Joe Rogan, a popular podcaster, often talks about his diet on his podcast. In this particular podcast(#1424), Joe Rogan’s says his diet consisted of mainly meat and fruit. He said he wanted to try this just to see what it was like to cut out all vegetables. Apparently he also did it because January is world carnivore month. I had no idea such a thing existed.
January is world carnivore month
Carnivore month was started to bring awareness to the benefits of the carnivore diet and lifestyle. Contrary to what we have been told, meat does have a lot of vitamins and benefits.
It allows for someone to remove all foods that could potentially be causing issues in their body.
January is also the perfect time to reflect and try to build new health focused habits. Many people set out to lose weight or to change something major about themselves. Will you try the Carnivore Diet in January?
Meat and Fruit Isn’t Exactly Carnivore
Why did Rogan do the diet with meat and fruit? This blows my mind because carnivores don’t eat fruit. When was the last time you saw a lion munching on a banana?
There is another guy in the carnivore community. His name is Paul Saladino. I read his book “The Carnivore Code”. He has also started adding fruit into his diet. This defeats the purpose of going on the carnivore diet because most people want to eat this way because it is a species appropriate diet. Meat and fruit are not.
Joe Rogan says that on his “carnivore diet”. He had no crashes from carbohydrates. I have experienced this as well.
In the morning, if I once started the day with a bagel or toast and some fruit. It seems I am much more sluggish mid morning. Currently, I have much more stable energy.
Weight Loss
Rogan was two weeks in and noticed he felt amazing and was shedding weight. He said he dropped 12 pounds of fat and even claimed his face got thinner. His guest commented how he looked leaner.
To me it is no surprise his face got thinner because to make your face thinner you just need to lower bodyfat.
It took me 18 days before I saw the scale drop 8lbs. I wish it was faster because I was working out and staying strict on the diet.
I didn’t have meat and fruit, instead I only ate butter, bacon, red meat, and salt.
Meals on His Carnivore Diet
Rogan said he ate steak and 6 eggs for breakfast. He usually only eats 2 meals a day and the second meal is usually elk or a beef steak. He focused on grass fed and finished meat.
Eat Fatty Meat
A key reason for eating fatty meat on a meat only diet is to avoid Rabbit Starvation. Rogan points this out. It happens when you only focus on lean meats such as chicken breast or turkey. The body needs fat. Fat can be extremally healthy on a meat only diet. It’s loaded with vitamins.
I often add fat to my steaks if they are leaner cuts.
There are plenty of options on this diet to add in extra fat. You can choose Ghee, Butter, or tallow. I have grass-fed tallow and it was only $7 for 5lbs of grass fed tallow.
What Motivates People To Only Eat Meat?
Joe Rogan talks about some of the motivations that people have for trying a carnivore diet. People who suffer from auto immune disorders are often desperate for new options to improve their health. Many find that their issues resolve when eliminating plants and fiber completely. Contrary to what we have always been told, plants have anti-nutrients and can harm the body in surprising ways.
Carnivore dieters have reported numerous benefits aside from just weight loss such as extra protection from sun burn, reduced inflammation, mental clarity, skin issues disappearing, curing IBS, colitis, and Chron’s.
That is what convinced me because I have never tried anything like it before. The carnivore diet is the ultimate elimination diet. What foods could I have been eating my whole life that are causing issues? There was only one way to find out.
Rogan and his guest talk about how people just aren’t committed to dieting enough. They need to make an affirmation “I’m going to commit to doing this for 30 days and just do it!”
The same could be said about anything, but I do have to agree to make the sacrifices needed for a diet like this, you need to be committed.
“Try the carnivore diet.” Rogan says you will be amazed how you feel.
What is A Carnivore Diet?
The carnivore diet is very simple. You eat animals and organs. Your seasoning choice is only salt. Your drinking choice is only water. That’s all. Many carnivores, including me, eat eggs, butter, ghee, or hard cheese. These are allowed on the basis that they are animal products.
Do you need to eat organ meats on a carnivore diet?
No. You can take a supplement if you would prefer or none at all. There are many organ supplements on the market. Some people do just fine without organ meats. I will have liver maybe once a week.
You can get everything you need, though, from muscle meat but remember that organ meats are vitamin powerhouses. Did you know animal liver is one of the most nutritious organs you can eat?
Joe Rogan didn’t technically do the carnivore diet. He just did a meat and fruit diet. You have to find what works for you and how your body reacts to certain foods. There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to an approach to bettering one’s diet.
My Strict Carnivore Diet
I’m coming up on a whole month of only eating meat. I didn’t have fruit. I didn’t have veggies.
My foods were red meat, pork, butter, salt, water and caffeine pills. Sure I know caffeine pills aren’t part of an all meat diet. I had to give up my lovely coffee so that’s how I cope, at least for now.
Being Flexible With Choice
I want to talk about ways of eating and I think it is important. Making a small change or eating mostly meat is much better than eating a diet high in seed oils and sugar. So any changes being made to improve should be celebrated.
For this reason, I still enjoy my caffeine even though it is not “technically” approved as a strict carnivore diet.
Start The Diet Very Slowly
The most important part of starting a carnivore diet is to acclimate very slowly.
Most people decide they want to move from a standard high carbohydrate diet and dive into a carnivore diet.
This is a terrible idea as your gut needs time to adjust to having 0 grams fiber and 0 grams carbohydrates.
My preparation was two weeks on a Ketogenic Diet and then starting a Carnivore diet and I still got diarrhea.
What Can You Expect On The Carnivore Diet?
You can expect diarrhea if you did not take enough time transitioning properly to the carnivore diet. I made this mistake because I did not allow myself enough time to adjust to the lack of fiber.
In retrospect, I would have done the ketogenic diet longer and slowly cut out fiber and vegetables.
I had bouts of diarrhea in the first 3 weeks. It was not as bad as the podcaster claimed, but it was still one of the major issues I noticed. Hence, start the diet very, very slow over a couple months.
My weight loss was 8lbs in about 18 days from the start of the carnivore diet.
What About Exercise?
I am doing little cardio, but a large amount of compound exercises. When I go to the gym I do bench pressing, squats, deadlifts, and pullups.
If you do a carnivore diet, I promise you will lose weight.
It is hard to say how much in the first month. There have been many reports of people losing more weight than I did after the first week. This is likely to be water because of the low carbs. It is still a nice motivator to see.
My energy levels were about the same as any other diet. I didn’t notice an extreme change except for more explosive energy during sprints with my dog.
Long Term Effects
This diet has been a fad for the past few years, but I think it is more than that.
A turning point in human history was the use of stone tools for harvesting bone marrow and meat. The amount of calorie-dense food allowed for us to become who we are today. Plants do not have many calories and do not provide a full amino acid profile.
Try taking a fresh bundle of kale on your next hiking trip and see how many days you can last.
It is also important to note that our food is not the same food as in the past.
Fruit has been bred to be sweeter and larger. Nothing like it was in the past.
Plants have pesticides dumped on them and even organic plants can be treated with harmful organic pesticides.
Factory farming animals is nothing like when they were free to roam and graze the lands.
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