Greetings to all. I am new to this forum, but have been on the Atkins Diet for a couple of months now. The problem I currently have with my Low Carb diet is with regard to lean muscle mass. Although I have lost weight with the diet I am getting weaker and can't find the cause. For example, before starting Atkins I was lifting 185 lbs for 3 sets of 10 on my bench press. Now, after two months on the diet I am barely able to bench 155 lbs. I also believe my endurance has decreased. In addition to the diet and weight training, I do aerobic excercise at 85% of my MHR for 40 minutes 4 times a week. My daily diet consists of well over 100 grams of protien with a genoreous fat intake and under 20 grams of impact carbs along with more than a gallon of H20. I even tried increasing my fat intake in hopes of regaining strength and endurance, to no avail. I have never experienced this type of problem before, and it seems to go against what I have read in Dr. Atkin's book. I also take a multi-vitamin and EFA's reccomended by Atkins. Are carbs neccesary for increasing muscle mass?...Any help anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Hello, Mw, You work out quite intensly. Perhaps you should read Trainer Dan's stuff. Most of it makes sense, except he uses alot of supplements I would never take. Read all opinions with a grain of salt. I think he says people who work out alot need different food requirements. which makes sense. Anyhow, check it out. Good luck.

Even if you aren't doing BFL, this thread might answer some of your concerns. I don't really recall the Atkins book specifically speaking to the dietary needs of people who are intensively weight training, so you may need to poke around in the exercise forums and post questions to members who are more likely dealing with or are familiar with your specific requirements. There are several people who are following Atkins Induction perfectly and are quite successfully bulking up/toning up. They may be able to tell you how to customize the plan to support your efforts more effectively - and most likely you'll find them in the exercise forums.

Hope this helps.

Your protein needs will vary, but the rule of thumb is at least 1 gram per pound of LBM. It sounds like you are doing some pretty heavy training so your needs would be more than that.

Raising your carbohydrates will give you endurance for working out. 20 grams a day is far to low for intensive training.

As others have said, searching through the exercise forms should give you some idea of where you can tweak lowcarbing to enhance your training routine.

Here's a good thread to start with:

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...&threadid=29683

Karen