When I first started talking about eating ketovore, I realized something pretty quickly:  A lot of people have no idea what “ketovore” means.  Most people have heard of keto.  Carnivore has become increasingly familiar.  But ketovore?  It sounds like keto and carnivore had a baby.  And honestly, that’s not a terrible way to describe it.

I’m currently documenting my own ketovore experiment on this website, including my weight, meals, mistakes, OMAD experiments and the challenges of trying to eat this way when I’m away from home.  But before I get much further into my journey, I thought it would be helpful to explain exactly what I mean when I say:  I’m eating ketovore.

What Is Ketovore?

Ketovore is an informal term generally used to describe a way of eating that falls somewhere between a ketogenic diet and a carnivore diet.  The basic idea is pretty simple:  Animal-based foods make up most of what you eat, while carbohydrates remain very low.

For me, that means my meals are primarily built around foods like:

• Beef, chicken, pork and other meats
• Eggs
• Fish and seafood
• Some cheese and dairy
• Animal fats
• Low-carb seasonings, sauces or vegetables in limited amounts

That’s the important difference between how I’m approaching ketovore and strict carnivore.  I’m not attempting to eliminate every plant-based food from my diet.  I’m simply making meat and animal-based foods the foundation while keeping carbohydrates very low.

Ketovore vs. Keto

Traditional keto usually focuses heavily on limiting carbohydrates enough to encourage the body to use fat and ketones for more of its energy needs.  But keto can include a pretty wide variety of foods.  Someone following keto might eat:  avocados, nuts, salads, low-carb vegetables, keto breads, artificial sweeteners, low-carb desserts and all sorts of packaged “keto” products.  You can technically eat a very low-carb diet without eating much meat at all.

That’s not really how I’m approaching this.  With ketovore, I’m putting animal protein first.  Instead of asking:  “How can I make this food keto?”  I’m trying to ask:  “Where’s the protein?”  That one change simplifies my food choices tremendously.

Ketovore vs. Carnivore

Carnivore goes considerably further in the other direction.  A strict carnivore diet generally consists exclusively or almost exclusively of animal-derived foods.  Meat.  Eggs.  Fish.  Animal fats.  Depending on the person’s version, perhaps dairy.  Ketovore gives me more flexibility.  Here’s a perfect example.  Recently, I made myself a plate consisting primarily of chicken and ground beef.  Then I put salsa on it and ate pork rinds alongside it.  A strict carnivore might look at the salsa and say:  “That’s not carnivore.”  They’re right.  It’s not.

But I’m not claiming to follow strict carnivore.  That’s exactly why ketovore fits me better.

Why I’m Choosing Ketovore

I’ve experimented with very low-carb eating before, and I’ve learned something about myself.  Complicated diets don’t work particularly well for me.  I don’t want to spend my life calculating macros for everything I eat.  I don’t want to weigh lettuce.  I don’t want to stare at an app while sitting in a restaurant trying to determine whether I’ve consumed 18 grams or 22 grams of carbohydrates.

And I definitely don’t want to eat some tiny packaged product simply because somebody printed “KETO” across the front.  I need simple rules.  For me, ketovore provides them.

Meat first.

Protein first.

Keep carbohydrates very low.

Avoid sugar and obvious junk.

Use a few low-carb extras when they make the diet easier to maintain.

That’s something I can understand.  More importantly, it’s something I might actually be able to continue doing.

What Do I Eat on Ketovore?

My ketovore meals aren’t particularly complicated.  And that’s intentional.  Breakfast—when I’m eating breakfast—might be eggs and bacon.  Lunch at a restaurant might be burger patties without the bun.  Dinner might be steak.  Or chicken.  Or ground beef with cheese.  I’ve eaten chicken and beef covered in salsa with pork rinds replacing tortilla chips.  I’ll drink coffee, sometimes with heavy cream.

I’m not trying to win an award for culinary creativity here.  I’m trying to develop an eating pattern that works in my actual life.  And that’s one of the reasons I’m increasingly interested in ketovore.

What Foods Am I Trying to Avoid?

This side of the equation is almost easier.  I’m trying to dramatically reduce or eliminate:  Sugar.  Bread.  Pasta.  Rice.  Potatoes.  Chips.  Desserts.  Sugary drinks.  And most of the ultra-processed foods that make it incredibly easy for me to overeat.  That last part matters.  

Because I’m learning that my personal battle isn’t simply carbohydrates.  It’s overeating.  I can overeat steak.  I can overeat cheese.  I can overeat bacon.  Trust me. I have conducted extensive research on this subject.   Ketovore doesn’t magically remove the need for portion control.  That’s one reason I’m also experimenting with OMAD—One Meal a Day—every other day.

Do You Have to Do OMAD on Ketovore?

No.  OMAD and ketovore are two completely different things.  You could eat ketovore three times a day.  You could eat twice.  You could practice intermittent fasting.  Or you could eat one meal a day.  I’m experimenting with OMAD because reducing the number of opportunities I have to eat seems to help me.

That’s an important distinction throughout this website.  I’m documenting what I’m doing and what happens to me.  I’m not arguing that everyone needs to do exactly what I do.

Is Ketovore the Same for Everyone?

Not really.  That’s both the strength and weakness of a term like “ketovore.”  There isn’t one official Ketovore Rule Book sitting somewhere that everybody follows.  Some people eat almost entirely carnivore and occasionally include a few low-carb plant foods.  Others essentially follow a meat-heavy ketogenic diet.  I’m somewhere in there.  My definition is intentionally simple:

Ketovore is a very-low-carbohydrate way of eating that makes meat and animal-based foods the foundation of the diet while allowing some low-carb non-animal foods.

That’s the version I’m experimenting with.

Why Not Just Go Full Carnivore?

I might someday.  My wife, Karen is.  I’m open to experimenting.  But right now, I’m more interested in finding something sustainable than something perfect.  That’s becoming one of the central themes of my journey.  Eating ketovore at home is incredibly easy for me.  The challenge happens when I’m meeting a client at Starbucks.  Or eating lunch at a restaurant.  Or attending a football game.  Or going somewhere that somebody puts food in front of me.  I need enough flexibility that one unexpected meal doesn’t make me feel like I’ve destroyed the entire diet.

Ketovore gives me that.

Is Ketovore Healthy?

This is where I’m going to be careful.  I’m documenting a personal experiment—not prescribing a diet.  Very-low-carbohydrate and ketogenic diets can produce weight loss for some people, but individual responses vary, and restrictive diets aren’t appropriate for everyone. People taking medications or managing medical conditions should talk with an appropriate healthcare professional before making major dietary or fasting changes.

And I’m interested in more than what my bathroom scale says.  Over time, I want to pay attention to things like:  How I feel.  My hunger.  My energy.  My ability to stick with the diet.  My exercise.  My lab results.  And, yes, my weight.

I’m not interested in losing weight while ignoring everything else.

My Ketovore Experiment So Far

This is where things get fun.  I began my current restart at:

197.0 pounds

I ended August at:

189.8 pounds

And I began September at:

187.8 pounds

That’s 9.2 pounds down from where I started.  I’m thrilled.  I’m also realistic.  Some of that early change is likely water associated with dramatically reducing carbohydrates. I’m not pretending I somehow burned 9.2 pounds of body fat in a few days.  The scale will fluctuate.  There will be mornings when it goes up.  There will probably be weeks when it doesn’t move much at all.  That’s why this site isn’t going to become:  FRED GETS ON A SCALE: EPISODE 473.  There are bigger questions I want to answer.

Can I Actually Live Ketovore?

That’s the experiment.  Can I eat this way when I’m busy?  Can I eat ketovore at restaurants?  Can I handle client lunches?  Can I stop eating simply because food is sitting in front of me?  Can I control portions?  Can I use OMAD without turning the following day into an eating contest?  Can I keep doing this after the excitement of seeing the first few pounds disappear wears off?

And ultimately:  Can I still be doing this six months from now?  Because I’ve become convinced that the best eating plan for me isn’t necessarily the most restrictive one.  It’s the one I can actually follow.

Welcome to Explore Ketovore

That’s what this website is about. I’m not writing this from the finish line.  I’m writing it while I’m figuring things out.  I’m going to share what I eat.  I’ll share my weight.  I’ll talk about restaurants.  I’ll talk about OMAD.  I’ll share the good decisions.  And I’ll probably tell you about some spectacularly bad ones too.  Because I don’t want Explore Ketovore to become another website pretending changing decades of eating habits is easy.  It isn’t.  But right now, something seems to be working.

I started at 197.0.  September started at 187.8.  And I’m curious to see where this goes.  So if you’ve been wondering:  What is ketovore?

The short answer is pretty simple.  Lots of meat. Very few carbs. A little flexibility.  For me?  That might be exactly what I need.