Per the Jordan Peterson eats meat thread in GD, I posted about possibly sharing my firsthand experiences with Keto, Carnivore, and Veganism. The Standard American diet isn't anything too spectacular in and of itself, but I'll speak to that, as well.  I spent a decent amount of time in each, roughly 2 months - sufficient time for gut adaptation, fluid level adjustments, etc. to take place.  

My experiences with all of them were in Florida, with gym workouts being in my garage, door open, with a fan blowing - the overall time period went from roughly March to about September...PLENTY of hot days in there to work with.

The intention to focus on gym training in hot weather is to use my energy during as an ad hoc metric.  My lifts were largely compound movements, focusing more on reps than chasing PRs.  That kept me out in the heat longer.  The heat, along with lifting, zapped my energy, so I really got to know the diets' strengths and weaknesses during this time.   Recovery was pretty solid all the way through, all things being equal (which they were, save for the diets I was on), and was largely centered around alternating days (Pull Push legs Pull Push Legs Rest) and decent sleep (around 6-7 hours a night, no real deviations).   So I think I have a fairly even platform on which to evaluate.

This is in no way scientific, nor is it meant to be.  It's purely anecdotal, take from it what you will, if anything at all.   In no way am I trying to convince anyone of a particular diet's superiority.  The lesson to take away from here is FIND WHAT WORKS FOR YOU.

The breakdown:

Keto -
This is, in my opinion, the hardest to manage simply due to food prep and keeping fats high enough.   After transitioning into ketosis I went through a baby brain fog, nothing major - I had no die hard withdrawal symptoms from carbs.  The water weight dropped within a week.  I was pissing like a racehorse.  Electrolytes are very important to manage in ketosis, especially if you're sweating a lot.  I supplemented them by taking some water, adding a bit of cream of tartar (potassium) and some sea salt (or pink salt, whatever I had).  No iodized salt.  I'd shake it up vigorously, and it honestly doesn't taste bad at all.  I felt replenished within about 10-15 minutes.  

The meal prepping sucked.  I'm not a recipe guy.   I think someone more inclined to cook, or has someone to share the cooking and maybe try new things with will find this part more appealing.  I'm very "functional" with food - I see it as fuel, and little more.  I don't get too bent out of shape if something is bland or doesn't taste great.   Fats are crucial and that was another part of Keto that kind of sucked, was ensuring I had enough fats without overdoing it on calories.   The carb counting also got old, not gonna lie.    Once you get into a flow it gets a little easier, but to me, Keto felt very administrative - constantly checking numbers, calories, carbs, macros, blah, blah, blah.  Some people rock it, though.  

My energy lifting was great, PROVIDED I had the fats and electrolytes.  Boy, let me tell you - on a hot day, if I missed a beat with my fats or electrolytes, I'd feel depleted.  Just flat.  It got into my mind, my thinking.  I was unmotivated as hell if things weren't on point.  But, if things WERE good to go, I had tons of energy to burn through in my lifts.

Overall, Keto is great as a lifestyle choice, if you can stick with it and manage it.   It keeps food options open, which helps to stick with it in social situations.  But, for me, I'm too dumb and simple to care about getting technical with my food, so that led me to...

Carnivore -
Holy fuck.  If you can make it past the transition gut-wise, you're good.  It's no joke that the gut biome transition will absolutely jack you up.  I don't mean you need to run gingerly to the throne and make a quick stinky, I mean your ass will piss like it hates water.  Fluid levels have a lot of balancing acts to do when you go to zero carb, zero fiber, so this transition hits hard.  I mean shit.  Don't go to work.  Work from home.  Seriously.  Unless you want a brown jetstream propelling you 18 feet about ground level, stay home and close to a toilet.   Wet wipes may help if you have a longer transition.  It can rival the prep to a colonoscopy.  Joe Rogan talks about this; he ain't lying boys and girls.  You will piss out of your ass.

Once that's done, however....oh man.  Dude.   Seriously.  Steak.  Eggs.  Bacon...  I don't get too technical with this shit as far as permissible foods.  I ate some cheese every now and then, I drank coffee.  Avoided alcohol, and basically anything other than steak, eggs, shrimp, and organ meats.  If you can hack the transition, this may be your huckleberry.  Food prep is simple.   Take meat, apply heat.   Even a democrat can't fuck that one up.  Salt and pepper your steaks.   I would occasionally butter-baste a steak in a skillet because I felt like being a fancy bitch and I loved every bite of that succulent little fucker.  Going to the bathroom wasn't a huge deal.  I did not experience constipation EXCEPT when I ate cheese.   I'm a bit of a slut for meats and cheeses, so I'd sneak some provolone every now and then and it definitely slowed things down and had a negative impact.  So long as I kept that shit to a minimum, there were no real issues.   Again, food is fuck all easy.  Steak, eggs, bacon.  If it came from a living thing, it was game.  Some, like Mikaila Peterson, only eat red meat and that's it.  I don't lord myself over anyone so I don't give a fuck if you sneak eggs and some dairy in there, but I kept the dairy to a minimum for the above constipatory reasons.

Working out on carnivore isn't even a question.  In my experience it was the supreme diet for it.  I had energy out the ass.  I felt light.  No bloated gut.  No heavy, sluggish feeling.  The heat and humidity?  Get the fuck outta here you little bitches.  You can't touch me.  I had some of my longest, hardest training sessions on carnivore.  Now, I want to take a moment and address something that I know someone will call out - carbs and lifting.  Carbs can provide a ton of great energy for lifting so I'm -not- knocking them.  During my workouts, I'll reiterate that I DIDN'T max any of my sets, nor did I push myself to the point of needing extended recovery periods.  If I could bench 275, I'd rep 225.  Sets like this were common for me:  135, 135 (warm ups), 185, 225, 225, 225,   etc.  I didn't push the envelope there, so the bigger dudes on here may want to take note that I wasn't hitting my cells for maximum power.  For what I wanted and for my fitness level, I did fantastically on zero carb.  My goals were the endurance in the heat and I had zero issues with it.   If I wanted to lift strongman or something (I don't) I'd probably run to carbs!

My skin also cleared up.  Like, a lot.  Not that I'm some monster to begin with, but redness, blotchiness, heat rash type stuff went away completely.  Not almost disappeared, totally disappeared.  No inflammation of any kind.

Only drawbacks would be cost.  It's not for everyone, but even on a budget it can be done.  I hit Sam's Club since that was closest to me and I'd grab 4-packs of steaks.   Stupid easy.

Veganism-
Yes, I tried it.  Mainly to say I gave it a fair shake.   Suffice it to say, it's not for me, but I can see the appeal, believe it or not.  Some of the food is damn tasty! They can get really creative with their recipes, but this also circles back to the whole "I am a cooking tard" thing (see Keto).  This diet is the one that hit me the hardest, in the worst ways.   For the first week, I was in -heaven-.  I felt so light, had great energy, kept thinking "fuck maybe these pink haired girls are on to something"....but then...

PAIN.

My gut biome did not react kindly, and I transitioned into it, not just cold-turkey cut out meat.   This cannot be overstated:  I had PAINFUL, olympic-level farting the entire time.  Oh, you want to get some sleep?  Nah, we're gonna turn your ass into a trumpet.  I am telling you, it hurt.  Farts are hilarious, these ones weren't.  These were distress signals.  I'd wake up 2-3 times in the middle of the night in a self-imposed gas chamber and actually have to leave my bedroom, grab a breath, air it all out, then go back to sleep.   I lurked around some vegan forums to see if this was common and holy shit -- I got so much conflicting information on this.  I really feel like there isn't anything settled on what, exactly, I had going on with me, but it wasn't good.  Some people were going on about introducing foods in a certain order to minimize gas, and I'm thinking "I shouldn't have to order my fucking foods a certain way to have a livable diet."

Veganism is the diet that also fucked up my skin, my energy, and I MAY dare say my immune system (but don't take that too far).  My point being, I never felt sicker.  Before I finally decided to call it quits and go back to Carnivore I really felt like I was in a constant state of getting ready to be sick, like a cold or flu onset or something.  Lethargy, cloudy-minded, etc.   My energy in the garage gym fucking sucked.  After a couple of weeks I had to decrease all my weight.  Wasn't energized to do much more (on a bench) than 185 for reps, and that's just shite.  I was dropping a ton of weight, and I WAS sure to make sure I was eating enough calories (had my sister, a vegan, help me out there).  Calories weren't the problem.  I simply felt like shit.   My skin become blotchy and red in places, and on my right hand, on my pinky knuckle, I have a tiny skin irritation...almost looks like psoriasis or something and man this diet made it inflamed as fuck.  

Even though I had lost a lot of weight, I felt like ass, had farts that hurt my body, my pride, and possibly my bedroom paint, my skin was fucking all up, my lifts were shit, my mind clouded, feeling terrible all the time.  0/10 would not recommend.   I'm not even going to get into the Vitamin B12 argument.   Suffice it to say, if you can hack a vegan diet, you do you.   I cannot abide it.


Balanced/regular Diet
This is the one that is hardest for me since it can encompass just about anything and is super easy to fuck up.  I keep it clean -- I eat almost no processed foods.  Not a whole lot to talk about here; my gut has always been a little wonky so some stuff on the SAD would hit me negatively, but overall so long as I keep things balanced shit isn't all that bad. If I do go carb heavy it's usually because I want to work out longer or something like that.  My go-tos are chicken, steak, broccoli, rice, asparagus, etc.  There's really nothing special about this.  Throw in an ice cream or something every so often, maybe a couple of beers every few weeks, etc.  I keep things very tight and low-key.  The lifts are non-descript.  No real energy loss, no real endurance loss (or gain for that matter).


My conclusion is that if you have something that works for you where your gut is happy, you have energy, a clear head, and you can afford it then by all means, have at it.   As much as I love carnivore, I may stick with just a balanced and clean diet for now, since in addition to weights I am practicing both BJJ and Muay Thai AND I am back in FL, so that heat will take its toll.  I think the carbs may serve as great energy for me.

Anyway, that's all I've got for today, go away now

Keto for me was weird. I can see why people use it for weight loss though. I was just never hungry, and lost weight when I didn't need to be losing.

I was getting very gassed out at work too, endurance was down. Could have been because I wasn't eating enough, but once I added carbs back in after a month I felt way better while working.

Carbs can definitely help.  Sounds like your calories may have been low.  It was kind of a bitch to maintain on keto.

Your experiences pretty much mirror mine only I don't get the shits.  I've been keto for about 2.5 years, long periods of just meat eggs/bacon.  Really straightened out my triglycerides/cholesterol and they were WAAY high before.  Skin cleared up, vision sharpened, feel younger.

Did you notice that your lactic acid buildup was delayed/lowered?  I have way more stamina physically now than before. Wish I had eaten this way when I was younger.

Yes.  My endurance was the shit, quite honestly.  Big reason I went somewhat heavy on lifts but aimed for reps and over volume/TUT vs. maxing.  I could really keep momentum.

Wondering about getting back on it but I do train a lot of bjj and muay thai.  Hoping I don’t tank out... carbs can be friendly..

I love Keto, I feel great doing it.  Nice write up

I haven't tried those others but I have done the meat-only diet before for about 2 weeks.  Took a few days to adjust, I don't recall having headaches or anything.  You are right about the inflammation though, and this is essentially why I was trying it out.  I have psoriasis, it can get pretty bad.  On an all-meat diet, things start clearing up pretty good.

It's hard to keep doing it forever, though, and I'm told there may be some long-term health concerns.

Has OP tried the AIP diet?  It's basically built to mimick the results you got with the carnivore diet, but with fruit and veggies that will not cause inflammation.  Seems like the best of both worlds to me, but it is one that requires some knowledge of what you can/can't eat, lots of recipes, and it requires you to give up coffee, which... let's be honest, I won't do that.

All-meat seems to be easiest for me.  But I'm worried I will end up with some serious vitamin deficiencies.

OP has not tried the diet you mentioned.  Not giving up coffee!


Everything I am reading, hearing, seeing, experiencing (or have experienced, as it were) is that vitamin deficiencies aren’t a concern since red meat is so nutrient dense.  Though, it is recommended to eat beef liver once a week as that’s basically a super food.  You can google around and watch some youtubes from experts on it, I can only give lay anecdotes.

I've never heard of the AIP diet.   Link?   I'm not trying to lose weight, but I suffer from the inflammation that comes from years of beating my body.   Keto helped that quite a bit.   I also don't drink coffee, so don't care about that.

Did you use any supplements when doing carnivore? Curious as to what if any effect that may have...
*edit
Also, how long was the gut transition?

No.  Though I have tried beef liver capsules before, didn’t really notice any “jump out” improvements.

Gut transition took about 3-5 days for the really hellacious stuff to run its course, then normalized over about a week.   You simply don’t shit as much.  It’s incredible how much of animal protein intake the body actually uses.

If you’re very concerned, grab wet wipes.  The consistency during that time isn’t the friendliest, but know that your gut WILL adapt.

@burnprocess

Thanks for the info!

Anytime.  I will always advocate for people trying something firsthand instead of gobbling up internet bullshit.

I am back on carnivore fully now, FYI.

Keto sucked for me - not energy wise.  I was fine for low rep strength work and easy endurance work, as long as I stayed away from glycolytic stuff like intervals and threshold work.

What sucked, though, is that I gained weight on keto.  I was coming from low-moderate carb paleo-ish diet and thought keto would be the trick to suppress my appetite and get that last 10 pounds off.  I kept eating very high fat, waiting for my appetite to go away, but it never really did and the caloric density of fat meant that I was eating more calories.  FWIW, my diet was fatty meats, cheese, nuts, some full fat dairy and leafy green vegetables.  I know I was in ketosis, because I used the blood test strips.  I also had intermittent fasting a day or two per week which was pretty easy on keto, but during that go at eating keto, I did not have my normal summer weight loss of 10 pounds and then I put on another 10 in the winter.

Never again.