The carnivore diet is a low-carb, moderate-protein, high-fat eating plan. Cutting carbs and increasing fat intake significantly impact hormone production and balance within the body. Since women are more sensitive to hormone fluctuations than men, you may be curious about the effects of a carnivore diet for women.
In this article, we’ll follow the science as we explore the specific effects and benefits that a carnivore diet can have for women.
If you’re new to the carnivore diet, here’s a brief outline of what it entails for both women and men.
A carnivore diet calls for eating only animal products, including
This means eliminating many staples of the standard American Diet, including:
How women adhere to and formulate their carnivore diet often evolves over time.
It’s common for women to begin with the carnivore elimination diet, which calls for only steak, water, and salt for at least a month.
After the elimination protocol, it’s common to add in full-fat dairy, pork, organ meats (especially liver), seafood, and the occasional treat of low-carb homemade ice cream.
With any iteration, carnivore always revolves around ruminant meats, which have the best fatty-acid profile, least toxins (most seafood is contaminated), and greatest density of bio-available nutrients.
Keep in mind that animal products are zero-to-low in carbs. Since your body can only get 35% of its calories from protein without risking protein poisoning, you need to get most of your calories from fat. Therefore the carnivore diet is by default a high-fat low-carb, or keto-carnivore way of eating.
Women go carnivores for numerous reasons. A few of the most common include:
Emerging data from mainstream institutions like Harvard, along with tens of thousands of personal success stories, reveal that the carnivore diet offers powerful health benefits to both men and women.
But not much has been written about the ways the carnivore diet may affect and benefit women specifically. Here’s our science-based list of the possible women-specific effects of the carnivore diet.
Hormones are chemical messengers that orchestrate many of the body’s biological processes, including reproduction, mood, appetite, and energy metabolism.5
High-fat, low-carb diets centered on animal products have been shown to regulate hormones by
A 2017 review of seven high-quality studies looking at the effects of low carbohydrate diets like carnivore on hormones in overweight and obese women found that cutting carbs reduced circulating insulin levels, leading to improvements in hormonal imbalance and resulting in the resumption of ovulation. [4]
PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) is a combined hormonal and inflammatory disorder that affects the ovaries and ovulation of 1 in 10 women. The main symptoms of PCOS:
A standard high-carb diet keeps insulin levels chronically elevated, a condition called hyperinsulinemia– the primary factor in developing PCOS. [5]
Hyperinsulinemia leads to PCOS by inhibiting sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) synthesis, increasing the levels of male sex hormones (androgens) like testosterone in women. [6] [7]
Abnormally high levels of male sex hormones inhibit the production of progesterone while keeping estrogen levels elevated.
Additionally, women with PCOS who eat diets high in carbs increase oxidative stress and cellular inflammatory responses, further fueling PCOS symptoms. [8]
When women go carnivore, they’re cutting carbs, which lowers insulin and allows the body to rebalance sex hormones. [9]
A study of women with PCOS who consumed a high-fat, low-carb diet for six months revealed an average loss of 12% of body weight and a 54% reduction in insulin levels. [10]
We can debate whether focusing on aging is psychologically healthy, but the reality is that women spend billions of dollars on anti-aging treatments and products.
The irony is that the greatest tool to combat aging is your own diet and lifestyle.
The carnivore diet introduces numerous factors that contribute to anti-aging properties, including
Low-carb, high-fat diets like carnivore have been shown to reduce excess body weight. [12]
The carnivore diet helps women shed extra body fat by activating a number of factors, including:
Women are statistically more susceptible than men to mood disorders, including bipolar and unipolar depression and anxiety. [15]
Studies show that healthy sex hormones help stabilize mood, and as we’ve seen above, a carnivore diet can help stabilize sex hormones. [16]
A bellwether 2022 pilot study looking at the effects of high-fat, low-carb diets on bipolar and treatment-resistant psychiatric disorders found that [17]
Numerous other studies show a clear link between eating meat, less depression, and better mental health.
For example, a 2020 metanalysis examining 20 studies with 171,802 participants, ages 11-105 years old, from North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania found [18]
The positive effects of meat on mental health and the negative effects of vegan and vegetarianism are especially relevant to women.
Research shows that women are about twice as likely as men to say they’re eating less meat–31% to 15%, respectively. While 80% of vegans in the U.S. are women. [19] [20]
The twin benefits of reducing inflammation and balancing hormones make the carnivore diet a tool for boosting fertility.
On a carnivore diet, women
Below you’ll find a chart of fertility-boosting super nutrients in carnivore foods vs. plant foods.
In addition to cutting carbs that damage skin health and increase aging, the carnivore diet is centered around foods loaded with nutrients that directly benefit skin health.
Foods high in the highly absorbable animal form of vitamin A called retinol include turkey liver, duck liver, beef liver, goat cheese, butter, and egg yolk.
Vitamin A has been shown to increase skin cell and collagen production. [21]
Carnivore diet foods, including oysters, steak, and lamb, are also high in zinc which helps skin heal from damage and protects against aging. [22]
Studies show that consuming an abundance of animal proteins from red meat and fatty fish significantly delays the natural onset of menopause by more than 3 years. [23]
The foods that women eliminate on the carnivore diet, including pasta, rice, and refined carbohydrates, are associated with the early onset of menopause. [24]
Carnivore diet foods, including fatty fish, beef liver, pasture-raised pork, and full-fat dairy, provide women with abundant vitamin D and calcium. Studies show that vitamin D and calcium can delay menopause by 17% compared with women who have a low intake of these nutrients. [25]
If you’ve already begun menopause, carnivore diet foods high in protein and vitamin K2 can reduce bone loss and muscle mass associated with menopause. [26]
The carnivore diet can dramatically improve women’s health by
The combination of these two factors–eliminating damaging foods and increasing nourishing foods–contributes to powerful female-specific health benefits, including
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