This is the Zero Carb Health information site. All you ever wanted to know about the Zero Carb Diet, from folks who have been eating this way for 8+ years. For comments and discussion about a Zero Carb Diet. Please join us carnivores in our Zero Carb Health Facebook Group.
By Dana
I think I’m the first long time Zero Carber to go through menopause, so this post is certainly n=1. We won’t know how common my experience is until more long term Zero Carb women go through it.
I have been eating a Zero Carb, all meat, ketogenic diet for over 10 years. I was 5 years into Zero Carb when I went through menopause. It was pretty uneventful. I had maybe 6 mild hot flashes in 18 months and I was done. I was like “that’s it?!”. A common cold is more suffering than menopause was for me. It was totally, no big deal. But then, I started gaining weight and got the dreaded “menopause middle” belly fat. I eat the same thing every day and have for years, so I know the weight gain was not due to food or calories. Weight gain is regulated by hormones and this was proof.
A quick overview of some Zero Carb Carnivore Diet FAQ.
1. FOOD: What do you eat: Anything from the Animal Kingdom (meat, poultry, eggs, cheese, HWC)
For a weekly menu suggestion: http://www.zerocarbhealth.com/…/sample-1-week-zero-carb-di…/
2. QUANTITY: How much do you eat: as much and as often as you want. No limit. Too little will sabotage your efforts.
3. ADAPTATION: normally takes 30 days, but can last for a couple of months: fatigue, nausea, headaches, cramps, light headedness, heart palpitations, intense thirst. Your body is changing from sugar burning to fat burning.
4. How soon can I expect HEALING: as long as it takes. It didn’t take you only 30 days to feel this way, right?
When my husband tells me how long a project will take I automatically count that it will take 3x as long. Expect that it will take you 3x as long as you think it will take to heal. Then you might be pleasantly surprised.
Disclaimer – This cake is addictive and you will gain weight if you eat it all the time. It is ZC, but like all dairy, not optimal. Always eat meat as your main meal.
This is basically the same as the other Zero Carb Cheesecake recipe we have, but it is cooked in a crockpot. I think it comes out much better than when cooked in an oven.
The orange flavor is just a refreshing hint, like the La Croix sparkling waters many of us enjoy.
By, Dana
The Zero Carb diet is an all or nothing diet. There is no “almost ZC” or 90% ZC, or ZC 4 days a week. If you are cheating and eating plant foods and or zero carb artificial sweeteners, you are not Zero Carb, you are Low Carb. It takes several weeks/months of 100% Zero Carb to become completely fat adapted and realize the amazing benefits that a plant free, chemical free, diet can do for you.
The Zero Carb Carnivore diet is similar to AA, Alcoholic Anonymous. ZC is basically AA for carbohydrate addicts. ZC is a diet for carb addicts and Zero Carb Health is a recovery, support and educational group for people (addict or not) trying to give up carbohydrates and get healthy.
When I started this diet 10 years ago, my carbohydrate addiction ended when my blood sugar stabilized. Blood sugar swings from eating carbohydrates is what drove my addiction. So, once they were gone, this diet was very easy for me. I never wanted a carbohydrate after my blood sugar got under control.
I soon learned that this was not the case for many people. Eliminating carbohydrates did not cure their carb addiction, like it did mine. This is when we realized that some people have a real addiction to carbs, just like alcohol/drug/smokers are addicted. This is why we are so strict about keeping images of carbohydrate “trigger” foods and posts about cheating, out of the group. Just like an alcoholic doesn’t want to hear about other alcoholics giving into drinking or seeing pictures of their favorite drink all over the place. We try to keep ZCH a carb free, safe zone.
Carbohydrate or sugar addiction is no different than an alcohol or drug addiction. The addiction infects every cell of your body and your brain. It takes about 90 days for the brain to break free of the immediate effects of an addictive substance. So, if you can’t make it 90 days or so of ZC then you are not even close to overcoming your addiction and becoming fat adapted. It takes the body weeks and months or years to detox from the damaging effects of years and years of the over consumption of carbohydrates and sugar.
When you keep cheating and feeding that addiction your body remains in a state of turmoil. Your body will not adapt to clean fat burning if you continue to feed it carbs. You think that 1 piece of dark chocolate or avocado or whatever, once a week or once a month has no effect on you, yet here you are complaining and upset because you are not seeing the results you want. Guess what? That 1 bite of sugar is obviously a huge problem for you! The fact that you can’t stop yourself from cheating should be a clue that you have a problem. But, that is why we are here, to help you get over your addiction. We are not here to give you gold stars for being ZC for 100 days. We want to help people ditch their sugar habits, but we can’t help anybody unless they are honest.
Not all of us are addicts. Those, like myself, who pretty much had an easy time transitioning to meat only, are not addicts. Those of you who keep cheating with sugar are bonafide addicts. Every bite or sip of sweetness is completely derailing any progress and putting you and your body right back at day 1.
So, stop fooling yourselves. If you cannot control cravings and continue to cheat over and over, you are not ZC and this diet will not work the way it is supposed to. You are “trying” to be ZC. There is nothing wrong with that. Your cheating experience is valuable because it is the most common problem. The struggle is real. Your honesty can help open up the discussion on how to help others with the same problem.
This diet is not easy. Most people have a very hard time. Most people can’t do it for very long. Don’t beat yourself up, just do the best you can and be honest about it. We are here to help you. If this diet makes you miserable and you see no benefits then it’s simply not for you.
For more information about the Zero Carb Carnivore Diet, join us in our Facebook Group.
By – Dana
High ketones are a sign of inefficient fat burning. If you have high ketone readings or if you can easily produce high ketone readings, you are not 100% fat adapted. Of course, if you are on a Zero Carb diet, you are in ketosis all the time, but our ketone levels become stable, just like our blood sugar levels.
The science on this is very new and very misunderstood. Dr Phinney has done the most research on it, but even he is misunderstanding. He thinks elevated ketones, in a target range, are a great thing and we should strive to be in “nutritional ketosis”. I wish he would try Zero Carb, so he can see what happens when people eat the human optimal diet, meat, with no restrictions or counting macros.
Ingredients:
1 Rotisserie Chicken (or any cooked chicken)
2 eggs
1/2 cup or Parmesan cheese or ground up pork rinds
Oil for frying, I use tallow.
Sauce:
1/2 stick of butter (1/4 cup)
1/2 package of Cream cheese (4 oz)
1/4 cup cream
1/4 cup chicken broth
(Part 1), (Part 2), (Part 3), (Part 4), (Part 5)
by, Dana
Ten years ago, when Zero Carb was just starting, Kimkins was the popular fad diet. Kimkins was a low carb, low fat diet. Most people who come to the Zero Carb diet, did so via a low carb and or a low fat diet, so many of our members were low carb, low fat or Kimkins refugees. Due to the fear of saturated fats, high cholesterol and heart disease, we had to stress eating fat. Eating animal fat is healthy, the human body loves animal fats. Animal fats give our bodies the fuel it needs to build a strong healthy body and brain. But people were conditioned to eating skinless chicken breasts, lean pork and fish, because those were the healthy white meats. We had to tell people to add fat in the form of butter, lard, tallow or bacon grease because if you do not eat enough fat, you will have no energy, and you will eventually give into carb cravings or quit the diet, altogether. Most of us added fat to our meals. It was like our bodies were fat starved. We craved it. We seeked out fat scraps in restaurants, butcher shops and grocery stores. We were fat crazed!
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By – BJ, 10+ Zero Carb veteran.
Do I have to force myself to eat the amounts on the sample menus? No? But then, I don’t understand why you give ‘general amounts’ at all…?
Much as the guiding precepts are actually very simple at heart, these are things which still confuse and/or concern people.
To try to address some of them, I’m re-posting a comment I made in a thread about the zero carb diet sample menus, where some of the responses were a little bemused at least, or even actually concerned, about how much food they felt was involved:
The sample menus, the recommended amounts and the general guidelines we tend to give on ZC, about food volume et al…as well as why we emphasis and encourage what seems to some people bafflingly ‘large’ amounts…and so strongly also encourage the freedom to eat freely and generously, to all, irrespective of their weight, as opposed to trying to ‘calculate’ anything at all in any way…and why we even give or try to define these recommendations at all…are covered in this post:
HUNGER CUES
We’re learning “body” hunger instead of “head” hunger!
Head hunger will tell you that _____ carbs are what you are hungry for, right? We think we’re fighting cravings when we stand firm and don’t give in to those kind of signals. Or we feel like a failure if we do give in to those signals and eat _____ carbs.
We MUST begin to realize that this is actually “body” hunger. On a mixed diet, including carbs, and especially on a low calorie or restricted diet, our bodies are starving at the cellular level. They’re not getting the optimum fuel. So our cells cry out for fuel! It often takes the form of carbs, right? A candy bar, bread, juice/soda, pasta, etc. (Usually I avoid naming carbs, so overlook this, for the purpose of this discussion.)
When our mind/head suggests a certain carb, we call that a craving. Often it is so strong that we cannot focus on anything else until we locate that particular food and satisfy that craving.
There are all kinds of tricky situations – we completely understand! Family gatherings, social, business lunches, etc. There are cultural differences to consider, in some cases, also.
For big parties, the office holiday party, church pot luck dinners, and similar – these are often the easiest to deal with. As has been said before, most people don’t even notice! In the early days, do yourself a favor and eat BEFORE a meal. It will be so much easier on you if the choices are limited.
Bring one dish you can eat. Cheese platters, (with pepperoni, sausage, and crackers, if necessary), deviled eggs, shrimp, meatballs, crust-less quiche, sliced deli meat platters, a roast beef, there are really a lot of party foods you can bring, if appropriate.