someone please give me some reasurance that low carbs diets dont cause alot of muscle loss. i would like to feel stronger and fitter whilst exercising whilst on this diet but it puts me off reading about muscle loss on the low carb diet.
any experiances/information would be appreicated
cheers

Low-carb eating is the best way to prevent muscle loss while losing weight. You take in enough protein so that the body does not have to breakdown muscles for amino acids. The fat you eat is the source for energy.

After over three years, I have more strength and endurance than before.

Ditto. While low carbing, I fit into the same clothes at 135 lbs as I did when I was in the 120s on low-fat. LC preserves (or rebuilds, in my case ) lean body mass.



If you care to quote your sources, we'll happily debunk them for you.

Low Carb was THE bodybuilding diet before the steroid age. Do a web search on Vince Gironda. His trainees lost all their fat, kept plenty of muscle, and only had carbs 1-2 meals per week.

nice 1 thanks for the help

I believe my muscles are spared on low carb and waste away on lowfat(personally), but I still feel more weakness in my legs when exercising initially. I may just be feeling normal induction level weak legs. No pain though.When lowfat, I believe my form became smaller yet flabbier if that makes sense.

If your protein intake is adequate, you should have no problems even without exercise. If you do resistance training, you'll gain muscle size. Be sure to increase your protein a bit if you do resistance.

The reason LF causes muscle wasting, in my opinion, are several. First, most people who actually loose weight on LF do so with very low calories, much lower than the average LCer. They also cut protein intake, because it's usually found with fat in foods like meat and nuts. They usually have high fiber, which intereferes with the absorption of many nutrients. LF dieters also seem to put more emphasis on aerobic exercising, ignoring resistance training.

Low fat dieters are also more likely to have bone loss...but with LC and high fat, better absorption and use of calcium is seen with LC deiters.

And ammo for when you're told that high protein = kidney damage. There is NO evidence, ANYWHERE in research, that shows any damage to normal, healthy kidneys. Even the standards of restricting protein in kidney damaged people is starting to be questioned! Liver too....LC is not damaging to the liver according to research. LF, however can cause problems with both organs....fatty liver is connected to high carb intake and diabetes (from excess carb intake and insulin resistance) is KNOWN to cause kidney damage unless very carefully controlled.....which won't happen on LF.

Oh, something else that everyone should know. Every diet will cause a loss of muscle if you're not exercising a bit.

Jonny

Turn your PM option on and I will send you some important info about muscle loss, catabolic states, and how LC fits into it all.

Cheers

PS: A link to get you started
http://www.ironmagazineforums.com/s...ead.php?t=21113

You are *guaranteed* to lose LBM with your weight if you don't do the LC properly with resistance training

Moses

The closer you are to a personal healthy weight, the more you will have to exercise to retain muscle. I'm seeing this effect currently. I keep a heck of a lot more muscle on LC than LF, though.

This is so very true, especially if you are not exercising. You lose muscle in this manner, not from the lack of nutrition but now your body is lighter. Muscle need not work so hard to support a larger body. So naturally, you will lose muscle. This is why exercise is important during those wieghtloss years.

I believe that nutrition is key to sustaining muscle. If you don't eat enough, you will lose weight but the weight will be both water and muscle (and fat)

The basic fat loss principle is to eat enough to support your LBM, and exercise to burn the fat. If you "starve" the fat, you will starve your body and lose LBM. That is why ultimately, your metabolism balance, and caloric balance is critical.

Being lighter or larger does not make a difference. It is about your LBM. And this is why conservering (or building) LBM is critical to effective fat loss. The more muscle you have, the more ongoing metabolism burning you will have. This is also one of the dangers of not following a LC diet properly. If you do not preserve your LBM, yes you will lose weight but if you lose LBM also, your metabolism is so comprimised that if you fall off the diet, you will gain pounds like you've never dreamed possible. Fat pounds I might add.

You must eat the proper nutrition to perserve your LBM as you lose fat. It is critical to keep your metabolism as high as possible during your fat loss or "cutting" phase so that when you reach your goal weight, you have not compromised your metabolism, and you have not lost LBM.

This is why many professionals, and experienced people in losing fat (body builders for example, who bulk-gain fat and muscle on a large scale, then lose all the fat while retaining muscle on a yearly basis) stress the importance of establishing good basic eating habits. These habits can fit into any LC program you are in.

They include small meal sizes with high frequency, food combinations, caloric monitoring, to name a few. Advanced techniques involve carb cycling, including some keto style approaches.

Resistance training is critical to LBM preservation as well, but is ineffective alone. You must support it with the proper diet. If you do not feed your muscles properly, you will not reap the benefits of resistance training. For example, if you do not take your carbs at the right time for resistance training, you will have extremely compromised muscle development. Don't misquote me here, I am not saying you can't do resistance training with a LC diet. On the contrary, the most effective cutting method to date, is a zigzag cycling approach which has many variations, some using ketosis, some that don't. But again, it is based on having the basic nutritional eating habits in place.

The information is plentiful both on these forums and on many building body sites. They all say the same thing. If you want FAT loss, and preserve LBM, you must eat properly, and you must exercise properly. Sounds basic, but that's what it is. As for the details of what is "eating properly" and "exercising properly" you can find it on the specific exercise links here on this forums, or in many of the great exercise program books such as (basic) Body For Life, or (advanced) Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. They are all pretty much common sense however.

Unfortunately, most people (including myself) often get blinded by the quick weight losses and quick found success in some LC diet programs, and neglect the basics. The long term results can be detrimental.

Don't fall into the trap of measuring success by weight, and dont fall into the trap of thinking the LC diets are a shortcut to success for the long term. If you plan on losing fat *for good, and keeping it off for good*, there is no shortcut. You must establish good HABITS in your eating and lifestyle (exercise). Then from there, use the various eating programs and aim for losing fat, and preserving LBM, and contrary to popular belief, it takes discipline and a carefully regulated eating program LC or otherwise.

In a nutshell, get familiar with the basics before you go on any LC program or you will lose LBM with your weight, and in the end, you will be much worse off than when you started.

Cheers

Moses

I think you need 20 posts to PM.