‘I’m on 5,000 calorie a day diet of steaks and eggs and lost 5 stone’

Rachel Ashby, from Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, stumbled upon the carnivore diet in 2019 with the intention of debunking its contentious benefits – yet, after losing seven pounds within the first week, she became an ardent advocate.

The 41 year old single mother of four’s diet is exclusively composed of animal products, including three steaks, ten eggs, a block of butter, and 1kg of chicken each day. Since adopting this lifestyle, she hasn’t purchased vegetables for herself or her children, the youngest being nine, who occasionally follow the diet.

Despite NHS guidelines warning against excessive meat consumption due to potential bowel cancer risks and advocating for a balanced diet with fruits and vegetables, gym enthusiast Rachel credits her all-meat regimen for her increased muscle mass and four-stone weight loss. She has even leveraged her dietary habits into a business venture, creating beauty products derived from beef fat for use on her face, hair, and body.

Despite facing backlash online, Rachel, mother to Sonny-Rae, nine, Mya, 15, Kenzie, 19, and Aaliyah, 21, said: “I get a lot of vegans attacking me… they say, ‘you can’t be a carnivore because you don’t eat raw meat’ – I can eat it raw, I just prefer it with a sear.

“I have a video on my account where I was eating raw meat, but that was purely to annoy the vegans who were attacking me at the time.

“I’ve had messages from vegan nurses saying they can’t wait for me to get cancer because of the red meat.

“I would’ve crumbled if someone had said that to me before, but now I just laugh, it actually makes me feel bad for these people.”

Weighing around 15 stone from around 2015 to 2018, at 5ft 5in tall, Rachel spent years trying different diets in an effort to lose weight. She experimented with everything from calorie counting to the keto diet but often found herself returning to her original weight and feeling “lethargic and bloated”.

In 2019, she came across a video of Dr Shawn Baker, a doctor who claims to have reversed chronic, autoimmune, and mental illnesses through the carnivore diet. The diet consists solely of animal products, including meat, fish, eggs, animal fats, and small amounts of low-lactose dairy, and it excludes all plant foods such as fruit, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds.

Despite widespread health concerns about the diet, Rachel was intrigued to try it to see if she could “disprove it”. She claims after just three days she felt more energised, experiencing no brain fog.

Despite extensive evidence of their health benefits, she now believes vegetables were the cause of her lethargy.

Within the first week, she claimed to have shed seven pounds without counting calories, simply eating when hungry, and has since maintained the diet – now consuming roughly 5,000 calories of animal products daily.

“For breakfast, I have ten eggs with a chunk of butter and salt,” Rachel said.

“I literally eat fat for taste, so when fat stops tasting good, that’s when I stop eating it, because that’s when my body’s had enough.

“For lunch, I have a kilo of chicken wings cooked in the air fryer, and if I feel like I need the fat, then I’ll add butter as well.

“For dinner, I often have two ribeye steaks, and if I’m particularly hungry or have had a busy day and need extra energy, I’ll have three cooked in butter.”

She goes through an astonishing seven blocks of butter weekly but notes her grocery expenses haven’t risen. Since adopting the carnivore diet, she hasn’t purchased vegetables, even for her children, including her nine year old who lives at home.

Rachel explained: “My eldest works and buys her own food but my youngest son, eldest son, and youngest daughter all have moments when they are carnivore.

“They go in and out and if they go and stay around someone’s house or go to a party they might have treats from there.

“They’re all aware of where the main nutrition comes from.

“They just kind of sometimes decide by themselves to do it, and then other times they decide to not do it.

“But they always say that their health increases when they do do it.

“I don’t buy vegetables at all,” she confessed. When dining out, her go-to orders are typically a steak with a side of eggs or a bun-less burger with cheese.

“The meat I eat, I like it blue, just warm on the inside, but still red and bloody,” Rachel added. While she doesn’t consume raw meat like some carnivores, she did share a video of herself eating a raw steak on her page @carnivore.fitness to “annoy the vegans”. N

ow weighing around 10 stone, down from a size 18 to a size 10, Rachel feels her relationship with food has significantly improved.

“Before, when I was trying to lose weight, I’d go to the gym every day, or even twice a day, and now I go a lot less, yet my muscle mass has improved.

“I never have to go hungry or feel like I need to starve myself.

“I can just eat until I’m full and satisfied, whereas before, I would ignore my body’s hunger cues.”

Consequently, her mental health has “transformed” – previously, she was “agoraphobic” and felt vulnerable to negative online comments.

“If anyone took a photo of me, I’d make them delete it – it was pretty horrific, I felt like my brain was toxic, and everything seemed quite dark but now I’m happy all the time,” Rachel said.

In addition to altering her diet, she has incorporated meat into her beauty routine and in 2023, she launched a cosmetics business, Tallow Glow, selling beef fat beauty products. “I use beef tallow as a hair mask, rub it on my face, and apply it to my body.” she added.

“Since using it, it has reversed a lot of ageing and made my skin so much better.”

The NHS suggests consulting with your GP for advice on safe weight loss through a balanced diet and regular exercise.