2022 — first carnivore attempt

• A year postpartum at about 180 lb, I returned to keto for weight loss, then found carnivore through Reddit and initially thought eating only animal foods sounded dangerous.
• I read The Carnivore Cookbook by Maria and Craig Emmerich, including its material on plant compounds and oxalates, and decided to go fully carnivore. [1]
• Within a few months I was around 140 lb, sleeping better, and felt that I had lost substantial weight and inflammation.
• The weight came off my upper body but not my legs; swelling, pain, bruising, nodules, and resistant leg fat led me to identify lipedema as the likely explanation.
• Severe nighttime leg cramps then began. Magnesium, sodium, potassium, and electrolyte products did not help, and after about three months I quit carnivore and returned to a standard American diet.
• I later understood that food and sugar addiction were part of the relapse: sweets and carbohydrates were being used to handle stress and emotions, while my lipedema, inflammation, weight, and general health worsened.

Returning through the lion diet

• By December 2025 I was about 175 lb and getting sick every two to three weeks; influenza followed by pneumonia became the point where I decided to quit sugar again.
• Overeaters Anonymous gave me accountability and a 12-step recovery structure, but by April I still had marked pain and inflammation in my thighs and wanted an elimination diet.
• I went directly to beef, tallow, salt, and water for three weeks. I lost about 10 lb in roughly two days alongside a rapid drop in water weight and inflammation, and the leg pain was gone within three days.
• I then added eggs, chicken, fish, cheese, and other carnivore foods one at a time. Milk triggered the same compulsive pattern as sugar, yogurt did not agree with me, and leftover ground beef seemed to trigger leg symptoms that I suspected were histamine-related.
• Around three months the leg cramps returned. Increasing magnesium made them worse, so I removed magnesium, potassium, electrolyte products, and most supplements; the cramps stopped and have not returned through six months.

Six-month results and current eating

• At six months I am still fully carnivore, though not lion diet, and am about 30 lb down at roughly 145 lb. My thigh measurements are also slowly decreasing despite lipedema fat being highly resistant to diet and exercise.
• Sleep is deeper and more continuous, I function better after a short night, and the fatigue associated with hypermobile EDS is much less debilitating, while the connective-tissue disorder itself remains unchanged.
• My goal has shifted away from achieving a particular bikini-body physique toward strength, health, energy for my son, and long-term consistency; I am strength training and tracking progress.
• Most days are two or three simple meals: eggs with butter and turkey Canadian bacon, steak or chicken with butter, burger patties, chuck roast, fish, or other plain meat. I prefer leaner steaks with added butter and do not rely on carnivore breads, desserts, or organ meats.
• I am the only carnivore eater in the household: my son is selective with food and my husband needs carbohydrates because of a liver condition, so I regularly cook their food while eating separately without being pulled back toward former trigger foods.
• Beef liver is pretty much the only supplement I take. Tracking food and macros helps me distinguish hunger from an urge to eat through emotion and helps me keep protein high enough for strength training.

Food addiction and recovery

• Food had been my comfort since childhood. I often ate large amounts of sweets secretly, hid the evidence, felt temporary relief and then guilt, and eventually felt unable to function without the behavior.
• Carnivore removed much of the constant food noise and made it possible to sit with family or friends around former trigger foods without wanting them, but changing the food alone did not resolve the underlying addiction.
• Milk showed that compulsive patterns could transfer even within carnivore, so recovery also requires ongoing emotional and spiritual work, vigilance, community, and attention to the problems underneath the eating.
• I now think of myself as a recovering food addict: cravings can still occur, but I can remember how those foods affected me and no longer use food as the source of comfort or happiness.

Lipedema

• Lipedema is painful as well as cosmetic and can worsen through hormonal transitions such as pregnancy and menopause; later stages can severely impair mobility.
• Keto has already been studied in women with lipedema with great benefit, while I want a comparable study of a carnivore diet because that has not yet been done. [2]
• Estimates put lipedema around 11–12% of women, with many unaware they have it. Intervention with carnivore, proper exercise, compression, and other interventions can keep it from getting worse and keep women from reaching stages three and four where they would have to have surgery just to be mobile.
• My own disease has stayed at stage one, pain has fallen sharply, and thigh measurements are decreasing slowly; the experience has changed my expectation from rapid cosmetic transformation to patient, long-term improvement.

Starting carnivore and staying in recovery

• There is no single best way to begin carnivore. I needed to jump in completely, while someone else may do better moving gradually from low carbohydrate eating toward carnivore.
• For anyone coming from food addiction, removing trigger foods decisively may be easier, but the larger priority is not doing recovery alone.
• Overeaters Anonymous, Celebrate Recovery, and my Christian faith became central to recovery; surrendering the addiction to God and staying connected to a community gave me the support to keep going.

References

1. [01:42] The Carnivore Cookbook: The Complete Guide to Success on the Carnivore Diet with Over 100 Recipes, Meal Plans, and Science — https://www.victorybelt.com/the-carnivore-cookbook
2. [30:37] Effect of a ketogenic diet on pain and quality of life in patients with lipedema: The LIPODIET pilot study — https://doi.org/10.1002/osp4.580