Low Carbs and ED

Anyone follow a low carb diet for an extended time and experience ED? I’ve been on some sort of low carb diet for about 2 yrs now and its been a serious problem. I’m only 21 and am prone to this problem to begin with, but it hasn’t been too bad, a problem here and there. But with low carbs sometimes I cant get it or keep it up, which is scary since I sometimes use Viagra and i’m only 21. I know for a 2 week period I took a break and ate carbs I started having morning erections, which now I dont. Well, Trying to get ripped, maybe if I try 60%prot, 30%fat and 20%carbs, especially post-workout that would help. Doing Bev Int type diet of 60%prot, 30%fat and 10%carbs from vegetables. Anyway, anyone else have this problem with low carb diets? If so, how did you remedy the problem. Also, is there any direct correlation between carbs and erections, or am I just screwed either way?

You’re not by any chance taking an ephedra-like product while you’re on this low carb diet are you? Some fat burners that contain such compounds cause ED in some men. Never happened to me, of course, uh uh, no way…

I have an idea, eat carbs, you do not have to eat low carbs to get ripped. I don’t know of any correlation between the two, but if you eat carbs and you can perform then the low carb diet is not for you. It is a DIET for quick weight loss it is not intented for long use.

No one diet can work for everyone, but perhaps my experience can help. I have found that I got LEANER from eating low GI carbs, rather than not eating any at all. I felt much better, and yes, I got it up more frequently too. I also had much more energy for workouts, my mood was better and I felt that I performed better mentally. Of course, if I ate high GI carbs, I got fat.

You sound like your me writing the post. I had the EXACT same problems. I to used the Beverly International, diet for about a year and noticed my erections disapeared and I’m only 23. I also noticed that their diet didn’t work for me after 3 months, (I plateaued majorly). I fixed the problem after consulting with some experts they recommended that I bring carbs back in to around 40% and raise my calories on workout days above maintnace. I did it worked I am horny all the time and my erections are super strong and frequent. It was hard to bring carbs back in because you will gain some water weight back, but after 2 weeks the bloat look will go down and you look bigger and tighter again, and feel great!

I think the problem comes from dehydration and low blood volume; I get the same thing from really extended workouts, and have, on occasion, from keto dieting as well. The trick is to cause an increase in blood volume immediately prior to giving willy his workout. Try knocking back a decent quantity of high GI carbs, or possibly some alchohol/glycerol, along with a lot of water, 30min ahead of time. I usually dring 5 or 6 Beam and Cokes before my Friday/Saturday night workouts (more if necessary…); then enjoy knocking myself back into ketosis without a single sprint…

Dante, how long did it take you to get back to normal “functioning”. I feel like Its getting better already, just wanted to know if it took a while for all problems to subside. Well, I’m preparing for a contest 4 months from now. It will be my 1st, and Since I cant go too low with carbs b/c of my problem, I was thinking trying 50%protein, 30%carbs and 20%fat. Hopefully I can reach the same conditioning with this diet. Has your fat loss been better too since increasing carbs?

I actually stopped trying to lose fat, for a couple of months to normalize my body. It took about 1month to feel normal again. My bodfat increased slightly because I ate alott more and I ate quite a few cheat meals because of the long deprivation I put myself through. Finish your contest and then I would take month off and increase clean food and carbs. I know now that my body has reached homeostasis with carbs it doesn’t blow up with one bad meal or carb day. I know I can loose weight eating carbs and only cut them down as I get closer to competition weight. I would only reduce carbs 2 weeks at a time before bringing them back in. Are you getting enough fats? Fish oils, Cla, Udo’s, Olive oil, I prefer oils because you wont binge on them. I really felt that eating alott of protein fucks your system up I think it spends alott of energy digesting and doing something with the excess amino Acids floating around the blood stream. I find eating slightly less like 1.2to 1.5g per lb of LBM instead of 2.0 and eating more carbs was much better on my body.