In the world of low-card diets that have amazing results, keto has been a great hit. How does the Carnivore diet compare? Which of these two diets has better outcomes? What are the differences? In this article, we will explore the differences and similarities of these two diets, and discuss why you should try one or both of them….
- What Is The Keto Diet?
The ketogenic diet, or keto for short, is designed to switch your metabolism from glucose to ketones as a source of fuel. It was initially medically designed and clinically tested to help treat patients with epilepsy.
The ketogenic diet is a very low-carb, high-fat diet that shares many similarities with the Atkins and low-carb diets.It involves drastically reducing carbohydrate intake and replacing it with fat. This reduction in carbs puts your body into a metabolic state called ketosis.
When this happens, your body becomes incredibly efficient at burning fat for energy. It also turns fat into ketones in the liver, which can supply energy for the brain.Ketogenic diets can cause massive reductions in blood sugar and insulin levels. This, along with the increased ketones, has numerous health benefits
- What Is The Carnivore Diet?
The Carnivore Diet consists entirely of meat and animal products, excluding all other foods.It’s claimed to aid weight loss, mood issues, and blood sugar regulation, among other health issues.
This diet is however extremely restrictive and likely unhealthy in the long term. Additionally, scientific tests have not been carried out on it.
- So, what are the differences between the Keto and Carnivore diets?
It might seem obvious in the sense that carnivore dieters only eat meat, while there is a little bit more flexibility in keto. But there are a few more details you should be aware of, especially if you have some experience with keto and its health benefits.
- The carnivore diet is more restrictive
On the ketogenic diet, you are allowed to have some carbs. For the average person, this will be somewhere around 50 grams per day or lower. What this does is allow you to satisfy some food cravings, especially in the early days.
It also gives you just that little bit more flexibility when it comes to your meal recipes to add some vegetables for a bit more diversity. And then there is fiber which by and large is keto friendly because it isn’t counted as a net positive carb as most of it passes through your stomach undigested.
So, from digestion and micronutrient point of view, there are some advantages that keto has.
- You experience more Cravings with the carnivore diet
As you start getting used to having an all meat diet, you will be cutting out all carbs and increasing fat and protein intake. It doesn’t take long before your body starts craving some starchy vegetables or even just a small donut for a little sugar rush.
Similar cravings are noted on keto, but because you have to avoid all plant-based foods, your body may start interpreting this as a symptom of starvation.
- Meal Frequencies
Someone on keto is likely to eat more frequently due to the food choices and ready availability of the food. On a carnivore diet, one has to prepare the food and have it hot. This coupled with the lack of variety and effect of eating proteins reduces mealtimes to 2-3 per day.
- Macronutrient Ratio
The macronutrient ratio on a ketogenic diet is 60% fat, 30% protein, and 10% carbs. This is a radical shift from the 20/25/55 ratio recommended by conventional nutritional science.
When doing thecarnivore diet, there isn’t a strict ratio to keep to, as it’s all about eating meat. You can eat as much meat as you want, with only a tiny, almost accidental, amount of carbs that may sneak in with some dairy products.
- Supplementation
The total elimination of vegetables in the carnivore diet might require higher supplementation of essential vitamins and minerals than the keto diet, which allows for some.
- And what are the similarities between these two diets?
The Keto and carnivore diets have a lot in common, includingside effects, metabolic changes, and quite a few health benefits.1.The Keto Flu
Though called the keto flu, it can affect people both on the keto diet and the carnivore diet. Its symptoms are flu-like with of brain fog, muscle aches, nausea, headaches, and fatigue that generally last for somewhere between 1 and 14 days.2. Constipation
One of the common questions is, “does keto diet cause constipation?” The answer is sometimes, and the same can happen on the carnivore diet as well. This is most often due to the lack of fiber, which may be something you need to supplement.
- Fat consumption and fat burning
In both diets, there is a significant emphasis on getting a lot of fat into your diet. As a guide, this would be around 60% of your daily energy needs, which is quite a lot. However, once your body switches to ketosis, all that extra fat will be transformed into fuel. Ketones are a different form of energy that result in a lot better cognitive functions and levels of alertness.4. Metabolic Changes
On both keto and carnivore, your body will switch from blood glucose to ketones for fuel. This metabolic process is called ketosis and is a vital function and feature of human evolution.5. Weight Loss
As long as you calculate your calorie needs and stay below your daily threshold, you will trigger weight loss. By keeping the amount of dietary fat to below what you need, your body will go into a starvation protection mode and use up all those fat storage areas.The results can be rather drastic, and as long as you stick to the guidelines of keto and carnivore, you will notice a very steady and sustainable loss of weight.
- Increased physical and mental energy
One of the significant benefits of ketosis (whether keto or carnivore induced), is that you will have a lot more readily available energy. And the nature of ketone-derived power is that it doesn’t regularly spike as glucose does.
In the whole keto vs carnivore debate, it really shouldn’t be a question of which one is better. The choice of which one to do is a personal decision. Keto works better for some people while carnivore works better for others. It might be advisable to try both to find out which suits you best. Switching up also allows you to reap the benefits from both.
In the short term, though the carnivore diet seems to have a lot of positive testimonials and works similarly to the ketogenic diet, we’ve to accept the fact that the ketogenic diet presently has more clinical evidence than the carnivore diet. However, we can expect more studies to be done on the carnivore diet as well in the not so far future.
References
- Kiss my Keto (2018): Keto vs. Carnivore Diet: Which One is Better? Retrieved from
- https://www.kissmyketo.com/blogs/keto-basics/keto-vs-carnivore-which-one-is-better
- Carnivore Style (2018): Keto Vs Carnivore. Retrieved from https://carnivorestyle.com/blog/keto-vs-carnivore-diet/
- Healthline (2019): All You Need to Know About the Carnivore (All-Meat) Diet. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/carnivore-diet