Healthy long term; damaging short term?

[timmypatch]

I have been trying for quit some time now to ease carbs out of my diet and go more or less 100% meat and fat.  However, after a few days away from plant matter, at most maybe a week, I find that I am always derailed by forces outside of my control.  My problem is not one of motivation or insurmountable cravings, but rather is a social one.  Its one thing to insist on cutting out grains and processed food; people can at least understand where you are coming from most of the time, and, whats more, its not too difficult to just pick out other foods to eat in social settings (usually fresh fruit is easy to come by, for example).  I can proudly say that I haven't eaten any grain in many months.  But when it comes to eliminating all carbs--I'm slowly becoming convinced that without becoming some sort of a hobbit, it just cannot be done.  For instance, what am I to do when my roomate, a great person with the best of intentions, who is respectful of my efforts to take charge of my health, but thoroughly disgusted by some of my eating habits (ie eating raw meat) in an effort to meet me half way buys getting me an organic fruit basket for my birthday?  I can't just not eat it.  I have to eat it.  Fact is, at least for me, it is just not possible to restrict plant matter in any sort of a long term kind of way.

So, this being the case, I have to wonder: does it make any sense to spend as much of my time as possible taking the zero-carb approach to my diet, knowing full well that I will be derailed every week or so, or am I better off just giving up even trying to go zero carb and settling for moderate to low carb intake.  My thinking is as follows: in the best of all worlds, perhaps it would be ideal to cut out all plant food and allow the body to adapt to a diet of only raw animal foods.  But from all that I've heard, this adaption process is long and slow, and in the mean time, I doubt that the zero carb approach is optimal.  I worry that going zero carb without ever having a chance to adapt physiologically to the new diet, I'm doing little more than to constantly subject my body to undue stress .  My experience backs up this worry.  After going a couple of days carb free, I start feeling lethargic (despite gorging on large amounts of protein AND fat), and sense that this is because I never stay on the zero carb approach long enough to adapt to the change.  I find myself incredibally frustrated because I am a scientifically minded person and I am never able to zero carb for long enough to draw any conclusions about whether it is an effective diet plan in the long term--For this reason I keep coming back to the drawing board, hoping I'll be able to hold out once and for all.  but I never am! 

What are other people's thoughts are on this matter, especially those of you who eat only animal food?  Am I better off avoiding carbs when possible, or just giving up and adopting a low/moderate carb diet (devoid of grains, of course)?

[TylerDurden]

It's certainly a lot easier to eat raw plants in a social setting than raw animal food. Just stick to low-carb and try zero-carb at a much later date to see if it works then.

[Dean]

For me, personally, it has been a gradual process of eliminating non-animal foods, and experimenting with different animal foods, like rendering pig fat to make lard, or trying raw liver, or raw bison, etc. I used to eat lots of veggies, thinking they were doing me a lot of good, but, over time I eliminated all fruits and veggies, and I noticed no difference in my health. What I do notice is when I go for a stretch without enough red meat. For me, red meat seems to have many of the things that keep me feeling good. Also, if animal fat is low, I start to get anxiety. IFing is another thing I have learned to love.

I'm still experimenting, and try not to look at it as all or nothing. I look at it like this: Imagine if I never tried to change my WOE? I remember back ten years ago when I just ate whatever (they call it SAD for a very good reason). So, even if my WOE is not as optimal as it could be, I'm a lot better off without a lot of things that would be destroying my health. I do believe that certain foods destroy one's health. I can feel the difference very quickly when I eat certain things, especially grain based foods, or carby stuff.

One could look at eating certain ways as a healing process, and not worry so much about what they will adopt long term. Also, it is good to experiment with things, to find what works best for you. For me, social settings are important, and sometimes careful compromises are necessary. It's no big deal, really. It's all part of life. I wouldn't take it too seriously. It's not a religion. It's just a way to try to help heal your body, and to try out ways of eating that are usually very discouraged by the status quo, probably for profit. Anyway, that's my story.

[TylerDurden]

One solution that Lex offers is to eat raw, zero-carb but when forced to eat SAD foods in a social setting, one should eat cooked meat(yes, even grainfed) but nothing else. If eating cooked,grainfed meat, he advises people to supplement with raw cod-liver-oil, beforehand, to make up for the lack of omega-3s. Mind you, even Lex admits that, every now and again, he's forced to eat some raw carbs.

To my mind, it's easier going raw, low-carb as I can always eat raw fruit/raw veg if put in a position where I'm expected to eat what others are eating. I'll even, on rare occasions, eat cooked-food in social settings, usually only lean meats as fats are worst affected by cooking. Fortunately, there are now sashimi restaurants over here by the multitude, so eating out isn't always a downer.

[Carnál]

One solution that Lex offers is to eat raw, zero-carb but when forced to eat SAD foods in a social setting, one should eat cooked meat(yes, even grainfed) but nothing else. If eating cooked,grainfed meat, he advises people to supplement with raw cod-liver-oil, beforehand, to make up for the lack of omega-3s. Mind you, even Lex admits that, every now and again, he's forced to eat some raw carbs.

To my mind, it's easier going raw, low-carb as I can always eat raw fruit/raw veg if put in a position where I'm expected to eat what others are eating. I'll even, on rare occasions, eat cooked-food in social settings, usually only lean meats as fats are worst affected by cooking. Fortunately, there are now sashimi restaurants over here by the multitude, so eating out isn't always a downer.

    I'm not zero carb, but now I'm thinking that zero might be right for me.  Tyler, it's not damaging to go zero carb for only a month or so just to try it out, is it?  I mean to go back to some carbs afterwards maybe, what might I expect to be changes during the transition period of going back?  So far, I'm very sensitive to cooked foods.  That's why I eat RVAF.  I don't think that will change.  I have tested myself out.

[TylerDurden]

The trouble is that virtually all zero-carbers, raw or otherwise, report a transitional period(2-6 weeks, allegedly) where they encounter difficulties. In my own case, I didn't see any end to this awkward period, so stopped it after 5 weeks, as I was in an awful shape from it.  So switching from low-carb to zero-carb and vice-versa isn't an option as you'll have to go through the whole transitional period all over again(though I'm told it's less severe the 2nd and subsequent times). So, if you wan to go zero-carb, you should do it on a long-term basis.
Another concern is that you must have a solid, reliable source of grassfed fat available at all times, so you'll have to bulk-order before winter sets in  etc. Being without sufficient sources of fats on a zero-carb diet could cause problems.

[boxcarguy07]

    I'm not zero carb, but now I'm thinking that zero might be right for me.  Tyler, it's not damaging to go zero carb for only a month or so just to try it out, is it?  I mean to go back to some carbs afterwards maybe, what might I expect to be changes during the transition period of going back?  So far, I'm very sensitive to cooked foods.  That's why I eat RVAF.  I don't think that will change.  I have tested myself out.

I went zero-carb for a couple weeks just to see what it was like. I felt no different on zero-carb than I did eating carbs, except for that when I was zero-carb my recovery rate from exercise went down a whole lot.
No transitioning experiences or anything. When I went back to eating carbs again, it was like nothing had ever changed.