5: Exercising Carnivore #1, Keto Flu

This week is the first article about exercise, my favorite part of fitness. This is the perfect time to talk about the Keto Flu which will greatly influence your physical state for about a week. Can you work out on the Carnivore diet? The first weeks will be rough but I will walk you through the progression to becoming fit and active again once you've adapted to an all-meat diet. I'll include a small talk about fat loss and at the end I will offer a free basic workout plan. Enjoy!

Keto Flu

You have probably heard of this already. The infamous Keto Flu is the beginning period of adaption when your body "is coming off of carbohydrates." Last week I used the word "drugs" to describe carbs so the whole Keto Flu goes hand in hand with that analogy. It's comparable, not exactly the same. Of course I don't know the details about what happens when a drug addict is being sobered up from their respective substance. My drug has always been carbohydrates. It's an addiction I still deal with today. I assume it is a similar situation to yours. If you came into the diet mostly concerned about never eating your favorite starchy food again then you are in the same boat as most of us. We are all dependent on plant foods after eating them for years

Our Body Fire

Imagine your body is a fire. It would run best on fire wood right? We can always just burn plastic and gasoline, but it's a lot harder to maintain a strong flame with such materials. This is a similar case to carbohydrates and your body. Your body works hard to keep you alive so it will take those carbs and burn them. If I asked you to keep a fire alive but only handed you plastic plates and gasoline you could certainly do it but it would be hard. So much plastic and gasoline would be needed to keep a respectable flame going. In the context of dieting you would technically have to keep your plastic fire up or die. The flames will spew and stink of all of the nasty chemicals being expelled. The fires is inefficient because it is on the wrong fuel source.

When we decide to add wood to our fire the flames of the plastic will definitely start the wood on fire but it will take some time for the black smoke and gasses to fully dissipate. In our diet situation, the body will keep burning carbs but when you decide to go full meat it will take time to show signs of efficiency. With the right fuel, your body and a fire will appear healthy and create positive output. With wood, white smoke and a beautiful smoky aroma will result. Eating meat, your body will be energized and nourished. The Keto Flu is that short period when you throw wood in the fire and it smolders for a bit producing more smoke than before as the wood starts to catch a flame. It will take time but the remaining plastic will burn off and all that will be left is a burning log of wood. It will be beautiful I promise.

• Eating Carbohydrates is like burning plastic in a fire

• Eating Meat is like burning wood in a fire

• The Keto Flu is your body transition from carbs to meat; or like a fire transitioning from plastic to wood

With these simple points in mind hopefully you can better rationalize your decision to go Carnivore.

The Negative Effects of the Flu

From the internet, it seems most people's Keto Flu lasts about a week. The only time I experienced Flu like symptoms was while I did my 10-day water fast. My symptoms lasted the entire time, so 10 days. This is what I felt:

• Headaches

• Body Aches; sore muscles and prevalent joint pain would flare up

• Lethargy & Laziness

• Runny Nose

• Antisocial

• Keto Rash (I talked about this in article 3)

It was pretty much just like having a cold or a flu. I did not want to do anything and I probably could have slept all day if I didn't go to work and what not. Imagine calling your boss and saying, "I'm very sick from not eating carbs..." He would probably reply, "Then eat some carbs and come in!"

There are no positive effects of the Keto Flu so I can only offer some tips on getting through it.

• Prepare mentally beforehand

• Drink Salt Water: 1/2 a teaspoon mixed thoroughly into a glass of water, if it helps have another

• Start before a long weekend, the flu will set in around day 3 so if you have a three day weekend starting on Friday start your Carnivore Diet on Tuesday or Wednesday.

An Alternative to going cold turkey is easing into the Carnivore Diet. I am a dramatic person so I'll be honest, I've never considered easing into anything. The day I started 'training to be a Navy SEAL' I went from a couch potato to working out daily, up to 5 hours a day for the next 8 months. It was the same for me and the Carnivore diet; I went to the store and bought a bunch of meat when I ran out of my last carb based food. Speaking from experience, easing into it might be the BEST choice when doing this.

If you have the patience to ease into this that probably means you have the patience to adhere to this diet until it pays you the plentiful benefits it offers. Here is my suggestion if you're easing in.

Start by eating only meat every other day: This will probably be easy. On the day when you do eat carbs center them in one meal; I suggest that meal be dinner.

• Monday you eat eggs for breakfast, a burger patty for lunch, and chicken and rice for dinner.

• Tuesday you eat eggs for breakfast, a burger patty for lunch, and pork roast for dinner; no rice.

• Repeat

• Alternate Carb Day-Meat Day for a week.

Increase the period by 1 day, each week: Now that you have gone a week eating carbs every other day stretch it out to every two days. Carbs-Meat-Meat. This will definitely help you get more comfortable with the diet and the idea of going days with only eating meat.

• Monday you eat eggs for breakfast, a burger patty for lunch, and chicken and rice for dinner.

• Tuesday you eat eggs for breakfast, a burger patty for lunch, and pork roast for dinner; no rice.

• Wednesday you eat ground beef for breakfast, a flank steak for lunch, and a roasted chicken for dinner; no rice.

• Repeat

• Carb-Meat-Meat Repeat

Eventually you will be eating carbs only once a week: This is the basic idea of having a weekly cheat day. This is perfectly fine to stay in this routine but if you are not seeing progress in your goals (fat loss, mental clarity, curing a disease) this one day a week is the cause. To see max benefits, I suggest at least 2 months of strict dieting before reintroducing carbs. Once you've reached eating carbs on only one day of the week, you have probably already experienced Keto Flu like symptoms but hopefully the occasional Carb days eased them in slower and allowed your body to get into Ketosis a bit smoother.

Here is a layout of how your adaption phase might go:

Week 1: Carbs-Meat-Carbs-Meat-Carbs-Meat-Carbs

Week 2: Meat-Meat-Carbs-Meat-Meat-Carbs-Carbs(prep for first 3-day Meat cycle)

Week 3: Meat-Meat-Meat-Carb-Meat-Meat-Meat

Week 4: Carb-Meat-Meat-Meat-Meat-Carb-Carb

Week 5: Meat-Meat-Meat-Meat-Meat-Carb-Carb

Week 6: Meat-Meat-Meat-Meat-Meat-Meat-Carb (One day a week!)

Of course you can extend your cycling at any time but I pray you have great discipline in those moments. If you want to stay on Carbs every 3 days for a while to adapt to that you have to stay strong and stick with it. When you get to one Carb day per week be happy! 6 days without plant life is more than enough to start the Keto Flu so if you are at this point then you've either overcome the Keto Flu or your body just came into being a Carnivore with ease.

Hope this helps anyone out there scared about the Keto Flu! Email me with questions.

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The Meat

Exercise is one of my favorite parts of fitness and I know some of you share that love with me. I also know some of you are the exact opposite. I will provide my idea of the minimum you should do and the max. At the end I will include a basic 4-day exercise plan you should be able to do at any gym or home with the right equipment.

Crawl - Walk - Run

If you read the portion about the Keto Flu then then you know that the first week or so should be used just to get through the first phase of adaption. With the symptoms experienced during the initial stages of this diet I do not expect you to desire to do any kind of activity. That being said, if you feel like going out for a walk or doing some light yoga I don't think that would be too much to handle.

Taking your body off of plant life will leave it slightly weak for a period of time. Some people report needing more than 6 months to fully adapt to eating a meat only diet. Of course by the end of the 6 months I would expect you to be fully transitioned to meat as a main source of fuel. Your body will be ready to do some kind of exercise long before that, I just include the 6 month mark because you may not see steady physical gains until then.

Any bodybuilder or strength athlete will tell you how important carbohydrate consumption is to their training regimen. I will also tell you from experience that it is easier to add muscle and add strength but it is equally easy to put on more body fat too. If I eat all the rice I want, I will certainly add mass but it will consist of fat and muscle. On Carnivore or even Ketogenic diets, it will be a more steady gain of muscle and strength without the negative effects of high carb consumption. The gains will come, and meat won't leave you in a terrible state of health so the gradual course of working out on Carnivore is ideal for anyone looking for long term health.

Once you're beyond the first week and the Flu you should be in the perfect position to start working out a little. I would definitely start out light with maybe a daily 20 minute walk, especially if you did not do any physical activity before. You might wonder 'why such a short and minor session?' Well in my opinion the best benefit you can derive from exercise is increasing blood flow throughout your body, even a short period can be very beneficial.

For heavy weight lifters a walk can act as a recovery for their damaged muscle and, for those of us that don't participate in any serious sports, a walk will help repair from poor eating habits. 20 minutes of walking helps me reduce inflammation, lethargy, and tightness in muscles or joints. These are all symptoms I experience from eating carbs so in some ways I think a daily walk is the exact prescription for those starting the Carnivore Diet.

• The Walk stage can be defined as month 1-2 of the Carnivore Diet; the safest form of exercise in these early stages is a daily walk. Feel free to increase the amount of time you walk if you feel its necessary and as you get more comfortable. By the end of the 2 months you may have worked up to a 60 minute walk every night.

If you wanted to do some other light exercise like sets of push ups, sit ups, yoga, easy jogging, leisurely swimming, or recreational sports. that would be alright too. Just be mindful to not tire yourself out or work so hard that you feel like you might pass out or get sick. A daily walk and doing push ups and sit ups three days a week would be my ideal plan for a beginner.

Crawl - Walk - Run

Once you've gotten here, you are not experiencing any of the symptoms of carb withdrawal. For the most part you are feeling the same and most likely better than you did on a diet including plant material. You may be noticing your energy levels are much higher than before and exercise might seem like the perfect thing to absorb all of this momentum. That's awesome if you are getting the motivation to exercise let's talk about some boundaries to stay within so there isn't too much danger.

If you're an experienced athlete then I expect you to know what your limits are but if not then we can look for these things:

• Dizziness

• Headache

• Quick Loss of Breath

• Easy Task seems harder than usual

• "Seeing Stars"

These should seem very obvious. If you're feeling these at any time then you're probably worried that something is going on. In my experience the symptoms are just a side effect of training to hard for too long, whether or not I was on carbs. it's just a lot easier to do that in the first stages of Carnivore when your body is adapting to a new source of energy.

You will basically be starting Carnivore and resetting your maximum work load for a while. The longer you stay with the diet the more exercise you will be able to do. From months 2-6 I would say is the period when your body will start to fully accept meat as a main fuel source and start outputting quite efficiently. This could be the time you start adding in more extensive training:

The Walk Phase 2-6 Months:

• 3 days per week: Strength Training Programs

• Long Distance/Steady State Cardio

• Occasional HIT (High Intensity Training)/HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)

Strength Training, Steady State Cardio, and HIIT seem to be popular forms of training so I include them as umbrella terms. Strength Programs can be weighlifting, powerlifting, kettlebell exercise, calisthenics, etc. Long Distance/Steady State Cardio consists of things like running 2+ miles, swimming 500+ meters, long distance rowing, or long hikes. HIT or HIIT might be Tabata training, Sprints on a track or a pool, or an Arthur Jones style workout. So it's okay if you do any of these but the consideration you must make is how much you can do as an individual.

Start with a single item, do not begin by doing a 5-mile run, 3 days of weightlifting, and 2 days of hill sprints in your first week of exercise. One big training day per week plus a nightly walk will be just right. You may slowly add in more training days as the months go on according to how your body feels. A competitive runner is going to be able to start Carnivore and easily judge what their body is feeling because they have been running for some time. If you are just starting do not feel bad about starting with a .5 mile run each Saturday and adding on a quarter of a mile each week. Eventually you will be doing 5 miles and you got there in a safe manner.

• A 20-30 minute walk every night and you weight train 3 days a week is a good goal to work towards.

For you this might be the most you want to do. That's okay! Stop here and just keep walking along the path of Carnivore. I encourage you to read the next section anyway you may find that you do want to progress further.

Crawl - Walk - Run

If you have made it to the long term Carnivore Level then you are free to work out however you like. You can train for competition, body build, long distance race. At this point you know what meats work best with your body and how to strategically place your diet and exercise around each other for the best results.

Ironically, I have read anecdotal stories about individuals gaining muscle and cardiovascular ability just from switching to a meat only diet so you may not have to do anything besides the daily walk to achieve your goal performance level.

The Run Stage 6+Months:

• Competitive Sports

• Competitive Weightlifting

• Competitive Bodybuilding

• Marathons/Ultra Marathons (search Zach Bitter)

The Run Stage is the safest place to be and the most prestigious place to be. You've committed yourself to doing something crazy and outlandish for 6 months or longer. You have probably experienced intense changes in your body and become the healthiest you've ever been if you've stuck with it this long.

Now if you're searching for something more I truly recommend exercise. If you know my story then you know I worked out everyday for almost a year getting ready to be a Special Operator in the Navy (no I am not currently a special operator, I quit). That year of prepping for the Navy was the most productive and happy year of my life. I attribute that to the routine exercise I did. Seeing results over long weeks of work was the greatest sense of accomplishment I've ever had. I hope to recapture that this year.

For those of you looking to do the same I am happy you are here. The Carnivore Diet is a big change in itself. That might be all the modification you need but if not then physical activity is my biggest suggestion to you. If you even slightly want to workout; do it. Even if that desire only comes around once a week just go out and bicycle around the neighborhood until you don't want to anymore. Expending energy can be one of the most satisfying feelings you experience so capitalize on it even if it's only for 10 minutes after dinner. A dinner of meat, that is.

I will conclude by saying thank you and leaving you with this Basic Strength Program.

4 Day Training Plan

Start Day can be any day you want. I wrote it with the start day on Monday. This program is for: STRENGTH!

Rules:

1. 3+ minute rest between sets (do this!)

2. "2 x 5" means 2 sets of 5 reps

3. Choose weights that you are sure you can do. For Instance if you can do 7 or 8 reps of Bench Press with 100 pounds then use 100 pounds for your 2 sets of 5

4. Quality is key, if you feel your form going bad do not continue. Lower weight or end workout right there

Mon:

• 2 x 5 Bench Press

• 2 x 5 Bent Over Rows

• 2 x 60sec Plank

Tue:

• 20-30 minute walk/Rest Day

Wed:

• 2 x 5 Squat

• 2 x 5 Overhead Press

• 2 x 5 Ab Wheel

Thu:

• 20-30 minute walk/Rest Day

Fri:

• 2 x 5 Bench Press

• 2 x 5 Deadlift

• 2 x 5 Hanging Leg Raises

Sat:

• 20-30 minute walk/Rest Day

Sun:

• On a Track: Sprint the Straights and Walk the Turns until you've traveled 1-2 miles (4-8 laps)

If you have any questions please email me. I know this is a very basic outline of a workout. Some more experience lifters may be able to read it and act on it easily but if anything is unclear please ask me for clarification. There are alternatives to everything and I would be happy to rewrite a plan and work with you.

Adam

The Carnivore Human