Video | Water Weight | Comparing Carb Limits | Carnivore Foods | Ketovore Foods | Keto Foods | Low-Carb Foods

To maintain a healthy weight, the Food and Drug Administration recommends eating 275 grams of carbs a day. For some people, that amount of carbs in a 2,000-calorie diet works. But if it doesn’t work for you, you may consider following a diet lower in carbohydrates. 

This blog post shares four options: Carnivore, Ketovore, Keto, and Low-Carb. I’ll let you know what makes them different and provide food lists for each level. 

Carnivore, Ketovore, Keto, Low-Carb – Carb Limits and Food Lists [Video]

In this video, you’ll learn…

• The connection between low-carb and weight loss.
• Extreme to Regular low-Carb Diet Options.
• Food lists and additional information for each diet.

Carbohydrates and Water Weight

Carbohydrates cause the body to store water. When you eat a high-carb diet, the energy that you do not use right away is stored as glycogen in a hydrated form, so each gram of stored glycogen holds onto about 3 grams or more of water (1).

If you ever felt frustrated because your bathroom scale jumped up after a high-carb meal, this water-laden glycogen is why. In other words, you gained water weight. The reverse process happens when you switch to a low-carb diet; stored water flushes out of your body, and you lose weight quickly. 

Carbs cause quick fluctuations in body weight, and you have to watch any emotional attachment to the bathroom scale when you initially change your carb intake. But weight loss and fat loss are not the same thing. 

Low-carb diets promote fat loss because they keep insulin levels low. Insulin is a fat-storage hormone, so when it is low, your body can release fat and burn it for energy. Low insulin also signals your kidneys to flush out water and electrolytes. That’s not a problem, but you do need to replenish both. 

Comparing Carb Limits

Low-carb diets are nothing new, but some of the terminology is. Carnivore and ketovore are relatively new spins on the ketogenic diet that tweak the macros and food choices enough to make them their own diets. 

When comparing the diets, the allowed carbohydrate grams start at the ground floor, with a carnivore diet aiming for an ideal of zero carbs per day. Ketovore was introduced to make that ideal a bit more manageable. As a ketovore dieter, you can have up to 10 grams of carbs. The next step up is keto, which allows 20 to 50 grams. This is followed by a low-carb diet where you can consume 50 to 125 total carbs daily, depending on your metabolism and the goal you are working to achieve. 

Carb Grams Allowed (Summary)

• Carnivore = 0g
• Ketovore = <10g
• Keto= 20-50g
• Low-carb = 50-125g
• FDA (high-carb) = 275g

*total carbs, not net carbs

Carnivore Food List

On a carnivore diet you eat meat and some other animal products. There are no plant-based foods because all plants contain carbohydrates. 

This makes the food list for a carnivore diet pretty simple. You can eat meat, fish, and other animal products, like eggs, lard, and bone broth. Most carnivores will also allow small amounts of certain dairy products, like heavy cream, hard cheese, and butter. 

Carnivore Notes

Something to keep in mind is that terms like carnivore and ketovore are coined through repetition on social media, making it challenging to find exact definitions and specifics on food lists. In this post, I created graphics that list out the most commonly reported foods, which will help you to compare these diets side-by-side.

Before we move on to those comparisons, a common question about the carnivore diet is, “Is it a good or healthy idea?” 

Proponents of the carnivore diet point to factors like accelerated weight loss, low inflammation, blood sugar regulation, and better mental focus as reasons to follow the diet. However, there are currently no rigorous scientific studies to show the long-term effects of a carnivore diet. And, some prominent advocates of the diet, like Paul Saladino, have added carbs back into their diets for better exercise performance. 

I understand that carbohydrates are not essential nutrients and that civilizations have survived on few, if any, carbohydrates throughout history.

However, until more unanswered questions are answered, it does beg the question of whether this degree of limitation is necessary, which may be the reason the next diet is rising in popularity. 

Ketovore Food List

Ketovore, as you may have guessed, is a combination of keto and carnivore. In fact, it is sometimes referred to as the keto carnivore diet, and your carbohydrate allowance and food choices fit in the middle of those diets. Another way to think of it is that you can eat a carnivore diet and add up to 10 grams of carbs. 

Ten carbs are not much, but it provides some freedom. I will also add that ketovore cleans up a challenging problem with zero-carb eating. That problem is that some animal products contain small amounts of carbohydrates. 

A pure zero-carb carnivore dieter would have to cut out eggs because each one contains about half a gram of carbs. The same goes for heavy cream and some cheeses. And what about coffee and tea? They are made from coffee beans and tea leaves, so they have trace amounts of carbohydrates. Those trace carbs add up throughout the day to a point where many carnivore dieters are likely eating ketovore. 

Is this splitting hairs? Absolutely. But it is where we are at. So, with that in mind, here is a list of ketovore foods:

Ketovore Notes

Essentially, a ketovore dieter can eat anything that a carnivore dieter eats and add up to 10 grams of plant-based foods. 

On ketovore, it is best to look at carb-containing foods as flavor enhancers. So, you can have cream in coffee, add lemon to your water glass, use spices, and top a meat entree with a few slices of avocado. Then, if there’s room, you can have a small side dish of broccoli or a leafy green salad. 

I’ve seen ketovore presented as a more flexible version of the carnivore diet, which I’ve already explained. I’ve also seen it presented as a higher protein alternative to the keto and carnivore diets. 

Protein needs go up with age, activity level, and illness. You can adjust your protein intake on any diet, but because a ketovore diet is centered on high-protein choices, like meat, it would be easy to reduce some fat and follow a high-protein, moderate-fat ketovore diet.

Keto Food List

The keto diet gets a lot of attention. It is a high-fat, moderate-protein, low-carb diet. Those on a keto diet can consume low-carb foods, but they must limit their consumption to 20-50g, which is still more liberal than the previous two diets. 

How many carbs you can consume should be determined based on measurable ketones in your blood (Nutritional ketosis is defined as blood ketone levels of 0.5 – 3 mmol/L). However, many people judge their carb tolerance based on their goal, whether that be weight loss, blood sugar stability, or mental clarity. 

On a keto diet, you can eat all of the foods I’ve mentioned up to this point and add more dairy foods and a fair amount of plant-based foods. So, instead of viewing carbs as flavor enhancers, as we did with the ketovore diet, you can look at them as meal enhancers on keto. So, hard-boiled eggs can be mixed with mayo and mustard to make egg salad. Meat and cheese can be put on top of a bed of greens and enjoyed as a hearty salad, and dinner can include a satisfying side of low-carb veggies. 

Keto Notes

After reviewing carnivore and ketovore, keto sounds pretty lenient. However, carbs add up fast. 

On a keto diet, you may be able to have a small amount of nut butter, add sauces, like tartar sauce, to fish, and enjoy the sweetness of berries mixed into full-fat yogurt, but keep track. Carb portions will need to be small to stay within the constraints of a keto diet. 

Also, don’t look for processed keto snacks. Most use tricks to lower the net carb count, making them seem like a great way to cheat the system. They are not. 

Low-Carb Food List

I follow a low-carb diet, and I find it to be an enjoyable way to eat because there is plenty of variety. See my blog post on what to eat on a low-carb diet for a downloadable list of 100 low-carb foods.

If you choose to follow a low-carb diet, you can eat anything that a keto dieter eats and boost your carb intake to between 50 and 125 total carbs per day. I tend to eat 60-70 carbs a day. The amount you can eat depends on your body size, age, gender, metabolism, and goal. 

Low-carb Notes

A low-carb diet allows you to add small amounts of moderately high-carb fruits, like apples, melons, and peaches to your daily diet. 

It also allows for the occasional addition of starchy foods, like a small baked potato or a small side of rice. But I did not add those starches to the food list because they are not right for everyone. If you are using the diet to lose weight, you’ll need to monitor how these foods affect you. 

Takeaway

I hope this blog post clarifies the different levels of low-carb diets. The wonderful thing about eating low-carb is that all you need to do to follow the diet is shop for different foods at your grocery store. Bypass the cereal, chip, cookie, and cracker aisles and spend your time in the meat, produce, and dairy aisles. 

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful week!

Reference:

(1) Kreitzman, Stephen N., Ann Y. Coxon, and Kalman F. Szaz. “Glycogen storage: illusions of easy weight loss, excessive weight regain, and distortions in estimates of body composition.” The American journal of clinical nutrition 56.1 (1992): 292S-293S.

About the Author

Becky Gillaspy, DC, is the author of The Intermittent Fasting Guide and Cookbook and Zero Sugar / One Month. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with research honors from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1991.