Fatigue and Sluggish Digestion on Carnivore? What Your Gallbladder Might Be Telling You

Understanding fat overload, liver tenderness, and how to adjust with gentle, healing foods.

Photo by Nick Karvounis on Unsplash

When I first started carnivore, I thought more fat meant more healing. More energy. More mental clarity. So I loaded up my plate with butter, tallow, fatty cuts of meat, bacon grease—all the things the internet said would fuel my brain and fix my body.

At first, it felt good. Then… it didn’t.

I started waking up groggy, sluggish, and strangely heavy despite eating “clean.” My digestion slowed to a crawl. My energy felt drained after meals. Sometimes I’d get a strange ache on my right side, under my ribs—nothing alarming, but a dull tenderness I hadn’t noticed before.

That’s when I learned: your gallbladder has something to say about how you handle fat. And it deserves to be listened to.

What’s Really Going On With Fatigue and Digestion on Carnivore?

Carnivore isn’t inherently the problem. But if you’re coming from years (or decades) of:

• Low-fat diets

• Processed foods

• Blood sugar swings

• Chronic stress

Your gallbladder might be underperforming.

What is the gallbladder’s job?
It stores and concentrates bile—a digestive fluid made by the liver that helps you break down fats. When you suddenly ask it to handle way more fat than it’s used to, it can get overwhelmed.

Symptoms of struggling bile flow or sluggish gallbladder:

• Fatigue after meals, especially heavy ones

• Nausea with fatty foods

• Bloating or burping

• Loose stools that float or look greasy

• Tenderness under the right rib cage

• Feeling “heavy” even when portions aren’t huge

Why Too Much Fat Too Fast Backfires

Jumping from low-fat to high-fat overnight can overwhelm bile production. Your body needs time to adjust, and overloading it can cause backups—poor digestion, fatigue, and more inflammation.

Rendered fats (butter, tallow, bacon grease) are harder on a compromised gallbladder than whole cuts where fat and protein are naturally balanced.

If you’re feeling worse, it’s not failure. It’s feedback.

How I Adjusted (And What Finally Helped)