Food Freedom Friday Edition 341 - Increasing Fat On A Carnivore Diet

Eating sufficient fats is vital when following a carnivore diet because you need it for energy. It is difficult to subsist on only lean meat, eating too much lean meat can lead to protein poisoning.

How Much Fat Do You Need

Although protein can be converted to glucose through a process called gluconeogenesis, a diet too high in protein intake can lead to protein poisoning or rabbit starvation. This is because the liver has a limited capacity to deaminate proteins and produce urea for the excretion of excess nitrogen

It is thus important to eat sufficient fat for energy because carbohydrates are negligible on the carnivore diet.

There is no precise estimate of the ideal protein to fat ratio on the carnivore diet. Obviously, this can vary greatly from person to person depending on the amount of muscle mass they have. In addition, the amount of time they have been on the carnivore diet (which determines the extent of the upregulation of hepatic enzymes) can also affect protein thresholds.

Various sources point to a wide range of upper limit protein intakes between 15% and 50%, i.e. the energy from fat should account for 50% to 80% of total calorie intake. If you are starting out on your carnivore journey, try keeping your protein to fat ratio at 1:1 grams. This would translate to getting approximately 1/3 of you calories from protein.

If you think you need to add more fat to your diet, keep a record of the approximate fat to protein ratio of all food you eat for one week.

If energy from proteins accounts for 40% to 50% of your total calorie intake, you might be at the upper limit already.

After you have established what your current baseline is, start increasing fat intake gradually and note how you feel. Avoid going from one extreme end to the other. A sudden and substantial increase in fat intake, especially if you haven’t been on the carnivore diet for long, may cause digestive issues such as diarrhea. Take it slowly and give your body enough time to adapt.

It is also important to understand that your ideal protein to fat ratio for you may change over time depending on your nutritional status.

If you are coming from a standard American diet, are under-muscled, and somewhat malnourished, your protein need may be very high initially. Proteins are a significantly more nutrient-dense than fat and are needed for muscle synthesis.

Once your healing has reached a certain point, your protein requirement may plateau and you will gravitate towards a higher fat diet. It is important to listen to your body, a ratio that makes someone else feel great may not be suitable for you and vice versa.

How To Add More Fat

If you think you need to add more fat to the carnivore diet for whatever reasons, this is easy to achieve.

Choose Fattier Cuts

Choose the fattier cuts of meat when you go shopping. Fatty ruminant meat is your best option because ruminants are generally better raised than chicken and poultry and have a better nutritional profile due to the way they digest their foods. Try ribeye, New York Strip steak, skirt steak, and T-bone steak or buying higher fat ground meat.

Add Bone Marrow

Bone marrow is a great source of good quality fat and other nutrients.

Unlike other organ meats, bone marrow has a much milder taste and is generally more acceptable, even trendier, than other organ meats.

Bone marrow might be expensive at gourmet restaurants but you can buy it very cheaply at the butchers.

Eat Fatty Pork & Poultry

If you can get genuine pasture-raised pork and chicken, pork belly, leg roast, and chicken wings also have high fat contents.

If not, stay with ruminant fat trimmings, suet, and tallow. Conventional pork and poultry have a high level of inflammatory polyunsaturated fat due to the diets they are fed.

Include Oily Fish

If you eat fish and can get wild-caught fish, choose oily fish such as salmon, trout, and sardine. They are also a great source of omega 3 fatty acids.

If you are unable to source wild-caught fish, it’s better to stay with ruminant fat trimmings and fattier cuts of ruminant meat.

Use Trimmings

A visit to your local butchers or farmers and asking to buy some fat trimmings can be a great way to add fat and flavour to your diet. They may be surprised by your special order but would happily sell it to you at a low cost and some even give it away for free.

Beef fat or other ruminant fats are preferable. Fats from fully-grass fed animals are even better.

You can sear the fat quickly or cut it into small pieces and fry them until they are crispy – they taste delicious.

Consider Trying Brains

Lamb and pig brains are a great source of good quality fat (beef brains are usually not available due to the fear of mad cow disease,). They are also a great source of omega 3 fatty acids and offer a range of essential vitamins and minerals.

Cook With Fat

Lard, tallow, ghee or butter are all common cooking fats for strict carnivores. The recommendation is that cooking with non-animal fats, such as oil from plants (olive oil, sunflower oil or rapeseed oil, as examples) is best avoided for those looking to follow carnivore more strictly. It can also be a way to make leaner cuts of meat taste better. 

Experimenting with the sort of cooking fats that work best for you and your digestive system is recommended. Your gut is highly personal and what suits one person’s diet may not work for another. This is especially important if you’re following carnivore to eliminate health problems.

Garnish With Fat

Once you’ve served your meal, you can look for opportunities to add fat to your plate through garnishes.

If you’re following strict carnivore, you’re likely to be best suited to perhaps a butter garnish on top of your steak, or the inclusion of fat from dairy. Bacon and bone marrow are often beautiful additions to a meal too, as well as bone broth as a hearty drink or nutritious starter. You can make your own bone broth at home, or purchase from the store.

If you're fully healed and your body can tolerate non-animal foods, you might consider adding nuts and nut butter to your diet. If you’re experimenting with reintroducing fatty vegetables, avocado could be an option for some.

Add High Fat Dairy If Tolerated

Butter, cream, and cheese are great fatty additions if you can tolerate dairy products.

This is only if you enjoy and would like to have more variety in your diet. There is nothing in dairy products that is not available in meat and organ meat. Nutrients like calcium can be obtained by making long simmered bone broth, bone meal or eggshells and vitamin K is available in liver.

As with animal fats, dairy products are best sourced from grass-fed animals. If you are doing the carnivore diet on a tight budget, it might be easier to focus on ruminant fat trimmings because they are more nutritious and cheaper than butter, cream, and cheese.

Further, if you are starting the carnivore diet to fix health problems like autoimmune diseases or leaky guts, it’s best to avoid all dairy products until you have fully recovered.

Avoid Plant Oils

This goes without saying but, when following a carnivore diet, it is advised to avoid all plant-based oils including ones considered ‘healthy’ such as coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, or MCT oil.

These oils offer no nutrients that cannot be obtained animal-based food. They can also contain plant compounds such as salicylate which can cause health issues for people with intolerance.

If you enjoy the taste or want to add variety to your diet, use them in moderation once you have healed and tolerance has been established.

Finally

Increasing fats can be helpful for those that are new to the carnivore diet and struggling with energy. This may be a result of low ketones while you are transition to being a fat-burning machine! Adding fat helps to increase your ketones, which will help boost your energy levels. Salt also helps!