This Week in Carnivore Life — July 7, 2026

A week dominated by individual stories: a jaw-dropping 11-month transformation, a 30-day lion diet report with eight things nobody mentioned beforehand, and a blood test that defied the worry. One scoping review rounds out the science side, and a question from the plant-based corner of Reddit is worth a read.

1. 134 Pounds in 11 Months

Jay claims 134 pounds gone in 11 months on carnivore. All natural, no injections, no surgery. He documents it on YouTube under Straightuptalkinwithjayandkev, and the comment sections are full of people who recognize themselves in his story. Individual experience, not a template, but the frequency of results like this across the community is hard to wave away.

2. Eight Things No One Warns You About the Lion Diet

The Few Carnivores completed 30 days on the lion diet (beef, salt, water only) and came back with eight things nobody warned them about going in. Some uncomfortable, some counterintuitive. Worth watching before you start the protocol or if you are helping someone set realistic expectations.

3. When the Blood Test Comes Back Better Than Expected

Iced Jem went into their first blood test on carnivore braced for bad numbers. The results told a different story. It is a short video and the specifics matter, so follow the link. Individual result, not a promise, but honest and detailed enough to be useful to anyone the cholesterol conversation has been holding back.

4. What the First Scoping Review Actually Found

A 2026 scoping review published in Nutrients (Lietz, Dapprich, Fischer) pulled together nine human studies on the carnivore diet from 2021 to 2025. The positive signals are real: weight reduction, improved satiety, some improvements in inflammatory markers, and reported remission in IBD cases. The concerns are also real: potential deficiencies in vitamins C and D, calcium, and magnesium, and elevated LDL in some participants. The evidence quality is low throughout, with no large randomised controlled trials, small sample sizes, and short study durations. The authors concluded that long-term adherence cannot currently be recommended based on the available data. That is an honest summary of where the literature stands, not a reason to panic and not a clean bill of health.

5. A Question from the Other Side

A thread in r/PlantBasedDiet asked what sounds like a simple question: why is it so hard to find negative carnivore experiences? The framing is sceptical, but the observation is genuine, and the responses from both sides are worth the five minutes. Survivorship bias is a real factor: people who feel bad often stop quietly without posting. But the consistent volume of positive self-reports across communities and platforms is also a real pattern, one that does not dismiss easily.

Five items this week, one consistent thread running through all of them: people reporting unexpected results and asking honest questions about why. The roundup is just a starting point. Follow the links.