Hey Doc. I’m a college pitcher for Shepherd University and I was hit with some devastating news about a month ago, I will need my second arm surgery in two years to keep playing baseball With about a month and a half, I decided to go all out in the weight room so I don’t too lose strength while I recover.
I saw you on Joe Rogan’s podcast and I gave the diet a try. This has been the easiest month of powerlifting of my life. My numbers increased by 8% in 30 days, I sleep better, I have more energy, I concentrate better in class and I recover so much faster. I also have no doubt that I would be throwing harder as well. This diet has truly changed my life. Not to mention I look better overall.
My diet has been nothing but moose, deer, chicken and water.
The transition was actually really easy, I ate when I was hungry and I haven’t had any cravings for sugar or carbs cause I’m just full.
Keep up the great work!
Category: surgery
Joette lost weight, improved her depression, sleep, hormones and got off 24 different medications on a carnivore diet
This is what an 80lb transformation looks like. In fact, the first 2 pics were taken the day before I had a gastric lap band installed. (18 years ago.) 7 years later the band would fail & nearly kill me. I had an emergency surgery & to have it removed. The 80lbs I had lost from the surgery came back almost immediately! I had a band on my stomach, which restricted my food intake, which also restricted my nutrients that lead to poor metabolism, destroyed my hormone health, etc… Since Jan. 3, 2017 I have been effortlessly losing the 80lbs again, but have never restricted my calories, I have never felt starved or deprived! I’m sure I have fixed my metabolic health, hormones, depression, anxiety, cellular heath & much more! Up to July 31st 2018, I was eating #ketogenicdiet . Aug. 1, 2018 (my birthday) I switched to the #carnivorediet … My journey wasn’t just weight loss anymore, it was healing! 
I’m off 24 meds now, a CPAP machine, inhaler, infusions from the doctors office every 8 weeks, Celiac Disease & IBS under control, no more hypertension that had to be controlled with 4 different meds and ‘3’ Autoimmune Diseases in remission! I’m so thankful that @kendberry.md put a 1 month Carnivore challenge out that August! This way of eating has been life changing for me! 
Once I had completed that first month of Carnivore, there was NO WAY I was turning back! I had forgotten how it felt to feel good… I couldn’t remember ever feeling as good as I did in my life! People may think I’m strange for this way of eating! I don’t care, it’s working!
I just want to share my health journey with you & maybe give someone a little encouragement. I am not where I want to be yet, but I’ve come a long way… I had been struggling for about 6 years with a LOT of symptoms that couldn’t seem to be diagnosed. So many different symptoms that I was sent to a Rheumatologist, Pulmonologist, Cardiologist, Hematologist & a Neurologist. As you can imagine, all of these Specialist found something to diagnose me with. And naturally they all began prescribing the meds… Lots and lots of meds! 26 different medications to be exact. This took them about 3 years to do… So for the second half of the 6 years I should have been feeling better all medicated up, right? Nope, instead I ballooned up to 234lbs & actually felt worse. The diagnosis was Depression, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, Chronic Fatigue, Sjogren’s Syndrome & Celiac Disease. Plus, I had Hypertension & Sleep Apnea, with a touch of Neuropathy. I decided to try to take charge of my weight on Jan. 3, 2017 with the Ketogenic Diet that I had heard about. Plus, it would be gluten-free for the Celiac Disease that I had just been diagnosed with. Well, I lost 80lbs in just 1 1/2 years… I discovered that this way of eating was definitely going to be sustainable. I felt like there was more benefits that I could be getting out of this way of eating, because I had heard & read stories of people healing their depression, etc… The only thing I had under control was the Celiac Disease. This is when I took the Carnivore Diet challenge… I thought what the heck, my weight is stalled so I might as well give it a try. I don’t think 2 weeks has passed into this Carnivore Diet I noticed that I was walking better, I didn’t have all the nagging pain I suffered with daily & I was sleeping better! I had some of my regular doctors visits during this time… Guess what?!?! My blood work started coming back amazing! So amazing that my Hematologist was scratching his head trying to figure out what was going on… In 3 years that he’d been working with me & giving me iron infusions had he seen my numbers so good. I told him I knew why they were so good & why I’m feeling so good. I don’t think he wanted to hear what I had to say, but I told him anyway. I told him about the Carnivore Diet! He just did a face plant in his hands while shaking his head & mumbled “I’ve heard this a lot lately.” 
In the next few months, I never lost any more weight. But, more amazing things started happening! I lost inches, I was able to come off of 24 out of 26 meds & I was able to stop using my CPAP machine!!! I want to share, share, share this info with you… Wishing to give hope to others or give someone the courage to try Carnivore if they are having qualms.
I only wish I would had known about Carnivore Diet sooner. Let’s all get the word out!
50 year old Black belt Marcos lost weight and improved his strength, stamina, and recovery on a carnivore diet
I’m a 50 year old former athlete. I’ve started Karate at the age of 12. It was brutal back then but somehow I decided to endure and, before I knew it, I was hooked.
I started entering tournaments in my first year and at 15 I was training 6 hours per day. Before 18 I was doing 8+ hours of training everyday at the dojo and with the Rio de Janeiro team and at 22 I was winning in the national championships.
I’m not a tall guy with only 5ft 5in height but even though I was very lean my weight was 187 pounds. I used to eat everything in my way in huge amounts without never getting fat due to extreme long training sessions.
Though Karate can be very rough and we did get hurt a lot I was healthy as one can be, very strong, fast and never got tired. I looked good and life was easy.
Retirement
After several years as a professional athlete I had an accident while training and broke my jaw in 2 different places. I was submitted to a surgery where they put my jaw back in place and hold it with a titanium wire. I had to stay still for 2 months with steel wires around my teeth. It was at the end of the University and I was offered a job as character animator in a famous studio here. I took it.
I’ve got back to training as soon as the doctors let me but now, instead of training 8 hours I was sitting 8 hours drawing and only training 1 hour a day. My career as an athlete was over. I kept teaching, training and weight lifting and even training Judo, as well as other Martial Arts, but never with the same intensity as before.
Weight Gain
After 30, without the brutal daily training and with the huge food consumption I started to gain a little weight. Then I got married and started working even more hours every day while exercising less and less until I stopped completely for some time.
At 40 I was sedentary weighting 260 pounds. I knew I was going to pay the price for that lifestyle and started to “eat healthy” and started training again. I did loose weight but I always get some of it back again. In time I was able to intensify my training and started to feel pain in the joints afterwards. I thought I needed to increase my strength and started weightlifting again.
At 49 I was in good condition. I was lifting really heavy weights, fighting bigger and younger guys. I had good stamina and I did several 5 min rounds daily. With all that, I kept strugling to mantain my weight and though I was eating paleo and went keto for some time, the weight I lose always seem to come back to me again.
Endocrinologist
I was doing everything right, according to common knowledge, and wasn’t getting the results everyone would expect. I went to see a doctor. An endocrinologist famous for the results he achieves with his patients. He interviewed me thoroughly and took almost all my blood for testing and came with the news: “You f**d up your metabolism!”
My hormones were good for my age and the testosterone was “very good” according to him, but he wanted to give me hormones to fasten things up.
I said no.
The only thing left to do, he said, was to increase my metabolism and intensify my workouts. I had just turned 50 and despite my physical condition was way better than 10 years earlier, it was very hard to lose weight or even avoid gaining even more.
I turned 50 in December 2017 and though I felt stronger and with good stamina, but paid a heavy price after every intense training session. I realized that one, or even two, heavy intense short training (40 min) sessions per day were better than long lighter ones.
Carnivore
I’ve discovered this WOE in 2018 after dieting for 2 months without great results. After digging thoroughly for 2 weeks I decided to give it a try on February 10th and started to see the results at once.
I like meat. I always did. But to see at last that I don’t need anything else is simply perfect!
The weight started to drop since the first week. The bloated belly emptied away and the joints began to feel better. After 1 week I felt migraines for 2 days. I even felt feverish for one night but I kept myself on track…
Everything was different afterwards.
The rest of the month was smooth. After 50 days I got my blood tested and the numbers were all better, thoug they were never bad. The testosterone levels went even higher and I feel great.
After 100 days I am 40 pounds leaner and I don’t think I lost muscle. I feel stronger and the stamina increased. I’m punching harder even with less weight and despite the fact that I never lost flexibility, I can kick higher, faster and with less effort. 1 training session every day. Some days I do it twice a day. One extreme and intense, the other more technical and less demanding.
I have no cravings. I haven’t had any vegetal fiber since the first day. Just some seasoning such as peppers, dry garlic powder and a bit of sea salt in my meals. I drink only water, an ocasional black unsweetened coffee and, at home, I make yerba mate infusion. Nothing else.
I usually have 1 to 1.3 pound of meat once a day. If I go hungry after the evening training session, I take some Bacon and eggs, but normally I eat only once.
My mind is sharp as it can be. No joint pains or digestive issues. I’m never tired, even after long training sessions, and I sleep as a rock. Still losing weight and I feel the testosterone may be increasing even more…
I hope to lose more 15 or 17 pounds until June 23rd when I’ll be tested for 5th Dan.
Rachel treats digestive issues, anxiety, hair loss, arthritis, psoriasis, etc on a carnivore diet
Erik treats asthma, obesity, focus issues, and gout on a carnivore diet
Sarah improves autoimmune conditions, arthritis, weight, and energy levels on a carnivore diet
Daniel improved his digestion, mental health, joint and back pain on a carnivore diet
My name is Daniel and I am forty years old from Australia, 183cm (6ft) and 75kg (165 pounds). I have held off writing this story, despite following the carnivore community for some time, as it has taken this long to heal from quite a few ailments, most notably my joint pain and depression. (No photos as most of my issues are internal.)
My mother told me that from a very early age I had an allergy to cow’s milk (I was fed soy “milk” as a child) and a nearly fatal fall (fractured skull and broken collar bone) from a ledge at the age of 2. I can recall always having sore throats and hay fever as a boy. Also looking back now, I believe I experienced some anxiety and depression too. Antibiotics were a regular thing and I eventually had my tonsils removed at the age of nine.
My journey to this carnivore way of eating began nearly 2 years ago when I started to seriously investigate how diet can affect one’s health (particularly autoimmune problems) which I previously just thought were the “bad genetic cards” I was dealt. For example, I thought that I had genetically inherited my father’s bad back and my mother’s hay fever and that was how it was going to be for life and the only way to treat these was with over the counter medications or other alternative therapies.
I have long been a supporter and consumer of alternative therapies for health like chiropractic, acupuncture and energy frequency therapy, having tried to stay away from visiting the GP unless necessary.
I have always preferred fresh foods for cooking instead of processed garbage and the health education I received was the classic “SAD/Western” diet as based on the food pyramid, i.e. saturated fat is bad, wholegrains are good, “2 fruit and 5 veg daily” and meat in moderation. I have loosely followed the “eat a rainbow” style together with high carbs and some meat with every meal. In a sense I knew that diet played a part in health and I had an awareness of additives and processed food, but like many younger folks I took it for granted that I would always be healthy because I never got fat. I would daily consume a pint of chocolate milk or iced coffee and lots of toasted sandwiches, pastries and cakes. I still thought that I had reasonably good health as my weight has never been an issue and have been blessed with an incredible metabolism.
However, inside I was broken from:
- Regular colds, sore throats, congestion
- Tonsilitis as a child (tonsils removed when I was 9)
- Chronic hayfever
- Bad snorer and mouth breather
- Frequent mouth ulcers, cold sores near lips
- Mouth corner sores (angular chelitis)
- Bowel problems (irregular and constipated frequently)
- Bloating
- Haemorroids
- Bleeding gums/gingivitis
- Sinusitis
- Poor dental health on left upper side, failed root canal, ongoing infections (related to sinusitis)
- Jaw pain on left side, clicking jaw (TMJ)
- Allergies
- Brain fog and poor concentration
- Mild depression as a child worsening to severe in recent times
- Anxiety from a young age
- Poor sleep in recent times
- Back/neck pain, sciatica, inflammation and chronic groin pain
- Worsening joint pain in hands, elbows, knees and shoulders
- Gout in toe
- General aching on left side and in chest
- Skin tags and bad skin breakouts on back
- Always getting a sunburnt face
- Minor heartburn
- Raynaud’s in my hands
My health took a turn for the worse about five years ago when joint pain was affecting my ability to work (labouring) and my mental health nose-dived, culminating in a mental breakdown followed by a psychotic episode and a six month period in and out of a mental ward about four years ago. I was heavily medicated on anti-psychotics and antidepressants like Olanzapine. At this time, I became increasingly disenfranchised with the medical system, since I had four children who were always sick, and they were always going to doctor’s appointments for one ailment or another and being constantly prescribed antibiotics or some special cream. I managed to get myself of the antidepressants through some alternative healing and improved diet with more nourishing home made meals, however still had depression.
Cycle ahead to about 2 years ago and after watching quite a few Netflix documentaries from the plant-based vegan propaganda videos like “What The Health?” And then “The Magic Pill” and other Youtube video series like “Autoimmune Secrets”, like many folks in the carnivore community I saw the Joe Rogan podcast with Dr Jordan Peterson on Youtube and was blown away. I believed Dr Peterson to be a credible source of information but could not reconcile that the meat only diet was a thing. From there I followed Mikhaila Peterson and then Dr Baker and many others and kept doing the research.
I began to slowly make some changes to my diet, cutting out gluten, reducing sugar and dairy but still hung onto my “rainbow salads” and then went down the whole gluten-free alternative rabbit hole of eating. I then heard about all the processed seed oils contained in these gluten-free foods and it dawned on me that take away/restaurant foods also could not be trusted. I never really entertained the idea of giving up meat, but there were certainly some vegans I had contact with who were trying their best to persuade me to do so. Some improvements occurred from these changes, but joint pain and mental health was still an issue. My meat consumption increased, higher fat intake but I also dabbled with some vegan foods at this time like hemp protein and quinoa. I had a wholefoods market nearby with organic produce. This was a very expensive exercise in the beginning, having nearly fallen for the “health food” industry marketing, but as time went on, I started to have more meat, bone broth, bacon, eggs and moved to an animal based keto diet.
My digestion began to improve and with it a whole range of ailments and autoimmune issues went away like hay fever, mouth ulcers and gout. Anxiety, back pain and sciatica began to reduce which I have had for as long as I can remember. I found myself not being hungry for 12-15 hours and saw improvements in my dental health and skin. I continued to spend hundreds of hours watching videos, listening to podcasts like HPO and digesting all the old books/articles linked to Meatheals.com and was absolutely convinced. As to the mechanics of why this works, I believe it is about giving your body what it needs, eliminating what it doesn’t need and then the immune system rebounds and the body heals like it is designed to.
I feel that the joint pain in my hands, groin pain and mental health has taken considerable time to heal, as well as having quality sleep again, but I am extremely grateful to have taken control of my health with 90 % meat and some other very basic lifestyle factors. Every single ailment listed above has seen some improvement or remission of symptoms. I love that it has changed my outlook on life, a sense of calmness and really given me a new appreciation for ancestral traditions as well. I am Above all, a new relationship with food that is more about fuel and nourishment as opposed to entertainment. It seems that my mood is much better on beef and when I stray from this my allergies and sinus issues always seem to come back.
My energy levels have not been as consistent as I would have liked and through recent discussions with personal trainers, I simply have not been eating enough to meet the physical demands of my job and training. I have addressed the food quantity and I have also increased electrolyte intake and I am feeling better for that as well.
The next step for me is to try meat, water and salt only, to iron out some occasional small joint pain issues and Raynaud’s in my hands is still an issue on some cold days. I am very passionate about this movement and am seriously considering a health coaching career in the future to give back and share this simple and effective healing protocol.
Many thanks to Dr Baker and all the carnivore community for making a massive difference in my life and giving me the opportunity to tell my story.
Yours sincerely,
Daniel
Anonymous improved his skin, digestion, sleep, body composition and energy levels on a carnivore diet
I am 60 years old, and five foot six.
I’ve always had a bit of a problem with my weight and diet. At my worst during high school, I weighed just under 190 pounds. With a lot of time on a stationary bike and living on nothing but lettuce, cheese, and cold-cut ham, I managed to get down to the mid-140s, but couldn’t maintain it. Eventually I would come to weigh about 160 with a prominent belly. I had to be medicated for hypertension and hypothyroidism. I was not a healthy human being.
More than twelve years ago, a bad outcome from an outpatient surgical procedure left me with a hypoxic brain injury.
In the immediate aftermath, I felt I had won the lottery—I seemed to have no obvious problems, cognitive or physical.
However, time proved me to be wrong.
It started a few months later, when I found myself underperforming at the gym. Day by day I saw my ability to lift, to push myself during hard cardio, and my recovery time slowly getting worse.
Next came the dietary problems.
Like most of us, I’ve always had a few foods that just don’t settle well. But slowly I found myself adding more and more foods to my “never again” list. Cheese, asparagus, slow-cooked meats, spinach—they all left me feeling worse and worse.
Somewhere along the line, I started having skin problems. I’d always had dry skin in the winter, but suddenly I found myself in June, eyelids cracking from the dryness, and rashes that I’d never had before popping up all over—my waist, legs, chest, and arms. The itchiness drove me crazy!
Sleep became torture—night after night I would lie awake in bed for hours before sleep would come, only to be jolted awake by my alarm clock, the endless fatigue leaving me a zombie.
I had felt myself fortunate for not losing my cognitive abilities due to my brain injury. But what the injury hadn’t taken away, the ongoing fatigue stole from me. At its worst, I found myself at work, struggling to make sense of a report I’d read three times in a row. I would fall asleep for a second or two during my commute before the blare of car horns jerked my eyes open as I was drifting out of my lane.
And, over all of this, was a malaise that settled into a deep, deep depression. I made endless plans for taking my life, trying to find a way that would finally erase my pain at living, while not devastating my immediate family.
For some reason, I couldn’t see all these things and realize that I had a problem. I thought I was just tired from having to work so hard at my job. I told myself that if I could only just get some time off to rest, I’d be right as rain again.
I got my wish for resting time when I was laid off.
And a couple months of near total rest failed to change a thing.
It was then that I knew I was in trouble.
Now, during all this, I would from time to time see various doctors and specialists in an attempt to cure this rash, or that insomnia, or what have you. But by and large nothing seemed to work.
After being laid off, I could spend much more time engaging with the healthcare system to work on my issues. Still I got no relief on any front, and no advice as to how I might become healthier.
Actually, strike that—I *did* get some advice.
It was from an endocrinologist that I saw in an attempt to figure out what had happened to my energy—what had caused me to lose any sense of vitality. Despairing, I asked her what I should do.
She sighed, was silent for a moment, and said, “Go home. Live your life. This is as good as it gets.”
And so I went home.
But I didn’t give up. Although I was an unemployed technical team lead with about 30 years of experience in various IT, software, and hardware roles, I still had an engineer’s mindset.
So I set out to learn about my body.
If this were a movie, here is where there’d be a montage of me searching online for research papers on neurophysiology, digestion, the immune system, and more. Shuffling through papers, highlighting key passages and searching for corroborating information from other authors. I’d be experimenting with different diets, supplements, skin treatments. I’d go to bed wearing a head-mounted device that tracked my brain activity at night.
And that montage would be real—I did it all.
And I made some progress.
I produced lists of foods that I was reacting to, and started to see patterns in terms of histamine levels, oxalate content, and salicylate levels. I worked with a neuropsychiatrist to give me some level of relief from my insomnia. Better living through chemical, as they say!
If I had graded myself at 100% before my brain injury, at my worse I was probably around 20%; now I was maybe about 50%. Far better than before, but still far worse than I had been.
The diet I had constructed was nothing special—it was mainly just a list of foods that gave me the fewest reactions. Looking back, it was by no means healthy. At one point I lived for a few months on nothing but boiled barley with butter and brown sugar.
In time, I continued to work on my diet and, quite by accident, I “reinvented” the ketogenic diet. I felt pretty good eating this way—my mental clarity was much improved—but because I didn’t understand what eating this way was doing to my metabolism, and exactly how important fat intake was, I ended up burning through all my body fat, and crashed metabolically after losing a bunch of muscle mass as well. My wife said I looked like a concentration camp victim at under 110 pounds and less than 10% body fat.
After all this time—it’d been about 11 years since my brain injury—I still could only say I was at the 50% mark. And to make matters worse, I found that, in time, I’d react to every food I relied on for any period of time, gradually reducing what I could safely eat.
I took another shot at the ketogenic diet—this time with help from Dr. Eric Westman. With his help, I made some improvements, but in time, the same old problem of reacting to more and more foods returned. I was getting desperate—the 50% I’d been able to maintain was starting to slip backwards.
One day online I came across a page that talked about “the ultimate elimination diet.” It said that humans only need protein and fat to survive; carbs were not necessary. After having read and researched so much, this made immediate sense to me, and so I tried it. I would eat nothing but red meat, and not skimp on the fat.
That was five months ago.
What started out as a vague plan to eat three pounds of ground beef a day eventually got fine-tuned to a one-meal-a-day, KetoAF-style diet consisting of a bit over a pound of lightly-trimmed ribeye and several ounces of butter for additional fat.
And how do I feel now? I’d have to grade myself a good solid 85%. I realize that I may never be able to be a full 100% again, but that’s okay.
My digestion is wonderful. My skin is vastly better, and I hope that the remaining minor rashes will diminish in time. My sleep, though still being treated with a prescription medication, is improved to the extent that, later this year I’m going to try to wean myself from it.
And speaking of prescriptions, I no longer need meds for hypertension or hypothyroidism—the carnivore diet has eliminated the need for them.
I’m able to exercise and do some resistance training again, for the first time in years. My Fitbit scale says my lean mass is up a little; I hope to keep that going, as even though I don’t look half bad at 125, I think I’d look (and feel) even better at a well-muscled, say, 135.
And that’s my story.
I feel that I haven’t really conveyed how fundamentally the carnivore way of eating has changed my life for the better. Before, I could only sigh when each day of sickly drudgery began, as the best I could hope for was to feel “less bad”. I can look forward to each day now, and enjoy being alive, and feeling good.
Alex beats a fungal infection and ADHD, improves gut health in days on a carnivore diet
I don’t know exactly where to start. Last fall I had a neck surgery, and after that i was battling my gut health and a weird fungal infection in my forehead. I tried everything but go vegan, no medicine helped my fungi problem and my gastrointestinal problems kept getting worse. I did a deep dive into the ketogenic diet and tried that. But all the veggies made me so bloated and my stomach pains did not disappear. So I took the bull by the horns 1.5-2 months ago and went fully carnivore. The results where amazing.
My skin and stomach both got better within five days, and best of all my ADHD symptoms just disappeared. I was at the optician today and my vision has also miraculously gotten better – I’m now close to a 20/20. God bless Dr.Baker for pointing me in the right direction!
Natasha improved her reproductive health and sex, and treated her endometriosis on a carnivore diet
I just wanted to share a simple story to help get the word out there. Back in 2006 I was diagnosed with endometriosis. I mentioned to the doctor that I thought I was too young (25y/o) to be diagnosed with that condition. She told me normally yes but with all the hormones in food it’s not surprising and that there is nothing I can do about it other than pain control.
Fast forward to 2012 and I was having severe pain and sought out a doctor to have surgery for the second time. The doctor spoke to me about food and how to care for the endometriosis without surgery. Staying away from red meat was something he advised and which I followed. It seemed to have work for a bit (after I had the second surgery and told I have the highest stage possible). About a year and a half ago I was in so much pain I was looking to have surgery again and for some reason or another, I never got booked in.
I should mention at these times I was following your typical body building diet. I heard Shawn on the Joe Rogan podcast and I was quite intrigued by the information I heard and decided to give it a try, mainly because I was sick of eating 6 times a day. I was also so worried about the red meat and the endo I asked Shawn twice about it and he assured me there wasn’t enough hormones in the meat to contribute to the condition.
As scared and skeptical as I was, I continued. Its now been a year carnivore (with some slips) but I am so happy to say I have been pain free for about 4 months. One day I just realized I wasn’t complaining of pain anymore and no pain with sex at all which was huge for me before. I also noticed at the same time the pain went away, I developed what I think is oxalate dumping at the same time and the rashes and blisters are all around my abdomen.
Not sure if that is a coincidence or not but it’s definitely something I am now paying attention to. I haven’t been sick in ages. Im leaner, stronger and the healthiest I have ever been and that I must thank Shawn for getting the word out there. It’s changed my life.