Influencer Claims She Lost 30 Lbs. Eating Meat, Sticks of Butter, Congealed Oxtail Fat and '12 to 16 Eggs a Day'

Mar. 15, 2025

Social media influencer Steakandbuttergal.Photo:Steak and Butter Gal/YouTube

Steak and Butter Gal/YouTube

An influencer claims her diet of meat and butter has health benefits and believes high-fat foods helped her lose 30 lbs., cleared up her cystic acne and psoriasis and improved her PMS symptoms.

Posting under the name Steakandbuttergal to more than a million followers acrossYouTube,InstagramandTikTok, Isabella “Bella” Ma touts the benefits of the “carnivore diet.” She says she eats“soft-boiled eggs,”“deliciously seared fatty steaks,” and “lots and lots of cold butter.” Along with claims about weight loss and improvements to her health and skin, Ma said“I no longer fart [or] have brain fog.”

Ma also eats “golden jello” — congealed boiled oxtail fat — which she says is good for “skin, hair, nails, and anti-aging,” and says that for the last five years, she’s primarily eaten beef, lamb, seafood, and“twelve to sixteen eggs a day.”

The carnivore diet she promotes is similar to Keto or Atkins, both low-carb, high-fat diet trends. By limiting carbs, the body goes into a state of ketosis, burning fat instead of sugar for energy. And while Keto and Atkins allow low-carb vegetables like broccoli and spinach, while Ma is proudly “vegetable-free.”

LDL (low-density lipoprotein) — aka, “bad cholesterol” — raises your risk for heart attack and stroke, theU.S. Centers for Disease Control explains, while HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol —aka, “good cholesterol”—“absorbs cholesterol in the blood and carries it back to the liver.”

Stock image of steak with butter.Getty

Getty

That’s not what Dr. Nisha Parikh, system director of women’s heart health at Northwell Health, thinks. As she tells PEOPLE, Ma’s LDL is  “in a dangerously high range regardless of any of the other biomarkers.”

“That’s why we call it the bad cholesterol level,” she said of thelow-density lipoprotein. “That amount of saturated fat over longer periods of time will lead to build up of atherosclerotic plaque. So that’s essentially plaque that’s filled with cholesterol that sits on the inside of your blood vessels,” Parikh says, explaining it can lead to a stroke or heart disease.

And “heart disease,” she says, “is a lifelong disease.”

Parikh also pointed out that Ma’s baseline numbers from a vegan lifestyle put her at a healthy starting point; this may not be the case for the average person who goes on an all-meat, all-fat diet.

“The vast majority of studies, including clinical trials over the last four to five decades, have essentially shown us that cholesterol is a major risk factor for heart disease and in particular, the LDL cholesterol is a major risk factor for heart disease,” she says.

“An extreme diet that might help somebody lose weight in the short term, but in the long term, it could do permanent damage to your heart,” Parikh said, adding, “And to your blood vessels. And maybe your brain.”

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source: people.com