r/raypeat•
grasse_man

I want to transition from carnivore to ray peat

I have been on a carnivore diet for 5 months now, and I definitely have mixed opinions from the diet.

First of all, carnivore has absolutely changed me mentally. I used to struggle with pretty bad anxiety. Now I don't get nervous in social situations whatsoever. I feel more confident than ever. I have ADHD as well, and the diet has massively helped me Executive functioning improved, memory and attention span, mental clarity, etc. For whatever reason, I feel that limited carboydrates have helped my anxiety and problems massively.

However, the problem I have now is, I feel without carbohydrates I don't have the same athletic ability. And this is a problem for me as I'm a college soccer player. With no carbs, I feel slower, less explosive, and like I burn out quicker when playing soccer. I feel like increasing my carb intake pretty significantly would optimize my energy as a soccer player.

There was one day a couple weeks ago where I purposely loaded about 70g of carbs, (mostly from eating ice cream for bears) before playing soccer, and I feel the energy I was missing when playing soccer, but my anxiety came back, I was more bloated in the face, my sleep quality dropped, my energy levels tanked, I was craving dopamine and got stuck into bad habits, like doomscrolling, that I struggled with before the diet. I had bad mood swings and irritability, brain fog, less mental focus and clarity, etc.

I feel like the ray peat approach of eating around 200 g of carbs, would benefit me the most as an athlete, while eating the red meat I currently eat for saturated fats, but there has to be a way I can navigate the diet to avoid the mental problems that I seem to experience when increasing my carb intake. Please let me know any advice you have for me, thanks

Posted Jun 7, 2026, 4:46 AM UTC

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