Carnivore Diet Month 9 Health Update

I have been changing my diet and lifestyle for 9 months now, ever since I hit rock bottom with my health. I’m no longer strictly on a carnivore diet, but follow a meat-based diet with added complex carbs, including fruits and vegetables.

This is my update for month 9. I’ve learned a ton—both in terms of knowledge and spiritually. I'm sharing what I've learned so far and my health update.

Contents

• Changes I Made
• Body Weight
• Sleep
• Resting Heart Rate
• Gym Performance
• Skin
• Menstrual Cycle
• Autoimmune Update
  • ITP: Platelet count dipped to 57k, then recovered to 95k
  • Lupus: Similar blood markers, but all a little worse
• Change of Perspective
  • My Healing Is Not My Purpose
  • No Fear Towards Blood Results
• Other Learnings
  • Fiber Down, LDL Up
  • Own Your Labs
  • Unreliable VO2 max readings on Apple Health
  • Parasympathetic Activation
• Next Steps

Changes I Made

• No more gluten (I tried sourdough bread once, but it might have caused my platelets to drop)
• Transitioning from weight training to body-weight calisthenics

Body Weight

My weight has been stable over the past month.

With the help of the FastingLady app, I was able to recognize a pattern in my weight throughout my menstrual cycle: between days 15 and 20, I start to lose water weight, and then it begins to come back early in the next cycle. When I’m losing water weight, I eat the same amount, but I pee more often.

I used FastingLady to track my weight. I can see the pattern in my weight throughout my menstrual cycle.

I hope I can contiunue to get leaner (in a healthy way) to see whether this can lower my triglycerides in the next blood test.

Sleep

My sleep has been stable. I usually fall asleep around 10 p.m. and wake up around 5 or 6 a.m. If I wake up in the middle of the night, I can still fall back asleep.

After testing for a while, here are the things that could affect my sleep:

• Not getting enough magnesium in my diet
• Drinking too much water, which flushes magnesium out of my body (especially when the water has no electrolytes)
• Too much strength training, which raises cortisol levels
• Too much stress
• Inflammation in the body
• A high heart rate
• Certain prescription medications that can raise heart rate
• Vitamin D supplementation, which could deplete magnesium
• Not eating enough food for energy

So I try to find a balance by managing the things that could affect my sleep, reducing stress, avoiding unnecessary supplementation, getting nutrients from food, and not working out too much.

Resting Heart Rate

My resting heart rate has been stable, with an average of 59 bpm.

My resting heart rate has been stable, with an average of 59 bpm in this month.

I hope I can continue to lower it.

Gym Performance

Similar to my previous update, my gym performance improved after incorporating carbs, which aligned with better energy levels and no thyroid or hair-loss issues.

One interesting accidental finding: we got home late one night, and I ate some yogurt and berries around 9 p.m. because I was hungry. I usually stop eating three hours before sleep, but the next morning my workout was incredibly strong! I’m curious whether that late-night snack helped fuel my fasted workout. This may be a sign that I don’t need to get scared of eating too late. Be flexible!

I’ve also been transitioning from weight training to body-weight calisthenics. I’ve started to crystallize my fitness goals: not looking bulky, not looking skinny—just fit and flexible.

One of my goals is to be able to do pull-ups. I met a girl at the gym who can do pull-ups, and I was inspired to try it. She also shared some tips with me how to progress to pull-ups: like negative pull-ups and banded pull-ups. Also this thread on X is also a good guide for progress to pull-ups.

I also did a sprint this past week. I filmed myself and compared my performance to a previous sprint. My speed was much faster, and my posture was better. I can feel that my overall fitness has improved.

Skin

It’s winter where I live, and my skin is extremely dry. I’ve always avoided skincare products because I don’t trust many of the ingredients in them. But I decided to order my first beef tallow skincare product to give it a try. I scrutinized every ingredient before purchasing it. If it worked, my plan was to make my own.

I was extremely impressed! My face feels amazing.

Beef tallow skincare I ordered from Amazon

In the past, whenever I applied skincare products for the first time, my skin would itch. But today, it felt completely natural.

Now I’m making my own beef tallow moisturizer!!! This is a good tutoiral that I will follow: Making Tallow Moisturizer From Beef Fat - Entire Process Start to Finish.

Menstrual Cycle

My menstrual cycle has been stable: surprisingly light, even with a low platelet count of 57k, which I’ll mention in the ITP section. I had slight spotting before the heavier flow for about two days. I think I may just treat that as normal in the future.

Autoimmune Update

ITP: Platelet count dipped to 57k, then recovered to 95k

What Happened?

This month, my platelet count has been on an interesting journey. It dipped to 57k, then recovered to 95k.

My Hypotheses and Evidence

My two hypotheses are:

1. Viral infections can cause low platelets.
2. Gluten can cause low platelets.

For #1, my daughter caught a cold from school a few days before my blood test. I did not have any symptoms, except for one day with redness in my left eye, but it cleared up within 24 hours without medical intervention—I just avoided touching it.

For #2, I have been gluten-free for a few months now, and my platelet count has been stable. I started to learn about baking sourdough bread for my family. When I baked my first successful sourdough bread, I was tempted to try it after 8 months on a gluten-free diet. The next day, my platelet count dropped to 57k at the blood test.

At this point, I am not sure which one is the cause. I will test bread again when my platelet count is stable in the normal range. For now, I will continue to be gluten-free.

For my theory regarding viral infections, here is how all the facts align:

• In this article "Thrombocytopenia in Virus Infections", it states that viral infections can cause low platelets.

• During the time I was at 57k, in this official report from Texas Department of State Health Services, I can see the common colds rising in Texas, most of which are Influenza A.

• In this article "Influenza-induced thrombocytopenia is dependent on the subtype and sialoglycan receptor and increases with virus pathogenicity", it states that influenza causes low platelets.

Despite having no symptoms, I may have caught influenza or RSV from my kids at school. The virus binds to my platelets, so my body clears them, causing the platelet count to drop.

If this theory holds, my platelet count should rise in a few weeks.

After 2 weeks, I retested my CBC, and my platelet count was back to the previous level! A very nice V-shaped recovery!

Takeaways

Platelets are interesting—they bind to viruses (like a cold) and bacteria (from my gut). I’m guessing this is a protective function to clear infections, not a malfunction.

This brief platelet drop was very likely caused by some kind of virus, but the cool thing is I had zero symptoms. My body fought it off, thanks to diet and sun! Before, I would easily be bedridden after catching a virus from kids at school.

My menstrual cycle during this time was very manageable despite the platelet drop. This made me wonder whether it is necessary to keep platelets at a level of 100k. This gives me the confidence to continue reducing the Doptelet dosage to 40 mg every 7 days.

Lupus: Similar blood markers, but all a little worse

I had some blood markers checked for lupus when my platelets were at 57k.

All the markers (dsDNA, ESR, C3, and C4) were similar to the last time I checked, but each one was slightly worse. (See the results from 11/20/2025 in this post.) I wonder if this is connected to whatever caused my platelet drop. I will retest in a few weeks.

My knee pain and stiffness have surprisingly diminished—sometimes to almost nothing. This is a good sign. I'm completely pain-free sometimes!!! I also wonder if this improvement is related to getting less sun exposure due to the cold weather. I’ll continue to monitor it.

Change of Perspective

I had 2 new perspectives towards my healing this month.

My Healing Is Not My Purpose

I stumbled upon a song on Spotify called "Healing is Not My Purpose" by Toni Jones. Her lyrics had a profound impact on me.

I used to hyperfocus on my healing—doing research, following all the things I thought I should be doing. It felt like fixing myself was my job. Her words helped me realize that my body is a complex design. No matter how much I try to fix it, healing happens according to God’s plan, not mine. The slow progress of healing also reminds me that it unfolds at God’s pace, not mine. I just need to let go of control and let God do His work.

Here are some lines from the song that I found inspiring:

• "Rest and ease is productivity"
• "I let the great 'I am' do the heavy lifting"
• "When I breathe, I did the most"
• "My evolution does not depend on my works alone. I now see performative spirituality"
• "The intelligence that changes the seasons, grows, produces, tells my physical scars to heal, does it all on its own"
• "My living is the healing. Life is purpose in itself."

All these lines made me appreciate the process of healing more, the intention of God.

No Fear Towards Blood Results

I used to be terrified of bad blood results. Every time I got tested, I held onto hope. If the results were good, I would be elated. If they were bad, I would be devastated and have to pick myself up (for example, the recent drop in platelets to 57k). It was a painful cycle I wanted to break out of.

This month, I looked back and realized how much my blood results—especially the bad ones—have given me clues, directions, and hypotheses to test. If I had never gotten sick, I wouldn’t have changed my diet or lifestyle, or my family’s diet and lifestyle. If my blood results had always been good, I wouldn’t have learned so much about my body and how to move forward.

Other Learnings

Fiber Down, LDL Up

From the podcast Joe Rogan Experience #2420 with Dr. Chris Masterjohn, I learned a theory that fiber can help lower LDL cholesterol. Even though the significance of LDL is still debated, I found this interesting. I’ve been adding complex carbs that contain more fiber, and I’m curious to see if my LDL will go down.

I learned a lot from this episode—it’s definitely worth listening to!

Own Your Labs

With health insurance costs going up substantially next year, I started thinking about the possibility of doing personal blood tests without involving doctors or insurance. I found out you can do this through Own Your Labs at a local Labcorp location. A CBC test costs only $8!

My take: if you understand your blood results, this can be a great option.

Unreliable VO2 max readings on Apple Health

I’ve noticed that high VO2 max readings on Apple Health don’t always correlate with feeling “absolutely the best in fitness.” Sometimes, I feel great during a workout, but my VO2 max reading isn’t at its highest. Conversely, when I feel breathless, my VO2 max reading can be very high. I’ve decided not to rely too much on VO2 max readings in Apple Health.

Parasympathetic Activation

I was doing some breathing exercises and found the exhale phase extremely relaxing. I told myself to look up this feeling but ended up falling asleep—it was a great nap! When I looked it up later, I learned that this feeling is called parasympathetic activation.

This is a great technique to use when I feel stressed or anxious or fall back to sleep if I wake up in the middle of the night.

Next Steps

• Reduce Doptelet dosage to 40 mg every 7 days until the next blood test (12/22/2025)
• Continue strength training, focusing on pliability and flexibility
• Keep pork intake low. Eat beef, fish, lamb, and eggs.
• Eat clean, sleep well, get sun exposure
• Manage low heart rate
• Continue with complex carbs
• No gluten for now