What The Carnivore Diet Did To Her Kidneys | Dr. Shawn Baker & Amy V

My doctor said to me, "You have the blood work of a 90-year-old. What's going on?" And I was like, I have no idea. I really think that if I didn't work out, I wasn't engaged in the community, I'd go back to sugar or something, heroin, something not good for me. They have benefit of life or death. So somebody's diabetic, pre-diabetic, the reason that they go carnivore, their why is life or death. And those are the people who are willing to do something extreme. Didn't tell a soul. She didn't share it. The changes in my face and my body are really extreme. When people see me and they haven't seen me for a while, it's shocking. [Music] Okay, welcome everybody. Today we have Amy. She's going to share her story with us today. Amy, thanks for doing this, stepping up under short notice, and it's good to have you part of the community. So we'd love to hear in more detail your story, and we've heard little bits of it over the last several months of interacting with you, but why don't you go ahead and start with just giving us a little bit of background and go from there. Thanks, Dr. Baker. The Glee. At the time of 2020, I was pretty metabolically sick. And at that time, I went and got blood work, and my doctor said to me, "You have the blood work of a 90-year-old. What's going on?" And I was like, I have no idea. So from there, more testing proceeded to find out that my kidneys were starting to fail, and they eventually diagnosed me with stage three kidney disease. So I think at the worst, my levels were my filtration rate was 46, and then my creatinine was high. So for about three months, I just did what she told me, kept going in for testing, and then I had to go to a rheumatologist because I also had some values there. They should have might have autoimmune. I also had a cardiophrenic fat pad show up. I don't know what that is, but I know that was there or they were testing for it. And then also, my platelets were high, and I did feel sick, like I was not in good shape. Had trouble walking because I didn't have a lot of energy in my legs for some reason. I had a lot of brain fog. My work suffered quite a bit, and I was not all there, like when I was thinking about things. I used to try to remember dates or just details of anything. And when I started to get better, I would try to remember who's the star of the Die Hard movies, and if I could remember Bruce Willis, then it was a good day. But I couldn't remember that, then I knew that my brain was still pretty jacked up. So over the course of that time, I started to do some research, and I came across somebody who was talking about the fasting protocol from Dr. Fung and how they had healed their kidneys from fasting. And then I found your book, and I just did a bunch of research into that. When I joined Dr. Fung's, he has like a private group where you can pay a certain amount of money a month, and they have coaches and things. You go into these little private meeting rooms. So I joined that, went through the course, learned how to fast, and continued to read up on carnivore. So I started eating ribeyes exclusively and started fasting. And in about eight months, my values changed from 46 to 84 for my filtration rate, and my creatinine went to acceptable levels. And I threw the appointment with the rheumatologist and didn't have a diagnosis there. I didn't have anything show up for my cardiophrenic fat pad anymore, and my platelets went down. And I lost, I only lost about 13 pounds. I was still really overweight, only lost about 13 pounds, but whatever I did during the course of those eight or nine months improved my blood values. So then on the day that my doctor cleared me for no more testing, I was sitting at my work desk, and I had gummy bears in my hand, and I was looking at them, and I thought, I'm gonna eat these gummy bears kind of casually with no forethought or reasoning. And I did. So then you fast forward to 2022, had gained all the weight back plus 30 pounds more, took my doctor to have her appointment with my same doctor, and weighed myself for the first time in forever at the doctor's office and saw that I was 197. And I have never seen that number on the scale except when I was pregnant, and I thought, oh, this is probably going to show up in my blood work and decided I didn't want to die because that's what it was coming down to. I was just hastening my own disease again, whatever it was going to be. And so that was in July, and on August 1 last year, I went full carnivore with some artificial sugar for three months. At the end of the three months, I had lost 20 pounds. The artificial sugar didn't taste good anymore, and since then, I've been full carnivore. Okay, let's break some of that stuff down. So you mentioned your filtration is all coming on your GFR, glomerular filtration rate, usually some estimated value based on the serum creatinine was 40, which is people's class. That is some phase of chronic kidney disease. I think stage two if I'm not mistaken, and you reversed that to normal. And it's one of those things that it's an interesting thing because that test often can be confused by higher protein diets. A lot of people will see even on a carnivore adapter, GFR will be low, and then they have to get something called a cystatin C. But nonetheless, yours clearly reversed, and by eating basically exclusively meat. I mean, you said you were fasting and robust steaks only, and we're often told avoid protein, avoid meat because of kidney disease, and that's clearly, and I've seen over and over again people reversing exactly that with this diet and other low-carb, higher-protein diets. So clearly, that's wrong. As we had Dr. Bernstein talk notes the other day about Dr. Brenner and his second hypothesis on the rats and how that has been for some reason felt to be the acrophysiology when human studies don't really back that up. And then you imagine the cardiophrenic fat pad. Well, just for you guys know, that's just fat around the heart, and it shows up. The most common reason is people that are obese. That's the most common. So there's other Cushing's disease, I think corticosteroid utilization, prednisone, things like that are some reasons we might see that. And so probably as you lost weight, probably the cardiophrenic fat pad went down for sure. I'm interested because you had success. You'd lost some weight, you reversed your numbers, presumably you're feeling better, and he said you're sitting there with gummy bears. What happened? Why did you fall back into that and gain all that weight back? What do you think was going on? At that time, I'm not completely sure, but I think part of it, I'm definitely a sugar addict. So stress, stress-wise relief, stress, sit at my desk, work kind of a workaholic, and when I get stress, I just eat some sugar, like a ton of sugar. And so that outlet for stress, I don't think I let go of that just because I was eating ribeyes and fasting. I think it was still there. And so the familiarity of it maybe. And also, I wasn't involved in the carnivore community at all. I didn't have any kind of support system there. I didn't have kind of an ongoing learning thing like I do now, where I'm involved in various groups and come here to this meeting so that I'm saturating myself every day with something new about carnivore, something to keep me engaged. I wasn't doing that. I was still alone and still just feeling my way, and I still had a ton of stress. So I think that is primarily what it is for me as a sugar addict. I don't know about other people, but for me, I need engagement. So I need to have a daily thing where I'm redecision every day not to eat sugar, redecision every day to remain carnivore, to pursue better health so I can stay engaged and I don't fall back into old stress-relieving patterns. And I've been thinking about that. I really did replace it with other things now, like I replaced it with community and also I would please deal with working out, work out a lot, and really enjoy it. And I don't on the days that I can't work out for some reason, I get very agitated, extre-

sugar or something heroin something not good for me they have benefit of life or death so somebody's diabetic pre-diabetic reason that they go carnivore their why is life or death and those are the people who are willing to

do something extreme didn't tell a soul she didn't share it the changes in my face and my body are really extreme when people see me and they haven't seen me for a while it's shocking [Music] okay welcome everybody today we have

Amy's going to share uh her story with us today Amy thanks for doing this stepping up under short notice and it's good to have you part of the community so we'd love to hear in more detail your story and we've heard little bits of it

over the last several months of interacting with you but why don't you go ahead and start with just giving us a little bit of background and go from there thanks Dr Baker the Glee at the time of 2020 I was pretty

metabolically sick and at that time I went and got blood work and my doctor said to me you have the blood work of a 90 year old what's going on and I was like I have no idea so from there

and more testing proceeded to find out that my kidneys were starting to fail and they eventually diagnosed me with stage three kidney disease so I think at the worst my levels were my filtration rate was 46 and then my creatinine was high

so for about three months I just did what she told me kept going in for testing and then I had to go to a rheumatologist because I also had some values there they should have might have autoimmune I also had a

cardio phrenic fat pad show up I don't know what that is but I know that was there or they were testing for it and then also my platelets were high and I did feel sick like I was not in

good shape had trouble walking because uh I didn't have a lot of energy in my legs for some reason I had a lot of brain fog my work suffered quite a bit um and I was not all there to like

when I was thinking about things I used to try to remember dates or or just details of anything and when I started to get better I would try to remember who's the star of the Die Hard movies and if I could remember Bruce Willis

then it was a good day but I couldn't remember that then I knew that my brain was still pretty jacked up so over the course of that time I started to do some research and I came across somebody who was

talking about the fasting protocol from Dr Fung and how they had healed their kidneys from fasting and then I found your book and I just did a bunch of research into that when I joined Dr Fung's he has like

a private group where he can pay certain amount of money a month and they have coaches and things you go into these little private meeting rooms and so I joined that went through the course learn how to fast uh and continue to

read up on carnivore so I started eating Ribeyes exclusively and started fasting and in about eight months my values changed and from 46 to 84 for my filtration rate and my creatinine went to acceptable levels and I through the appointment with the

rheumatologist and didn't have a diagnosis there I didn't have anything show up for my cardio frantic fat pad anymore and my platelets went down and I lost I only lost about 13 pounds I still really overweight only lasts about 13 pounds

but whatever I did during the course that that eight eight or nine months improved my blood values so then on the day that my doctor cleared me for no more testing I was sitting at my work desk and I had

gummy bears in my hand and I was looking at them and I thought I'm gonna eat these gummy bears kind of casually with no forethought or reasoning and I did so then you fast forward to 2022 had gained all the weight back plus 30

pounds more took my doctor to have her appointment with my same doctor and weighed myself for the first time in forever at the doctor's office and saw that I was 197.

and I have never seen that number on the scale except when I was pregnant and uh I thought oh this is probably going to show up in my blood work and decided I didn't want to die because that's what it was coming down

to was I was just hastening my own disease again whatever it was going to be and uh so on that was in July and on August 1 last year I went full carnivore um with some artificial sugar for three months at the end of the three

months I had lost 20 pounds the artificial sugar didn't taste good anymore and since then I've been full carnivore okay let's break some of that stuff down so you mentioned your your filtration is all coming on your GFR glomerular

filtration rate usually some estimated value based on the serum creatinine was 40 which is people's class that is some phase of chronic kidney disease I think stage two if I'm not mistaken and you reverse that to normal and it's one of

those things that it's an interesting thing because that test often can be confused by higher protein diets a lot of people will see even on a carnivore adapter GFR will be low and then they have to get something called a systatin

c but nonetheless yours clearly reversed and by eating basically exclusively meat I mean you said you were fasting and robust Stakes only and we're often told avoid protein avoid meat because of kidney disease and that's clearly and I've seen over and over again people

reversing exactly that with this diet and other low carb higher protein diets so clearly that's wrong as we had Dr Bernstein talk notes the other day about the Dr Brenner and his second hypothesis on the rats and how that has been for

some reason felt to be the the acrophysiology when human studies don't really back that up and then you imagine the cardiophrenic fat pad well just for you guys know that's just fat around the heart and it shows up the most common reason is

people that are obese that's the most common so there's other Cushing's Disease I think corticosteroid utilization prednisone things like that are some reasons we might see that and and so probably as you lost weight probably the cardioprenic fat pad went

down for sure I'm interested because you had success you'd lost some weight you reversed your numbers presumably you're feeling better and he said you're sitting there with Gummy Bears what what happened why did you fall back into that

and gain all that weight back what do you think was going on um at that time I'm not I'm not completely sure but I think part of it I'm definitely a sugar addict so stress stress wise relief stress sit

at my desk work kind of a workaholic and when I get stress it just eat some sugar like a ton of sugar and so that outlet for stress I don't think I let go of that just because I was eating rib eyes and and

fasting I think it was still there um and so the familiarity of it maybe and also I wasn't involved in the in the carnivore community at all I didn't have any kind of support system there I didn't have kind of an ongoing

learning thing like I do now where I'm involved in various groups and come here to this meeting so that I'm saturating myself every day with something new about carnivore something to keep me engaged I wasn't doing that I was still

alone and still just feeling my way and I still had a ton of stress so I think that is primarily what it is for me as a sugar addict I don't know about other people but for me I need engagement so I need

to have a daily thing where I'm redecision every day not to eat sugar redecision every day to remain carnivore to pursue Better Health so I can stay engaged and I don't fall back into Old stress relieving patterns and I

I've been thinking about that I really did replace it with other things now like I replaced it with community and also I would please deal with working out work out a lot and really enjoy it and I don't on the

days that it can't work out for some reason I get very agitated extremely agitated a lot of people might say that I work out too much but I have to have something to replace that stress relief from the sugar addiction

when I go and I work out I can feel all of the stress just leave my body it's and my mind is clear and I feel great and I'm going to take that over sugar addiction I really think that if I

didn't work out and I wasn't engaged in the community I'd go back to sugar or something heroin I don't know but something that's not good for me so when I lift weights I feel my thinking is clear I don't have to rely on on the sugar

yeah it's interesting because you say sugar addiction and what many people I think find is you're probably not out there in the in the pantry eating scoops of sugar out of a sugar pack and it's more like sugary Foods sweetened foods are often

Ultra processed and yet some people will choose ones that are candy bars Cookies Cakes things that are sweet as opposed to other Ultra processed foods like potato chips which are still Ultra processed in a way and but they're not

sweet so would you say it's more of the sweet food sort of thing is that fair or do you or are you on their main lining sugar on the table and snorting it up or really sweet boots and like

a good example is every holiday kids have Halloween candy they didn't eat their Halloween candy I ate their Halloween candy then comes Christmas there's always sweets around nobody ate it I ate it Easter favorite candy holiday nobody ate their

Easter candy I ate their Easter candy and that and then I would do something like I used to bake cakes and decorate them amateur and I tell the family the cake is in the fridge please eat it they

wouldn't eat it I would eat it constant calling and then I would feel better after I ate it I don't know if that's something I was born with or I developed or what but I definitely always had that calling and

I that calling remained for the first three months of carnivore I had terrible sugar Cravings after I ate every time right after a meal I would have that my sugar Cravings would rise up and so I would take some cream cheese and I would

eat some cream cheese every time if I had any sugar Cravings in between meals I'd eat some cream cheese and it that took care of it I could feel it I physically could feel it go down my craving and I did that and at the end of

three months I didn't crave it anymore yeah interesting it's interesting how and people have different techniques for dealing with the Cravings because um I've often said you know people that you know a lot of people come to lose weight

and I tell them first thing you got to do is fix these addictions craving issues and that should be priority number one because you can always lose weight on any kind of diet but if you don't kick that sort of addiction you're

going to be right back where you are in three months six months a year two years doesn't really matter so you said that you were in a fasting group eating rib eyes you fell off the wagon due to

perhaps stress and things like that went back to that what was it where were we at the point I guess you said you got on the scale you're 197 so this enough is enough is that was that the point that

said hey I got it I gotta turn it around again yeah when I what I considered very extreme at the time when I started eating Ribeyes and doing the Fung style fasting I was facing life and death my values

initially kept going down and I thought I'm going to end up on dialysis and so I was facing life and death so it did something extreme and when I went back and had the 197 reading on the scale

I felt that same way it was life or death which I think is a very operative motivation in the carnivore Community people message me a lot asking about their Kidney Health which I just tell my experience I don't

have any expertise but they message me and they have that the benefit of life or death so somebody's diabetic pre-diabetic whatever it may be the reason that they go carnivore their why is life or death and those are the

people who are willing to do something extreme it's pretty hard if you just want to lose weight and you just want to look better to stop eating everything but meat and animal fat that's unusual and especially after you start and you have all the

backlash the lifestyle changes the the social pressure it's unusual to be able to stick to that if you don't have a life or death reason and in some way the life or death reason becomes a blessing and allows you to be

extreme and for me I was I wanted to see my grandkids someday I wanted to be able to care for my parents as a I did not want to have somebody else take care of me when I was older

and I definitely didn't want to be on dialysis or be super sick and so for me I was like you gotta Amy you gotta do this you know get your stuff together and do it and so I don't think I would

have that resolve unless I knew that it was going to kill me it's interesting because that's what it takes for a lot of people they they have to find themselves at the very bottom scared of for their life or experienced

some very harrowing Health negative outcome before they're willing to make those changes because it is I know there are people out there that said food addiction doesn't exist sugar addiction doesn't exist and clearly there are people that would clearly disagree with

their own experience what as far as you said you come to our our meetings and other meetings for support around you locally is there not much support that you get at home or what is the situation there no support at home although

my family members especially my youngest daughter she uh has changed her eating habits quite a bit and I think that she has my DNA my propensity to eat sugar or at least you know assume more of like a

pasta kid but no it was not people were scared I'm an introvert I didn't tell my extended family about any of this until after it was over but my immediate family they were scared and didn't question anything I did

and then in terms of like people in the world that I interact with didn't tell Seoul didn't didn't share it it wasn't until this go around when I really the cheat the changes in my face and my body are really extreme

when people see me and they haven't seen me for a while or they see my before and after pictures it's shocking especially in my face and so now I get constant questions I go to a work event or

something like that and people want to know what is going on and what I did and as soon as I tell them about the carnivore diet then they uh say oh I can't do that in fact I had my

labs and had my doctor's appointment just two or yesterday I got my labs back too this morning and my doctor asked me what was going on and I said I told her about the carnivore diet I haven't seen her for a while

sorry I haven't seen her for a while and she said how'd you look all this way because since I've seen her I've lost almost 60 counts and I told her about the carnivore diet she said you don't need any vegetables

and she's the one that originally found my kidney disease and said to me you have blood work of a 90 year old and I said that no I don't I started listing them off she can she let us I said no can you let us

and she said I think you should eat some vegetables and then she said let's double check your your cholesterol when it comes back and it was in the garage this morning when I looked at it but nobody in my

life is part of our Community like part of our thinking their thinking is so far removed from being able to think about doing carnivore and the thinkiness mainstream there's nobody so that's why I go to steak and butter game I'm a

moderator there I come here I'm part of Laura spath's locals group I've tried some other groups and I just really need our community yeah certainly we're happy to have you here and I look forward to your conversation and hopefully you get some

more support in some of these other communities it's interesting because your cholesterol is elevated and so this is a very often a break point for a lot of people because their doctor will say oh my God your cholesterol is high I'm

concerned about heart disease I think you need to stop this diet and many people will because of that and yet to me it's still very much an open question as to are you better off or worse off compared to where you were because you

have stage two chronic kidney failure and now you presumably don't have that anymore you've lost 60 pounds I'm sure there's a whole host of other benefits you've noticed from that and we've got this one lab value that that

goes we've seen this story over and over again and the question what do you do about that and that's between you and your physician I have my thoughts on that which I've shared many times let me ask you as far as

you say you're on you can't eat lettuce and you can't you're excluding all these things what do you eat what does your diet look like today so I I a lot of State that's my go-to I also find that I feel

better on that if I am tired of steak I'll eat some chicken wings I also like to eat I do eat dairy I do eat probably a little bit of pork but primarily beef and my taste buds have changed a lot so when

I first started I was eating what I would call like the accessory foods like some eggs bacon things like that but now I feel better from if I eat ground beef and when I eat chicken or something like

that now it just doesn't have the same effect but that took a long time that's only like the past four months probably that I my taste buds have changed that much and that's pretty much what I stick to

yeah and how did how you said you went to this cream cheese phase for three months how are you with Cravings now are you fine with your shirt you don't feel like I need any of that stuff my sugar Cravings have not come back

after the first three months which I'm amazed about I never have a sugar cream it doesn't sound good to me I do I will get cravings for other things I do so I was shocked when Laura Spath whom I

love like that binge watched everything she had when she when I was learning about watched everything because she has a lot of the same Tendencies I do for the sugar addiction and anyway I was shocked to find out she still has a

Diet Coke every day every single day she still has a Diet Coke and so some people would think that's horrendous in our community but for me I was like I understand that I know why she does that because she has taken

her tendency to eat sugar removed it from her life she doesn't have it anymore but she still has this one piece of her addiction and every day she visits that piece of her addiction and I understand that and

so if I'm gonna have something I'm that's not carnivore I like at some point I discovered there were these un that didn't have anything on them except salt roasted cashews and so I will have a handful of those

as like my diet coke I don't have any inflammation from it it doesn't affect me and it doesn't give me sugar cravings and there's really no reason for me to do that like I'm not hungry it's not that great when I eat it

but I think that's part of my sugar addiction that I revisit that old part of myself and I have the cashews it's done I go on with the rest of my day the next day I get up and I'm still

carnivore in some ways it keeps me carnivore I don't think people who have not had some kind of food addiction in this community I don't think they struggle with that they eat their meat they're fine they go on

but the people who do not have this little visitation to the Diet Coke or visitation to the cashews maybe sometimes they go off the rails completely for a day or two and sometimes they don't come back so I'm okay with my cashews

because I think it keeps me a carnivore I'm still struggling to understand why I do the things I do and how it affects my habits but uh that's what I've learned about myself so far yeah let me talk you know a little bit

about the exercise part because you said you had some unhealthy stress addictions and you've now substituted with exercise which you know can take into an extreme can be problematic but for many people it's a good use of time it's productive

I know when I was going through some stressful times in my life I I ramped up my exercise quite a bit and it kept me sane more or less than anything how did that evolve and how have you utilize

that and how much how important is that to you it's the most important thing to me more important than anything because it allows me to enjoy all the other priorities in my life but basically I had my first three

months of a carnivore August September October I turned 50 at the end of October and when I was getting ready to turn 50 I decided that I was I didn't want to look 50 and I was on my road even though

I still was really overweight inflamed I started on the road I started going the tanning salon I got fake eyelashes which I love highly recommend not for you Charlie but I was considering that anyway so I started on this road of being able

to enjoy or start to enjoy how I was gonna look her in the process of looking and so in November I joined Orange Theory which is rowing weights and treadmill that's like hit training and at the beginning when I walked in

there I could walk only two miles per hour on the treadmill and it was that way for two months couldn't walk any faster I felt like I was going to fall and my body just couldn't sustain anything faster

and then I also had the experience where in the weight room is just stepping up on the bench like on a weight bench and with some weights and I didn't use any weights and I could not step up on the bench

which my legs my leg muscles had atrophied a lot during my kidney disease and then continue to atrophy for some reason and excuse me and so when I tried to step up on the bench I couldn't step up on the

bench and the instructor came over asked me if I was okay and showed me modification I couldn't step up on a bench for at least a month and a half because my leg muscles couldn't sustain it and I couldn't do any lunges I had to

do a modified lunge so over the course of that I just suffered just suffered through it but I still felt such stress relief when I left even though I couldn't keep up at all and I was the slowest one in every single thing

I still felt so much stress relief when I left and my body started to feel different so then by the time it got to February they had a little contest and I decided I'd go start lifting weights so I kept going to Orange Theory

and then I started going into the scary weight room in the gym or there are hardly any women it's like in the bowels of the gym right up against the mirrors with my fat little body and walked my

tush in there screw you I'm gonna do this that's was my attitude from day one and started teaching myself how to lift and so when that started I got addicted and that was like really fun for me so that progressed and and during this

whole time I was continuing to learn more about what I like I stopped doing Dairy for two months and I tracked my face took a picture of my face every day for two months to see how the inflammation went down just

little projects like that I started doing alternate day fasting I did that for two months or 46 days it did alternate day fasting and discovered what it feels like to do my weights workouts and my Orange Theory fasted which is awesome

so now when I go into the gym to lift I still walk in like I'm a badass and I walk right up and I do everything I want to do and I'm strong and I feel capable I can step up on the bench

with heavy weights I'm fit and that is like a great feeling compared to when I first started I couldn't barely keep up with anyone like I just I couldn't do it I'm gonna continue to pursue that and continue to get as strong as I can

before I hit menopause and I'm pretty excited to not go into my 51st birthday like I went into my 50th birthday yeah good for you it's interesting in the bowels of the gym where the the big sweaty guys that are grunting they

actually find out most often they're very friendly and accommodating there's a few people that are goofy but for the most part I welcome you down there and often are very helpful and so I think anybody that's intimidated by that don't

be because often some of the most helpful people and the people that are gonna potentially encourage you the most are in there because anybody anytime I see somebody that's trying to better themselves I always like if there's any

way I can help I try to and I see that you know in multiple ways that's when I went at Jiu Jitsu everybody's very supportive and people were trying to kill each other we're all very supportive here's how you can kill me

better and here's how I can kill you better type of stuff but so it's it's a good place to be had you ever done strength training or lifting or gym stuff prior in your life is this really the first time you've mostly done this

or do you do a little when you're younger I did see someone I was younger do you remember EAS experimental flight scientist Bill Phillips in Colorado remember his body for Life sort of thing yeah yeah I worked for him

right after college for a couple years and I I did strength train there a little bit but nothing like now I remember sorry about that I remember I was bicep curling 12 pounds now I bicep curl 25s and so I was in my 20s then

and a lot stronger now than I was then but yeah I was in that environment there were a lot of Fitness competitors and bodybuilders that worked there I was not one but I was in that Community for a

short time for a couple years and exposed to it yeah okay it's as far as age you said you're 15 hours gosh 80 90 year olds that are weight training and I I constantly see people in their 70s 80s

doing tremendously uh impressive things uh which is something I think almost all of us have that capacity to do uh if it's if only we were to apply ourselves to that and it's not it's not easy it's hard every day I try it's always hard

work it's always it never gets easier it's always you put in the work but it's it like you mentioned I think this is a very important part you may you mentioned that it makes the rest of your life relatively easy because when you

don't struggle to lift your bags out of your car because you just don't have the strength you know it's all those things it makes your life your whole life harder whereas you you know concentrate 30 minutes a day 45 minutes a day or a

few times a week into something harder than the rest of the life becomes easier how again without the carbohydrates in your diet are you feeling that you're struggling in the gym or do you feel like hey I'm doing fine I'm doing okay

good in the gym like I don't Bonk at all and I have the best workouts when I've fasted so I find that if I eat I can feel my energy level that starts dedicating itself to digesting my food so I do all my

workouts fasted and those are the best ones I have I would say they're sometimes they're euphoric when I'm fasted and I do them okay interesting yeah and a lot of people will make the the the the the the

complaint that they can't work out without carbs or they don't feel as good and that happens to some people I know personally I do fine without it I've done gosh training hard and just as good as pretty much anyone certainly my age

without any carbohydrate in the diet for the most part do you find that you said you've been attending all these Community things and learning and learning what do you has your sort of philosophy but your application of a

carnivore diet has it changed in any way over the last you know year that you've been a year or so you've been doing this have you I'm going to focus on this more and has anything given you more success

or less success I feel really lucky because at the fifth month started doing the the coach Raymond's program in stick and butter which I know you know all about and the way that it it guided me through is baby

steps to more more extreme and yes for me carnivore and fasting has always been together since that that since I started steak and butter and I also feel like that has created a window of time where I don't have to choose to be carnivore

I can just choose to be fasting choosing to be carnivore is especially in the fourth or fifth month of carnivore is still hard very hard so these fasting windows that gradually increase in steak and butter gang had allowed me to take a break from the

decision to be carnivore and just take a break from eating whether it's a 24 hour fast 48-hour fast alternate day fast whatever it is I don't have to think about it during that time frame and so that has

changed over time where I've become a better faster I know how to listen to my body I know how to be carnivore without fasting as well it takes his program takes you all the way through where eventually you have to just live with

eating intuitively when you're hungry which was hard for me because I had been on this schedule of his calendars and he does that on purpose so that you find out if you're really gonna stay carnivore and if you're going to under

eat which I think most carnivores under eat I eat about a pound and a half to two pounds of meat on my eating days because I don't want my hormones or my hair or anything to be affected and so

that has changed in a really purposeful way across that time frame but only because I did I would have no idea how to do it on my own if I wasn't in steak and butter gang because I have no expertise in it I don't

understand the mechanism behind it so that has is what has guided me and I still have that skill set as I go and I still have the community because in there we're all doing it together at some point in the calendar somebody's at

some point in the calendars somebody has had a challenge that I haven't had and we share and so that's why I hold so tightly to the community aspect because you have to talk to other people who have screwed up

you have to talk to other people who have had success because it's difficult this is like a hard thing to do people who who choose to do this and eat meat and fat that's not easy and so you have to have other people

struggling and suffering and messing up with you and that's the same with the fasting we all talk about that and so that's that I wouldn't say that has changed but I would say the evolution of it has allowed me to hone what my method is

every day for my carnivore and My fasting Yeah you mentioned that the importance of support Community wise and one one aspect that a lot of people particularly with health issues find they lack supporters often at the physician's office like I said you go

into the physician's office you tell me I'm on Carnivore and nine times out of ten you're going to get don't do that or maybe occasionally you'll get somebody who's not doesn't really care and I say okay if it's working keep doing what

you're doing but they don't really Express a genuine interest and so how important is it to you with health issues because as we start to roll out a Rivero platform we have Physicians that actually understand carnivore are accepting of that and in many cases

we'll utilize it as a tool is that aspect of it important to you with having a physician that was maybe more more mindful with you think that would have any impact on your journey absolutely absolutely I do I live in

Colorado where the diet doctor lives and there I do have resources to switch doctors and do tele tell a doctor who's carnivore friendly which I'm considering now because my health issues I still have them like I still cannot process potassium

it makes my ankles swell which my ankles were perpetually swollen when I was struggling with my kidneys um I still have some higher values I don't know what that is Dr Baker hemocratic value or something hematocrit that says

your red blood cell count basically yeah yeah I still I still have some things that are off-kilter wait my my filtration rate still goes up and down right now at 68.

the damage that I did when I was eating so much sugar and the onslaught onto my organs still exists that damage is still there and I would much prefer to have a carnivore friendly doctor who looks at people's lab work

and has experience with people who are carnivore so that here she can advise me so yeah I think the service of Rivero and what it can offer to People Like Us is invaluable especially as we age I hope that you'll add like women's

stuff somehow eventually I know you can't can't do a lot of things but I hope that it evolves and is fantastic because when you talk to your doctor about anything it's like they have they think their mindset is nowhere

near a carnivore they can't even move their mindset there and there are repercussions if they do for their career so to have somebody who's carnivore friendly is revolutionary for us yeah just one comment I would make when you're

referring to your GFR you're familiar filtration I would seriously get it based on the systatency and not a serum creatinine because it's going to be it's going to be affected by the fact you're eating more protein and it's not an

accurate assessment so switch over to sister and see see what your GFR really is or at least these are both estimates one one is impacted by protein consumption which can make it unclear one is not in this Staten seat is not

affected by your protein consumption these are both estimates there's a way to directly measure it as well nephrologists have to do but I think you should just get the cystat and see even if you ordered it on your own because

you could have at least some level of maybe better understanding because myself if I look at my GFR based on creatinine it's going to be like 60. if I do it on cystatency it's 100 plus 120 sometimes there's that much difference

in those two tests and the problem is most Physicians aren't familiar with it for whatever reason it's a well-documented studied even recommended test for many cases but most I said maybe nephrologists most primary care physicians have very little

facility with it let me see do you find that I always if I remember I try to ask was downsides of the diet negative things that have happened to you any negative things that have happened to you since you started going carnivore

doesn't it if there's none but anything you think that you've seen I've heard you asked that question before and I remember thinking about that question I would have to say no there's no downside for me and basically it saved

my life so there's no downside to that no matter what struggle or what challenge there is to remain carnivore there's no downside to being able to continue to live fair enough what about again I'll ask again expense a lot of people say this diet is

unaffordable I can't do it it's impossible I don't know what your income status is but are you able to make it work okay and how does it compare to say previous diets I'd say it's cheaper for me and

simplistic so I buy all my steak on sale or at Costco and it does it cost me about 20 to 25 bucks a day to eat at the most much less if I choose ground beef that day instead

of a ribeye so I'd say it's cheaper it's pretty expensive to buy Easter candy and hide it in your house and go grab someone get stressed at your desk that's pretty expensive just the clothing my clothing I for a woman

that's a major change because when you're fat and you're trying to buy clothes that make you look hot you can't find them and you got to try on a bunch of different stuff and you still look like hell but when you're fit

you can wear almost anything and feel comfortable and so you can buy things that are less expensive because you don't have to rely on these specialty clothes that are for bigger women that is a huge expense saver that's been the biggest thing is I've

had to buy new clothes and I continue to have to buy new clothes as I get I'm continuing to get different body shape and smaller that's an expense but I'll take that all day long yeah that is one a lot of people

complaining to buy new clothes what over the next go do you have goals with a weight goal a strength goal a health goal that you're still working towards and just because we can so we can support you as you get there what are

your goals at this point my I try to keep my goals pretty short term right now I'm getting ready to do a nomira protocol which is just sprinting and fasting um and that's a two-month long thing I'm going to start on the first

so the sprinting I'm doing because I know it's going to be really challenging for me and I'm go I'm not just gonna Sprint I'll do like you suggested on the bike and things like that it's all out but I I still have

I still have places on my body which I'm sure I will for years be continue but I've got places on my lower body that I really want to transform so the sprinting I know will save some of that body fat

off right there in that area and give me some more muscle there so that's a two month long thing and then in terms of weight training I'm always trying to I know you suggested I work my lower body more which I have started doing

but I really like to do chest press with the dumbbells I'm up to the 45s so my next goal is to get up to the 50s little goals like that and that's about all I can handle because I try not to

make them very lofty and I try to make sure they're attainable they're always usually Fitness related and then I just let the the physical and the everything else follower is going to so I do two month long two month long

little projects on my Instagram and now they've started to take off like this O'Meara thing all these people message me ask me if they could do it with me so I had to change how I'm presenting it so they can

pick and choose I'm going to put those straps on my legs I know you think this kind of stuff is silly so I hesitate to tell you but those straps that stop restrict the flow of blood up by your tush yeah yeah try

those out yeah sure yeah when I'm sprinting yeah okay you know what and there's a saying form Falls function and so as you get more effective and more athletic your body will start to look more athletic and it's just the way it

is there's sprinters look like sprinters for a reason and other athletes look like athletes for a reason because they're again they're formal menopausal function or whether the way they look will follow the function there you mentioned your you you have an Instagram let me just

ask you about the social media now how has that been going for you obviously you're probably promoting a carnival way of eating has that been received generally pretty well is there some detractors what what's that been like and what and share your handle if you

want people to follow you over there you just look for carnivore Amy on Instagram and you'll see my my face in my hat but I I have to say that the social media thing has been really challenging for me I am

introverted I I need time alone a lot and I find it really challenging to keep up and to have that interaction so that's something I've been struggling with is I'll get overwhelmed get so many messages or questions and I like them I

like to talk to people about they'll say what about this what'd you do here and a lot of the time people contact me they're gung-ho and then they're gone okay just like the gummy bears in my hand after my blood work got cleared

that's what happens to us so I find it really hard to keep up socially with the social media and not get drained but I'm working on that right now I put really unattractive pictures on there of myself from my past that nobody

would do it's all showing all the cellulite all the fat double chin it's all there and I do that because my demographic the people who are me fat ladies they see it and then they see my video of me in the gym doing whatever

and they know that it's possible that's why I put that because there's no hope when you're a 50 year old fat chick and you feel lost you don't have hope there aren't even in the carnivore Community I mean Dr Baker you've never

been fat coach Raymond he's been fat coach Emily she's been fat these are things that you have to have hope so I want to give them hope I put the worst pictures that I have on there and then I show my after and I say

something cheesy like don't give up because that's what I mean it's okay to be where you are because there's a place you can go and I that really feeds me and keeps me carnivore to do that and it helps me

share and people ask me questions do you do you cheat do you do this and I always tell them the truth because I'm still just human I'm a carnivore but I'm still just human and I'm always learning and that's how it is it's a

Continuum a progression and so that part of the social media thing I really like I love to show my before and after and there's a ton of them on there because of the other women who are like me

yeah thank you for doing that and thanks for doing this interview and thanks for being part of the community we look forward to your further success and with whatever two-month challenge you're doing that's really awesome I'm not excited to see how you do with the

sprinting something I do all the time I'm a big fan of sprinting and I think there's some again you got to do it safely because you can running Sprints can sometimes lead to injuries anyway thank you Amy for taking the time out

and doing this on short notice and like I said we appreciate as part of the community for the rest of the folks I'll be back tomorrow I'll see you guys next Sunday of course I'm gonna be on a plane

so hopefully I'll see you guys but you guys have a great weekend if I don't see you till then thank you so much Amy bye now