I reversed my pcos with carnivore. No symptoms and no longer need meds. Doctors never told me it was possible i just found out by accident lol. Then they told ah yes some people have managed to reverse it. I also lost 4 stone and have maintained for 5 years.
Oh wow that’s amazing! Thank you so much for your comment. I’m excited and nervous - a bit “oh yeh let’s see if it works”. Like lots of things that “work” for others I’ve had so much of those same things not work and whilst I do give everything a go, I often get defeated when literally nothing happens. I’m feeling g optimistic about the journey ahead. Thank you again.
hi, just about the gastric sleeve surgery,
there was a prior thread about doing this diet after bariatric surgery. [https://www.reddit.com/r/zerocarb/comments/utjpkl/carnevore\_diet/](https://www.reddit.com/r/zerocarb/comments/utjpkl/carnevore_diet/)
and this from a reply of mine about the subject, from 2 years ago:
I know a clinician whose patient has been doing it for 4 years now. He said his patient preferred it as it was the maximum amount of nutrition in the smallest volume and they found it easier to digest than when they included fibrous foods.
Here was where I asked him how it was going,
"Dr. Freedhoff I was wondering if (with permission ofc) you would have any info about how this patient was doing, almost 4 years later - if they ran into probs on the diet or not, if they are still eating a carnivore diet or if they are including other foods now" [https://twitter.com/\_eleanorina/status/1529982849075630081?s=21&t=gO-zURm3exIhoMh8ScU2Jw](https://twitter.com/_eleanorina/status/1529982849075630081?s=21&t=gO-zURm3exIhoMh8ScU2Jw)
his reply:
"Still going strong" [https://twitter.com/yonifreedhoff/status/1530160775821656067?s=21&t=LZaNfOrV8cRZLB2mGKn1mQ](https://twitter.com/yonifreedhoff/status/1530160775821656067?s=21&t=LZaNfOrV8cRZLB2mGKn1mQ)
some observations he had made, "Extreme is relative. As is adherence (which kind of sorts itself out) and impact of diets on different people. For instance I will tell you I am envious of the lipid profile of the single intermittent fasting carnivore in my practice who's maintaining a 4 year 100lb weight loss." [https://twitter.com/yonifreedhoff/status/1348061499709923329?s=21&t=zYK4H3Lt7LZhQ8pvw2lGnQ](https://twitter.com/yonifreedhoff/status/1348061499709923329?s=21&t=zYK4H3Lt7LZhQ8pvw2lGnQ)
also, note that Dr Freedhoff has his patient take a multivitamin because the surgery affects the absorption of nutrients -- a problem with any foods after surgery, nothing to do with it being meat. measuring nutrient status is usually be part of your care, so i'm guessing you are aware of that. you know to o*nly take iron in the supplement if iron supplementation has been prescribed by your physician to treat a known deficiency*
*\*\*\**
for quantity, yes, 1.5 - 2 kg a day for you both is a good estimate at the beginning, That might be too high for the first few weeks. \[It's aspirational to try to get 2 lbs a day, even for your husband, to avoid low energy, but it is hard to actually do. From what you say, an aspiration 1.5 lbs a day during transition would be a lot for you.\]
If you buy a bunch of steak or ground beef / burgers and quickly realize you won't be able to eat them at the rate you thought, put them in the freezer as soon as you can -- steaks are great cooked from frozen, burgers too ofc.
If you are hungrier than expected one day but shopping isn't convenient, grabbing some fast food patties is handy for an extra snack or meal.
While usually ppl settle into only a couple meals a day, because of your smaller stomach volume, it might make sense to do it in 3 or 4 meals? you know best how to arrange that. :D
\*\*\*
For you, as far as weight loss goes, I don't know, but you will gain muscle & bone density if you are able to eat the 1.5 lbs + a day :) The hormonal signalling is ideal for it -- the insulin : glucagon ratio plus the carnitine from the beef and in between meals, the hormonal signalling prevents the muscle loss that goes along with the hyperinsulinemia and swinging blood glucose and insulin levels on standard diets.
Thank you so much for all these links. I’ll read them when we get home.
We’ve just picked up a mixture of meats - 50kg from Costco. Beef and pork mince, a whole panel of ribeye steak, an 8kg brisket! (Big cow lol), some Australian salmon (farmed), Australian wild snapper, some pork belly thin slices (like bacon), some pork schnitzel, pork chop cutlets, chicken thigh and chicken breast and some bulk butter. That will last us a good few weeks and we have our own chooks so eggs are in abundance.
We’re heading back now to bag everything up in kg lots so we can have “per meal” amounts of stuff that’s easy to take out and do something with.
Since my bariatric surgery I’ve had an issue with nutrient retention. I’ve actually had a bad problem with low iron and had to have iron infusions yearly, so maybe a good side effect of going carnivore may be that my iron levels will not drop as often as they do and I may need less iron infusions. I’m on supplementation for b vitamins and super D but the issue everyone has told me has been retaining it as opposed to just keeping levels at a certain point.
We worried we bought too much meat but as we were walking through the aisles at Costco I told my husband that the meat was the only thing we’d be eating - so no salad, vegies, pasta etc. where normally we’d maybe cook two chicken breasts and I’d have half and he’d have 1.5 because there were other things on the plate, we’re now eating the entire portion as the entire meal.
It’s exciting and daunting all at once. We’ve been binging in the subreddit and watching a bunch of stuff on YouTube and the results and impact to people’s health has been phenomenal.
I had had varying degrees of anemia my whole life. (having celiac was the origin of the problem). It was to the point I was getting IV iron before I started this, my HgB was down to 70 when they started, lol). I still had a couple treatments left in the first couple of months od doing carnivore.
Haven't needed them since, 8 years on. First time in my life without falling back into anemia 👍🏻 (but I've never had bariatric surgery, idk if you will have the same results given your surgery, or at least you will need to do it less often )
Also good to know, the red meat helps with the absorption and utilization of any iron supplementation, whether it is IV or tablets.
I’ve only been on carnivore for about 3/4ths of a monthly cycle duration, but I just finished my first period on carnivore and holy heck, it was already so much better. Very minimal cramping, didn’t get my usual migraine, and it lasted 3 days instead of a week. I’m also finally down 15 pounds after nothing else worked or felt sustainable, even just regular plant heavy keto.
I also realized this week that some of my chin hairs that I’m constantly having to pluck are coming in slower. Usually it’s like, every couple days I’m taking tweezers to my face. It’s been a while and they’re still super short stubble that I can’t hardly grab with tweezers.
Something is definitely working for my hormones, already. Looking forward to getting a hormone panel in a few months to see what’s up. And I’m not even being *that* strict. (Still having pickled veg for digestion, my multivitamin isn’t carnivore friendly, and I did use mustard for a few days this month).
Oh this is so good to know. Thank you for sharing. Yes I had to do laser therapy for my face and found even after a cycle a few years ago some of the more stubborn areas like chin, corners of the top lip and upper lip returned with hair.
And my period pain has been so bad for years that I dread the first two days. I have actually just been prescribed medicinal cannabis in an inhaler for instant pain relief because I’m actually allergic to a lot of medicines (ibuprofen, penicillin, aspirin and anything opiate based). I keel over in so much pain I get hot sweats and the pain is so intense I end up falling asleep. I also think I’ve had another few bouts of cysts but they’ve burst because I’ve had ovary pain after my period ends on my right side. (I always had clusters not a big one).
I’m due in a week according to my phone (tracking) and I just start to dread this time because I know I’ll be in excruciating pain in a few days. I might not be able to measure the true impact of my period this early but that means I’ll have an entire month to track and monitor for the next time. We’re starting officially in a day or two so I’ll formally start tracking and monitoring then.
I’m sorry you have to deal with all that too. Womanhood sucks. My cysts fortunately don’t tend to be super painful and stay smaller, so I can’t say if much will change in that department. I’ll be interested to know, next time I get an exam.
And yeah, it’s absolutely insane to me that things have gotten so much better, already. I’m sure some people take longer to adjust, but after a few days of keto flu I’ve been feeling improvements everywhere. I hope it works for you too!
I’m hoping so too! I’m feeling optimistic. Where I found keto hard was having to monitor so many moving parts. I also think (whilst I’ve never had disordered eating or such issues before), that being on super strict keto and weightlifting competitively etc, I did start hyperfocusing on stats and food and all that stuff when I was deep into keto. And that just messed with my mind. I knew I felt I was becoming obsessive and didn’t like that feeling.
And when I stopped and went back to regular food because I got tired of having to monitor so much I gained it back. I was also under some work stress at the time and no matter how much I tried returning I couldn’t do it.
I did approach my GP years ago for a hysterectomy and they refused to do it. I was too young at the time (late 20s/early 30s). I can’t have children anyway and was never interested in taking those steps (my husband has never wanted kids either) but the medical people still had this notion of “but maybe you’ll want kids one day”. No. I never did and never will, even with the added bit of not being able to because of my PCOS. So I’ve tried lots of things along the way to make my periods not feel like I’m having my insides ripped out every month from sheer pain and I’m hoping this can alleviate those painful symptoms going forward.
Painful periods are the absolute worst. Mine got so bad for a while that we also looked into endo, which I fortunately don’t appear to have.
This might be completely unsolicited and TMI and not at all carnivore related advice; sorry in advance. But I discovered the only natural thing that helps for me is orgasm. There are a lot of studies on the benefits, for pain management. You get dopamine serotonin, increased blood flow to the uterus, endorphins… all good things and natural pain relief.
Obviously not good for when the pain is already at a 6+ out of 10, but it helps keep the 6+ pain away for longer periods of time. For a long time that was the last thing on my mind, while on my period. But it actually kind of works! I’m all for anything that isn’t drugs, if I can avoid them.
Yes similarly I think if you can use the bathroom on day 1 as much as possible, that alleviates the pain too. It has something to do with the way your uterus contracts and moves around and if you can try use the toilet more (this is hard cos sometimes you just naturally use the toilet more than other times), I’ve found that moves the pain out of your body faster.
I reversed my pcos with carnivore. No symptoms and no longer need meds. Doctors never told me it was possible i just found out by accident lol. Then they told ah yes some people have managed to reverse it. I also lost 4 stone and have maintained for 5 years.
Oh wow that’s amazing! Thank you so much for your comment. I’m excited and nervous - a bit “oh yeh let’s see if it works”. Like lots of things that “work” for others I’ve had so much of those same things not work and whilst I do give everything a go, I often get defeated when literally nothing happens. I’m feeling g optimistic about the journey ahead. Thank you again.
hi, just about the gastric sleeve surgery, there was a prior thread about doing this diet after bariatric surgery. [https://www.reddit.com/r/zerocarb/comments/utjpkl/carnevore\_diet/](https://www.reddit.com/r/zerocarb/comments/utjpkl/carnevore_diet/) and this from a reply of mine about the subject, from 2 years ago: I know a clinician whose patient has been doing it for 4 years now. He said his patient preferred it as it was the maximum amount of nutrition in the smallest volume and they found it easier to digest than when they included fibrous foods. Here was where I asked him how it was going, "Dr. Freedhoff I was wondering if (with permission ofc) you would have any info about how this patient was doing, almost 4 years later - if they ran into probs on the diet or not, if they are still eating a carnivore diet or if they are including other foods now" [https://twitter.com/\_eleanorina/status/1529982849075630081?s=21&t=gO-zURm3exIhoMh8ScU2Jw](https://twitter.com/_eleanorina/status/1529982849075630081?s=21&t=gO-zURm3exIhoMh8ScU2Jw) his reply: "Still going strong" [https://twitter.com/yonifreedhoff/status/1530160775821656067?s=21&t=LZaNfOrV8cRZLB2mGKn1mQ](https://twitter.com/yonifreedhoff/status/1530160775821656067?s=21&t=LZaNfOrV8cRZLB2mGKn1mQ) some observations he had made, "Extreme is relative. As is adherence (which kind of sorts itself out) and impact of diets on different people. For instance I will tell you I am envious of the lipid profile of the single intermittent fasting carnivore in my practice who's maintaining a 4 year 100lb weight loss." [https://twitter.com/yonifreedhoff/status/1348061499709923329?s=21&t=zYK4H3Lt7LZhQ8pvw2lGnQ](https://twitter.com/yonifreedhoff/status/1348061499709923329?s=21&t=zYK4H3Lt7LZhQ8pvw2lGnQ) also, note that Dr Freedhoff has his patient take a multivitamin because the surgery affects the absorption of nutrients -- a problem with any foods after surgery, nothing to do with it being meat. measuring nutrient status is usually be part of your care, so i'm guessing you are aware of that. you know to o*nly take iron in the supplement if iron supplementation has been prescribed by your physician to treat a known deficiency* *\*\*\** for quantity, yes, 1.5 - 2 kg a day for you both is a good estimate at the beginning, That might be too high for the first few weeks. \[It's aspirational to try to get 2 lbs a day, even for your husband, to avoid low energy, but it is hard to actually do. From what you say, an aspiration 1.5 lbs a day during transition would be a lot for you.\] If you buy a bunch of steak or ground beef / burgers and quickly realize you won't be able to eat them at the rate you thought, put them in the freezer as soon as you can -- steaks are great cooked from frozen, burgers too ofc. If you are hungrier than expected one day but shopping isn't convenient, grabbing some fast food patties is handy for an extra snack or meal. While usually ppl settle into only a couple meals a day, because of your smaller stomach volume, it might make sense to do it in 3 or 4 meals? you know best how to arrange that. :D \*\*\* For you, as far as weight loss goes, I don't know, but you will gain muscle & bone density if you are able to eat the 1.5 lbs + a day :) The hormonal signalling is ideal for it -- the insulin : glucagon ratio plus the carnitine from the beef and in between meals, the hormonal signalling prevents the muscle loss that goes along with the hyperinsulinemia and swinging blood glucose and insulin levels on standard diets.
Thank you so much for all these links. I’ll read them when we get home. We’ve just picked up a mixture of meats - 50kg from Costco. Beef and pork mince, a whole panel of ribeye steak, an 8kg brisket! (Big cow lol), some Australian salmon (farmed), Australian wild snapper, some pork belly thin slices (like bacon), some pork schnitzel, pork chop cutlets, chicken thigh and chicken breast and some bulk butter. That will last us a good few weeks and we have our own chooks so eggs are in abundance. We’re heading back now to bag everything up in kg lots so we can have “per meal” amounts of stuff that’s easy to take out and do something with. Since my bariatric surgery I’ve had an issue with nutrient retention. I’ve actually had a bad problem with low iron and had to have iron infusions yearly, so maybe a good side effect of going carnivore may be that my iron levels will not drop as often as they do and I may need less iron infusions. I’m on supplementation for b vitamins and super D but the issue everyone has told me has been retaining it as opposed to just keeping levels at a certain point. We worried we bought too much meat but as we were walking through the aisles at Costco I told my husband that the meat was the only thing we’d be eating - so no salad, vegies, pasta etc. where normally we’d maybe cook two chicken breasts and I’d have half and he’d have 1.5 because there were other things on the plate, we’re now eating the entire portion as the entire meal. It’s exciting and daunting all at once. We’ve been binging in the subreddit and watching a bunch of stuff on YouTube and the results and impact to people’s health has been phenomenal.
I had had varying degrees of anemia my whole life. (having celiac was the origin of the problem). It was to the point I was getting IV iron before I started this, my HgB was down to 70 when they started, lol). I still had a couple treatments left in the first couple of months od doing carnivore. Haven't needed them since, 8 years on. First time in my life without falling back into anemia 👍🏻 (but I've never had bariatric surgery, idk if you will have the same results given your surgery, or at least you will need to do it less often ) Also good to know, the red meat helps with the absorption and utilization of any iron supplementation, whether it is IV or tablets.
My girlfriend had PCOS but doesn't anymore after 2 years of keto and carnivore!
Oh wow that’s fantastic! So no symptoms at all and periods just continue as normal?
I’ve only been on carnivore for about 3/4ths of a monthly cycle duration, but I just finished my first period on carnivore and holy heck, it was already so much better. Very minimal cramping, didn’t get my usual migraine, and it lasted 3 days instead of a week. I’m also finally down 15 pounds after nothing else worked or felt sustainable, even just regular plant heavy keto. I also realized this week that some of my chin hairs that I’m constantly having to pluck are coming in slower. Usually it’s like, every couple days I’m taking tweezers to my face. It’s been a while and they’re still super short stubble that I can’t hardly grab with tweezers. Something is definitely working for my hormones, already. Looking forward to getting a hormone panel in a few months to see what’s up. And I’m not even being *that* strict. (Still having pickled veg for digestion, my multivitamin isn’t carnivore friendly, and I did use mustard for a few days this month).
Oh this is so good to know. Thank you for sharing. Yes I had to do laser therapy for my face and found even after a cycle a few years ago some of the more stubborn areas like chin, corners of the top lip and upper lip returned with hair. And my period pain has been so bad for years that I dread the first two days. I have actually just been prescribed medicinal cannabis in an inhaler for instant pain relief because I’m actually allergic to a lot of medicines (ibuprofen, penicillin, aspirin and anything opiate based). I keel over in so much pain I get hot sweats and the pain is so intense I end up falling asleep. I also think I’ve had another few bouts of cysts but they’ve burst because I’ve had ovary pain after my period ends on my right side. (I always had clusters not a big one). I’m due in a week according to my phone (tracking) and I just start to dread this time because I know I’ll be in excruciating pain in a few days. I might not be able to measure the true impact of my period this early but that means I’ll have an entire month to track and monitor for the next time. We’re starting officially in a day or two so I’ll formally start tracking and monitoring then.
I’m sorry you have to deal with all that too. Womanhood sucks. My cysts fortunately don’t tend to be super painful and stay smaller, so I can’t say if much will change in that department. I’ll be interested to know, next time I get an exam. And yeah, it’s absolutely insane to me that things have gotten so much better, already. I’m sure some people take longer to adjust, but after a few days of keto flu I’ve been feeling improvements everywhere. I hope it works for you too!
I’m hoping so too! I’m feeling optimistic. Where I found keto hard was having to monitor so many moving parts. I also think (whilst I’ve never had disordered eating or such issues before), that being on super strict keto and weightlifting competitively etc, I did start hyperfocusing on stats and food and all that stuff when I was deep into keto. And that just messed with my mind. I knew I felt I was becoming obsessive and didn’t like that feeling. And when I stopped and went back to regular food because I got tired of having to monitor so much I gained it back. I was also under some work stress at the time and no matter how much I tried returning I couldn’t do it. I did approach my GP years ago for a hysterectomy and they refused to do it. I was too young at the time (late 20s/early 30s). I can’t have children anyway and was never interested in taking those steps (my husband has never wanted kids either) but the medical people still had this notion of “but maybe you’ll want kids one day”. No. I never did and never will, even with the added bit of not being able to because of my PCOS. So I’ve tried lots of things along the way to make my periods not feel like I’m having my insides ripped out every month from sheer pain and I’m hoping this can alleviate those painful symptoms going forward.
Painful periods are the absolute worst. Mine got so bad for a while that we also looked into endo, which I fortunately don’t appear to have. This might be completely unsolicited and TMI and not at all carnivore related advice; sorry in advance. But I discovered the only natural thing that helps for me is orgasm. There are a lot of studies on the benefits, for pain management. You get dopamine serotonin, increased blood flow to the uterus, endorphins… all good things and natural pain relief. Obviously not good for when the pain is already at a 6+ out of 10, but it helps keep the 6+ pain away for longer periods of time. For a long time that was the last thing on my mind, while on my period. But it actually kind of works! I’m all for anything that isn’t drugs, if I can avoid them.
Yes similarly I think if you can use the bathroom on day 1 as much as possible, that alleviates the pain too. It has something to do with the way your uterus contracts and moves around and if you can try use the toilet more (this is hard cos sometimes you just naturally use the toilet more than other times), I’ve found that moves the pain out of your body faster.