Is this possible? I know you cannot add muscle while restricting calories or in a Calorie deficit but is it possible if you are eating a decent amount of calories from strictly Fat/Protein and losing fat since you are restricting carbs?
I have been doing low carb on the weekdays and high carb on the weekends for the past 6 weeks and have lost 1 pound per week while working out 3 days a week.
If your losing body fat, your most likely in a calorie restricted state. Low carb or not, your body needs to be expending more than your intaking to burn fat. If you hit you calories on the head, its possible to burn some fat and build some muscle (this would be easy for a beginner), but most people tend to pick one or the other for better results.
Careful, many around here will roast you for this type of question. Can I gain muscle and lose fat? You are either bulking up and building muscle or you are cutting. In a bulking phase you will try to over eat and create a calorie surplus so that some of the intake can go to building muscle versus eating the same amount of calories you always have to just sustain your movement and daily caloric expenditure.
When you are cutting you will try to cut 10-15% of your daily caloric expenditure (+workout calories burned). When cutting you keep going to the gym to help burn calories but most importantly maintain the muscle while you are in a calorie deficient state. After all that topical information is said yes you can lose fat and gain muscle but your body fat would have to be above normal. Somewhere in the obese category I suppose.
After all that is said I do not claim to be a genius. This are just things that I have picked up along the way. People who are smarter please feel free to correct me… P.S. - For the mases Amar I think you should let us know your BF%, Height, Weight to more accurately assess your position.
[quote]elusive wrote:
If your losing body fat, your most likely in a calorie restricted state. Low carb or not, your body needs to be expending more than your intaking to burn fat. If you hit you calories on the head, its possible to burn some fat and build some muscle (this would be easy for a beginner), but most people tend to pick one or the other for better results.[/quote]
Good post. If you are a beginner concentrate on eating healthy and keeping calories near or just below maintance combined with quality workouts and the shift in body composition will happen. After a good six months to a year of this you should get to a point where you can then decide if you want to really rip up or bulk for mass.
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I know you cant add muscle while losing fat normally, it’s just that I’m not too familiar with carb cycling (low carb during the week, high carb on weekends). I feel like I am eating plenty of food, I’m never really hungry, and I’m losing weight anyway, since mostly all of my calories are coming from Fat/Protein.
Maybe I am just eating less calories than I think I am since Fat keeps you satiated longer than carbs?
And I am 5’6, 157 lbs when I first wake up, down from 163-4 around 6-7 weeks ago.Been working out for a year so far. Bench is 225, Squat 300, DL 395.
http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=811783
Read this and then start a food log. Then you will follow the plan and Grow!
You sound like your on the Anabolic Diet and we’ve got a huge thread here on the forums about it. The people there will know much more about the diet and its benefits/draw backs than I do. But if your seeing positive changes in your body comp. why change things up? Are you losing strenght, do you feel run down? Everyone is different, if your happy with your current results keep trucking!
-elu
[quote]Amar wrote:
Maybe I am just eating less calories than I think I am since Fat keeps you satiated longer than carbs?
[/quote]
Bingo.
You can look up G-Flux by John Berardi on the site, which might give you some insight into what you might be thinking.
But what about the whole concept of
when someone is low carb dieting they can
eat more food without gaining excess fat.
Or when low carbing, there are less incidents of insulin rising and more glucagon (fat burning) being present?
Wouldn’t these points lead to more fat
being burned?