Drastic changes to your lifestyle, commonly result in some negative side effects when you first begin. It becomes important to understand and work out for yourself whether those initial downsides are worth all the benefits you might eventually experience.

The initial reaction you might have to a carnivore diet is that it must be unhealthy and sets the stage all sorts of long-term problems. After all, you will only be eating red meat and no more plant-based food. You can read more about the benefits of meat and potential detriments of plants here and here.

When you first start a carnivore diet, you will most likely experience some negative side effects during the phase where your body and metabolism are adapting to eating only meat.

These include some flu-like symptoms as your body is starved of carbohydrates in the long term. Your blood glucose is drained, and any glycogen reserves, even small amounts, are tapped into as well. Once this happens, your body goes through a physiological panic mode, including a quick boost of the blood sugar levels. The result is that it sends signals that are warning of starvation, even if you have plenty of fat reserves to tap into.

However, once your body adapts to breaking down its fat storage and releasing ketones into your bloodstream, those symptoms reverse and completely resolve themselves.

Essentially, you encounter the very same physiological effects that people on the low-carb keto diet experience.

You might be wondering how bad those symptoms can be…. And this experience does differ in type and severity for each individual.

Common symptoms include

·       Brain fog or trouble focusing

·       Occasional headaches often due to dehydration

·       Mood swings as your hormones adjust

·       Disrupted bowel movements (yes, both more and less frequent as possible)

·       Nausea, especially if your meal timing incorrect

·       Digestive problems as your gallbladder adjusts

·       Fatigue from a lack of easily accessible glucose

·       Insomnia from restless legs and an increased need to pee

·       Dehydration through glycogen reduction

·       Food cravings for your favorite donut or even some broccoli (NOT)

Major Adaptations

Major dietary adjustments come with many physiological changes in your body. This is especially the case if you have led a less health-conscious lifestyle or are coming directly from a conventional ‘healthy’ diet.

When beginning a carnivore diet specifically, 3 significant things will happen for you to by aware of

Fluid Rebalancing

Before you get overly excited that you see massive weight loss in the first few days and even weeks of your carnivore diet, it is helpful to understand that much of this will be shedding of retained water. As your glucose levels drop, your body will tap into glycogen reserves.

Each gram of glycogen binds to 3 grams of water, you can easily lose weight from flushing out 4 to 6 pounds of water.

Transitioning To Utilizing Fat For Energy

Whilst a standard Western diet has set the stage for using sugar/glucose as the default and favored energy creation method due to the easy metabolic absorption, it is also one of the main the reasons you store fat.

Once you remove all sugar from your nutrition, fat will become the body’s source of energy. If your diet fails to provide sufficient fat, those love handles will be targeted. Until that process happens, you will feel like you’re drained of your usual energy. Even a small amount of work will make you initially tired.

Some of the most significant health benefits come from no longer being reliant on carbohydrates, especially sugar, for your energy needs. 

Hormone Response And Rebalancing

Further negative side effects of the carnivore diet can mood swings and irritability. Much of this stems from the fact that, with the elimination of carbohydrates as your fuel source, your hormones, especially cortisol, will fluctuate.

Because your body will initially interpret the lack of carbs as a sign of starvation, it will increase cortisol levels to try and boost blood glucose levels. Cortisol is also closely related to stress and anxiety. Sudden fluctuations can make you moody. Luckily, this generally passes within a few days. If you have previously followed a low-carbohydrate or ketogenic diet you will likely know exactly how thid feels.

Further Symptoms

The above physiological impacts can also have some mental effects to be aware of.

Brain Changes

Most people just think of brain fog when it comes to the adaptation phase before hitting full ketosis. While this lack of mental focus is prevalent and somewhat annoying, it is not the only thing that will happen when you embark on the carnivore diet.

As previously mentioned, your digestive system is going to send signals to your brain indicating potential starvation. Before food became as abundant as it is in our modern environment, this was a very dangerous situation to be in. The brain response to this perceived starvation, from an evolutionary perspective is stress and anxiety to signal that immediate action is needed.

Withdrawal

Most people have either a bit of a sweet tooth or a love of starches. This results in a rapid feeling of withdrawal-like symptoms when these foods are eliminated.

This is very similar to what drug addicts experience, even if not as severe. Because sugar is such an easily accessed form of energy, your body is most likely very accustomed to utilizing it as its primary fuel source. When this suddenly disappears, it thinks that something vital is missing.

Cravings

In the first few weeks of the carnivore diet, you might experience regular cravings for carbohydrate-rich foods. This could be anything from sweet foods like chocolate, candy cake or pastries to grains or plant foods like a humble potato.

One of the main reasons for this is that your body is still struggling to draw all its energy from fat. The best solution to a carbohydrate craving is to boost your animal-based and high-protein fat intake instead.

Strategies To Survive Adaptation

Unfortunately, there is no easy road to restoring health, weight loss or muscle gain, and in many ways, you can argue that the more difficult the task might seem, the better the results will be. That does not imply that there are not a few strategies you can implement to reduce the discomfort.

Eat More Meat

Feeling hungry in the first couple of weeks is not uncommon while on a carnivore diet, and the last thing you should do is ignore it. You can do one of two things. Either eat more meat or eat better quality meat.

Hydrate Well

As previously mentioned the first few days can result in significant weight loss through glycogen reserves being a target for energy.

This is a totally normal process when your diet is suddenly deficient in carbohydrates and high fiber. Through this process alone you can remove 4 to 6 pounds of water that need to be replenished, but you will also lose a large amount of sodium, which will cause further dehydration. At a minimum, aim for one pint (500 ml) of water with 3 meals a day, and 2 extra pints in between.

Supplement For Electrolyte Support

You can keep track of all the nutrition from minerals to proteins and fat, but judging your electrolyte intake can be a little more complicated.

Salt generally has a terrible reputation, and most people believe you should keep it to a minimum when on a restrictive diet.

This may be appropriate when your diet is very diverse and includes many different vegetables that include just enough electrolytes to effectively meet your needs for the day. When eliminating all plant matter, supplementing with high quality salt becomes important – especially initially.

Another option is to get a more diverse range of these essential minerals through electrolyte or mineral supplements. Take a few servings, and you will be all set with less guesswork involved. 

Managing Digestive Problems

While on a carnivore diet, the digestive problems that can occur are probably the most disruptive.

Although there are those who suffer from bloating and constipation, the far more common issue is diarrhea. This is because your gallbladder is not producing enough bile to deal with the increased amounts of fat.

Some of that fat will then pass through undigested. This will lead to moments where you do not want to be more than a short sprint from a toilet. One option is to reduce fat intake, but that does not deal with the cause of the issue. The better solution is to take some supplements like Lipase or Betaine HCL. Again, this is often temporary as the body adapts to the new dietary protocol.

Adequate Sleep

This is the one thing many people fail to focus enough on.

As you adjust how you are eating, especially when transitioning to a carnivore diet, you can end up focusing way too much on nutritional adjustments.

But, the solution to many of the early symptoms is getting a really good night's sleep, even with an extra hour or two in bed.

Here are some tips to follow:

·       Sleep in a pitch dark and cool room, even open the window if possible.

·       Turn off the lights by 11 pm.

·       Avoid exercise before bedtime; this will increase adrenaline and testosterone, which can keep you awake.

·       No screen time after 10 pm, but reading a book is OK.

·       Avoid drinking too much after 9 pm to prevent getting up in the middle of the night.

These things will set the perfect conditions for better sleep and to help you wake up fully refreshed and ready to dig into that morning steak.

Stay Active And Sweat More

Moving more and being more active while on a carnivore diet will help with your health goals, but that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Several processes in the body are triggered by physical activity. Movement will help to improve digestion by encouraging the smooth muscle contraction of the bowel and supporting these movements in becoming more effective.

Exercise will increase your appetite, making you want to eat more. Eating more meat will mean more endurance and less brain fog.

Furthermore, sweating is an excellent way for your body to remove toxins that may have built up through years of poor eating habits and supporting your body by decreasing and removing toxins will reduce your risk of many of the diseases associated with inflammation.

Final Thoughts

At this stage, you should have a full picture of all the carnivore diet side effects. I will confess that for many people, going through them is rather unpleasant to say the least.  they aren’t all that pleasant. Hopefully some of information provided here will help identify and deal with these adaptation symptoms

Once your body has adjusted to the changes you will be surprised at how the benefits certainly outweigh these temporary symptoms. Don’t let them deter you and give the carnivore diet a try.