Unlike regular diets, the carnivore diet is usually pretty strict when it comes to the kind of foods you can eat and how much of it you should eat. In fact, this means you need to adhere to a specific mix of those important building blocks called macronutrients – aka macros.  Think of them as the fuel for your body, and knowing the right balance is key to successfully following this diet.

Here's how your macros (fats, proteins, and carbs) should look on the carnivore diet, plus a quick example to make things clearer.

Fats: These are the most important and will form a major chunk of your diet. Aim for a good 50-75% of your daily calories from fat.  Let's say you're a 155-pound person who needs 2,500 calories a day.  If 600 of those calories come from protein, you'd need about 1900 calories from fat – that's about 211 grams.  Choose those good animal fats for the best energy boost!

Protein: You'll want your protein to be about 20-35% of your diet.  The general rule is 0.8-1 gram of protein for every pound you want to weigh if you're not super active, and up to 1-1.2 grams if you hit the gym hard.  So, a 155-pound person would aim for 112-154 grams of protein each day.

Carbs: The carnivore diet is super low in carbs - think less than 5% of what you eat. Meat, organs, eggs... they just don't have many carbs! As much as possible, try to eliminate carbs or keep it at the very minimum.

The carnivore diet means eliminating plant-based fiber and eating more saturated fat. This can mess with your digestion and cholesterol at first. If you're feeling negative symptoms like diarrhea or feeling drained of energy, play around with how much protein vs. fat you eat. Your body may need some time to get used to all that fat, at least 2 weeks on an average.

Another thing you need to keep in mind is protein poisoning. Sounds scary, right? It happens when your body can't metabolize all that protein and the symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, and even death if it continues for too long. You can avoid this by making sure you're also getting plenty of fat, and easing into the carnivore diet bit by bit.

When starting out, tracking macros is important to make sure you have the right mix. A food diary or phone app works, but some folks just track by hand – helps them be more aware of what they eat.

If you're looking for a handy chart with foods and their macro counts, here's one by Primal Edge Health that's absolutely fantastic and you can even print it out for your kitchen.

Because the carnivore diet is all about those fatty cuts, knowing how many calories you need and how active you are is key. Tweaking the protein and fat amounts will help you find the perfect balance for your body.