Interview with Yuval

Introduce Yourself

My name is Yuval (pronounced like: “The moment YUVAL been waiting for”), I’m a 40 YO software engineer and nutrition enthusiast from Israel. Married with a 1.5YO beautiful baby girl named Rachel. My journey to health started thanks to her.

How did you eat before Carnivore?

My romance with nutrition (and bad nutrition) started at age 14. A close friend became a vegetarian, and the idea of not hurting animals for food appealed to me since I am an animal lover. This period of vegetarianism continued until I was 26 and I was very strict about being a vegetarian. Never ate or tasted an animal during this time. I did however, eat a lot of carbs. Eating carbs wasn’t so bad when I was young and more metabolically active, and also served in the military here in Israel while being a vegetarian and was more or less lean and muscular even though I was eating no less than a loaf of bread and quite a bit of rice every day, not to mention the vegetarian food supplied by the army. Immediately after getting out of the military at age 21 I started gaining weight since the level of physical activity was much less and I was pretty much eating the same.

At age 26, I’ve reached my highest weight of all time, 135Kg (about 290lbs).

I then decided to go back to eating meat. This was 2006.

Right away I noticed I’m getting more full from less food. I was not a carnivore then by any standard, but the meat was more satiating.

With diet and exercise, I went down to 85Kg in about 18 months. I have yoyo dieted a few times since, going up to 120Kg and back down to 90Kg.

My diets were always about restricting calories and exercising a lot. Looking back, this was not sustainable, which was the reason the weight kept coming back on.

In 2013, I attended a Vipassana meditation retreat. A part of the retreat was a vegetarian and mostly vegan menu. After this 10 day retreat I became a vegan, and maintained being a vegan for a whole year. Following that year I introduced some eggs and dairy to my diet. All in all, I was a vegetarian for 17 years of my life.

On September 1st 2018 I weighed 120Kg, which seemed to be my bounce back weight. I decided to go on a ketogenic diet after researching a few ways to lose weight. I decided I want to do it right this time and I need to live long enough to see my daughter grow up and to be able to be there for her.

After a full year of keto, I went carnivore.

Why did you try Carnivore to begin with

While on keto, I did a one month experiment of no fiber, so I basically ate meat, fish, chicken and dairy. This was the month I lost the most weight and didn’t feel any bloat. Then a decision was made in my mind that I want to try Carnivore for a while to see how that will go. I did complete a whole year of keto, and on September 1st 2019 I went carnivore. At this point I was still eating cheese and drinking coffee, which was my only plant vice. The weight kept coming off and on January 1st 2020 I also eliminated dairy (Except butter) and coffee from my diet.

Reducing bloat and gas, shedding weight, having more energy and ability to focus have all been the reasons for me to eliminate the plants from my diet.

How do you personally approach the Carnivore Diet

For me, the carnivore diet consists of mainly red meat. I also eat eggs, chicken, some fish and butter / ghee.

Keeping Kosher, there are a few restrictions for me that most people might struggle with on carnivore but I don’t give it too much thought. For example, I don’t eat meat and dairy together (so no steak in butter), and I don’t eat fish and meat together.

As far as meal times go, I usually eat 2 times per day. Some days I’ll have only one meal and rarely 3 meals per day. I do fast on occasions as well.

I eat until I’m full and don’t sit down to eat unless I’m hungry.

One more thing I do is track the food I eat as accurately as I can, which might not be necessary on a carnivore diet but as an engineer I like to experiment, and so if something goes wrong, I can always see what I ate and make changes based on that.

What benefits have you seen since starting the Carnivore Diet

I’ve lost over 43Kg (about 95lbs) and I am at my lowest weight of my adult life. Also, I have a lot more energy, able to focus on my work and the things I love and I don’t think about food too often as I used to when I was a vegetarian or vegan. There is no bloat and hardly any gas on Carnivore, which is something I dealt with constantly as a vegetarian.

What negatives have you found with the Carnivore Diet

In the beginning, I’ve experienced some diarrhoea. Having little to no carbs was also a challenge at first in the gym. I found that with time, the body adapts and the need for protein grows. When this happens the energy is back up, so there’s not much problem anymore.

One other negative is the social aspect of Carnivore. Personally, I don’t know of any other carnivores around me, and actually I don’t even know one other carnivore in Israel… I find that going to restaurants is such a task when I need to explain to the waiter what I want, I’ve stopped going out to eat.

Do you exercise on the Carnivore Diet, if so how do you find it and what do you do

I exercise moderately on this diet, two to three times weekly. Since the COVID-19 mess started, I upped my game and started a home workout program called Body Beast, so now I’m exercising 6 times a week about an hour each time, to make the most out of this situation.

What piece of advice would you give someone who is interested in trying this diet, but hasn’t taken the leap yet.

As an engineer, I like to look at everything I do as if it’s an experiment. This is what I did with the Carnivore Diet. On September 1st 2019 I went on a 3 month experiment of Carnivore Diet + coffee and dairy. On January 1st this year I started a 3 months Carnivore Diet experiment without any plant matter of dairy (except cheese).

So my recommendation is: Just start! Set a start and end date for your own experiment. Let’s say a one month experiment: Start with Meat, chicken, fish and butter. Do that for 30 days and then evaluate how you feel. I truly believe once trying a carnivore diet for this period it will be clear to anyone trying it that the benefits are there, even if they don’t continue as pure carnivores.

Do you think Carnivore will ever be accepted as a mainstream diet

No. and that’s perfectly OK with me. I believe the vegan agenda is so strong that eating a purely meat based diet will always be out of the norm.

When I was a vegan, I clearly remember feeling that I’m morally superior for not eating animals. Not knowing how many animals die in the crop fields from pesticides and other chemicals used to grow the food I was eating. People usually see what’s on their plate and will feel good about it if they don’t see suffering.

Moreover, if this diet becomes mainstream, expect factory farming to be more and more prevalent, which might be a problem. I believe regenerative agriculture is the way to go and this takes time, so for now I’m happy this is not a mainstream diet and also that most people find it weird… More meat for us carnivores, right?

Anything you would like to add, and where can people follow you

I really appreciate the opportunity to share my health and carnivore journey.

Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holycarnivore/

Ketogenic Endurance – I hoped you enjoyed this post.

If you like what I am about, check out the below.

Amazon

Carnivore Fit Expanded edition – my eBook and Paperback looking at why meat is good for you, why plants are bad, and how to exercise on zero carbs.

Low Content Books – Carnivore & Keto inspired Journals, Notebooks, Diaries, and Planners.

Clothing – wide range of Carnivore & Keto inspired apparel under the brand Ketogenic Endurance Carnivore Success Company.

Media

• The majority of my personal journey is documented on Instagram.
• Carnivore Diet Success Stories Facebook group.
• Carnivore Diet Success Stories Newsletter.
• I am an ambassador for the lifestyle brand Descended From Odin, have a look at their apparel and accessories: Click here and get 10% off with the code “ketogenicendurance”

Stores

Etsy – Unique Carnivore