The Strange Diet That Joe Rogan Follows

Joe Rogan is undoubtedly very fit — and he recently took up a pretty bizarre diet with his health in mind.

As a mixed martial artist, he is well-versed in Taekwondo, Muay Thai, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. "I see martial arts as moving forms of meditation. When you're sparring or drilling techniques, you can't think of anything else," he once said, according to Men's Journal. Although he has never competed professionally, Rogan keeps up with his training in his private Octagon ring at his house and using kettlebells. Rogan doesn't just rely on exercise to stay healthy. 

In a 2019 episode of his podcast, "The Joe Rogan Experience," he said, "First of all, I supplement. I believe absolutely, wholeheartedly in supplements." Rogan said he ditched sugar, and then in January 2020, he decided to try out the carnivore diet for a month, which means eating only animal products. "January is #worldcarnivoremonth and I figured, f**k it, let's see what happens. So as an experiment for the entire month of January I'm not eating anything but meat and eggs," he shared on Instagram. The UFC commentator wrote that he had been feeling healthier over the five days since he started, but two weeks later, Rogan made fans uncomfortable by sharing a bit TMI.

Joe Rogan's meat-only diet did boost his energy and help him cut a few pounds, but it wasn't without its downsides. He shared on Instagram, "Let's start with the bad. There's really only one 'bad' thing, and that thing is diarrhea." Rogan's description of his bathroom woes was explosive, to say the least. As he shared, "I haven't s**t my pants yet, but I've come to accept that if I keep going with this diet it's just a matter of time before we lose a battle, and I fill my undies like a rainforest mudslide overtaking a mountain road." While we're not exactly eager to hit the butcher after his comments, the podcaster mentioned that he thinks this grisly side effect is getting better as time goes on. 

Rogan shared on "The Joe Rogan Experience" that he continued to eat mostly meat and eggs, but when he allowed himself to have ice cream and pasta, he experienced body aches for a couple of days until he went back on his carnivore diet. He also shared that he has vitiligo, an autoimmune disease that causes white patches on the skin. Interestingly, he said sticking to the all-meat diet seemed to help improve his condition.

The next year, Rogan said he'd be doing the carnivore diet again, a practice he kept up annually. However, there was an additional drawback.

Although the carnivore diet left Joe Rogan with overall better energy, he stated on an episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience" that he had trouble training while only consuming animal products. "The problem that I had with pure carnivore was that — I work out very hard, and when I work out very hard on pure carnivore, I was struggling. I didn't like it," he confessed. However, he added that when he included fruit to his diet, he had more energy to exercise.

In January 2023, he shared that he was on the tenth day of his yearly carnivore diet. He explained that the first two weeks after going into the strict regimen caused his workouts to suffer. He wrote, "That's what I'm going through now. Totally manageable, but the adjustment to no carbs takes a couple of weeks to get used to. I think I'm going to add in fruit to make that easier." According to his Instagram feed, Rogan is a fan of elk meat, which he often hunts himself with a bow and arrow. In 2022, he posted a pic of prepared elk and wrote, "I love knowing exactly where the meat in my freezer came from."