28-Day Carnivore Diet Meal Plan, Recipes & Menus

You've heard all good things about the popular carnivore diet, but the real question is, will it work for you, too?

I think it's time you find out.

Of course, with this diet's unconventional carnivore menu, you need to have a diet plan and stick with it.

Along with other meat experts, I came up with this 28-day carnivore diet meal plans to help fellow carnivore advocates like you.

How To Prepare Your Carnivore Diet Meal Plan

The following four tips have helped us a lot to stay motivated and achieve some secondary goals in the full carnivore diet meal.

That is the potential to lose weight, get rid of unnecessary body fat, and gain a little muscle without losing the necessary micronutrients. Now let's get into it.

1. Know Your Why

Before you start to eat ​the carnivore diet keto way, it’s vital to set your goals. Remember that this is a lifestyle change - no plants, no carbs, only animal produce and lots of good fat.

Whether it’s ​to reach your desired body weight, reduce body fat, fight food allergies, combat an autoimmune disease, or to build some lean muscle, you need to know why you're getting into the keto carnivore diet in the first place.

You have to set yourself a concise goal based on your needs.

Maybe it’s to lose 20 lbs before you go on a summer vacation or​ like gain 5 pounds of lean muscle in 6 months - whatever it is, strictly stick to eating the meat-only diet way throughout the whole process.

Read More: Studies on the Carnivore Diet

2. Plan To Commit To The Meal Plan

To eat a high animal fat, ​keto carnivore diet for more than a few days or weeks takes ​full dedication and commitment.

The worst thing you can do on the ​carnivore diet is just take it day by day and leave it until the morning to figure out what you’ll be eating next.

Instead, set yourself clear goals for the week and use a diet planner and carnivore diet food list to prepare ahead on what animal produce to eat.

You can also take a little extra time to find new types of animal meat cuts you might like and preparation methods to add a bit more variety in your animal meat diet.

You can even experiment on ​eating animal organs (like cow's liver or heart) to explore more diet options and experience new flavors.

If you’re not keen on preparing your meals while on the ​carnivore diet for weight loss, you can take advantage of meat delivery services.

It’s a convenient way to jumpstart your carnivore diet, and most importantly, you get quality beef, chicken, or pork based on your body's needs.

Meat delivery services available:

• ButcherBox (Our #1 recommended delivery service)
• Snake River Farms
• Crowd Cow Co
• Porter Road

3. Social Life Preparations

The fact is eating in social engagements used to be one of our most dreaded situations while on a carnivore diet.

If you ​eat like at a dinner party and tell them you eat a box of donuts every morning, eat McDonald's for lunch and pizza for dinner, ​people won't criticize you too much.

However, when you tell ​people that you have a carnivore diet meal plan and it involves eating mostly red meat, animal fat, and zero plant foods, ​the whole table will go on the attack due to your preferred diet.

Tell people you’re doing it because of many food allergy issues, and you’re experimenting with the carnivore diet to isolate the underlying causes.

Even with this approach, you’ll still get comments from many people like: “You’re completely crazy for not eating fruits and vegetables, and it’s so irresponsible.”

In this case, we find the best thing that works is to ask whether they are concerned with their own health or yours?

Nine times out of ten, this works for us.

4. Dining Out

The good news for people on the carnivore diet is that there are many restaurants you can eat out with quality wellness meats that will cater to your needs.

Eating in steak and BBQ restaurants are probably your best bet.

But be sure to avoid processed animal meats. Eating processed f is not allowed in the carnivore diet for weight loss.

​You just need to be careful of the way the dishes are prepared. The important thing is to avoid eating anything that contains sauces or is stir-fried with vegetables when on a carnivore diet.​

You just need to be careful of the way the dishes are prepared.

The important thing is to avoid eating anything that contains sauces or is stir-fried with vegetables when on a carnivore diet.

​Unfortunately, as a carnivore, you’ll most likely avoid eating out in many Chinese and Indian restaurants as pretty much all their dishes are heavy with salt and sauces.

When we started ​our carnivore diet plan, what we usually do is check out the menus online.

As long as we see many steaks and filet mignon available, we​'d be happy to eat there.

The first thing that attracted me to the ​carnivore diet was the menu. I like meat and other fatty foods and don’t have too much of a sweet tooth anymore. Therefore, it seemed like it would be easy for me to maintain.

- Mike Fishbein, Blogger

After you’ve written down your fitness goals (whether it's to lose weight or bulk up), the next step is to set a timeline to get started on the zero-carb,  carnivore diet journey.

Now it’s time to help you out and plan your carnivore diet meat plan consumption for every day of the week. We’ll list out a daily meal prep based on breakfast, lunch, and dinner, along with the amount of food you’ll ​eat. The carnivore diet food list will also help you when you create your animal meat diet meal plan.

This is based on people with an average height and size​. If you have extreme weight loss or muscle mass gaining, then you will need to adjust these.

Also, if you find you’re still hungry after eating these portions, then you may gradually increase the amounts of food in your animal meat diet for long-term results.

Week 1 Diet Plan and Carnivore Diet Food List

​We advise people starting on the carnivore diet to take a 3-level approach elimination ​way of eating where over several weeks, you work towards a beef only diet.

This isn't the same as many of your regular plant-based or low-carb diet, after all.

​For the 4-week carnivore diet meal plan, we will gradually change the meat selection to get you to level 3 by the end of the week.

The first mistake to avoid, and something you will notice below, is that you shouldn’t stay away from fats or fatty meat.

Saturated fat is not your enemy, and there are increasing studies that show the culprit is sugar when it comes to heart disease. [1] Shawn Baker writes about this a lot in his book, you can see my full review here.

You will notice this week on ​this carnivore diet that we still have some dairy products we can eat. This will help you adjust and stay focused during the initial stages of your diet.

Also, you must have one pint of drinking water with every meal as well as one pint of water in between meals. One pint is equivalent to 470 mL. That’s a total of five pints (2400 mL) of water per day or more.

Shopping list for the week:

• Butter: 1lbs
• Cheese: 1/2 lbs
• Trout: 26 ounces
• Bacon: 12 ounces
• Pork chops: 12 ounces
• Pork belly: 10 ounces
• Lamb Chops: 24 ounces
• Chicken breasts
• Beef (Grounded): 18 ounces
• Porterhouse steak: 24 ounce
• Ribeye steak: 24 ounce
• Topside of beef: 24 ounces
• 100% pork sausages: 13 ounces
• Salmon cutlets: 30 ounces (or other fatty fish)

Week 2 Diet Plan and Shopping List

During the second carnivore diet week, we’re going to be removing most of the milk byproducts on our carnivore diet meal.

We’ll still allow some butter to be used in cooking, but dairy foods like cheese should be gone by now.

We would also suggest that you start experimenting a little with the way you're eating other animal foods.

For the beef, move to the rare side of cooking as this will preserve ​high amounts of nutritional values.

The more you cook ​​these, the more of the protein, nutrient, minerals, and vitamins break down.

We’ll still be keeping a mix of seafood, poultry, pork, lamb, and grass-fed beef, but we’ll add in some organ meats as well.

Some people starting on ​a carnivore diet meal may be a bit squeamish about this, but if you look up the nutrients they contain, you might change your mind. These are a few things to consider if you don't want to try organ meats.

You may also ask your butcher to cut them into slices. We found this helped initially, as it will just look like any other cut of meat.

Shopping list for the week:

• Chicken breasts: 32 ounces
• Topside of beef: 44 ounces
• Lamb chops: 12 ounces
• Ribeye steak: 28 ounces
• Ribeye steak: 24 ounce
• 100% pork sausages: 3 ounces
• Porterhouse steak: 12 ounces
• Pork chops: 12 ounces
• Beef's liver: 12 ounces
• Salmon cutlets : 30 ounces (or other fatty fish)

Week 3 Diet Plan and Shopping List

For the third week of the carnivore diet, we’re removing all the milk byproducts left, and we’ll slightly increase the shift towards cow's meat.

You’ll notice that there are fewer meals covered by fish and poultry, and we’ll even add in a beef-only day in preparation for next week.

At this stage, you should also be eating your grass-fed beef at least medium-rare to get most of the vitamin, protein, and micronutrient benefits.

You will have cooked ​many kinds of beef and should be getting used to judging other animal foods better.

What you can also do is cut your steaks in half and then cook one part medium-rare and the other medium-well.

One thing you should notice is that there is a lot more flavor to the medium-rare part, even with just salt to season.

We're also introducing a bit more organ meat into the carnivore diet mix. Eating ​organ parts is highly beneficial to balance your efforts when on an animal meat carnivore diet, even though they are lower in fat.

From one serving of eating liver or kidney, you can get more nutrient and vitamins, especially Vitamin B12 and Vitamin A, than most plant foods, and it's more than your daily needs.

Also, the raw liver does contain some Vitamin C. You won't believe the nutrition these organs can give to the body.

Shopping list for the week:

• Chicken breasts: 12 ounces
• Topside of beef: 36 ounces
• Lamb chops: 8 ounces
• Salmon cutlets: 15 ounces
• Ribeye steak: 24 ounces
• Bacon: 4 ounces
• 100% pork sausages: 3 ounces
• Porterhouse steak: 32 ounces
• Beef's liver: 8 ounces
• Beef Kidney: 8 ounces

Week 4 Diet Plan and Shopping List

If you’ve made it this far on the carnivore diet, then you can start looking forward to noticing some health benefits from animal foods.

You should be feeling a lot more active physically with increased levels of concentrations as a result of your metabolism having entirely shifted to ketosis and blood sugar levels remaining stable.

This is what happens to your body when you undergo the ketogenic diet.

Some people even experience blood sugar drop while on the carnivore diet because the ​carbohydrate intake is not right. ​

This must be a precaution to people with Type 2 Diabetes.

You should also find those high carbohydrates cravings will have reduced because you’re now better equipped to get all the energy you need from fat and protein. ​

This week, we’ll be removing all meat that doesn’t come from cows. You’ll also notice that we’re adding organ meats on a more regular basis in the carnivore diet. And there is one other thing that you should try and factor in for this week.

All the meat you buy should come from grass-fed only cows, and this will also add more healthy fats. It doesn’t have to be organic fat, but that is an option if you can afford it. If your budget doesn’t stretch to this, try to add in as much grass-fed cow's meat when you can.

Also, because there are limited recipes to follow on a high-protein and high-fat carnivore diet, you should try and vary your cooking techniques. We find grilling your meat is a great way to get some of the charred flavors of animal fat.

Shopping list for the week:

• Topside of beef: 36 ounces
• Beef (Grounded): 56 ounces
• Ribeye steak: 28 ounces
• Porterhouse steak: 32 ounces
• Beef liver: 8 ounces

Because here’s the thing: studies have been quietly accumulating over the past few years that suggest the truth about saturated fat is more complicated and less damning than previously thought. In fact, saturated fat may be necessary, even... healthy.

- Michelle Stacey, Women's Health Magazine

Tips To Optimize Your Carnivore Diet Meal Plan:

When you make a drastic shift ​to carnivore diet, small mistakes can end up reducing your success rate. Here are a couple more tips (number one is my favorite) to help set you up for the best carnivore diet meal results.

1. Explore The Fatty Cuts

When we first started with ​our carnivore diet, we thought we were doing ​it right by only getting lean and low-fat cuts of meat and avoiding high fats.

A good example is if you ate fatty steaks, in which it has a high healthy fats and protein ratio. In addition, it is rich in nutrients.

However, once your body switches to ketosis, you will need a lot of fat in your diet as a source of energy.

This is what happens to the body when on a ketogenic diet.

Diets like these will use your body fat and convert it to energy.

How much body fat will very much depend on your daily activity? If you have a physical job and head to the gym regularly, then your body will need a lot more body fat.

As compared to a day without much of an activity  ​(a day that revolves around bed, car, elevator, desk, elevator, car, couch, and back to bed).

Remember to get your blood work done before the diet to make sure cholesterol from bad fats, and triglyceride levels can be monitored.

2. What About Vitamin C on a Carnivore Diet?

There's been a long ongoing debate about Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid) deficiency in ​carnivore diet.

Other people worry about their vitamin and nutrition and the risk of acquiring Scurvy (a disease caused by ascorbic acid deficiency) when in prolonged carnivore diet.

The right amount of vitamin C you need on the carnivore diet meal is debatable.

There have been people practicing a strict carnivore diet for 10+ years ​without signs of ascorbic acid deficiencies. I recommend you watch this video by Dr. Barry as a guide...

3. Don’t Be Too Worried About Calories

If you combine an active lifestyle with the carnivore diet, then it’s rather unlikely that you’ll be in a significant state of calorie overdose.

As well as that, because the calories are not coming from carbohydrates and insoluble fiber, your body won’t be storing them as fat.

If you eat more fat than your body needs, it will get through undigested. Remember that if you want to lose weight while on a carnivore diet, your calorie consumption must be more than your daily calorie intake.

So let’s say your daily calorie intake (from all meals) is 2,000 calories, so it makes sense that you burn at least 2,500 calories during exercise to lose excess fat.

4. Try Out Organ Meats

When you're on a carnivore diet, don't limit yourself to the meat alone. Diets like this give you the chance to explore other organ meats of animal foods to include in the carnivore diet.

You'll be surprised to find out about its nutritional contents, plus it tastes delicious, too (even when only seasoned with salt). 

Examples of organs you can include when you follow the ​carnivore diet keto are beef tongue, heart, liver, bone broth, bone marrow, chicken liver, and more.

For its ​nutrition, a cow's tongue, for instance, is a good source of zinc, iron, choline, trace minerals, and Vitamin B.

Liver from animals, on the other hand, contains a lot of iron, nutrient, B Vitamins, and Vitamin A.

So, the vitamin and nutrient from vegetables can be taken from organ meats, after all. [2] This will ease any worries about nutrient deficiencies when on ​carnivore diet.

Related Articles:

• Carnivore Diet on a Budget
• Joe Rogan’s Carnivore Diet
• What is a Lion Diet?

FAQs

Carnivore Meal Plan: Wrapping Up

This solid 28-day carnivore diet meal plan may be your ticket to accomplishing more, and once your physical transformation shows, there simply won’t be any arguing with it. ​

If you’re considering ​starting the carnivore diet but don’t know how to start, we recommend going for a meat delivery subscription for a hassle-free start.

​Delivering meat through ButcherBox is a good choice to help you get started with knowing your meat.

Head on over to ​ButcherBox to shop for premium-quality meat, filled with nutrition, freshly-packed, and portioned for you.