Carnivore Challenge #4 Update-IS IT TOO EXPENSIVE?
In this article, I will share the breakdown of what I have eaten in the last four weeks to get the results I have reached thus far. And how much it cost me.
Is Carnivore’s way of eating too expensive? 
Last week’s article: Carnivore Challenge #3 Tips for a Better Night’s Sleep
I share some helpful tips to get to sleep faster and stay asleep longer.
In this article, I will share the breakdown of what I have eaten in the last four weeks to get the results I have reached thus far. And how much it cost me. I think you will be surprised at the cost analysis, plus I will be “HANGING IT ALL OUT” again.
I will also talk about the iHome Smart Wi-Fi scale and my results from when I started tracking to the end of week -4. Along with some tools I used to track blood glucose, blood pressure, activity, macros and more.
Menu and Cost:
I have only eaten animal products (not including supplements- MCT and Lugol’s iodine) for the last four weeks. Except for the first week, I had Sweet Leaf sweetener (1/8 tsp in my coffee) and Allulose sweetener in the Liquid IV electrolytes. Around the end of week one to the beginning of week two, I cut out all sweeteners.
Before starting the Carnivore Challenge, I had already cut out alcohol and diet sodas. The timing of removing sugar was merely one day before I started the Carnivore Challenge, as it was Christmas time. Coffee is technically a plant, but as I said before, the world couldn’t handle me without my coffee. And my coffee cup isn’t a puny standard-size cup. It’s the mega travel mug from Dunkin’ Donuts, and I treat my coffee as a meal.
Side Note: I recently changed brands of heavy cream to one that doesn’ t have carbs. I didn’t follow my own rules and read the label, assuming all heavy creams are created equal, lessened learned.
| Menu | Costs |
| Ribeye steak (Costco) | $62.00 (7 servings) $8.85 per serving |
| Hamburger (Costco) grass-fed, grass-finished | $19.99 (3 packs, 6 servings of 1/2 pack ) $3.33 per serving |
| Eggs (Publix)Vital Farms pasture raised | $10.99 (18 pack, 6 servings of 3 eggs) $1.83 per serving |
| Bacon (Publix) Hat Field, thick cut | $12.49 ( 20 oz, 8 servings of 2 slices) $1.56 per serving |
| Butter (Costco) Kerrygold | $18.00 (2 lbs at 64 servings) $0.28 per serving |
| Cheese (Costco) Kerrygold | $12.51 (1.79 lbs, 1oz serving) $0.44 per serving |
| Coffee (Walmart) Death Wish | $9.98 (10 oz, 9 pots, 3 servings per pot) $0.37 per mug |
| Heavy Cream (Walmart) Great Value | $9.99 (64 oz, 126 servings, 7 servings per cup) $0.55 |
| MCT oil (Costco) Sports Research | $19.99 (40 oz, 79 servings at 1 tablespoon) $0.25 per serving |
| Lugol’s iodine (Amazon) Earth Harmony 2% Solution | $14.95 (2 oz, 3 drops serving size, 395 servings- 6 servings) $0.22 daily |
Three Meals?
I try to have three meals a day. The first meal is my coffee, “Bells Bullet” with a ton of nutrients.
The second meal is the hardest one for me to include in my daily routine, because oftentimes, I don’t feel hungry. That being said. the second meal I have is bacon and eggs.
The third meal I alternate between grass fed-grass finished hamburger and ribeye steaks. The table above is the menu list, on the right is the cost for the menu list. The table below is the cost totals for each day and for the week. I have purposely kept the menu to a minimum, to keep it stupid simple. As I reach my goal, I will add different menu items.
Disclaimer: This information does not include dining out, which has gone from every other night to only a couple times since starting the “90 Day Carnivore Challenge”.
| Hamburger Day | Steak Day |
| 8 to 10 oz Hamburger with butter $3.61 | 8 to 10 oz Ribeye steak $8.85 |
| 2 oz Cheese $0.88 | |
| 3 eggs with butter $2.11 | 3 eggs with butter $2.11 |
| 2 slices of bacon $1.56 | 2 slices of bacon $1.56 |
| 1 cup coffee with butter $.65 | 1 cup coffee with butter $.65 |
| 7 tbsp heavy cream $.55 | 7 tbsp heavy cream $.55 |
| 1 tbsp MCT and 6 servings Lugol’s iodine $.47 | 1 tbsp MCT and 6 servings Lugol’s iodine $.47 |
| Hamburger day total | Steak day total |
| $9.83 for 4 days =$39.32 | $14.19 for 3 days = $42.57 |
| Grocery Totals for 7 days | $81.89 |
Bottton Line
The question is, is $81.89 per week is too expensive? We can break it down even more.
Meal one- Coffee (because of the nutrients in each cup) at $1.67.
Meal two- Usually around twelve or one o’clock, bacon and eggs at $3.67. Most people will spend nearly three times as much on a Big Mack Meal at $9.29 (on average).
Meal three- 8 to 10 oz. of fresh grass-fed, grass-finished hamburger with butter and cheese is $4.49. with a daily cost of three meals at $9.83.
Meal three on Steak day- 8 to 10 oz ribeye steak with visual fat. $8.85. With a daily total of $14.19.
Granted, the steak days are more expensive by $4.36, but who doesn’t love ribeye? Well worth the cost, in my humble opinion.
Home-Cooked Meals:
Because we are eating at home more often (about 98% more) we are saving money. Our weekly grocery bill is less than it is when we go out to a restaurant with a couple of steaks and a couple of beers each. Another benefit to eating in is you know exactly how your food is prepared and what is in it.
HANGING IT ALL OUT:
Beginning of Week One: Blood Glucose- 130 (fasting)
Blood Pressure- 134/88
Waist- 35 inches I measured at high hips, 1.5 inches below the belly button. (D in the image below) Largest circumference. Weight- 160 lbs (documented Jan 2024)
Week 4: Blood Glucose- 98 Blood Pressure- 110/70 Waist- 32 inches I measured at high hips, 1.5 inches below the belly button. (D in the image below) Largest circumference. Weight- 149 lbs. (WOO HOO!)
iHome Smart Wi-Fi Scale:
The scale I bought a couple of weeks ago from Walmart for $19.99 has not disappointed. It provides much more information than just your weight. I’m still wrapping my head around that in a short four weeks, I have lost 11 pounds. With an average of 2.75 lbs per week, but more importantly, I am losing fat, not muscle.
Below is a comparison from when I started documenting the information from the scale to the end of week four. My BMI has dropped from 23.4 to 22.8. It doesn’t seem like much until you look closer at the rest of the numbers. I gained nearly 2% in muscle. Also, as you know, when we age, bone density is extremely important, and I gained .5 in bone mass.
Losing Visceral Fat is more important than losing weight for the sake of appearance (even in my vain opinion). Visceral Fat is the fat around your internal organs. Such as your liver, intestines, stomach, and other organs. Too much visceral fat can lead to heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. The normal visceral fat range should be ten percent of your body fat. Having some visceral fat is normal, on a visceral rating between 1 and 12, anything above 12 is considered excessive and potentially dangerous.
In the latest measurement, my body fat is 39.7, ten percent would be 3.97. Currently, my visceral fat is 6.0, which makes it 2.03 over. However, just five days before, my visceral fat percentage was 4.87. I still have work to do, but seeing the side-by-side comparison in such a short time is nothing short of amazing. Additionally, the Subcutaneous fat (fat just under the skin) has dropped 4.7 percent.
MORE TOOLS:
Tools for success, depending on your personality. If you are like me, an all in or nothing kind of person, and need to hold yourself accountable in every aspect of the challenge. You may want to try a couple of the apps I use or something like the ones I use (Disclaimer- I am not selling a freaking thing, just sharing what is working for me, XOXO).
Use Free Apps:
All the apps I use are the free versions, Health app (included app with iPhone) This is where I track my blood glucose, blood pressure, activity, alcohol use, heart rate, height, waist circumference, and weight.
I use the Pedometer app, which is linked to the iPhone Health app, and measures your activity in steps. You can create workouts, with route maps of your walks.
One of my favorite apps is the CarbManager app. You can create your custom macros based on your personal information, like sex, age, height, weight and activity level. You can also customize the type of diet or, in my case, lifestyle, IE: Carnivore. The reason this particular app is one of my favorites is it helps to make sure I eat enough, because the carnivore diet is so satiating I rarely feel hungry. And if you don’t eat enough, your body thinks you are starving and will hold on to the weight you are trying to lose.
The Carb Manager is also linked to the iPhone health app and calculates your activity level to calorie ratio, which tells you if you are in the appropriate deficit to lose weight.
The last app I use is the iHome smart scale. It is also linked to the iPhone’s health app. The only thing I don’t like about the smart scale app is the historical data is not like the picture shown above, it is simply a graph or sliding scale. To counter act this, I take a screen shot for my records.
APPS:
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Last thoughts for this week’s update:
First, not everyone is a like, you may have faster results on the Carnivore Challenge, or you make take a little longer. But to heal your body from the “Standard American Diet” that has been shoved down our throats for at least seven decades, the Carnivore Lifestyle will work. It will heal you.
Second, the carnivore lifestyle is incredibly easy. Most people won’t need or want apps to track this, that or the other thing. All you need to do is eat meat, eggs, bacon, butter and fish until you are comfortably full. You literally will see and feel the difference in two to three weeks. Not only in your waistline, but with your attitude, your mental health, and your overall wellbeing.
Last, know what you are putting into your pie hole. Read every label, including meat packages. If you don’t know what an ingredient is, you can look it up on google. With meat packages, the sell by date is important. Some meat departments spray carbon monoxide on the meat to keep the pretty red color. Before cooking, (whatever method you choose) rinse the meat and pat dry before seasoning.
Quality:
Also, try your best to get the best quality food you can afford. With, egg’s organic pasture raised is the best macro dense nutrient egg. If you add fish to your carnivore menu, be sure to get a fatty fish that is wild caught (farm fish is often sick fish).
Bacon is one of my favorites, but is another one to watch out for in the ingredients. Sometimes they add sugar.
Grass fed butter is the best nutrient dense butter, and it tastes amazing. For fun, do a side-by-side test of regular butter and grass fed butter. The color will say a thousand words.
That goes for pasture raised eggs as well, compare a pasture raised egg to a regular grade-A egg. The color of the yolk of the pasture raised egg is a beautiful, rich, vibrant, yellow.
Final-Final:
Remember, the cheapest meat, even hot dogs or bologna, is healthier than the “Standard American Diet”. Eat Meat-Be Healthy and Be Happy.
See ya at the 90-day Carnivore Challenge Week 5 update.
Bell
P.S. If you want to be Carnivore Challenge buddies, sign up for my weekly blog.
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