I Followed the Lion Diet for 1,000 Days

I have been on the lion diet for more than 1,000 days, as of October 11, 2023. I was having severe gut problems when I heard about this crazy diet where you only eat ruminant meat, water, and salt—and that's it. Ruminant animals are just those that bring up food from their stomachs to chew it again, such as cows and sheep.

I'd heard stories about how this diet had helped to heal people of so many ills. Doctors had no answers for me so I thought: I had a family to support and I couldn't do that if I wasn't healthy or alive. I felt this could save my life so I had to give it a shot. At my heaviest, I weighed 302lbs.

Now I'm down to 183lbs. I was a complete insomniac when I started. I could not get to sleep at night and I could not wake up in the morning. Now, when I'm ready to go to bed I close my eyes when my head hits the pillow and I'm out. And when it's time to get up in the morning, I'm able to jump up and get going in a way I couldn't before.

I used to snore at night too, keeping my wife up all the time. But not anymore. I had breathing problems that would make it hard for me to do any type of exercise for any even a short period of time. I would try to go walking for 30 minutes a day when I was close to 300lbs and even that was too much for me.

Now, when I want to get exercise I just jump right in and do it, even if I'm out and about—I'll stop and do push ups or squats right in the middle of nowhere. I don't care who's watching. I love having the body that I always wanted to have. Here I am at 50 years old and I'm in the best health of my life.

Even when I was 17 years old I didn't feel as good as I do now—and I'm the same weight as I was then. I had high blood pressure at the start. Now I don't have those problems. The last time I went to the doctor my blood pressure numbers were just about as perfect as you could ask for.

Prior to eating the way, I was starting to have kidney issues too, but since I started eating this way my kidney function has improved. I had low testosterone and I was on replacement therapy for several years—but I've been off that for nearly a year and a half. My testosterone has actually gone up by at least 50 percent, and that was the last time I checked, which was over six months ago.

My lipid panel is excellent. My HDL cholesterol—the "good" kind—is up. My triglycerides are way down. And even my LDL cholesterol—the "bad" kind—is within the normal range. I used to take medicines for allergies, digestion, and an upset stomach, as well as a ton of supplements.

Now I don't take anything except a couple of supplements for things that I think a lot of people suffer from, such as low iodine and low vitamin D. I've been through a tough time financially in the past three years, so anybody who says they can't afford to do a carnivore way of eating isn't considering the right things.

I don't make a lot of money, but it's enough to provide for my family every month by the grace of God. And that's only on one income. Yet somehow every month I'm able to eat the meat that makes my body healthy and like it was when I was young, and all my bills still get paid, even though prices are ridiculous right now.

Granted, I did cut a few things out of my life to make that happen. I quit vaping, drinking, smoking, and buying junk food every time I stop for gas. I've noticed a few other beautiful side effects I put down to this way of eating, including that I no longer have pain from inflammation all the time, and I don't get sick as easily as I used to.

My immune system feels like it's working like it should for the first time in my life. I used to have all this red skin that stung all the time, but now it looks clear and clean. And I used to have all this pain in my gut, which is gone now, too. Some people complain that they can't go to the bathroom because of an all meat diet, and that they need some roughage, but I have no trouble at all.

I'm much more active now at 50 years old than I ever was in my entire life until now. I'm able to get more done; I can focus on two jobs at the same time; and I started playing basketball recently, something that I've never done before. I don't even understand the rules of basketball for the most part but I'm able to get out there and keep up with guys that are a lot younger than me doing something that I didn't think I would ever be doing.

And I attribute it all to the lion diet. I love eating meat, so the diet comes natural to me, and it is very simple for shopping and deciding what to make every meal. Do I miss some things? Yes. I am a sugar addict, so whenever I see it in the form I used to love it in—cheesecake, yellow cake, ice cream, brownies, etc—it can be pretty hard to resist.

But so many times that has led to the painful reality of reintroducing sugar into a system that has been working fine only producing sugar from the food consumed, rather than using sugar in the food consumed. I can be physically in pain for 24 hours or more, feel sickly for up to a couple weeks, and my blood sugar numbers stay haywire for several days after consuming sugar.

Some say this is the problem with a carnivore diet; that it makes you more sensitive to sugar. But I think it's simply that the negative effects are more easily noticed because you are no longer desensitized to the harm caused by such things. It's like reintroducing a drug. I've experimented with some other foods on my diet, but I found that my body is resistant to them; perhaps due to developing leaky gut from years of eating ultra processed food, fast food, seed oils, and all the garbage in our food supply.

Right now, I have found freedom in this way of eating like I never thought possible. It has changed me physically, mentally, and even spiritually. I found that by quitting those vices I've been able to fall more in line with what the scriptures tell me to do as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I find that this has been a wonderful blessing for me. Some Christians ask me why I don't eat vegetables still. I say so many of them are genetically modified to be sweeter, or they're sprayed with things like glyphosate to kill pests off. Ultimately, I found eating only meat has worked fantastic for me and now I stick with it more than ever.

I don't have a desire to experiment anymore because the troubles that I've had doing that haven't been worth it. I live a totally different life now. I'm no longer a slave to advertising for food. I'm no longer a slave to the food system. I'm no longer a slave to the health care system.

I fired my doctors; I only have one family doctor now who understands my carnivore diet. I'm not throwing doctors under the bus, but it's nice not to have to go back to one and ask for permission to buy the things that I used to just treat the symptoms that were making me sick, fat, and unhealthy.

Now that I've got 1,000 days in the can and I'm about to turn 51, I'm looking forward to whatever is coming next. The lion diet has changed my life for good. Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground. Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground..