I was raised with a typical german diet: sugar cereal or toast for breakfast, pasta, rice or potatoes for lunch, cake or cookies as an evening snack, bread for dinner. Really high in carbohydrates, sugar, low in protein and nutrients. My typical day consisted of 4-5 meals. Because of my active childhood I always had a athletic/normal body. I ate this type of foods till I moved out from my parents home. I went to university and after one year I felt really uncomfortable in my body. In this time I ate not really healthy. At this point I wanted to change something.
First fitness diet
Going back I remember my health and fitness beginnings in 2017. Started with bodybuilding and ate a typical „fitness diet“, consisted of rice, potatoes, chicken, vegetables and low fat dairy products. Following my fitness story in the first time, my diet consisted mainly of high protein food, low fat products and sugar replacement stuff. Along my way I explored the topic of different diets and researched a lot about how food can differently effects our bodies, because I suffered with digestive issues, asthma and allergies. After reading books, studies and articles, I decided to go paleo, with a lot of whole, unprocessed foods, fresh fruit and vegetables no wheat, no dairy, no sugar replacement and no high protein fake sweets. Since than, I lived a paleo based diet and felt better than with the diet before, because of the high ‚fake foods‘ content, I’m consuming in this ‚normal‘ german diet.
In 2018 I achieved my best physique by competing in different bodybuilding fitness shows. In this period of time I ate a high protein and moderate fat, but low till no carb diet. My physique, mental clarity and overall well-being improved week by week. In this time I recognized, that our bodies don‘t need that much carbohydrates and food intake like we think.
In the fitness industry there are a lot of myths, according to ‚a healthy diet‘. After my bodybuilding competitions I increased the amount of carbohydrate intake and other foods, which I had eliminate during the bodybuilding diet. The months after it were terrible. After a period of time, I recognized some changes in my gut health. I felt not good after consuming certain kind of foods. The most day I felt like crap. I suffered from bloatings, cramps and gut issues nearly everyday. My skin was aweful and my mood too. 3 years I had a really challenging time, which was marked by numerous health issues, especially GI issues, strong asthma, allergies. The Paleo diet helped me to reduce some of my symptoms. Along my journey I reached my highest weight in July 2019, after one year of bulking. My bodyweight was at 77kg. I hold this weight till the end of 2019.
In this time I felt wrong in my body and wanted to change something. Since I am young, I am a really athletic person. As a child I was outside everyday, did a lot of different sports and loved being active. So for me it was disconcerting, seeing my body is this physique. I research a lot according to different fat loss diets. From my bodybuilding prep I know, that cutting carbs will be helpful. On 20.04.2020 I started my keto journey. Coming from a moderate carb but very low fat diet, it was completely different to my previously way of eating.
From keto to carnivore
Some of my health issues improved atfer the transition time by eating a high fat diet. Especially my energy levels increased, my skin got better, I felt energize and overall better. Since I am 10 years old I suffer from strong asthma and seasonal allergies. This year my symptoms were as bad as never before. I know, that many diseases can be fix with the right diet. Since Covid-19 came around, I used that time at home to research, how I can improve my health and fix my symptoms. My health definitely improved by the ketogenic diet, so I decided that I will continue this way of eating with some changes. Because of the fact, that I ate a lot of vegetables, nuts and seeds my gut developed some issues again, according to the big variety of food sources you can use in a ketogenic diet. For me personally, thats one of the main negative thing in a ketogenic diet. So I decided to make a change and going back to a completely natural way of eating.
In the first step, I eliminated all inflammatory foods, like nuts, avocado and eggs in my daily meals. I read a lot of studies and articles, according to the carnivore diet, which should has healing qualities. I decided to give it a try. I started with a 30 day experiment. In the first month I tried different meat sources, egg yolks, ribs, wings …etc. I ate 3 smaler meals per day. Everything I ate and how I felt was written down in my carnivore journal, where I documented my experiences along the way. After this time I felt so awesome, that I decided to continue this way of eating. Along the way I found out what works the best for me.
Current diet
Now I’m on the carnivore diet since 6 months. The baseline of my current diet is 99% beef: organic grass fed ground beef, ribeye, skirt steak, flank steak…I reduced my meals from 4-5 to only 2 meals a day. In the first months I try to figure out what works the best for me. I realised, that dairy or eggs don’t feel good on my body. So I limited that completely. Because of my lactose intolerance, I had’nt eat dairy before. So it was’nt a big deal. In the first month I eat chicken and pork too, but after a while I felt not as great as only eating beef.
I eat when I’m hungry and stop, when I’m satiated. Typically my day starts with my mineal drink ( water + salt) immediatly after wake up.
After my morning walk I eat after a 18-20h fast my first meal. Mostly it’s organic ground beef. My next meal is in the afternoon at 13 -14 pm. In between I work, go outside and do workouts. For this second meal, I eat a steak. Since I’m doing the carnivore diet I don’t track or count macros. This is something completely new to me, because I track and count macros since the beginning of my fitness journey. Definitely this is for me like a new freedom.
Summary of thesymptoms, which I could fix with the carnivore diet
GI issues, leaky gut, digestive problems
- after bodybuilding competition session I had huge troubles
- felt worse after each meal ( at this time I eat 6 meals a day)
- daily bloatings, cramps, constipation
- improvements on keto since I reduced inflammatory night shade plants (potatoes, tomatoes etc.)
- most improvements on carnivore since I totally removed plants, nuts & seeds
- no bloatings (I remeber my first entry in my carnivore journal: I feel amazing! No bloatings at all the whole day)
- no cramps after eating, no constipation
strong daily headaches
- according to my health situation in april 2020 I dealed with strong headaches daily..
my workout endurance decreased, because I could‘nt do any exercises with jumping, overhead etc. - I’ve been totally slacking off nearly everyday
- even in my keto time, which I started in May, the daily headaches didnt go away
- after reseaching on todays point of view I ate a lot inflammatory plants, nuts and seeds
- removing this food from my diet I felt the first improvements
- my mind cleared up, the strong headaches reduced day by day
- I got my drive and focus back
- the best thing I felt mental clarity
allergies, food intolerances
- Since 2017 my seasonal allergies are really bad in the spring/summer months
- I have itchy, red eyes, I cant wear my contact lenses, my nose gets blocked
- this year the symptoms were so bad… couldnt breathe deeply and in combination with my asthma I dealed with painful breaths..
- in the transition time to keto this symptoms didnt go away, because of all inflammatory plants, nuts & seed
- after I went to do carnivore and only eat meat all symptoms were GONE!
strong asthma
Because of my active lifestyle and my love to sport, that was the hardest part. I woke up and could’nt breathe deeply. When I get upstairs I was unable to breathe slowly. My workout performance decreased. In this time I used my inhaler 3 times a day and took asthma pills. I went keto in April 2020, but the symptoms did’nt go away. I was searching for another methods to naturally heal my symptoms. After my 30 day carnivore experiment I felt the first improvements. I continued this way of eating and after 2 months I was completely off from my asthma pills. After 3 months I could breathe deeply without any problems. Last week I did an intervall running training, the first time I ran without breaks. I couldnt describe how that feeling was… I was overwhelmed, because I could never breathe deeply and run wirhout breaks since years….
Now after 6 months I can’t describe how good my health is. I’m off from all asthma medicaments and inhalers. I can breathe deeply. The first time since years, without any issues even when I’m doing sport. My allergies, strong headaches, GI issues and digestive problems are ALL gone.
I got my athletic body back, went from 77kg (169,8 lbs) down to 57kg (125,6 lbs) = 44,2 lbs. This way of eating totally saved my life.
