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Yes. Here's the plan. Thirty days, four weeks, one theme per week, a shopping list you can take to the store, and a day pattern you repeat without thinking. It's built for one or two people over 50 who want to lose weight and cook as little as possible.
Here's how it works. Two meals a day is typical on carnivore, and three is fine. Each meal is about 5-6 oz of cooked meat, which lands around 30-40 g of protein. When eggs are on the plate, drop the meat to 3 oz. Portions below are cooked weight; raw meat loses about a quarter in the pan. Thirty to forty grams per meal beats one giant dinner, especially after 50.
Salt matters more than people expect. Lower insulin makes the kidneys let go of sodium and water, so most people on carnivore land around 3-5 g of sodium a day (about 1.5-2 teaspoons of salt), spread through the day. This is not for everyone. Talk to your doctor first if you have high blood pressure, kidney or heart problems, diabetes, are pregnant, or take medicine.
Don't count calories for the first eight weeks. Eat until you're full and let the plan do the work. If you want a starting point for your own protein number, the free calculator at /calculator.html gives you one in two minutes. If it comes back higher than two meals cover, add a third meal or make dinner bigger.
Quick answers before the lists. Organ meat is optional. If you eat liver, cap it at 4-8 oz a week. Yes, you can eat the same thing every day. Cheese is optional, and it's the first thing to pull if you stall later. One frying pan is enough for all 30 days. Budget lands around $5-10 a day for one person, and these lists sit at the low end.
Week 1: Ground Beef and Eggs
The on-ramp. Two ingredients, nothing to learn, cheap. For week one spelled out day by day, the first-week shopping list for readers over 60 does exactly that.
Shopping list for one (for two, double the meat):
- 5-6 lb of 80/20 ground beef
- 2 dozen large eggs
- 1 lb butter, salted is fine
- Salt
- Optional: a small block of cheddar, under 8 oz for the week
Your day:
- Breakfast: 3 eggs fried in butter, plus a 3 oz ground beef patty. About 37 g protein.
- Dinner: one 6 oz patty, salted well. About 38 g protein.
- Hungry at 3 pm? Eat a third meal. Week-one hunger is normal and it fades.
Batch cook once:
- Brown 2 lb of ground beef with a heavy pinch of salt and split it into eight 3 oz portions. That's breakfast meat for the week.
- Form the remaining 3-4 lb into seven 8 oz patties (they cook down to about 6 oz). Freeze flat between parchment. One cooks from frozen in 12 minutes.
Week 2: Add Pork and Chicken Thighs
Same pattern, more flavour. Both cuts are cheap and both forgive overcooking.
Shopping list for one (for two, double the meat):
- 3 lb ground beef
- 2 lb bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- 2 lb pork shoulder steaks or thick pork chops
- 1 lb bacon
- 2 dozen eggs
- Butter and salt
Your day:
- Breakfast: 3 eggs with 3 slices of bacon lands near 30 g protein. Swap the bacon for 3 oz of leftover pork and you're closer to 37 g.
- Dinner: 2 chicken thighs (about 6 oz of meat off the bone) or a 6 oz pork shoulder steak. About 35-40 g.
Batch cook once:
- Thighs in the frying pan: skin down, medium heat, 10 minutes untouched. Flip, lid on, 12 more. Cook all 2 lb and fridge the rest.
- Cook the whole pound of bacon at once, pour the fat into a jar, and fry your eggs in it all week.
Week 3: Add Steak, Fish and Bone Broth
Week three is where sleep gets patchy and the scale goes quiet for a few days. Normal. Broth helps with the salt, steak helps with morale.
Shopping list for one (for two, double the meat):
- 2 lb ground beef
- 2 lb steak: chuck eye, sirloin or flank, whatever's on sale
- 1 lb salmon, or 4 tins of sardines or tuna
- 2 lb beef or chicken bones, or a carton of bone broth
- 2 dozen eggs
- Butter and salt
Your day:
- Breakfast: 3 eggs with 3 oz of cold sliced steak, or 3 eggs with a tin of sardines. A tin carries about 20 g protein, so that plate lands near 38 g.
- Dinner: 5-6 oz steak, or 5-6 oz salmon on two nights. About 35-40 g.
- A mug of salted broth with dinner or before bed. A cup can carry 800-1,200 mg of sodium, and a salty drink at bedtime is a fine fix for night cramps.
Batch cook once:
- Cook two steaks every time you cook one. The second, sliced cold, is tomorrow's breakfast. Here's how to cook flank steak so it isn't tough.
- Broth: bones in a pot, cover with water, simmer all day. Strain, salt, and it keeps five days in jars. Frying pan only? Buy the carton.
Week 4: Mix and Repeat Your Favourites
Build week four from the meals you looked forward to. Most people keep ground beef as the base and rotate one or two cuts they liked.
Shopping list for one (for two, double the meat):
- 3 lb ground beef
- 2-3 lb of whatever you liked best from weeks 2 and 3
- 2 dozen eggs
- Optional: 4-8 oz of liver, once this week, cooked fast in butter
- Butter and salt
Your day: same pattern. 3 eggs plus 3 oz of meat in the morning, 5-6 oz of meat at night, a third meal if you're hungry. The same breakfast 30 days running is not a failure. It's the point.
Batch cook once:
- Double every dinner and the other half becomes breakfast meat.
- Keep two frozen patties and a tin of sardines for nights you can't face the stove. These no-cook carnivore dinners cover the rest.
How to Tell the Plan Is Working
- Hunger between meals quiets down. By week 2 or 3 most people stop thinking about food at 3 pm.
- The tape moves. Measure your waist at the navel on day 1 and every Sunday. The tape keeps moving when the scale sulks.
- Energy steadies. The afternoon slump goes, and so does the snack.
Expect 3-7 lb to come off in week one, mostly water, and less if you're smaller or older. After that, 0.5-1 lb a week is a good pace over 50. Don't judge the plan before day 60.
If You Stall in Week 3 or 4
Work the list in this order.
- Confirm it's real. A stall is 3-4 weeks with no change on the scale and none on the tape. A flat scale in week 3 is not a stall. It's week 3.
- Sleep and salt. Fix bedtime, cut coffee after noon, and make sure the salt is actually going in.
- 7-day food audit. Write down everything for a week, including butter, cheese, bacon fat and cream in the coffee. Added fat and dairy are usually where the extra is hiding. Trim added fat first, never the meat.
- Recalculate at your current weight. Numbers that fit you 15 lb ago don't fit you now.
- Still stuck? A 2-week dairy break, or a planned maintenance break. Not before the four steps above.
I'm not a doctor. I've competed and I've spent years applying training discipline to food, so I know what works in practice. But I'm not your doctor. Everything here is based on what works in practice and what research supports. Your mileage may vary.