Atkins Diet / Muscle loss prevention

[DjBlessedOne]

I have started the Atkins Diet to cut down on alot of my body fat. Ive done this diet before when i was younger and it worked miracles but i also wasnt into lifting like I am now. Soooo my question is, will my body eat up my muscle for energy??? Ive been up'ing my protein intake alot (200-300g's give or take) in hopes it will "feed" my muscle so it doesnt decrease. Im eating Big meals, just no carbs.... (alot of meats and greens) so im not ever starving really.

Just looking for positive feedback, no bashing like im a idiot. Just looking to get educated since the body is a Science.


Thanks!

o and i guess i should list my specs.
21 yrs old
208 Lb
5'9 (height)

[scotties123]

You don't need 300g protein. 200g is enough. The rest is extra cals. And speaking of cals, that's the only number that really matters at the end of the day. People eat 200g+ carbs a day, but maintain a calorie deficit and lose weight regularly. Count cals and keep it at least 500 under maintenance. Other than that, do whatever diet you want as long as you get 1g protein/lb lean body mass.

[DjBlessedOne]

300g was more of a estimate, and ya all i eat is lean meats and veggies and salads. So i assume my calorie intake low. I take in no sweets also since im getting alot of fat intake from what i eat. So i was just afraid the body uses carbs as energy and since im eating no carbs pretty much (less than 20g) I figured my body would turn to my muscles for fuel. I wanna maintain as much muscle as i can while cutting. I understand my gains probly wont progress like they use to (before diet) but i definetly dont wanna move backwards..... : /

[scotties123]

1) Don't assume.
2) Carbs are not the enemy, and are needed for muscle growth. Many people that do keto diets with extremely low carbs pick a day to carb up and replenish glycogen stores.
3) Figure out actual # of cals as this will be the determining factor of whether or not you lose weight.
4) ????
5) Profit

[Huck64]

What your doing will work and it will burn mostly fat due to your body going into ketosis. Instead of you body using carbs in the glycolysis cascade to make pyruvate to put into the krebs cycle your body will begin burning fat and go into the krebs cycle with Acetyl CoA. A couple of things to note, if you eat any carbs at all your body will preferentially burn those first and stop burning fat to acetyl CoA and resume glycolysis. Also, ketosis for an extending period of time is harmful to the body. Biproducts of this diet are ketones which are toxic (think acetone). Theres nothing wrong with this as long as you don't stay in ketosis too long.

[DjBlessedOne]

"Instead of you body using carbs in the glycolysis cascade to make pyruvate to put into the krebs cycle your body will begin burning fat and go into the krebs cycle with Acetyl CoA"
I wish i understood more of the termanology used but I guess i can understand most of it.
And ya i figure this diet for large periods of time wouldnt be so great. sooo i was planning on 2-3 weeks of strict no carbs low low carbs. Then after slowly introduce some carbs like a cup of brown rice etc.

More feedback is welcomed,
I appreciate it Huck and Scotties

[mcspam]

I wouldn't recommend the atkin's diet because you will see alot of muscle loss even with alot of protein intake. Why not do a CKD diet? It's basically the same thing except you have 1-2 days worth of carb loading to trick your body.

[yeahfairly]

There have been studies conducted using body builders who have done an extremely low carb / low fat diet while cutting. They were consuming right at 1560 calories a day and their carb intake was below 10 grams and their fat intake was miniscule! To make a long story short, they lost fat, none had any measurable lbm loss, and most gained lbm. You probably wouldn't want to do this long term, I think they were cycling between two weeks on and two weeks off, eating carbs during off weeks and still maintaining a calorie deficit.

[Dominikm]

you will be fine and don't worry about muscle loss if you plan to get that much protien in (200g+). When I did the velocity diet I was on 250g protien a day from the shakes and all my lifts went up... backing the last post /\