Testing Out a Keto Carnivore Diet (or Paleo Keto Diet)

Today is March 2, 2020. I have decided that for the month of March, I will test out a keto carnivore diet. The carnivore diet is becoming quite popular. The ketogenic diet is also very popular. Does this mean they will help me overcome my autoimmune issues? Who knows?!

Why the Keto Carnivore Diet

There are a lot of healing diets out there to try. I’ve tested out the majority of them. From AIP to keto, and even vegan. When I examine the common features of the diets, they all typically include meat and exclude an irritant that occurs in plant matter. (Except for the vegan diet, but that did nothing for me.)

The autoimmune paleo diet excludes wheat and dairy, but allows for the consumption of carbohydrates through fruits. The ketogenic diet allows for limited amounts of carbohydrates. It allows for vegetables that may be goitrogenic and irritating to people with thyroid issues like myself.

It is a huge challenge to overlap these diets and only eat the healing and nourishing foods. The GAPS introductory diet has you start out with basically meat, meat stock and some fermented vegetables. This will basically be the GAPS introductory diet that I have been skipping.

For my keto carnivore approach, I’m going to consume plenty of bone broth and a variety of meats. There are many people reporting huge success on clearing up their autoimmune issues by eliminating the plant toxins that irritate them.

The Trial Period

I started my keto carnivore approach on March 1, 2020. My hair is still not growing very well. After 7 months on the GAPS regular diet, I’m noticing a few clear eyelashes and pubic hairs. My fingernails still have vertical ridging, but it seems today like it is reduced and limited to a few fingernails.

I will be testing my TSH levels tomorrow to determine whether this diet impacts my Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis in six weeks. I have tested high on the TSH test (indicating low thyroid hormones) for years. It will be interesting to see if completely eliminating goitrogenic foods will have an impact on my numbers.

I will retest my blood levels during my spring break in April. This will give me a full six weeks to see if the changes made any difference.

Dietary Changes

The dietary changes that I am making are going to be dropping the vegetables completely. If the broccoli that I consumed weekly was preventing my thyroid from fully functioning, we’ll find out.

I’m using the cronometer app to hit my ketogenic targets and vitamin levels. One of the levels that I’m closely monitoring is vitamin D. I am eating 3 ounces of salmon per day to ensure that I hit the daily recommended dosage of vitamin D. While I don’t want to supplement, I think once per week, I may take a magnesium supplement with vitamin D in it and take a break from the salmon.

I will be including GAPS intro foods! Instead of scrambling my eggs, I plan on tossing the whites and putting the yolks in with my chicken stock. This is supposed to have a healing impact on my gut. It may be that I am sensitive to the whites and my body has been reacting to them all along. We’ll find out!

Other BioMetrics

I have been testing my ketones! They say that ketosis will help prevent seizures, but I feel like it is hit or miss with me. I think that my thyroid hormone has more to do with whether or not I have a seizure. I have been in ketosis and had a seizure in the past and I have eaten complete junk and not had seizures for months. But, it can’t hurt to be in ketosis.[easyazon_image align=”none” cart=”n” height=”500″ identifier=”B07C3XHJ81″ locale=”US” src=”https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51yZ2JwAy8L.jpg” tag=”mcurle08-20″ width=”500″]

The thing I love about ketosis is that I can go long periods of time without craving food or needing to eat. While I love foods, I no longer feel like I have to munch on everything left out at work. I can easily go hours without snacking.

So far, my [easyazon_link identifier=”B07C3XHJ81″ locale=”US” tag=”mcurle08-20″ cart=”n”]urine strips[/easyazon_link] have shown that I have optimal or high ketones. That is interesting. It will be more interesting if I have a seizure and pee on the stick and see that I’m in ketosis, but I hope that doesn’t ever happen.

My Motivation to Do a Keto Carnivore Diet

Yes, I would love to get my hair back. However, I haven’t been this dedicated to my health outcome in the ten years that it has been missing. So, what gives?

My teeth. Last summer my teeth became extremely sensitive. While I loved pizza and cake, I suspected that I shouldn’t be eating it. I could feel the sensitivity returning as I continued to eat the standard American diet. My seizures also returned after stress and pizza. So, I knew I had to make a change.

One day while I was eating, I bit down on something that felt like bone. It appeared that the enamel had chipped off my tooth. I couldn’t quite tell which tooth it had come off. I debated whether I should go to the dentist. (I know some people will say yes, but I didn’t want them to drill and fill. I also knew that the teeth could repair themselves after reading [easyazon_link identifier=”1434810607″ locale=”US” tag=”mcurle08-20″ cart=”n” cloak=”n”]Heal Teeth Naturally[/easyazon_link].)

So, in August 2019, I cut out wheat, grains, beans, nuts and seeds. I focused on eating meat, vegetables and one or two fruits per day. My tooth sensitivity is slowly getting better. My teeth feel strong and I can’t detect any areas that are missing enamel. Maybe it was a bone in the meat I was eating? Who knows.

Current Symptoms

  • Angular cheilitis (cracks in corners of lips)
  • Alopecia Universalis (no hair anywhere really)
  • Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis (TSH levels at 5.2 last I checked)
  • Vertical ridges on fingernails
  • Occasional seizure (I had them under control and weaned off my medication for them, but went back to eating junk. Time to heal and seal the gut again and get them under control again with GAPS)

My Second Attempt

This will be my second attempt with the carnivore diet. Last year, I quit the carnivore diet after almost seven weeks. I had a seizure that discouraged me. In evaluating my diet, I realize that I may not have eaten enough vitamin D rich foods. This attempt with the keto carnivore diet is much more well planned. I had a consultation with Dr. Zsofia Clemens who instructed me on the Paleomedicina protocol.

I also plan on using the cronometer app! This can help me track different minerals and vitamins and ensure that I have a 2:1 fat to protein ratio. I did not worry about the fat to protein ratio last year when I attempted the carnivore diet the first time. This time, I hope to track it much better.

Stay tuned. I’ll update the blog with some before and after photos and an analysis of my second attempt.

7 thoughts on “Testing Out a Keto Carnivore Diet (or Paleo Keto Diet)”

  1. I’ve been hearing about keto a lot. My mom’s co-worker has been following the keto diet and has seen improvements. I also heard my physics teacher talking about how Lebron James follows a keto diet as well. I’m very excited to see what kind of results you’re going to get. I noticed that you’ve tried out multiple different diets, what’s the best one so far?

    1. I really like the GAPS diet for healing. I like the keto diet. It isn’t very restrictive, but I’m wondering if I have some negative reaction to sulphoraphanes in broccoli. 

  2. Thank you for your post. It is useful for me. I am closing to 60 years old and my belly fat grows bigger and bigger. My friend told me that keto diet is good way to reduce belly fat.

    Now you are going to share your personal experience with us. I am going to follow your experience with the keto carnivore  diet and wish you could overcome your autoimmune issues.

    If this will work for you, I will certainly try to follow your foot step. I have arthritis, which may be similar situation to yours. I love natural method to cure illness.

    It is kind of you sharing this useful information with us. 

  3. Carnivore diet is an all meat diet and I could consist of a large range of products mut I must animal related products….I have once been on Paleo keto diet, although it was a very nice type of diet but the number of effect of the diet change were what I  had to look out for.thamks slot for sharing this article it would help those that are planning on starting a Paleo keto diet.

  4. Hi, 

    Thanks for sharing all of this. It’s really interesting to read about your experiments. I eat fairly well I think, although I do still eat rubbish sometimes, but I’ve never really had health problems so never really thought about the effects. Your site has made me think that I should be paying more attention for the future, just in case. I’m also surprised that vegetables could be causing some of your problems. Can you tell me what Ketosis is please? All the best to you, I look forward to reading your results.

    Debbie

    1. Ketosis is when your body runs on ketones instead of glucose. There are some irritants in vegetables. At one point, I thought vegetables were going to be the best for me and I went vegan. However, I have noticed that my skin gets irritated sometimes after consuming nightshades (tomatoes) or even lettuce. 

  5. Hi Melinda,

    At the outset, I wish you good luck with the carnivore diet. I am sure you will benefit a great deal from it.  I live in the UK and have been following Dr. Michale Mosley’s book ‘the fast 800’ – where he recommendsa keto diet similar to the diet you are on. It has proven very effective for me and I have lost 10kgs in 3 months. Although my reason for going on keto diet was mainly to lose weight, it has also made me feel a lot better and my blood sugars have come back to the normal range when earlier it was in the pre-diabetic range.

    Look forward to your update.

    Sandeep

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