Everything you need to start, in one place.

The carnivore diet is an eating pattern that excludes all plant foods. The whole list. Vegetables, fruit, grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and oils made from any of them. What remains is meat, eggs, animal fat, and depending on how strict you are, dairy.

That is the entire definition. The variations come from how you handle the edge cases.

What you eat

• Beef, lamb, pork, chicken, fish, game, organ meats
• Eggs
• Animal fats: tallow, lard, butter, ghee
• Salt
• Water

Some practitioners also include, depending on where they sit on the strictness spectrum:

• Dairy (butter, cream, hard cheese, yoghurt)
• Raw honey and seasonal fruit
• Coffee and tea (excluded on Lion Diet, generally allowed otherwise)

What you don't eat

Everything plant. The list of surprises for new people:

• Olive oil and other seed or vegetable oils. They are plants.
• Black pepper and spices. Also plants.
• Wine, beer, spirits. Fermented plants.
• Soy, gluten, MSG, plant-based protein powders.

Why people do it

The most common reasons people land here:

• Autoimmune conditions that did not respond to other interventions
• Long-running gut issues (IBS, IBD, food intolerances)
• Weight regulation and metabolic health
• Mental health changes (depression, anxiety). Anecdotal but persistent.
• Energy and athletic performance

What the evidence actually says is a longer story. The honest version is at Why it works (and what we don't know yet).

The strictness spectrum

“Carnivore” is an umbrella term. It covers four practical levels, ordered from most restrictive to least:

1. 01Lion Diet. Ruminant meat (beef, lamb), salt, water. Nothing else. The strictest named protocol, popularised by Mikhaila Peterson. Used for 30 to 90 days as an aggressive elimination tool, usually for severe autoimmune or gut issues.
2. 02Strict Carnivore. All meat (ruminant, pork, poultry, fish, game), eggs, animal fats, salt, water. No dairy. No plants. Where most people start if they do not need Lion-level restriction.
3. 03Carnivore + Dairy. Strict carnivore plus butter, cream, hard cheese and sometimes yoghurt. The long-term default for most practitioners. Adds caloric and culinary flexibility without breaking the meat-first principle.
4. 04Animal-Based. Carnivore plus raw honey, seasonal fruit and heavy organ-meat emphasis. Sometimes raw dairy. Less an elimination protocol than an ancestral-eating frame. Popularised by Paul Saladino.

Full breakdown in the variations below.

What it isn't

• Not a weight-loss gimmick. Most people lose weight on it, but the ones who stick with it long-term usually came for something else.
• Not high-protein. The macro split is fat-dominant. Typically 70 to 80% of calories from fat, 20 to 30% from protein.
• Not necessarily expensive. Beef mince, eggs, and pork belly are some of the cheapest protein-per-dollar options in the supermarket.
• Not a religion. Skepticism is welcome here.

What we don't know yet

• Long-term health effects over decades have not been studied in a controlled setting. Most current evidence is observational, anecdotal, or short-term.
• The mechanism behind reported mental health changes is unclear. Several hypotheses are on the table (lower inflammation, stable blood sugar, removal of plant antinutrients) but there is no consensus.
• How well it works for everyone is unknown. Self-selection in published success stories is real.

Everything on carnivore sorts into three tiers, plus a list of what is excluded. Stick to Tier 1 for the first month, add Tier 2 if you tolerate it, and treat Tier 3 as situational.

Tier 1 — Core

The foundation. Anyone doing any version of the diet eats from this list.

Ruminant meat

• Beef — steaks, mince, ribs, roasts, brisket
• Lamb — chops, shoulder, mince
• Bison, venison, game where available

Other meat

• Pork — belly, shoulder, chops, bacon (check for sugar in the cure)
• Chicken and duck — thighs and skin first, breast as a lean option
• Eggs — yolk is the nutrient density

Animal fats

• Tallow (rendered beef fat)
• Lard (rendered pork fat)
• Butter and ghee
• Bone marrow
• Schmaltz (rendered chicken fat)

Seasoning

• Salt. Any unrefined salt is fine. Iodised table salt also works.

Drinks

• Water. Some people add a pinch of salt to one glass per day during adaptation.

Tier 2 — Add if you tolerate it

Common additions. Most people add at least one. If you are using carnivore as a strict elimination protocol, hold off on these until day 30 and then add them one at a time to see what your body does.

Dairy

• Butter and ghee (already in Tier 1)
• Hard cheese — aged cheddar, parmesan, gouda
• Cream and sour cream
• Plain Greek yoghurt (unsweetened, full-fat)
• Milk — many people react to lactose; skip if uncertain

Seafood

• Salmon, mackerel, sardines, anchovies — fatty fish, high omega-3
• Tuna, snapper, barramundi — leaner, good rotation
• Prawns, scallops, oysters — oysters are nutrient-dense

Organ meats

• Liver — start with 50-100 g once a week, beef or lamb
• Heart, kidney — milder than liver, easier entry point
• Bone broth — collagen and gelatin, cheap to make from leftover bones

Tier 3 — Debated edge cases

These are not strictly animal foods but they show up frequently in carnivore-adjacent eating. Whether you include them depends on what you are running the experiment to test.

• Honey — animal-sourced but high in sugar. Excluded on Lion Diet, Strict and Carnivore + Dairy. Animal-Based includes it as a primary carbohydrate source.
• Black coffee and tea — plants but generally tolerated. Excluded on Lion Diet, allowed on the rest.
• Spices and herbs — plants. Some practitioners use a handful (black pepper, oregano). Lion Diet excludes all; strict elimination protocols of any kind tend to.
• Fermented dairy (kefir, aged cheese) — fine on Carnivore + Dairy and above. Some find lactose tolerance varies.
• Cured meats (salami, prosciutto, jerky) — check ingredients for sugar, plant additives, and seed oils.

What you exclude

All plant foods. The list is short because the principle is simple: if it grew from a seed or in dirt, it is excluded.

• Vegetables — all of them, including leafy greens, root vegetables, alliums, nightshades
• Fruit — including avocado, olives, tomatoes (technically fruit)
• Grains — wheat, rice, oats, corn
• Legumes — beans, lentils, peanuts, soy
• Nuts and seeds
• Seed and vegetable oils — canola, sunflower, soybean, olive oil
• Sugar in any form — cane, beet, agave, maple syrup
• Alcohol — wine, beer, spirits
• Plant-based protein powders, plant milks, “carnivore-friendly” packaged products with plant additives

Quality, in order of importance

If you can afford it, source quality goes here. If you cannot, regular supermarket meat is fine. Quality matters less than just doing the elimination.

• Grass-fed and grass-finished beef — better omega-3:6 ratio, more nutrients per gram
• Pasture-raised eggs — darker yolks, better fatty acid profile
• Wild-caught fish — fewer accumulated contaminants than farmed
• Heritage or pasture-raised pork — significantly different fat profile to factory pork

None of these are required. Plenty of people get the same outcomes from supermarket mince and eggs. Quality is an optimisation, not a prerequisite.

Week one is hard mostly because you are making too many decisions. This plan removes the decisions. Two meals a day, three protein rotations, one shopping list. Eat to satiety.

Set your weight and sex above — every amount on this page adjusts to you. The shapes stay the same.

The shopping list (one trip, one week, one person)

AUD 70–100 at a standard supermarket. Adjust upward for multiple people.

• 2 kg beef mince (any fat percentage; 70/30 is ideal, 80/20 also fine)
• 1 kg ribeye or chuck steak
• 500 g pork belly or thick-cut bacon
• 24 eggs
• 500 g butter
• Salt — any unrefined salt is fine
• Optional: 250 g hard cheese (aged cheddar, parmesan)
• Optional: 200 g sour cream or plain Greek yoghurt

Cook everything in butter or rendered fat from the meat itself. No seed oils. No marinades. Salt liberally.

The daily shape

Two meals a day works for most people in the first week. You can add a third if hunger demands it.

• Meal 1 — around 10am or 11am. Skip breakfast if you wake up not hungry. Most people stop wanting breakfast within the first week.
• Meal 2 — around 5pm or 6pm. Earlier is generally better for sleep.

If you are very active or coming off a high-carb diet, a small third meal between is fine. No fixed time, no fixed portion. Eat when hungry, stop when full.

Day 1 (Sunday)

Meal 1

400 g beef mince, pan-fried in butter, salt to taste. 2 fried eggs in the same pan after.

Meal 2

300 g ribeye, seared in butter. Sprinkle of salt. 50 g hard cheese on the side if including dairy.

Day 2 (Monday)

Meal 1

3 eggs scrambled in butter. 150 g pork belly, sliced and pan-fried until crispy.

Meal 2

400 g beef mince, formed into patties, pan-seared. Salt. Optional sour cream on the side.

Day 3 (Tuesday)

Meal 1

300 g leftover beef mince from yesterday, reheated in butter with 2 fresh eggs cracked in.

Meal 2

300 g ribeye, seared. Salt and butter melted on top to finish.

Day 4 (Wednesday)

Meal 1

150 g pork belly pan-fried, 3 eggs in the rendered fat. Salt.

Meal 2

400 g beef mince. Mix in 50 g grated cheese before cooking if including dairy. Pan-sear as patties.

Day 5 (Thursday)

Meal 1

4 eggs scrambled in butter, generous salt.

Meal 2

300 g ribeye, seared in butter. 150 g pork belly slices on the side.

Day 6 (Friday)

Meal 1

300 g beef mince patties (cook two at once, save one for tomorrow). Salt. 2 eggs.

Meal 2

Last of the ribeye, around 250 g. Seared in butter. Sour cream or yoghurt on the side if including.

Day 7 (Saturday)

Meal 1

Yesterday's saved patty, reheated in butter with 2 fresh eggs.

Meal 2

Whatever is left. Combine the last of the mince, eggs, and bacon into one large pan. Top with the rest of the cheese. Eat the whole pan.

What you actually need beyond food

• A heavy pan (cast iron is ideal but a stainless or non-stick base also works)
• Salt within reach at every meal
• A water bottle, drunk to thirst
• No notebook tracking calories or macros in week one. Just track sleep and energy.

What to expect this week

• Days 1–3: usually easy. Energy holds.
• Days 4–7: this is the adaptation window. Some headaches, fatigue, possibly disrupted sleep. The salt-and-water fix is more important than any of these meals.
• You will probably stop being hungry between meals by day 5 or 6. Trust that signal — do not force a snack just because the clock says you should eat.

Full detail of what to expect physically: Side effects and what to expect.

Week 2 onwards

Once you have run this plan once, you have everything you need. Vary the cuts (lamb chops, fish, organ meats once a week), but keep the shape. Two meals, varied protein, salt, butter, no decisions.

Where to go next

• Cheaper than this plan? Budget plan
• Tired of cooking every day? Batch cooking
• Full food list with options: Food list