Chapter 4 covered what to buy and what to expect during the transition. This chapter is about what your daily cooking practice actually looks like once you're past the first few weeks — the recipes I rotate through, the equipment that makes this sustainable, and the salt question (which comes up constantly).
What I actually eat on a normal day
I'm honestly pretty boring. I rotate maybe six or seven cuts and preparations and that's the whole repertoire. The trick to staying on this diet long-term is to find two or three preparations you genuinely look forward to, then have those make up the bulk of your eating.
For me, those defaults are:
- Air-fried steak from frozen. This is the staple. Easy peasy. Tasty. Crispy on the outside and juicy in the middle. Length of time cooking will depend on how you prefer your steak temperature. 1 steak (ribeye or New York strip recommended, or a 1.5-inch slice of chuck roast), salt, air fryer. Coat with salt. 450°F in the air fryer for 8 minutes on one side. Flip and 8 minutes on the other side. That will give a 1.5-inch steak approximately a medium-rare finish. If it's not cooked enough for you, cook for another 2 or 3 minutes. If it's a thinner steak, it may need less time.
- Slow-cooker beef stew (Lion Diet version). Beef roast, 1–2 cups water, salt, slow cooker on high for 6+ hours. The full recipe is here. This is the lowest-effort recipe on the site.
- Ground beef patties — salted, pan-seared.
- Lamb chops — salted, pan-fried or air-fried.
- Bone broth — beef bones simmered for many hours, salted. Warming, satisfying, makes leftover meat go further.
That's most weeks. Once or twice a week I do something a little more elaborate — Tammy's Shepherd's Pie when I'm reintroducing parsnips and sweet potatoes, roasted beef ribs for an oven-cooked option, or air-fried lamb racks if I want something restaurant-style.
Browsing the recipes section
The full recipe collection lives at liondiet.com/lion-diet-recipes/. It's split into three sections:
- Lion Diet Recipes — ruminant meat plus salt only. These are the recipes that work during the strict elimination phase.
- Weaning In & Reintroduction Recipes — includes low-reactivity plant foods like sweet potatoes, parsnips, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower. Useful when you're transitioning in or beginning to reintroduce.
- Carnivore Recipes — broader animal foods (eggs, dairy, poultry, fish). For when you've identified what you tolerate and are widening the diet.
The Lion Diet ones I reach for most often:
- Air-Fried Steak from Frozen — the staple.
- Roasted Beef Ribs — super easy, only 5 minutes of prep time. Higher in histamine than pressure-cooked then air-fried beef ribs, so adjust if you're histamine-sensitive.
- Instant Pot Ribs — the lower-histamine version: pressure cook first, then air fry for crispness.
- BBQ Steak — the dry-salt-and-grill approach.
- Fried Steak — cast iron, simple.
- Reverse-Seared Steak — oven low, then sear high. Best for thick cuts.
- Beef Broth (Soup) — basics for bone broth.
- Better Than Bacon — strips of beef fat cooked crispy. The Lion Diet answer to "but what about breakfast?"
- Air-Fried Chicken Wings — for the reintroduction phase, not strict Lion Diet, but worth knowing.
If you've got an Instant Pot, the air-fried-after-pressure-cooked pattern is the single biggest histamine-reducing trick I know. Pressure cooking is the lowest-histamine method of cooking meat. Air frying after gives you the crust. Combine them and you get tender, crispy, low-histamine results.
Salt — the constantly-asked question
Salt deserves its own section because the questions come up endlessly.
Which kind? Use a real salt. Unrefined sea salt or Himalayan pink salt are good defaults. Redmond Real Salt is what I usually keep around. Iodized table salt is fine in a pinch but it's stripped of trace minerals and contains anti-caking agents that some people react to.
How much? Salt your meat generously. Most people undersalt on this diet because mainstream nutrition advice says less salt is healthier. On a low-carb diet you genuinely need more salt — your kidneys excrete it faster. If you're getting headaches, leg cramps, or light-headedness when standing up, the first thing to try is more salt.
What about iodine? Most unrefined salts don't have added iodine, which is something to think about long-term. Beef is a reasonable iodine source. So is unrefined sea salt (varies by brand). If you're long-term on the diet and you don't eat fish or organ meat, occasional iodized salt isn't a bad idea.
What about CIRS / mold patients and salt? If you've been diagnosed with CIRS (chronic inflammatory response syndrome, often from mold exposure), some protocols restrict salt. I had to do this for a stretch and wrote about it in Update: Mold, Cutting Salt, and CIRS. For most healthy people on the diet, plenty of salt is fine and necessary.
Cookware — what you actually need
I covered the basics in Chapter 4. To repeat the priority order:
- Air fryer. Single biggest cooking quality-of-life upgrade for this diet. If you're going to buy one thing, buy this.
- Slow cooker with timer. Set it before bed, wake up to food. Worth the extra $15 for the timer.
- Cast iron pan. Lasts forever, sears beautifully, no non-stick coating to worry about.
- Meat thermometer. Especially helpful early on when you're learning doneness.
- Instant Pot or pressure cooker. For low-histamine cooking and for tougher cuts (chuck, brisket, short ribs).
What you don't need: a sous vide setup (the air fryer covers most of what sous vide does), expensive knives (one decent chef's knife is plenty), or a smoker (smoked meats are high-histamine anyway and contain combustion products you may not want).
The full list of products I actually use is in Products for a Heavy Meat Diet.
Sourcing — the practical answer
The honest, blunt answer: buy the best meat you can afford from sources you trust, and don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
Grass-fed and grass-finished beef has a more favorable fat profile (lower in inflammatory linoleic acid, higher in omega-3s and CLA) but it's also expensive. Conventional grocery-store beef will get you all the benefits of the diet — the difference is at the margins.
If you have histamine intolerance or you're highly reactive, sourcing matters more. Fresh, unaged, unfrozen, properly-handled meat makes a real difference. Better Fed Beef is a brand I trust for this (discount code LIONDIET). Local ranchers who can sell you a quarter or half cow direct are great if you have freezer space.
What to avoid:
- Anything pre-marinated, pre-seasoned, or sold in a sauce.
- "Grass-fed" without "grass-finished" — most of these are actually grain-finished.
- Heavily processed deli meats, cured meats, jerky (all high-histamine, most have additives).
- "Natural" or "all natural" labels — these terms are essentially meaningless in U.S. food labeling.
What about supplements?
For the first month or two on the diet, the only thing I'd consider supplementing is electrolytes (covered in Chapter 4). Most other supplements add complexity and can themselves cause reactions.
If you've been on the diet for a while and you want to add things:
- Electrolytes: sodium, potassium, magnesium. Always.
- Histamine support: if you have histamine intolerance, DAO enzyme (1–2 capsules 15 minutes before meals) can help.
- Vitamin D and K2: useful if you don't get sun, or in winter.
- 5-HTP: if you have residual anxiety or depression (but not if you're on an SSRI — combining them causes serotonin syndrome). See Chapter 8.
Avoid supplements with fillers, flavorings, sweeteners, food dyes, or "natural flavor" — any of those can be a hidden reaction trigger that you'll then blame on the diet. More on supplements here.
Eating to satiety, not by the clock
On the Lion Diet, hunger usually regulates itself. Most people end up eating two or three times a day, often with no breakfast in the morning. That's normal. Don't force yourself to eat by the clock — your body is rebuilding insulin sensitivity and recalibrating hunger signals, and forced eating slows that down.
It's also fine to eat a lot. Especially in the first month, your body may need substantially more calories than you expect — meat is satiating, and you may not realize how undernourished you were before. Eat until you're not hungry. Repeat.
Chapter 6 covers the conditions that the diet typically helps — and the timelines for each.