Long Term Side Effects of Carnivore Diet

It’s natural, if you’re wondering if there are any long term side effects of carnivore diet. And there is.

I’ve been on the carnivore diet since April 2021. That’s for almost three years at the time I’m writing this. And I’ve noticed several side effects.

Some are long term. Others showed up immediately.

Short Term Side Effects

Now, full disclosure.

To me, they were side effects. Because I went on the carnivore diet to lose weight. I had read that it worked and that it had reversed one woman’s type 2 diabetes.

I expected to lose weight and I did. Immediately.

But I had not expected what followed closely after.

I Followed a Non-Fad Diet

I just read the definition of a fad diet because Wikipedia said the carnivore died was a fad diet.

What is a non-fad diet then? It’s when you eat balanced. It’s when you don’t leave out groups of food like fruit or vegetables.

And I didn’t leave anything healthy out.

We had a lot of healthy organic fruit and vegetables.

We cooked our own meals without powders, mix or canned food.

We had protein and fruit. We did everything recommended. And I was deadly obese and in pain.

I couldn’t turn over in bed at night.

I had to stay on the same side I was on when I got into bed. When I woke up and had to get out of bed, it was more pain. When I walked my dog, I suffered badly from lower back pain.

My hair greased, I had skin tags, I had problems breathing through my nose because it was stuffed, I coughed, I had dry skin…

We both snored in our sleep.

And within a couple of days after I went carnivore, many of those issues were gone. (Not all the fat, though.)

Talk about unexpected side-effect here!

What About Cravings?

My husband had just bought Mars bars on sale…

For several days, we had 4 Mars bars lying in our fridge. THAT was tough. But I didn’t bite into the temptation.

Finally, I met my friend (she’s skinny) in the park and gave them to her. She looked surprised, but accepted them.

After that, since I was full all the time, I didn’t really suffer from cravings.

I could feel a sudden pang of hunger. Then I would snap a bite of fat cheese or butter and get over it.

For celebrations, I still struggle, though. “Just this once.”

I keep it to the once, but having pizza just for one day costs me 2 extra kg (4.4 lbs). Plus if there are left-overs from the pizza… I begin to feel the effect of the flour. I cough a little. I snore a little again.

Long Term Side Effects

When I don’t deviate from the carnivore diet (I get weak sometimes and eat bread, pizza, Snickers…) I have no sign of Type 2 Diabetes.

I can go weeks without washing my hair if I want, and it doesn’t get greasy. My skin is soft. I have no skin tags.

I no longer cough, get dizzy spells or high blood pressure.

When I had my whole system scanned, my heart doctor told me I had very healthy arteries. He repeated it. He seemed surprised given my age.

Then of course there’s the lasting weight loss.

Most diets are yo-yo diets. You lose. You gain back.

Not the carnivore diet.

Do I have other than praise for it? Yes.

It can be tough at times to not be able to eat unhealthy food. A sandwich, a slice of bread with cheese. Snickers (hello weakness, here I come).

Other than that?

No. I’m still feeling blessed for finding this old diet April 4th, 2021.

Old diet? Yes. It’s definitely not new. But I’ll get more into that in another post another day.

Speaking of Hair…

My hair had gotten significantly thinner over the years. I also lost a lot of hair every time I brushed it. That worried me.

I’ve always had thick hair. Lots of it. But it couldn’t grow beneath a certain length.

And I would have to wash it once or twice per week.

When I got near hair-wash day, it would look greasy.

It took a while on the carnivore diet before I saw changes. Now my hair is thicker again and I can easily go for two weeks without washing it.

I bought a boar bristle hair brush, which is awesome and helps me get rid of dry hair-ends. I lose almost no hair when I’m brushing and it’s growing like crazy. I need to keep it down by cutting it often.

Oh Yes! I Forgot…

Ever so often, somebody talks about a painful symptom or I read about it, and then I go, “Oh, yes! I forgot that.”

Those were pains I suffered in the past. Pre-carnivore. And I’d forgotten about it…

So when those memories come back to me, I will update this blog post.