Maybe you’ve heard the stories of carnivore diet health transformations and seen the before and after pics.
Or you’ve read the recent research strongly suggesting that humans were hyper-carnivorous apex predators for nearly 2 million years. [1] Now you’re ready to create the ultimate carnivore meal plan of your own.
This article is for you!
Let’s take a closer look at four types of carnivore diets, and detail a weekly shopping list and meal plan for each.
Simply put, the carnivore diet means eating 100% animal foods. Most types of carnivore diets eliminate all vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds.
The concept of the carnivore diet is based on ancestral ways of eating.
In the vast period of human evolution (some 2 million years) almost none of the vegetables and fruits you see at the grocery store existed. Grains only came on the scene some 7,000 years ago. Before that humans ate mostly meat.
Since the dawn of agriculture, human health has taken a nosedive as incidences of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and other “diseases of civilization” are skyrocketing.
By eliminating the foods our ancestors didn’t eat, and consuming only nutrient-rich animal foods, the carnivore diet may be an effective way to improve your health.
There are four main types of carnivore diet meal plans categorized by how restrictive they are, as well as by their inclusion of organ meats.
The typical carnivore diet meal plan includes all the ruminant animals above and allows pork, eggs, seafood, poultry, and dairy if tolerated. You will also likely begin experimenting with some organ meats.
If eating a high-carb standard American Diet is treating your body like a cheap Yugo (the much-maligned communist-era car), nose-to-tail eating is treating your body like a Ferrari! Lavishing it with high octane racing fuel and lovingly attending to every detail of health and longevity.
Nose-to-tail–whole animal eating–is about prizing healthy fat and nutrient-packed organ meats over everything else. It’s the way of eating that our ancestors evolved on, and it’s a practice observed among hunter-gatherer tribes, some of whom toss the tenderloin (what most of us think of as meat) to the dogs!
Also known as the carnivore elimination diet or, “water, meat, salt” approach, the lion diet was popularized by Michaela and Jordan Peterson.
As the most restrictive version of the carnivore diet, it allows only the meat of ruminant animals.
The only other additions to this diet are salt and water.
The lion diet was created to be a first step in reclaiming your health and wellbeing. It takes into consideration the sad truth that most doctors receive less than 15 hours of training in nutrition, yet diet and lifestyle are our greatest health factors.
By removing all problematic foods, it puts you back in the driver’s seat of your metabolic health and even allows you to slowly reintroduce some foods. In essence, you are the subject of your own nutritional study.
In the short term, this diet is aimed at eliminating all other dietary variables that could be contributing to diseases and disorders while providing adequate nutrition.
In the long term, the lion diet should be modified to meet your micronutrient needs.
If a full-on carnivore diet feels too intimidating, or you just can’t fathom cutting out all plant food cold turkey, a carnivore adjacent diet might be a good fit for you.
Think of it as training wheels. In a carnivore adjacent diet, whole, fatty animal foods account for 80-90% of calories. So you get the nutrient-packed benefits of ruminant meat, pork, fish, shellfish, and full-fat dairy.
The other 10-20% of calories can come from low-carb and/or low-toxicity plants and fruits.
Because some of the benefits of a carnivore diet are linked to eliminating plant toxins and antinutrients, it’s important to be vigilant of the plants you continue to eat.
To make the carnivore adjacent diet as ancestral as possible, many adherents only eat “roots and fruits.” This means eliminating all leafy greens and other vegetables.
Whole animal foods loaded with healthy fats, complete proteins, and micronutrients are extremely satiating. For this reason, each of our carnivore diet meal plans calls for only two meals per day.
Though technically you can eat these meals at any time, we recommend combining them with an intermittent fasting practice. There are a number of methods you can choose from with varying levels of restriction.
There are also intermittent fasting protocols designed specifically for women, including a simple approach to align eating with your circadian rhythm.
The standard carnivore diet meal plan is focused on ruminant meats and healthy fats. Pork, poultry, fish, and shellfish play supporting roles, adding both nutrient and gastronomic variety.
Many people turn to the carnivore diet for relief of gastrointestinal issues like leaky gut. For this reason, we recommend eliminating potentially irritating dairy products for at least the first 4-6 weeks.
We recommend sourcing free-range, grass-fed, pastured, and sustainably produced meat and seafood whenever possible. This will ensure you’re getting the most nutritious foods possible.
Here’s an example of what this shopping list looks like in action.
Let’s take a look at the nutrient analysis of all food on day #5 of our typical carnivore diet menu:
Nose-to-tail eating is a close as to how our ancestors ate for most of history as most of us will get. This means incorporating organ meats and less-common animal parts like liver, bone marrow, and salmon roe
Let’s take a look at the nutrient analysis of all food you’d eat on day #7 of our typical carnivore diet menu:
Though the lion diet is wonderfully simple, it’s important to remember to choose the fattiest cuts of meat.
Consider the Lion diet as an elimination protocol that can be helpful in resetting your gut microbiome along with other metabolic factors that are unbalanced as a result of eating the Standard American Diet.
On the lion diet, it’s important to pay close attention to your body, making sure to get enough salt and water, since your body will be dumping glycogen stores as you become keto-adapted.
This guide offers tips to eliminate any transitional side effects.
Though not on the “official” lion diet, keto bone broth fits squarely in the protocol and can help with staying hydrated and replenishing electrolytes.
You will eventually add back in other animal foods like eggs and organ meats that can round out your nutrient needs.
Ruminant animal meat, salt, and water, that’s it!
A carnivore adjacent diet means getting the vast majority of your calories from whole food animal products (80-90%), with the final 10-20% coming from low-toxicity and low-carb fruits and veggies.
Though you don’t get the elimination benefits of a Lion diet, you do get a way of eating that can appeal to the human desire for novelty (and therefore be more sustainable. And it allows for more adjustments to individual health needs and goals.
On this diet, you still focus on fatty cuts of ruminant meat. You may also begin experimenting with small amounts of organ meat. For instance, by incorporating (hiding) some beef liver into a bison burger.
One of the main features of the carnivore adjacent diet is that it includes fruit.
Fruit is the only part of a plant that is meant to be eaten by predators. It’s sweet and laxative for a reason. When we eat the fruit, walk away, and defecate, we’ve spread and fertilized a plant’s seeds.
To play it safe, if you don’t have any sensitivities, and are at a healthy weight, small to moderate servings of quality whole fruit are likely not bad for you. But avoid fruit juices and dried fruits.
Though phosphorus is an essential nutrient, a carnivore diet means eating clinically high amounts (over 1000mg) of phosphorus a day.
Studies show mixed and inconclusive results with regards to high phosphorus intake and health outcomes. And when considering all available studies, the general consensus is that that high phosphorus intake does not lead to health problems in healthy adults.2
That said, consuming moderate fruit may help deplete excess phosphorus for people who are concerned about it.
Keep in mind that consuming fructose is also a major factor in metabolic disease. So if you’re coming to a carnivore diet to rebalance your metabolism, it’s best to limit your fruit consumption. 3
Fruit on a carnivore adjacent diet is also appealing to carnivore dieters who want to cycle in and out of ketosis. And for people who want to avoid ketosis altogether.
Let’s take a look at two of the main reasons that some carnivore dieters cite for avoiding or controlling ketosis.
Non-keto carnivore dieters point to studies showing that long-term ketosis can lead to reduced T3 or thyroid hormone. [2] [3] [4]
The reasoning follows that the presence of sugar signals to your metabolism that you’re in a carbohydrate (and a generally calorically) rich environment–where fruits grow, so do many animals.
Whereas, the prolonged absence of carbs tells your body that you’re in a low caloric environment. Your body responds by slowing metabolism in order to retain your body fat, which it will need to metabolize into fuel.
One of the responses the body has to this ongoing “famine” state is to increase insulin resistance. At the same time, it increases gluconeogenesis (the synthesizing of glucose from protein). These two metabolic changes can lead to elevated blood sugar–a state called “fasting hyperglycemia. [5] [6] [7]
The body goes into this state as a way of conserving energy and storing it as fat to endure future deprivation.
Though many people thrive on long-term low-carb and carnivore diets, others may want to avoid these concerns by eating some fruit and other low-toxicity tubers like potatoes and sweet potatoes.
Let’s take a look at the nutrient analysis of all food you’d eat on day #7 of our carnivore adjacent diet menu.
Though simple at first glance, the carnivore diet allows for a surprising variety of approaches to help you meet your health and fitness goals.
A typcial approach makes room for eggs and dairy, while a Lion (elimination) diet calls for nothing but ruminant meat and water. For the adventurous, there’s the nose-to-tail approach that incorporates the entire animal from liver to testicals. And for people who want a gentler path out of the Standard American Diet and into an ancestral way of eating, there’s the carnivore adjacent plant that includes some fruits and roots.
What all these carnivore diet meal plans have in common is a caloric core of ruminant animal meats.
You can learn more about the wholesome animal foods on the carnivore diet food list here.
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