How to carnivore

I think there are two types of people when it comes to carnivore.

The first group hears about it and immediately freaks out, thinks it's unhealthy. Extreme, Probably dangerous. The second group hears it and something just... clicks. The moment someone says "this is what humans are biologically designed to eat" — in Chaffee's voice, if you know you know — it all makes sense. Everything falls into place.

This second group are the people who are going to push through. from the moment it clicks, they're in.

I'm the second type as well. When my boyfriend first told me about carnivore, it clicked so hard that I genuinely didn't consider there might be people who'd push back on it. That someone could hear this and think no, that sounds insane. Only later did I realize that wasn’t true at all — the carnivore diet simply has a lot of critics. But that’s a topic for another blog.

My boyfriend had already been circling carnivore for years. So we decided to do it together. Not full carnivore at first, we just agreed to lean heavily on meat and cut carbs and sugar as much as we could.

Which sounds simple. Unless you're Georgian, which I am.

Georgian people eat more bread than Italians eat pasta, so my love for bread wasn’t driven only by dopamine or insulin responses — it was also deeply cultural, something rooted far inside me. And since we were living in Switzerland at the time and I was feeling homesick every day, bread became one of the few things that still made me feel connected to home. (As stupid as it sounds.)

But somehow, after a long struggle, we managed to cut out bread and sugar, and the effects were almost immediate. The bloating disappeared, I felt lighter, and my energy started coming back, and all this within just 3 - 4 days. This was all it took to know there was something real to carnivore diet.

After still going back and forth for a long time, we finally decided to embrace the carnivore journey seriously here in the Netherlands, where we chose to settle down and start a new life. But that whole process took a long time. So trust me when I say I have a lot to tell you about cravings, about almost quitting, about being proud, being sick of meat, being frustrated and about learning everything the hard way.

And that’s exactly why I’m here, to share what I’ve learned/realised, what I wish I had known earlier, how to apply this diet practically in everyday life, and generally, how to carnivore!

1st - stick to one thing

When you first get into carnivore, you start researching like crazy.

And that makes sense. Carnivore goes against almost everything you've been told your whole life. Animal fat causes heart disease. Meat causes cancer. Fiber is essential. And apparently meat causes diabetes now too. (???)

You hear this from parents, friends, commercials, movies, literally everywhere. So when someone says "just eat animal foods," your gut reaction is wait... is this actually safe?  That's why most of us (even after the idea clicks) spend hours reading testimonials, watching healing stories, listening to carnivore doctors explain all the controversies. Deep down we just want to know we're not slowly killing ourselves as they say we are.

This research phase matters. It answers real questions. But it's also where things start falling apart, because the more you research, the more you realize everyone disagrees with everyone else.

Dairy causes inflammation. Raw milk heals people. Eat raw meat. Never touch raw meat. High fat is everything. High protein is better...

After two years of doing this myself, I'm convinced this is exactly why so many people burn out before they even start, or doubting everything they do or give up as soon as some weird symptom comes up. Everyone you listen sounds certain. Everyone has a different answer.  Everybody talks like they know the “correct” way to do carnivore.

But the truth is, there isn't one correct way.

Two people can eat the exact same ratios of fat and protein on carnivore, drink the same amounts of water, take the same electrolytes, work out the same and still have completely different results. Because your body is yours. and you are different from literally everybody else. The problem is to try to follow someone else's version of the carnivore diet before you even figured out your own.

So don't start by optimizing. Start by starting.

Cut sugar, carbs, processed foods, fruit, vegetables. What's left? Meat, eggs, bacon, seafood, dairy, animal fats. That's your starting point. Now pay attention to how you actually feel.

Out of those you are left, dairy can be one of the most inflammatory foods, so if your skin isn’t clearing up after a month, or you are constantly bloated, try cutting it out and see how your body responds. If something is giving you stomach aches or digestive issues, you can also remove sea food for a while. In fact, when in doubt, you can simplify everything down to just beef and butter and see.

The common advice is the opposite: start ultra-strict — meat, salt, and water only (the Lion Diet) — then slowly reintroduce things. And honestly, for some people that's the right move. The more serious your condition, the stricter you probably need to start. Autoimmune issues, chronic illness, severe gut problems — you need a clean baseline. But if you're not coming from that place you don't have to have the willpower to flip your entire life overnight. Because then, you quit before your body even has a chance to adapt. So I'd rather you start imperfectly and stay in, than start perfectly and bail in week two. Just start simple.

Do not think to much and research what is the best version of carnivore diet. My boyfriend once said that you can find endless videos and articles arguing both that something is good and that the same thing is bad, so don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to study everything in advance, it can end up confusing you more than helping you.

That’s why I believe research is best saved for when something actually goes wrong, a weird symptom, a side effect you haven’t seen before, or something that feels off. When that happens, First, go to Reddit and ask real people. The carnivore subreddit can be especially helpful, because chances are someone there has experienced the same thing and can point you in the right direction.

Once you get an idea of what your situation might be, that’s when you go deeper and research it properly, learn what it is, why it happens, and how people deal with it, starting from real experiences and build understanding from there instead of trying to figure everything beforehand.

Carnivore is simple. Annoyingly, frustratingly simple once you stop trying to make it complicated. It's literally just 5-6 types of things you can eat. just that one thing, so stick to that.

2nd - give it time

A lot of people, when they start a carnivore diet, expect years of damage to reverse in two weeks. It won’t. You have to be patient. As I’ve mentioned before, there is no perfect way to do carnivore. Figuring out what works for you takes time, just like healing does. It requires experimentation, adjustments, and a willingness to adapt your approach as your body changes.

Be prepared for a transition phase. You might experience low energy, headaches, digestive changes, intense cravings, “oxalate dumping,” heart palpitations, or nausea. While these symptoms can feel uncomfortable, they are often part of the adaptation process and tend to improve within a week or two for many people.

Your body needs time to adjust on a metabolic level, to shift toward burning fat more efficiently and producing ketones for fuel. For some people, this transition happens quickly, for others, it can take much longer.

Just remember: healing can look messy before it looks better, so just give it time.

3rd - listen to your body

I can’t say this enough: listen to your body! It sounds like simple, almost cliché advice, but it’s much harder than people think.

Imagine someone trying to play an instrument that has been completely out of tune for years. At first, every note sounds confusing. You can’t tell what’s right, what’s wrong, or what the music is even supposed to sound like. The instrument still works, but the signals are distorted.

That’s what happens with your body after years damage, years of processed food, emotional eating, constant snacking, and ignoring natural hunger cues.

For many people, hunger signals are completely out of balance. Cravings get mistaken for real hunger. Feeling emotionally drained gets confused with needing food. Fullness signals are ignored because eating has become automatic, something tied to comfort, stress relief, boredom, or routine rather than actual nourishment.

I’d even argue that many people today don’t truly know what real hunger feels like anymore. They struggle to tell the difference between a craving and genuine hunger. They don’t notice when their body has had enough, so finishing everything on the plate feels normal even when they’re already full.

Learning to listen to your body takes time. You have to slowly retune those signals and rebuild awareness. At first it feels confusing, but eventually your body starts making sense again.

Eat when you feel hungry and stop when you're full, like the kind of full where another bite might make you feel like throwing up.

A quick way to differentiate hunger from cravings:

Real hunger builds gradually and is physical, low energy, an empty stomach, or stomach growling. When you’re truly hungry, almost any nutritious food sounds good.

Cravings, on the other hand, are usually sudden and specific. They’re often emotional rather than physical, and usually focus on highly processed comfort foods like sweets, chips, or fast food.

A simple rule: if a proper meal sounds good, you’re probably hungry. If only one specific snack sounds good, it’s likely a craving.

Notice when your body is asking for real nourishment

A good example of this is organ meat. When people start a carnivore diet, there are so many opinions about whether you need to eat organs or not. Personally, I think you should trust your body. Organ meat usually isn’t something people crave all the time. So if you suddenly see liver at the store and think, “Wow, I would actually love that right now,” there’s probably a reason for it. Your body may be asking for nutrients that are found in organs. Take it home, cook it, and eat it until it stops tasting good. Most likely, you won’t crave it again for a while.

Organ meats are incredibly nutrient-dense. They contain high amounts of iron, vitamin A, B vitamins (especially B12), copper, folate, selenium, and many other essential nutrients. So when your body genuinely wants them, it can be worth listening to that signal.

In the last two years, I’ve only eaten organ meat as a full meal three times. That’s how often I truly craved it. I eat pâté more often because I enjoy it occasionally, but actual organs as a meal? Only when my body really asks for them.

The same goes for eggs. Eggs are packed with protein, healthy fats, choline, selenium, B vitamins, and many other nutrients. Sometimes they taste amazing, and sometimes they don’t appeal to me at all. When they stop tasting good, I stop eating them.

Never force yourself to eat something just because it’s considered healthy.

If you relearn how to listen to your body and trust its instincts, it will often tell you what it truly needs, as well as what it has had enough. — whether that’s eggs, organ meat, butter, salt, or something else entirely.

Your body is smarter than most diet rules.

4th - remember carnivore is not a religion

Everything is adjustable. Be willing to experiment, and don’t get stuck obsessing over a single “perfect” way of doing it. I’m saying this from experience, because I used to treat it like a strict belief system myself. It doesn’t have to be that way.

We’re all human. You might “slip” sometimes. That’s not the end of the world, and it’s definitely not a failure. One piece of bread or a chocolate bar doesn’t undo everything so, there’s no reason to feel guilty or spiral because of it. In fact, the more you try to be perfect, the more pressure you create and the higher the chance you’ll give up completely the moment something goes off track.

If you do eat something outside of carnivore, don’t turn it into a story. Don’t wait for “tomorrow” to get back on track. Just move on. Your next meal is always a fresh start.

Try not to obsess over strict rules. If you want a piece of fruit or a protein bar, have it without turning it into a moral decision. If one banana keeps you from eating a whole bowl of spaghetti, then sometimes that’s already a win.

When your body fully adjusts, even small “cheats” can trigger noticeable reactions. You can physically feel what certain foods do to you, which makes the effects much clearer.

From that point, it often becomes easier to stay consistent anyway. Not because of discipline alone, but because your own experience. So, the goal is not perfection. Especially not at the beginning. The goal is consistency, awareness, and finding what actually works for your body long term.

lastly- expect a lot of healing

We get used to feeling “not quite right” and start accepting it as normal. It’s only when you begin improving your diet and giving your body proper nourishment that you realize how much of that state was actually connected to what you were eating.

If you stick to a few simple rules, you can watch your whole life start to shift. Don’t be surprised if not only the issues you expected improve, but also things you didn’t even realize were problems begin to fade away - small pains you got used to over time, or habits you only later realize were quietly affecting your health.

When you start treating food as real nourishment and learn what actually works for your body, the results can go far beyond what you initially expect. Healing doesn’t always happen loudly or all at once, but it can be deeper than you imagined, affecting more parts of your life than you thought were even connected.

so embrace the journey and trust your body as it finds its way back to balance.

Truthfully,

Lia from Carnivore to Heal.