Since I met my original goal weight of 165 lbs and 20% bf I've decided to up my goal to 155 lbs and 15% bf. I think at that point I will start lifting and use that to lower my % bf, but only by adding muscle.

One thing that has crossed my mind is what happens when you get to a low bf, is there a limitation to how low you can get or will it just keep being burnt as fuel. Will I at some point have to add even more carbs to my diet to maintain instead of burn or will it level out. Or will adding more calories of fat and/or protein do the trick.

Anyone have any ideas on this subject?

Thanks,
Mike

There is a limit yes. With males it's a pertty low one though. Most of those super buff body builders can get down around soemthing like 8% for ocmpatition, but between compatitions they let it get up to a more normal 10-12% really. They have to go to extream measures before compatition to push it low.

I'd suggest starting with the weight lifting now. A higher lean mass increases your metabolism and would make burning the body fat even easier.

Not only will weight lifting now do everything that LadyBelle mentions, but it changes the look of your body. You may decide that weight is not the issue at this point (muscle weighing more than fat) but firmness, definition, and overall appearance. Get to the gym now rather than later. IMHO

Good info, but my main question has to do with the Atkins diet and how low someone might get by using this diet. I agree with weight lifting now, I'm just curious about how this diet would work when you get to a certain point.

I would think that there would be a set point and to get below that you would need to do something extreem.

So would just being on Atkins cause you to go down to 0% bf and die or would there be a certain limitation where the body would no longer allow you to lose more bf unless you did something extreem? (Extreem being something a competitive lifter would do)

Befor eyou got to 0% your body would be happily eating away at muscle, internal organs, bone density, and so on. You can get there on any diet. You just have to lower your calories enough. One girl on TV was 28, around 5'5" and weighed 60 pounds. I don't think she had made it to 0% body fat yet, but by limiting her claories to 20 a day she had come close. Of course she had no muscles at all, her circulation was so bad her feet were purple, she had many health issues and very little hair left, but it can be done.

If you are eating healthy though and enough calories and nutrients to support your b odies needs, then you would probably get within the healthy range of body fat and stay there. Weather or not you were on the upper end of healthy or the lower would probably depend on body type, genetics, activity levels, and so on

Intresting, that's what I thought.

What makes it more interesting is that even when you consume fat+protein and get enough calories to sustain your body, and because you don't consume as much carbs your body goes into ketosis and burns fat.

It would seem that you could get a really low body fat because your body still burns the body fat yet has enough energy from protein and fat that it doesn't try to turn your muscle, etc into fuel to keep it alive.

So from that I would start to lean towards thinking that you could get a very low body fat and still be healty. But I'm sure that, as you said, genetics would place a set point as to how low your body would go.

Perhaps I'm missing something here and the outcome I think might happen doesn't match up with what would really happen. Perhaps the part I am missing is what the body does once it gets to the state of "healthy body fat composition". Perhaps at that point ketosis no longer occurs.

The more you think you know...

I got down to my goal of 185 and was 19 percent body fat. I have since gotten down to 172 pounds, and I am still at 19 percent body fat. Now measurements are only so accurate (unless you lose fat in the areas they measure, you dont show a change), but the fact is that I am probably losing lean muscle mass.

Keep in mind that I run 5 days a week and have been doing weights throughout my diet on a bowflex. I think you reach a point where you cannot really lose weight and gain muscle effectively at the same time. I have been advised to start eating more, and trying to up my weight routine again to see if my BF changes.
Everyone is different, but I have my doubts on getting much below 15 percent body fat on a high fat diet.

brobin