Quote:
Originally Posted by carolept
I want to do muscle strengthening exercise. I heard that you need a certain amount of carbs to build muscle tissue. Is that true and how many carb per day. Can I stay low carb and still build muscle strength?
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This is a very good question, and not so straight forward to answer. I will try to answer as clearly as possible.
Strictly speaking, for your body to grow muscle you DO NOT need carbs. However that is only a part of the story...
First.
In order to grow muscle you need to stimulate the muscle fiber (e.g. weight training), and have progressive stimulation, meaning you need to be able to train at a consistent or improving level. If you are on reduced carbs (under 100) this can be a very difficult thing to do. Many weight lifters report that their performance is quite hampered by LCing (can't lift the weight today they could lift a few days ago). So their training is not progressive.
This means the muscle is not getting the total stimulation to grow that it needs, leading to reduced gains.
Second.
Being in ketosis is a catabolic environment. That means the body is in a breakdown or losing environment. To gain optimum muscle mass an anabolic environment is needed, a gaining and growth environment. So LCing and ketosis is not optimum for muscle gain.
That said, in a little over a year period I have gained about 8-10lbs muscle mass on 20 carbs a day. Doing a total of about 10 carb-ups in that time period.
If your goal is to be a pro Bodybuilder LC is a hard, slow way to get there. But if you don't mind slower growth LC will work OK.
JWJ