyn.com/site/
https://engine2diet.com/ (he is a son of the guy above)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/176142352798557/
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Last week was the moment of truth...6 months of mostly WF/PB
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Survey says...
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Cholesterol total 125 (down 68 points)
Triglycerides 91 (down 5 points)
HDL 31 (down 10 points)
LDL 86 (down 53 points)
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All but the triglycerides was as low as they've even been since at least 2013.
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I weighed 183...down 9 pounds from March and 15 lbs from January.
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Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, the 6 days before my most recent blood work, my diet was 100% plant based except for one smoothie I had which included some yogurt.
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Is that gaming the system? I don't know.
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I know I didn't lose those 9 lbs in 6 days.
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Someday there will be an app that can tell us our cholesterol levels day to day but not yet?
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Strangely, my doctor showed zero interest in how I got those numbers down. Said it all looked great, though.
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I'm happy to answer questions about what I did.
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This is my story. It worked for me. Your mileage will vary.
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