Carnivore Diet Blood Work: Essential Markers to Monitor

The most important blood tests on the carnivore diet go far beyond a basic cholesterol check. You need a comprehensive panel that includes advanced lipid markers, metabolic health indicators, inflammation tests, and key vitamin and mineral levels. Monitoring these markers at the right intervals gives you an objective picture of how your body is responding to an all-meat diet and helps you catch potential issues early.

What Blood Tests Should You Get on the Carnivore Diet?

A standard annual physical with basic bloodwork is not detailed enough to evaluate how the carnivore diet is affecting your health. You need a more targeted panel that covers four key categories: lipids, metabolic health, inflammation, and micronutrients.

Here is a complete list of what to request from your doctor or order through a direct-to-consumer lab service.

What Does Your Lipid Panel Tell You?

The lipid panel is where most carnivore dieters focus their attention, and for good reason. Eating a high-fat, zero-carb diet changes your lipid profile in predictable ways, but interpreting those changes correctly requires more than a glance at total cholesterol.

Total cholesterol is the least useful number on your panel. It combines LDL, HDL, and a fraction of your triglycerides into one figure that tells you almost nothing about actual cardiovascular risk. Many carnivore dieters see total cholesterol rise above 200 or 250, which triggers alarm from doctors using outdated guidelines.

LDL cholesterol typically increases on the carnivore diet. The standard calculated LDL number on a basic panel uses the Friedewald equation, which becomes inaccurate when triglycerides are very low — exactly the situation most carnivore dieters find themselves in. Request a direct LDL measurement or an NMR LipoProfile instead.

LDL particle size and number matter more than the total LDL figure. Large, buoyant LDL particles (Pattern A) are less atherogenic than small, dense particles (Pattern B). Carnivore and low-carb diets tend to shift your particle distribution toward Pattern A. However, LDL particle number (LDL-P) and apolipoprotein B (ApoB) are the strongest predictors of cardiovascular risk — ask for these specifically. For a deep dive into these lipid changes, see our guide on carnivore diet and cholesterol.

HDL cholesterol almost always improves on the carnivore diet. HDL is involved in reverse cholesterol transport, pulling cholesterol out of arterial walls. Numbers above 60 mg/dL are considered protective, and many carnivore dieters reach 70, 80, or higher.

Triglycerides typically drop dramatically — often by 30 to 60 percent — because triglycerides are primarily driven by carbohydrate and sugar intake. A triglyceride level below 100 is good; below 70 is excellent.

The triglyceride-to-HDL ratio is arguably the single most useful number on your lipid panel. Divide your triglycerides by your HDL. A ratio below 2.0 is favorable, below 1.0 is excellent. This ratio correlates strongly with LDL particle size and insulin resistance. Most carnivore dieters achieve ratios well below 1.5.

Which Metabolic Markers Should You Track?

Metabolic health markers reveal how your body handles energy and whether you are developing or reversing insulin resistance. These numbers are critical for anyone concerned about diabetes or metabolic syndrome.

Fasting glucose measures your blood sugar after an overnight fast. On the carnivore diet, fasting glucose may initially appear higher than expected (90-105 mg/dL) due to physiological insulin resistance — your muscles spare glucose for the brain while running on fatty acids and ketones. This is different from pathological insulin resistance and is generally not a concern when fasting insulin is low.

HbA1c (glycated hemoglobin) reflects your average blood sugar over the past 2-3 months. This is more reliable than a single fasting glucose reading. Values below 5.7% are normal, and many carnivore dieters see HbA1c drop into the 4.8-5.3% range after several months.

Fasting insulin is perhaps the most underrated marker in all of metabolic health. Most doctors do not order it unless you specifically ask. Optimal fasting insulin is below 5 uIU/mL. Levels above 10 suggest insulin resistance regardless of what your fasting glucose shows. The carnivore diet, by eliminating all carbohydrates, typically drives fasting insulin to very low levels.

HOMA-IR (Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance) is calculated from your fasting glucose and fasting insulin. A score below 1.0 is optimal, below 1.5 is acceptable, and above 2.0 suggests meaningful insulin resistance. This calculation gives a more complete picture than either glucose or insulin alone.

Why Do Inflammation Markers Matter?

Chronic inflammation is now understood to be a central driver of cardiovascular disease, metabolic dysfunction, and many autoimmune conditions. Tracking inflammation gives you insight into whether the carnivore diet is reducing systemic stress in your body — something many people report as one of the diet’s biggest benefits. For more on this topic, read our article on carnivore diet and heart health.

High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) is the gold standard for measuring systemic inflammation. Values below 1.0 mg/L are considered low risk, 1.0-3.0 is moderate, and above 3.0 is high. Many carnivore dieters see hs-CRP drop below 0.5 after eliminating plant foods and processed ingredients. This is one of the most consistently positive changes seen on the diet.

Homocysteine is an amino acid that, when elevated, is associated with increased cardiovascular risk, poor methylation, and B vitamin deficiency. Optimal levels are below 8 umol/L. Because the carnivore diet is rich in B12, B6, and folate from animal sources, homocysteine typically stays in a healthy range. If yours is elevated, it may indicate a methylation issue worth investigating.

What Vitamins and Minerals Should You Check?

Even though the carnivore diet provides the majority of essential nutrients through animal foods, several markers are worth monitoring to ensure you are not developing subtle deficiencies.

Vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D) is important regardless of diet, since most people are deficient. Optimal levels are between 40-60 ng/mL. While fatty fish and egg yolks provide some vitamin D, supplementation or sun exposure is often necessary to reach optimal levels. Test this at least once a year.

Vitamin B12 is abundant in red meat and organ meats, so deficiency on the carnivore diet is rare. However, some people have absorption issues due to low intrinsic factor or gut problems. Checking B12 alongside methylmalonic acid (MMA) gives a more accurate picture of B12 status than serum B12 alone.

Ferritin measures your iron stores. The carnivore diet is extremely rich in heme iron, the most bioavailable form. While low ferritin indicates deficiency, very high ferritin (above 300 ng/mL in men, 200 in women) can signal iron overload, inflammation, or other issues. If your ferritin is climbing steadily, discuss it with your doctor. People with hereditary hemochromatosis need to be especially careful on a high red-meat diet.

Magnesium (RBC magnesium, not serum magnesium) is a commonly deficient mineral. Serum magnesium only reflects about 1% of your body’s total magnesium and can appear normal even when stores are depleted. RBC magnesium is a better test. Muscle meat provides moderate magnesium, but bone broth and supplementation may be needed if levels are low.

What Is the Ideal Testing Schedule?

Timing your blood work correctly ensures you catch changes at the right intervals without overtesting and spending unnecessarily.

Baseline (before starting): Get a comprehensive panel before you eat your first carnivore meal. This is your reference point for everything that follows. Without a baseline, you have no way to know whether future results represent an improvement or a decline. If you are just getting started, our beginner’s guide walks you through the full transition process.

3 months: Your first follow-up panel. By this point, adaptation is well underway and initial trends will be visible. Triglycerides and HDL changes often show up by now. Fasting insulin and hs-CRP may already be improving. LDL may be elevated — this is expected and too early to draw conclusions.

6 months: This panel confirms whether 3-month trends are holding or reversing. If LDL spiked at 3 months, it may have stabilized or come down somewhat. Metabolic markers should show clear improvement if the diet is working for you. HbA1c at this point reflects a full cycle of carnivore eating.

Annually: Once your markers stabilize, annual testing is sufficient for most healthy adults. Continue requesting the same comprehensive panel to track long-term trends. If anything looks off at any point, retest sooner.

How Do You Find a Low-Carb Friendly Doctor?

One of the biggest frustrations carnivore dieters face is bringing blood work to a doctor who sees elevated LDL, ignores every other marker on the panel, and immediately pushes a statin prescription. This is not good medicine — it is pattern matching without context.

A good doctor for carnivore dieters will order advanced lipid testing without being asked, look at the full metabolic picture rather than isolated numbers, understand the difference between physiological and pathological insulin resistance, know what the lean mass hyper-responder phenotype is, and be willing to monitor and discuss rather than reflexively prescribe.

To find such a doctor, search the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners directory, look for physicians who list low-carb or ketogenic nutrition as a specialty, ask in carnivore and keto communities for local recommendations, or consider telehealth consultations with metabolic health specialists who work with patients nationwide.

If you cannot find a low-carb specialist, at minimum find a doctor who will order the tests you request and have a data-driven conversation about the results.

What Patterns Are Common on Carnivore Blood Work?

After reviewing thousands of carnivore diet blood work results shared in communities and studies, several patterns emerge consistently:

• LDL rises moderately to significantly in the majority of people, especially in the first 3-6 months
• Triglycerides drop sharply, often reaching levels below 70 mg/dL
• HDL increases, frequently reaching 60-90+ mg/dL
• The triglyceride-to-HDL ratio improves dramatically, often falling below 1.0
• Fasting insulin drops to low single digits in most people
• HbA1c improves or stabilizes in the low-normal range
• hs-CRP decreases significantly, often falling below 0.5 mg/L
• Ferritin may rise over time due to high heme iron intake
• Vitamin D may remain low without supplementation or sun exposure

These patterns do not guarantee your results will match, but they represent the most commonly reported trends. Individual variation is significant, and genetics, activity level, body composition, and pre-existing conditions all play a role.

Your blood work is the most objective tool you have for evaluating the carnivore diet’s impact on your health. Get the right tests, at the right intervals, interpreted by the right doctor — and let the data guide your decisions.

For more evidence-based information on carnivore diet health markers, visit our Carnivore Diet Nutrition hub page.