A mum who gorges on a whopping 5,000 calories of meat, eggs, and butter daily has claimed the carnivore diet has "transformed" her body and self-esteem despite facing relentless criticism from vegans online. Rachel Ashby from Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, stumbled upon the carnivore diet in 2019. Initially, she aimed to debunk its contentious benefits – yet, after dropping seven pounds within a week, she was sold on the idea. The 41-year-old single mother-of-four's diet is exclusively animal-based, with her daily intake including three steaks, ten eggs, a block of butter, and 1kg of chicken, reports Gloucestershire Live.

Since embracing this lifestyle, she hasn't purchased any veggies, not even for her kids, aged as young as nine, who occasionally follow the diet themselves. Despite NHS guidelines warning that high meat consumption could raise the risk of bowel cancer and advocating for a balanced diet rich in fruits and vegetables, fitness enthusiast Rachel credits her all-meat regime for boosting her muscle mass and helping her lose four stone.

She's even turned her dietary habits into a commercial venture, creating beauty products from beef fat for use on her face, hair, and body. Despite the backlash she receives online, particularly from the vegan community, Rachel feels more confident than ever. The carnivore diet only allows the consumption of meat, poultry, eggs, seafood, fish, some dairy products, and water. The diet excludes all produce, as well as grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds.

Speaking to PA Real Life, Rachel, mother to Sonny-Rae, nine, Mya, 15, Kenzie, 19, and Aaliyah, 21, said: "I get a lot of vegans attacking me... they say, 'you can't be a carnivore because you don't eat raw meat' – I can eat it raw, I just prefer it with a sear. "I have a video on my account where I was eating raw meat, but that was purely to annoy the vegans who were attacking me at the time. I've had messages from vegan nurses saying they can't wait for me to get cancer because of the red meat. I would've crumbled if someone had said that to me before, but now I just laugh, it actually makes me feel bad for these people.".

Rachel, who weighed around 15 stone between 2015 and 2018, spent years trying different diets in an effort to lose weight. Despite being 5ft 5in tall, she experimented with everything from calorie counting to the keto diet but often found herself returning to her original weight and feeling "lethargic and bloated". In 2019, she stumbled upon a video of Dr Shawn Baker, a doctor who advocates the carnivore diet as a means to reverse chronic, autoimmune, and mental illnesses. The diet consists solely of animal products, including meat, fish, eggs, animal fats, and small amounts of low-lactose dairy, and it excludes all plant foods such as fruit, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds.

Despite widespread health concerns about the diet, Rachel decided to try it to see if she could "disprove it." She claims that after just three days, she felt more energised and experienced no brain fog. Despite extensive evidence of their health benefits, she now believes vegetables were the cause of her lethargy. Rachel Hardy revealed that she lost seven pounds in the first week without counting calories and simply eating when she felt hungry.

She has maintained this diet ever since, consuming around 5,000 calories of animal products daily. "For breakfast, I have ten eggs with a chunk of butter and salt," Rachel shared. "I literally eat fat for taste, so when fat stops tasting good, that's when I stop eating it, because that's when my body's had enough. For lunch, I have a kilo of chicken wings cooked in the air fryer, and if I feel like I need the fat, then I'll add butter as well.

"For dinner, I often have two ribeye steaks, and if I'm particularly hungry or have had a busy day and need extra energy, I'll have three cooked in butter." Rachel admitted to using an impressive seven blocks of butter a week, but surprisingly, her food bills have not increased. Since adopting the carnivore diet, she hasn't bought vegetables, even for her children, some as young as nine, who live at home. She explained: "My eldest works and buys her own food but my youngest son, eldest son, and youngest daughter all have moments when they are carnivore. They go in and out and if they go and stay around someone's house or go to a party they might have treats from there.

"They're all aware of where the main nutrition comes from. They just kind of sometimes decide by themselves to do it, and then other times they decide to not do it. But they always say that their health increases when they do do it. I don't buy vegetables at all.". When dining out, she usually opts for a steak with eggs on the side or a bun-less cheeseburger. "The meat I eat, I like it blue, just warm on the inside, but still red and bloody," Rachel shared.