What If Eating More Is the Thing That Finally Breaks Your Stall?

More is… less?

When the scale stops moving, most of us know exactly what we’re supposed to do: eat less. Then maybe eat a little less than that. Because surely, if we want our bodies to get smaller, we need to keep taking food away, right? Well…not always.

One of my coaching members, Holly, recently shared a perfect example. After years of weight struggles, she had lost 25–30 pounds with keto and another 30 pounds after moving toward Carnivore. Then she stalled, and despite tracking, researching, and analyzing everything she could think of, nothing seemed to work. Eventually she discovered something she absolutely did NOT expect: she started eating more food—and lost another 10 pounds.

When Eating Less Stops Working

When Holly joined my group, we looked at some basic data. She had tracked her food for years and discovered she was averaging around 1,700 calories per day, while her estimated TDEE—total daily energy expenditure—was around 2,550.

That is a BIG difference, so instead of cutting more food, Holly began slowly increasing it. And I mean slowly. A bite of butter here, a little more food there, until she eventually reached around 2,300 calories per day.

Then things started changing. Holly wasn’t as cold anymore, her energy improved, and she felt happier. Even though eating more went against every dieting instinct she had, she also started getting smaller.

Sometimes Your Body Needs More

I think we sometimes forget that our bodies aren’t calculators. If you’ve been chronically under-eating—especially alongside stress or poor sleep—your body may be getting a pretty loud message: We never have enough.

I can’t promise that increasing calories will immediately cause weight loss for everyone. Sometimes people need to slowly work up to maintenance, stay there for a while, and then do a cut. But Holly isn’t the Lone Ranger here. I’ve seen people increase their food and notice they’re warmer, sleeping better, feeling more energetic, and less stressed—and sometimes the scale starts moving, too.

Holly also experimented with our higher-fat “fat fast” days and actually ate more on those days, not less. She noticed tremendous energy and saw the scale drop afterward. For her, the bigger lesson wasn’t simply “eat more fat”; it was recognizing that more nourishment, rather than more restriction, was helping her body move forward.

The Scale Doesn’t Tell the Full Story

Holly is now down around 70 pounds overall, but some of my favorite parts of her story aren’t about pounds. One day she pulled clothes from her closet that she hadn’t worn recently, and they just hung on her. Then she went outside to garden in elastic-waist pants—and they kept falling down.

Y’all, if you’ve spent years needing those elastic-waist pants to STRETCH, you know what kind of victory we’re talking about! Holly has also lost nearly five inches from her calves, and people who hadn’t seen her recently began commenting on how different she looked, even when Holly herself didn’t think the scale had changed very much.

That’s why I keep saying the scale doesn’t tell the full story. Better sleep, more energy, improved mood, smaller measurements, looser clothes, and being able to move farther aren’t consolation prizes while you wait for the “real” result. Those ARE results.

Eat the Meat—and Go for a Walk

Another change Holly made was walking, which is especially funny because she told me she HATED walking. But she did it anyway and eventually completed 28 straight days. Somewhere along the way, she realized she wasn’t moving just because she knew she “should.” She actually felt better when she did it.

After one of our coaching conversations, Holly added 12-second bursts of very fast walking every couple of minutes. Her friend could run; Holly couldn’t, so she simply walked as fast as she could. Perfect! We don’t need to turn everything into an Olympic event.

Holly happened to be wearing a continuous glucose monitor, and after adding those faster intervals, she watched her glucose readings drop and stay lower. It’s another reason I’m such a fan of walking, especially after meals. Eat your nourishing food, put on your shoes, and move your body. It really doesn’t have to be complicated.

Stop Psychoanalyzing Every Bite

The biggest change may have been the freedom Holly found when she stopped trying to psychoanalyze every decision. One piece of advice had especially stuck with her: Just be consistent.

Have your meat prepared. Eat enough. Move your body. Gather useful data when you actually need it, notice what’s working for your body, and then give the process some TIME. Holly compared it to a jigsaw puzzle: sometimes you’ll pick up a piece that doesn’t fit, but you keep learning until the picture comes together.

As Holly said, Carnivore isn’t something she’s temporarily doing anymore: “This is my life.” And that changes the timeline. We can stop demanding instant results and start noticing all the ways our bodies may already be changing.

That’s also what I love about our My Zero Carb Life coaching community. We problem-solve together, provide accountability and practical support, and surround ourselves with a tribe of fellow carnivores who understand this journey. The goal isn’t more food obsession; it’s learning what works, becoming consistent, eating our meat, and getting on with our lives. If having that kind of support would make your journey easier, we’d love to have you join us.