Pursuing a carnivore diet while breastfeeding definitely comes with challenges but is 100% achievable and both mama and baby are healthier than ever. Here’s the struggle, the solution, and tips for success.
What is the Carnivore Diet?
The carnivore diet is a way of eating in which a person eats a diet of meat. “Carnivorous” means “meat eating” and that generally sums up this way of eating.
Most people who eat a carnivore diet also eat eggs, animal fats, and some also include dairy since it is an animal product. Some people choose not to, or even realize while on carnivore that dairy products don’t sit well with them. For those who do consume dairy many find that consuming raw or cultured dairy is more agreeable with their digestive system. Some even include honey as an animal product.
All kinds of animal products can be eaten on the carnivore diet: ruminant meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, etc. What you eat may depend on why you are doing the carnivore diet and what you are hoping to achieve through it.
If you are trying to heal your gut or microbiome, or eating this way in response to inflammation, digestive issues, and food sensitivities, you may be eating more red meat, ruminant animals, and fatty meats.
If you are eating this way to lose weight you may be looking for lower calorie meats like poultry.
If you are trying to avoid a histamine response then the way you prepare and eat your carnivore foods may be different from others.
If you are using carnivore as a part of an extreme elimination diet, you may be starting with one source of meat and expanding to others along your way.
There are many ways to do a carnivore diet, and most aren’t “wrong,” though some ways just aren’t truly “carnivore.”
Why would someone do a carnivore diet?
There are many reasons someone might try a carnivore diet, from weight loss, to elimination diets for allergies, to simply believing that “this is how humans were designed to eat.” There are many potential benefits depending how you go about it. If you are reading this page there is a good chance you’ve already considered doing the carnivore diet and have a particular problem in mind that you are hoping to solve using the carnivore diet.
If that is true, my advice is – try it!
I personally decided to try the carnivore diet because I had hit a critical level of inflammation that was giving me chronic pain, chronic digestive issues, chronic deep brain fog, extreme bloating, and severe weight gain. I’d had some alleviation of these symptoms by cutting all sugar and processed grains in the Keto diet, but my weight loss wasn’t happening as it had in the past (well, it wasn’t happening at all) and the usual energy boost I get from keto wasn’t happening. So I decided to go one step farther. Inspired by those who use the GAPS Diet to reverse inflammation and other chronic issues originating in the gut, but worried about losing my milk supply and being unable to nurse my 2 month old 4th child, I decided to try carnivore for 2 weeks.
Why is a carnivore diet while breastfeeding difficult?
Maintaining milk supply on a restrictive diet can be difficult if you don’t know how to troubleshoot. So while I was worried that the intro GAPS diet would completely ruin my milk supply, I had the same worry about trying the carnivore diet while breastfeeding.
I quickly and easily lose my milk supply whenever I drop sugar and grains while doing Keto, so I assumed that eating an even smaller variety of foods in carnivore would wreck my milk too. But since I had an oversupply at the time, I decided to shoot for a 2 week trial of the carnivore diet, see if I had any noticeable changes, and see what it did to my milk.
By the end of 2 weeks, my milk was in fact beginning to dry up, and my 2 month old baby was staying fussy and hungry when I couldn’t produce enough milk.
But the insane level of changes that had occurred for me in those two weeks were so significant I couldn’t just forget it and move on: my brain fog went from “I am blind and cannot see to cross the room” levels to “oh, I can see but the lights are just low”, my energy obtained from sleeping was, at least by comparison, through the roof, my body had dropped over 10lbs of retained water weight and inflammation in that 2 weeks, and my pain levels in my joints and muscles had subsided significantly. I truly could not believe it.
The only drawback was my decreasing milk supply.
I desperately wanted to try to hit just 2 more weeks. What more could I accomplish in my health and body in two more weeks?!? But the milk…
I had always been told that the milk supply drop was due to too few carbs and too few calories. But I wasn’t 100% sure I believed that I could not produce milk without sugar and grains so I set out to try… anything.
I baked up a whole 1lb pack of bacon, and I ate almost the whole pack, with as much of the fatty drippings as I could get. I also drank about 40oz water with a Keto Electrolyte Powder from Trace Minerals. You wouldn’t believe my surprise when not 3 hours later when I went to nurse my baby, my chest was almost engorged with milk ready for him. To say that I was elated was an understatement. Not only had the fatty bacon and water brough back my milk supply for the day, but that supply kept up strong for the next whole week, during which I heartily continued on my carnivore diet, and heartily continued on nursing my baby.
How can I do the carnivore diet while breastfeeding?
If you’re looking for the tl;dr of doing the carnivore diet while breastfeeding, here it is:
Eat a LOT of fat. Drink a LOT of water. Consume electrolytes either in your food or through a supplement.
When I say eat a lot of fat I mean that on an average day I eat 80-100 grams of fat specifically from animal sources. Adding in avocado or even fats from dairy simply doesn’t move the needle for my milk supply (aside from also deviating from “clean carnivore” as some would call it). My supply does still dip occasionally and about every 10-14 days I have to go ahead and consume a pound of bacon all by myself with a boatload of water. Oh no, poor me…
When I say drink a lot of water I mean in the ballpark of 80oz per day. I have a 40oz thermal insulated tumbler from Aldi that looks like one of those… what are they called… the fancy expensive cups all the diva’s are spending their life savings on. (Who am I kidding it isn’t savings its credit.) Aaaanyway, I have a huge cup and it holds 40oz and I fill and drink it twice a day. (Oh, Stanley, that’s the one.)
As I said I occasionally take the Trace Elements electrolyte supplement too. I also try to get electrolytes through my Real Salt, an occasional spritz of lemon in my water, etc. (Sue me, Carnivore Police.)
But seriously this is the secret sauce. Much fat. Much water. Much good.
Why don’t people think I should do the carnivore diet while breastfeeding?
There will be people who will tell you some version of the following:
Fat is bad for you.
Your cholesterol will kill you.
You need variety.
That can’t be healthy for you.
That can’t be healthy for your baby.
You shouldn’t recommend that to people.
That’s a dangerous level of elimination.
You’ll be malnourished.
You hate animals.
And honestly, I have found satisfactory answers for all of these things. At least answers that satisfy me. If you’re concerned about variety, don’t be. Historically people could only eat foods that were both local and in season. Eating a huge variety is a modern convenience and honestly has mixed reviews scientifically speaking. Cholesterol? Read up on how the recommended numbers have changed in the past 50-100 years because of what we’re eating WITH our meats and about how balanced cholesterol is more important than low cholesterol.
As for my health, I have never felt more alive. I have never had less pain. I have never had more energy and less brain fog. I have never lost excess weight so easily, even without workouts or counting calories. As for my baby’s health, he looks like Jabba the Hut with all his rolls (except significantly cuter and less… slimy), his acid reflux disappeared about 3 weeks into carnivore, his poops and toots got RANK for about a week and a half as his body adjusted and then he suddenly stopped having blowouts and mucus-y poops and now has regular almost-odorless poos. With the exception of the occasional dips in milk supply that have him up a little more at night, he sleeps better, is happier, and doesn’t projectile vomit after eat time he nurses. He is now 9 months old and a delight.
Oh, and I love animals. Couldn’t live without them.
Maintaining milk supply while doing the carnivore diet
Fat from animals. Water. Electrolytes. I’m telling you.
Favorite carnivore meals for milk supply
My main foods consist of:
ground beef, premade kirkland burgers, pot roasts, steak occasionally, ground pork sausage (no additives if possible), bratwurst, bacon, ham (not deli sliced), chicken, turkey, eggs (lots, so many eggs…), butter, cottage cheese, homemade full fat yogurt, goat cheese, occasionally other cheeses like cheddar, mozzarella, parmesan, etc., liver meats, braunschweiger, pate, cured sausage, salami, pepperoni sometimes, heavy cream, half and half, and occasionally raw milk.
I will say I do still drink coffee which some carnivores are opposed to.
Sample Breakfast:
- 3 eggs fried in bacon grease, 1-2 sausage patties
- 2-3 egg omlet made with a splash of milk, and some cooked meat leftover from another meal
- 2 eggs and 4-6 slices of bacon
- 4 eggs on their own
Sample Lunch:
- 2 burger patties
- 1 burger patty with a fried egg on it
- 1 burger and a huge dollop of goat cheese or other cheese melted on top
- cold chicken salad (using avocado mayo if you’re not STRICT carnivore)
- tuna salad (or just tuna)
- egg salad or just hard boiled eggs
- any meat leftovers
Sample Dinner:
- 2 burgers
- beef roast
- steak of choice with butter on top
- cheddar and salami wraps
- ham and bacon wrap
- grilled chicken breast
- 1 burger and bacon
Sample snacks:
- cottage cheese
- yogurt
- cheese
- pepperoni or salami rolled up
- hard boiled egg
Carnivore Diet while breastfeeding SUCCESS story:
I have maintained a carnivore diet while breastfeeding for the past six months with great success. My baby is 9 months old and chubby as can be. He is about to start crawling, and everyone comments on his “diet” which is funny because they’re implying he has a steady diet of junk food and nonsense, but the truth is his milk is carnivore and he has had about 3 “meals” where he has successfully tried baby-led-weaning… he simply isn’t interested in eating solids yet!
For me:
I’ve lost 55lbs in 6 months without additional exercise or counting calories. (I’ve counted a few times and I’m eating around 1800/day when I don’t try to cap it.)
I’m pain free.
I’d say I’m brain fog free, though my sleep as a still-nursing mama does play into that.
I’m flexible in ways I didn’t know I could be again.
My digestion is quick and painless which I have never experienced before.
My bathroom habits and frequency and ease are… unimaginably good. (If yours is good DON”T take that for granted!)
I have had no more chronic constipation or bloating unless I’ve “cheated.” NONE.
I don’t have gas anymore. Seriously. I thought everyone has occasional mild gas but I truly do not toot ever when I actually stick with carnivore. Plant based cheats DO change this.
I’m energized and have a certain “will to live” kind of energy that was severely lacking before.
I’m not struggling with PPD (post partum depression) as I have with other babies.
I feel like I look good, which is subjective of course, but I get a lot of comments about it, and it’s a good feeling even if I can’t measure it.
I have good blood sugar numbers, though I haven’t tested A1C or any other labs since starting.
I’m 14lbs from the lowest adult weight I’ve ever been which was done at the time by keto, calorie restricting, fasting, AND daily gym workouts. I think I can achieve that weight and lower in the next two months.
I’m happier, healthier, and genuinely more capable of so much than I have been in years. I feel like I got my life back. If you struggle with any of these things I simply cannot recommend trying this enough.
I WILL answer your questions about doing the carnivore diet while breastfeeding!
If you have questions about trying carnivore, maintaining milk supply, foods to avoid, foods to try, low-budget carnivore, or any other thing even remotely brought up in this post, I would be really happy to discuss it without and try to help you troubleshoot. I am NOT a medical professional and I DO NOT give medical advice. But I am happy to give experiential advice or things to try. I am happy to share my experience and I want others to be able to benefit from that as much as I have. This experience has been life changing. Please leave a comment if you have questions or reach out to me directly at contact@thewelderandhiswife.com. And let me know if you’re interested in this topic and if I should share more about it in the future!