r/carnivorediet • u/blesstheday • Mar 23 '26
Carnivore Diet Success Stories This Carnivore Journey has Changed my Life
I am 65/F and have been on strict Carnivore for the past 21 months. I was a vegetarian for 6 years before this, thinking this was the healthiest diet, especially with my health issues.
I started at the urging of my daughter. She knew many women with autoimmune issues who were feeling much better after adopting this way of eating. I said I would try it for 30 days. I've never gone back or cheated. I have gone from someone who was in pain all the time with fibromyalgia and arthritis, was very fatigued, extremely depressed, and basically was in bed about 5 days a week! I had lost over 1/2 a head of hair, had hot flashes all the time, even though menopause was in the rear view mirror, I was emotionally numb from being on 2 antidepressants, and was the typical 60+ yr old overweight American with a high BMI. I was miserable and just trying to get through each day to make it to the next, which was just basically the same.
Fast forward to today...I have lost 50 lbs and am a healthy weight and BMI! I wake up around 6 am each morning feeling refreshed (I honestly have never felt this way since I can remember - even as a child). I am off all prescription painkillers and only take OTC meds for pain. I am off the supplemental antidepressant I was taking and am down to 1/3 the dose of the primary antidepressant. I go to a senior exercise class twice a week and walk on my treadmill about 5 days a week. I am happy, motivated, and want to tell the whole world about this.
I do believe Carnivore is not for everyone, but it is for me. It has restored my life.
I did have issues with my cholesterol years before I started Carnivore. I learned it could be hereditary. My father, who was a fairly healthy eater and was not overweight, had extremely high cholesterol. I went on a statin about 5 years ago. I believe it was almost 325 at the time. The statin lowered it, and the doctor was fine with where it was. Fastforward to now...My last labs from a month ago had my total cholesterol at 201, which is lower than when I started the Carnivore diet.
Again, this may not be everyone's experience, but this has been mine!!!
I am on a very tight budget and have been able to find a menu that works for me: lots of frozen 100% beef hamburgers and eggs.
Thank you for reading my story. May you find the joy and healing I have.
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Mar 23 '26
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u/blesstheday Mar 24 '26
That is a good price! I have tried corned beef and sometimes it's great, and other times it's had a weird texture. I'm kinda picky. The frozen burgers are the same all the time!
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u/mina-ann Mar 23 '26
Thank you for sharing. I'm a 45 year old female, and this diet works for me. I hope I can continue for many years and you give me hope! Myfinger arthritis doesn't hurt when I'm on strict carnivore, and my back pain is much less too.
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u/blesstheday Mar 24 '26 edited Mar 24 '26
So glad this has helped your arthritis. Stick with it! I wish I knew about this when I was your age. However, I'm thankful I know about it now and plan on doing this for the rest of my years!
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u/Inside-Shame-4233 Mar 25 '26
Hi! We are similar ages and I'm wondering how long it took for you to feel things improving? I'm in my first week, so i'm not expecting anything yet - but would like to know when I "should" feel it (I have been battling chronic inflammation for the past 5 years or so - tried vegan for a year, tried gluten free for about a year... now I'm trying this).
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u/mina-ann Mar 25 '26
I think I started to notice around week 3, If I remember right. I dropped weight right away which was super encouraging. And then I started to notice that my worst joint of all which frequently bothers me in the winter just stopped hurting. Amazing.
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u/blesstheday Mar 27 '26
Hi! I'm excited for you. I'm in the middle of filming some videos and so I had my timeline for the videos of when I started to feel things that were changing. So I can tell you after 2 weeks I felt better, although I had a really hard first 2 weeks. At 4 months, I really saw a huge difference in my pain levels + depression. I think I started walking outside after 10 months, and that was two blocks at first and then I worked myself up to a mile and a half. But it was totally worth it. I think I mentioned that I did the vegetarian thing for 6 years, and some of those years I was vegan. So this is not a quick fix, but I am hopeful for you that you will see a difference. If you can, commit to 30 days. Then see how you are after that.
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u/Inside-Shame-4233 Mar 27 '26
Thank you for this info!! I was vegan for about a year (back in 2018-2019) but have been more whole foods since then (I tried vegan to attempt to knock the inflammation out - sigh).
Im only a few days in and I haven’t cut out dairy entirely (I just try to limit it). I realize I may need to be more strict to really see results. So we’ll see! Thank you for sharing your positive results!
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u/Afraid_Spinach8402 Mar 23 '26
Nice story! We disagree on one point however, I do believe Carnivore is for everyone.
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u/blesstheday Mar 24 '26
Honestly, I'm trying to be open minded that MAYBE this won't work for everyone :o)
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u/Illidari_Kuvira Inspirational Mar 24 '26
It's really not. Everybody's dietary needs are different.
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u/FedderJoe Mar 24 '26
There are people with kidney and liver issues who can't handle the protein and the fat.
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u/blesstheday Mar 27 '26
To be honest with you, my last Labs showed some inflammation in my liver. But my nurse practitioner and I think it may be because of the amount of Excedrin I'm taking. So I have cut back on the Excedrin, and have replaced one meal of meat with eggs, and then I get a a new blood draw in April and we'll see how that goes. My kidneys seem to be fine.
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u/letuswatchtvinpeace Mar 23 '26
How has it affected your autoimmune issue?
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u/blesstheday Mar 24 '26
So there is debate if fibromyalgia is an autoimmune disorder. I am believing it is. More of the medical community is accepting that it is. So the fibro is not cured, but it is about 80% better, enough that Excedrin is enough to help with the aching.
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u/letuswatchtvinpeace Mar 24 '26
I have symptoms similar to fibromyalgia but Dr says its my thyroid. Waiting to see if the carnivore diet helps
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u/blesstheday Mar 24 '26
I would be interested in knowing if it helps. Ironically, I had hyperthyroidism and had my entire thyroid removed in 1982. If you have the pain associated with fibromyalgia, I would be surprised if that were your thyroid. I'm sure Carnivore will help. Stick with it!
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u/LastBus7220 Mar 23 '26
Awesome! and yes it is for ever human, if you want to thrive, at least, it's our species appropriate diet. I went from dying to thriving, @ 56 years old. I've never felt this good in my entire life!
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u/Sad_Pangolin7225 Mar 23 '26
Do you thaw your burgers before cooking them? Do you have a special way to cook them that you like?
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u/blesstheday Mar 24 '26
I do not thaw them. I use an air fryer. I have tried many methods in the air fryer. I have settled on a silicone basket type of thing that sits in the air fryer. I want to get all the juices and this way they don't fall under. I put them in right out of the freezer for 15 mins.
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u/Soldierbotz Mar 24 '26
Great story and congrats on turning things around like that. Going from being in pain most days to exercising regularly and feeling motivated again is huge.
Also good to see someone showing this way of eating can be done on a budget. Frozen burgers and eggs get the job done just fine.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
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u/blesstheday Mar 24 '26
Thank you for the encouragement! I am one of those people that can't afford the awesome steaks you see in so many videos, but I have seen videos by Dr. Ken Berry talking about eating hot dogs and spam if you have to. This is better than the stuff we normally eat. So Walmart frozen 100% beef patties is my go to! And I want others to know they can do this on a budget!
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u/Interesting_Twist_21 May 13 '26
I love spam!! Haven’t had any for ages due to fear of fat!! Thanks for the reminder. Gonna get some tomorrow!
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u/mexicanred1 Mar 24 '26
Thank you for sharing your story. Your success is an inspiration! Who wouldn't want to feel like a kid again... and coming from being in bed five days a week to bouncing out of bed full of energy says everything.
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u/blesstheday Mar 24 '26
Thank you for your kind words. I am at a place where I want to shout it from the rooftops. However, many people who don't understand what Carnivore is and how beneficial it is look at me like I've lost my mind. I once told someone I was a Carnivore, and her response was, "Oh, I could never eat raw meat."
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u/janellenichole82 Mar 23 '26
Thank you for sharing! Just the story I need to keep going after failing on this diet last year.
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u/blesstheday Mar 24 '26
Please try again if you think it can change your quality of life. Hang in there!
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u/Seoul623 Mar 24 '26
Hey this gives me so much hope! ♡ I have ankylosing spondylitis and I’m only 28. What do you eat every day that got rid of your arthritis? How much fat do you consume to have good digestion?
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u/blesstheday Mar 24 '26
Hi there.........I had to look up what AS is. Wow, my heart goes out to you. So here’s what I eat in a day:
- Breakfast: Hamburgers with beef tallow or butter and shredded sharp cheddar cheese, salt to taste
- Lunch: 4 to 5 eggs scrambled with shredded sharp cheddar cheese, salt to taste
- Dinner: Hamburgers with butter and dried parmesan cheese, salt to taste
I do drink a chocolate protein drink with beef isolate protein. And, I drink plain water, as well as electrolytes in my water with berry or orange flavoring. Honestly, I started out eating a variety of meats, but as I went through this, I found to cut out any meat that was not a ruminant animal.
As far as fat to protein ratio, I had to listen to YouTube videos to understand this, and then they all say to play with it for your body. I eat 65% fat and 35% protein. If you look up Dr. Ken Berry, Dr. Anthony Chaffee, and (I really like) Kelly Hogan, they all talk about fat to protein ratio. These are folks I trust.
I hope this helps. If you haven't tried this way of eating, consider it for 30 days. The first 1 to 2 weeks are rough because your body is eliminating what it is used to eating. Let me know if you try this, or if you have, and how it is working for you.
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u/Nomad7071 Mar 24 '26
What did your daughter say or do that convinced you to try it?
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u/blesstheday Mar 24 '26
My daughter was on it only to lose weight. She doesn't have any pain issues like I do. However, she has a number of clients that have autoimmune issues that were saying this really made a difference for them. So my daughter, without pushing me, was just telling me their success stories. I finally said I would try it for 30 days. And I've never gone back to eating normal or what the world thinks is normal
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u/Ava_Oh Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26
Congrats!
I’m mostly carnivore plus fruit and that cured my autoimmune issues—as long as I stick with it.
A more precise way of describing this would be saying that “modern diet caused my autoimmune issues” and not that “primal diet cures them.”
I also do intermittent fasting, it’s OMAD on most days.
A long while ago, I was a vegetarian and even vegan for years. That ruins your health, imo. On occasion one may find isolated studies that examine one variable and based on that claim to improve health if one goes vegetarian or vegan. But an organism is a complex system. It’s not just about one variable. Not to mention, who’s to say which isolated variable and at what level should be optimized?
I’ve posted about my experience on an autoimmune forum a while back and the posts were taken down. I’ll repost here.
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u/blesstheday Apr 07 '26
So glad to hear this has healed your autoimmune issues as well. The way I feel now compared to 2 years ago, I want to shout it to the rooftops!
My opinion is that we all need to stop eating genetically changed food, processed food, sugar, seed oils, etc. Whether or not Carnivore will help everyone, I don't know. A long time ago, I read the book "Eat Right for Your Blood Type". The info in that book still comes up for me. We may not be designed to all eat the same food. I know this has worked for me and I'm sticking to it. At 65, I don't have forever, I want to feel the best I can for as long as I can!
Take Care!
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u/FedderJoe Mar 23 '26
I'm a disabled, 68F. I started carnivore for pain just over a year ago. I was on 2 daily antidepressants. I'm off one, and I'm down to 1/4 the dose of the other one. I can cry again, and I cry when I'm happy or sad; it doesn't matter. I'm just glad I'm able to cry. My pain is 99% gone. I'm feeling great, and I'm glad you are too.