Are you feeling an urge to try something new in town? Carnivore diet meal plan is a good turn to take. You might have heard about the mighty offerings of the carnivore diet, such as weight management, stress control, and autoimmunity disorders.
As it has recently been discovered, you must have a lot of confusion about it. In this article, you will have the opportunity to know the basic guidelines including benefits and a one-week sample of a carnivore diet meal plan for beginners.
What is a Carnivore Diet Meal Plan?
As the name suggests, this diet plan involves no vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, or grains. A carnivore diet meal contains 100% animal-based food. It is a meal with a low-calorie intake, making it beneficial for dealing with a number of health problems.
What food items should you consider in a Carnivore Diet?
The carnivore diet meal includes mainly meat products. You can choose from the following major categories of food items to tailor your carnivore diet.
Meat staples
For the major portion, the meat portion, you can choose from a variety of options, such as:
- Beef
Beef is the king of meats. You can use beef to make countless dishes, like homemade burgers, stakes, or ground meat to add a tasty nutritious flavor to your diet.
- Fish
Fish like salmon, mackerel, and sardines can provide you with the required amount of fat your body needs to metabolize in the absence of carbohydrates for energy. Additionally, fish meat is popular for its Omega-3 fatty acids, which maintain brain, joint, mental, and heart health and promote growth and development as well.
- Pork
The love for bacon covers it all. Pork meat offers tender chops and juicy pork loins to make your day delightful and flavorful.
- Chicken
Either pan-fry or roast the chicken, it will add a subtle kick of flavor to your diet. You can make yummy scrummy wings or chicken breasts for a good stock of protein.
Dairy
If you are compatible, you can also add dairy products to your carnivore diet meal. For example, you can add cheese to make your meal more intriguing. Use ghee or butter for steak and heavy cream for your coffee, to thicken sauces, or to make delicious desserts.
Moreover, you can also use meat chips like beef chips, chicken chips, ribeye chips, pork chips, lamb chips, and brisket chips as a snack and eggs to make your meals more interesting.
What are the Benefits of the Carnivore Diet Meal Plan?
Although the carnivore diet meal lacks any vegetables, fruits, or other food items like lentils, nuts, etc., it provides you with loads of options in the world of animal-based diets.
Besides being tempting and delicious, a carnivore meat-based diet can offer you a variety of health benefits as follows:
- Reduces inflammation
The foods derived from plants are often rich in compounds like anti-nutrients or irritants, which can lead to inflammation. Avoiding these plant-based diets can help prevent these triggers of inflammation. Also, processed foods, vegetable oils, and some nutrients like carbohydrates are shown to increase the inflammatory response of your body. If you start removing such things from your diet, it may be possible that you will encounter fewer pains and discomforts. Another reason for this is that a carnivore diet meal is rich in protein, which serves as a source of collagen important for cartilage recovery and health.
- Weight management
When you cut off other foods and depend solely on animal-based products, it modifies your body to respond more efficiently toward metabolism. It means that now your body tends to break down the fats more effectively into energy. Moreover, a carnivore diet meal has a low carbohydrate content and high protein content, making it satiating and making it a perfect match for a weight loss diet. It is because now your body does not have any carbohydrates to break down and obtain energy. So, your body will start metabolizing your fat, both dietary and stored, as it is the second priority for energy metabolism after carbs.
Hence, it will benefit you in two ways; you will burn away your fat and get energy as well.
- Elevates hormone levels
A carnivore diet meal features high levels of cholesterol. Cholesterol is a precursor of many hormones, mainly the sex hormones, including estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone as well. As far as the insulin hormone is concerned, this diet is low in carbohydrate content, which helps maintain the level of insulin and prevent breakouts related to the hormones. While regulating the levels of hormones in your body, a carnivore diet is responsible for developing strength, energy, and muscle mass.
- Promotes mental health
Good nutrition is important for being active and centered. A carnivore diet, including meat as a major component, provides you with the necessary energy, focus, and mental clarity. One of the reasons behind this is that when you stop adding carbohydrates to your diet, the body uses ketones to synthesize energy. According to the studies, these ketones have been shown to contain some neuroprotective properties. Moreover, our brain likes to rely more on fat for energy supply than on carbohydrates.
Another reason a carnivore diet is good for mental health is that it contains nutrients like zinc, B12, and iron, all of them being important for the brain to function properly.
7 day Carnivore Diet Meal Plan for Beginners
If you are a beginner and have just decided to hop on a carnivore diet due to its enormous advantages, here is a sample of what a carnivore diet meal plan looks like.
Day 1: Monday
| Meal | Option | Carbohydrate(g) | Fat(g) | Protein(g) | Fiber(g) | Calories |
| Breakfast | Eggs cooked in ghee/butter | 1 | 15 | 14 | <1 | 200 |
| Lunch | Tuna and cottage cheese | 5 | 9 | 40 | 6 | 300 |
| Dinner | Ribeye steak topped with ghee/butter | 0 | 30 | 50 | <1 | 450 |
| Total | 6 | 54 | 104 | 7 | 950 |
Day 2: Tuesday
| Meal | Option | Carbohydrate(g) | Fat(g) | Protein(g) | Fiber(g) | Calories |
| Breakfast | Chicken livers and scrambled eggs | 3 | 20 | 25 | 1 | 350 |
| Lunch | Turkey burgers | 1 | 10 | 25 | <1 | 220 |
| Dinner | Slow roasted salmon | <1 | 20 | 40 | 1 | 330 |
| Total | 5 | 50 | 90 | 3 | 900 |
Day 3: Wednesday
| Meal | Option | Carbohydrate(g) | Fat(g) | Protein(g) | Fiber(g) | Calories |
| Breakfast | Beef and Cheddar Omelette | 5 | 20 | 30 | 2 | 450 |
| Lunch | Chicken Drumsticks with Bone Marrow Butter | 3 | 40 | 45 | 1 | 600 |
| Dinner | Venison Steaks with Butter Sauce | 2 | 26 | 40 | <1 | 460 |
| Total | 10 | 86 | 115 | 4 | 1510 |
Day 4: Thursday
| Meal | Option | Carbohydrate(g) | Fat(g) | Protein(g) | Fiber(g) | Calories |
| Breakfast | Omelet with steak and raw cheese | 3 | 28 | 70 | 2 | 620 |
| Lunch | Shrimp and scallops sautéed in butter/ghee | 2 | 25 | 45 | 1 | 400 |
| Dinner | NY strip steak seared in tallow and topped with butter/ghee | 0 | 34 | 50 | <1 | 530 |
| Total | 5 | 87 | 165 | 4 | 1550 |
Day 5: Friday
| Meal | Option | Carbohydrate(g) | Fat(g) | Protein(g) | Fiber(g) | Calories |
| Breakfast | Bacon-Wrapped Eggs (2) | 2 | 20 | 18 | <1 | 350 |
| Lunch | Bison Steak with Butter-Herbs Sauce | 5 | 23 | 45 | 2 | 450 |
| Dinner | Crispy Seared Duck Breast | 0 | 18 | 25 | <1 | 300 |
| Total | 7 | 61 | 88 | 3 | 1100 |
Day 6: Saturday
| Meal | Option | Carbohydrate(g) | Fat(g) | Protein (g) | Fiber(g) | Calories |
| Breakfast | Kefir and two eggs over medium | 6 | 9 | 13 | 1 | 190 |
| Lunch | Shredded chicken with bacon | 3 | 12 | 35 | <1 | 359 |
| Dinner | Bison burgers | 0 | 8 | 30 | <1 | 240 |
| Total | 9 | 29 | 78 | 2 | 789 |
Day 7: Sunday
| Meal | Option | Carbohydrate(g) | Fat(g) | Protein (g) | Fiber(g) | Calories |
| Breakfast | Lamb Liver and Egg Scramble | 4 | 15 | 25 | <1 | 300 |
| Lunch | Dark meat turkey burgers | 1 | 10 | 23 | <1 | 220 |
| Dinner | Roast beef | 0 | 8 | 21 | 0 | 170 |
| Total | 5 | 33 | 69 | 2 | 690 |
Conclusion
A good nutritional diet plays a variety of functions to keep you healthy and fit and also puts a barrier between you and certain health problems. The carnivore diet meal is the one that comprises only animal-based products. It is a diet low in carbohydrate content and rich in protein and fat content, which has several benefits to human health. It helps reduce inflammation, manage weight, elevate certain hormone levels, and promote mental clarity. This article features a 7–day carnivore diet meal plan for beginners to follow with the carbs, protein, fat, fiber, and calorie content mentioned.
