The Ultimate Body Recompositioning Diet: The Keto Carnivore Cleanse

This is the Keto Diet Weight Loss Guide

Now for an about turn! We’ve been through a Veganuary start to the year. It’s time to look at one of my personal favourite diets that boosts your energy levels, eliminates inflammation like no other, gives you razor sharp focus, increases your testosterone and libido (hello!) and cuts your body fat. This is the ultimate biohacker diet for focus and fat loss.

FYI Ladies: we need testosterone too!

One of the greatest things about this version of a keto carnivore diet is that you are so satiated on the fats that you only need to eat once a day. This means that you won’t be wasting your valuable energy on digesting and processing food and you can function at your prime.

The only danger is managing your electrolytes. So please, please pay attention to the following:

Number one rule of keto is replenish your electrolytes and on a keto carnivore diet, this couldn’t me more pertinent!

Rule number two: Replenish your electrolytes! I am totally serious. You must over supplement with electrolytes–all of them but potassium even more so on carnivore. I can’t stress this enough. Without adequate electrolytes, you will suffer from keto flu, dizziness and low energy levels. 

Personally, I need to have a lot more potassium and sodium than my husband, Francisco. However, he needs way more magnesium than I do! If he doesn’t triple dose on magnesium, he’ll get cramps. I never get cramps but I do feel light headed and dizzy without extra sodium in the form of mineral, celtic and himalayan salt. I recommend adding salt to your water and food, as well as additional potassium.

 

We love Quinton Cellnutrition electrolytes and minerals; it’s the first thing we take every morning and it’s the only supplement that I believe we absolutely need. These are a must on keto, particularly if you are an athlete.

The dreaded brain fog and how to avoid it

If you fast regularly or recently switched to keto, you’ll remember brain fog from your high-carb days. It probably hit you after a high-carb meal. The sugar high causes inflammation in your brain and then the subsequent low blood sugar causes cravings and hunger pangs.

Brain fog can also arise when you haven’t had a good night’s sleep and your brain is starved of oxygen. Sleep gives your body a chance to rest, rejuvenate and cleanse. If you haven’t had adequate sleep, you haven’t given your cells time to cleanse and replenish which means you’ll feel like there’s a trash can half emptied in your head and you won’t be able to think straight–it’s the toxin fog that should have been cleared overnight.

On a ketogenic diet you are giving your brain clean energy, in the form of ketones, so brain fog is rare. But it is an issue when you first transition to keto and when you are detoxing or fasting. The worse the brain fog, the more thorough the detox! If you’re feeling thirsty on keto, read this article.

Brain fog rears its ugly, cloudy head when you’re detoxing.

Most commonly, brain fog rears its ugly, cloudy head when you’re detoxing, especially if you are new to ketosis and burning your own body fat for fuel. Why is this?

Why would you get brain fog on a detox?

This is because fat stores toxins (to protect you from absorbing the toxins). So, when you start oxidising those very fat cells for energy, the toxins are released into, and cloud up your system.

Rule number three: Take activated charcoal in the middle of your fast. This will help alleviate your brain fog.

Activated charcoal can absorb some of the toxins released while detoxing. Intense exercise and a sauna will catalyse expelling the toxins as you sweat them out. Glutathione (the body’s antioxidant) supports methylation (cellular cleaning) and will help counter the toxic oxidation and support your body in cleaning itself out and rejuvenating your cells.

So, before we look at the Keto Carnivore Cleanse, get yourself ready with:

Electrolytes

1. Lots of mineral salt!
2. Activated Charcoal
3. A space to work out in – this could be anywhere!
4. If you have gym membership, get in that sauna! Or have really hot steamy baths. But please don’t scald yourself!
5. Glutathione – Only if you have trouble endogenously producing it.

Wait! Where’s the MCT Oil you might be thinking? Do you need MCT Oil for this cleanse? if you want to have fat coffee or add extra calories food, then yes. But you can always use coconut oil, lard or ghee instead.

And exogenous ketones? Do you need these? Only if you need to curb cravings, boost your energy for a workout or to add additional electrolytes.

An Elimination Diet

This carnivore keto cleanse is a dairy free diet, we are focusing just on animal fats, proteins and meats. Sorry vegans and vegetarians – this one is for the meat lovers! There are no potential inflammatory nuts, and of course no gluten, grains, sugars or sweeteners.

Rule number four: Quality over Quantity: Grass Fed and Organic meats

This is not an eat as much meat as you like, regardless of quality or animal welfare, diet. We love animals and happy animals are healthier for you too. Grass fed and outdoor bred beef have an optimal omega 3-6 ratio compared with grain fed meat.

Remember that fat stores toxins and this diet is high in animal fat. So, if you’re consuming meats that have been pumped full of antibiotics and toxic food in a stressful environment, you’ll be putting those toxins into your system. This is a detox, not a meat fest, and the quality of your meat matters!

You might think it’s a bit woo-woo but cells absorb energy. And we believe that happier animals have happier, higher vibration cells. And that is exactly what we want, not stressed, depressed and cortisol rich meat. No thanks!

So, your organic eggs and grass fed meat will be more expensive. But you’ll only be eating once a day so you will spend less overall. This is an investment in your health. If you can buy local and eat locally reared meat, then that’s even better!

How High is your metabolism?

For a 5 Day Cleanse, for one meal a day, you need to first calculate your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate BMR):

Step 1
Measure your height in inches. Convert the result to centimeters by multiplying by 2.54. For example, if are you are 70 inches tall, you multiply 70 by 2.54 to get 178 cm.

Step 2
Weigh yourself on a bathroom scale. Convert your weight from pounds to kilograms by dividing by 2.2. For example, if you weigh 173 lb., you divide 173 by 2.2 to get 78.6 kg.

Step 3
Calculate the BMR for males in units of calories per day. The following equation provides this calculation: BMR = (height in centimeters x 6.25) + (weight in kilograms x 9.99) – (age x 4.92) + 5. For example, if your height is 178 cm, your weight is 78.6 kg and your age is 37, you would use: (178 x 6.25) + (78.6 x 9.99) – (37 x 4.92) + 5 = 1,721 calories per day.

Step 4
Calculate the BMR for females in units of calories per day. The following equation provides this calculation: BMR = (height in centimeters x 6.25) + (weight in kilograms x 9.99) – (age x 4.92) – 161.
For example, if your height is 178 cm, your weight is 78.6 kg and your age is 33, you would use: (178 x 6.25) + (78.6 x 9.99) – (33 x 4.92) – 161 = 1,574 calories per day.

Things you’ll need:

• Tape measure
• Bathroom scale
• Calculator

Tip: If you’re trying to lose weight, keep track of your BMR as it will change as you lose weight. Your BMR will drop along with your weight. Warning: Manual calculations are not 100 percent accurate. Getting a completely accurate BMR calculation requires sophisticated equipment used in a highly controlled testing environment. And even then, this doesn’t account for hormonal fluctuations which have dramatic impacts on your metabolism.

Then, if you want to lose weight, ensure you have a 20% deficit. If you want to maintain, eat 100% and if you want to gain, then add 20%. These are approximate values and I suggest using another calorie calculator for a more personalised approach. Use My Fitness Pal or similar to track your calories and macros. But do double check the data as anyone can input them into My Fitness Pal. 

It’s n=1 for us with the addition of the existing keto nutrition research, check out Dr Dom D’Agostino’s site: ketonutrition.org, for links to the latest pro-keto research papers.

Disclaimer: We are not doctors or nutritionists, so please do check with your doctor before changing your diet, lifestyle and supplementation. This is a guide that works for us personally and is not medical, nutritional or dietary advice to you.

OMAD: One Meal a Day

Once you’ve calculated your caloric needs, you can base your diet around the following schedule and meals: OMAD

OMAD (One Meal a Day) lengthens your fasting window and therefore increases the time that you spend releasing Glucagon instead of Insulin.

Intermittent fasting and OMAD includes time restricted eating (including liquid calories). For example, and 18-hour intermittent fast means that you have a 6 hour window of eating say from 10am-4pm or 2pm to 8pm. You decide where to allocate the eating window to best suit your own schedule. 

For example, after eating, we tend to spike our insulin levels – insulin shuttles energy (fats and sugars) around the body and where there is excess fuel, these are stored as fats.

Glucagon: The fat loss hormone

Glucagon also manages blood glucose levels but has the opposite role to insulin. It is the hormone that your pancreas releases when you are in a caloric deficit and your body needs to convert your own glycogen and body fat stores into energy. Once you have depleted your glycogen stores, this is when you oxidise fat cells into ketones; you become a ‘fat burner’.

2-3 hours after eating, you will still have insulin in your bloodstream. After 4 hours in a fasted state, glucagon will be released and begin catabolising (using) your stored glucose and fat for energy. This is the state you want to be in for fat loss on a keto diet. It also encourages apoptosis and autophagy (cellular cleaning and recycling of sick and unnecessary cells) and this is a good thing because you want to kill off those fat cells.

Therefore, the longer you fast, the more active your glucagon is, resulting in increased fat oxidation, aka fat loss. Obviously, there can be dangers to extended fasting (more than 24-36 hours) as it can lower metabolism long term. Intermittent fasting is optimum for burning fat, cellular cleaning and maintaining a high metabolism, particularly for women. Find out more about Keto Adaptations for Women here.

The beauty of a keto carnivore diet is that you just don’t get hungry, and so eating once or twice a day is far easier than it might initially sound. 

Thermic Effect of Food

By deriving most of your calories from fat and protein, you will benefit from the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF). This is the energy expenditure of digestion and nutrient absorption from food, basically how much energy (calories) you burn from eating. Protein has a TEF of approximately 25%, which means if you have a chicken breast with 30g of protein (120 calories, excluding fat), you’ll spend 30 of those calories just on digesting it.

The Keto Carnivore Food List

Let’s get started!

Your eating on a Keto Carnivore diet could look like this:

Early Morning: Electrolyte Drink

Hydration is key.

Start with a filtered glass of water with added magnesium, sodium and potassium OR a glass of water and an ampoule of Quinton Cellnutrition–the most bioavailable minerals and electrolytes.

Late Morning: Black coffee or Tea

Or any other 0 calorie, 0 sweetener drink; unless you’re maintaining or building muscle in which case, fat coffee or tea is fine. Adding collagen to your diet (it blends in tea and coffee) is a great way to increase your protein intake and experience the many anti-aging benefits of collagen. Collagen is the building blocks for your muscle and skin elasticity so it contributes to faster muscle recovery, fewer wrinkles, glossy hair and strong nails.

Afternoon: Electrolyte Boosting Drink. Herbal or black Coffee or Tea.

The aim here is to enjoy your usual ‘pick me ups’ without the sugar, carbs or fat, and keep hydrated. Drink lots of water and add a pinch of Himalayan Pink Salt to it. Take extra electrolytes too.

Evening: Your OMAD (one meal of the day)

You could eat your main meal at lunch instead if your schedule allows. Basic seasoning: salt, pepper, herbs and spices are absolutely fine. We recommend that you add lots of extra mineral salt and do use dried herbs as they will not only make your food more delicious but increase your manganese and potassium levels too. Dried basil and oregano are great seasonings for your keto carnivore diet.

Keto Carnivore beverages

 

So, what can you drink?

• Water (Ideally filtered; we have a Berkey Water Filter)
• Sparkling water
• Black Coffee
• Black tea, green tea, herbal teas.
• More water with salt. Try this Electrolyte Replenishing Tonic

You really must ensure adequate hydration on this diet as you aren’t going to be getting much hydration from food. We recommend avoiding dairy for this cleanse as it is quite high in allergens and can spike insulin (the fat storing hormone).

 

Fats for Carnivore Cooking

We cannot stress the importance of the animal fats being from organic, grass fed and wild (fish) where possible. Remember that toxins are stored in fat so it’s always worth the extra £1 for the organic tallow, lard or ghee.

• Tallow, Lard, Ghee & Dripping

Carnivore Keto Meal Ideas

 

• Ribeye steak with a fried Egg, minced meat
• Lots of eggs: omelette, eggs and bacon, bacon and egg and quiches, poached eggs, baked eggs, all eggs!
• Chicken thighs, pork belly, pork ribs, beef ribs
• Venison with added lard or tallow
• Organ meats cooked in lard or tallow with herbs
• Baked duck, goose, game

 

 

 

Pescatarian Keto is Possible!

You can enjoy some delicious seafood too. Try to ensure they are wild and sustainably caught.

• Mackerel, Anchovies, Sardines
• Salmon, Halibut, Plaice
• Oysters, Mussels
• Locally sourced wild fish
• Make the most of what’s near you!

 

 

You can also check out our 7 Day Meal Plan and just use the meat, egg and fish recipes, leaving out all plant-based ingredients.

We really hope that you are now set for Keto Diet Weight Loss with your Keto Carnivore Cleanse! Ensure that you keep hydrated and replenish your electrolytes! Follow the plan for as long as you feel good. Listen to your body. And learn more about the ketogenic diet here.

If you have any questions, leave your comments below. 

Sara