# Low carb to lose fat and gain muscle



## baseball914 (May 1, 2009)

Can you lose fat and gain muscle on a low carb diet


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## tucker01 (May 1, 2009)

Typically you need to choose one or the other.

To gain muscle you require excess calories.  To Lose fat, you require negative calories.

There may be some exceptions, like deconditioned people.  

However, reading some of your previous posts, I think you will see some significant changes, just getting your diet in order, and not worrying about low carbs.


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## Arnold (May 1, 2009)

I guess its possible, but it would be hard to do naturally, add some anabolics and you can.


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## Built (May 1, 2009)

I lost fat and gained muscle on a ketogenic diet. BUT - I was a novice. Unless you're brand new at this, you pretty much have to choose "lose fat" or "build muscle".


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## Liftman (May 1, 2009)

Built said:


> I lost fat and gained muscle on a ketogenic diet. BUT - I was a novice. Unless you're brand new at this, you pretty much have to choose "lose fat" or "build muscle".



Yep if you are just starting out you can do both. If you have been training for a while I would suggest lean down, then gain lean muscle mass and try not to gain the fat back.


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## Kevsworld (May 1, 2009)

You can lose fat and _keep _muscle very well on a cyclical ketogenic diet, but you're not going to gain much muscle on it.


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## sexy_animal (May 1, 2009)

I wouldn't bother with the low carb diets of any sort if you're a beginner.  If you're getting results without the low carbs, just stick with what you're doing.  In my opinion, the carb restricted stuff should generally be left to the more advanced crowd because there are more points of failure with this kind of dieting.


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## Built (May 1, 2009)

sexy_animal said:


> I wouldn't bother with the low carb diets of any sort if you're a beginner.  If you're getting results without the low carbs, just stick with what you're doing.  In my opinion, the carb restricted stuff should generally be left to the more advanced crowd because there are more points of failure with this kind of dieting.




Really? Must be different for women. I did awesome when I did low carb - that's how I started, and I felt really good!


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## danzik17 (May 1, 2009)

sexy_animal said:


> I wouldn't bother with the low carb diets of any sort if you're a beginner.  If you're getting results without the low carbs, just stick with what you're doing.  In my opinion, the carb restricted stuff should generally be left to the more advanced crowd because there are more points of failure with this kind of dieting.



I wouldn't necessarily say that.  As a beginner, tNhe best diet for you is simply one that you can stick to.

Some may disagree, but I would never ever try to have a newbie run a PSMF or some other ridiculously rigid diet, they don't have the diet or training experience to do it.

Just get accustomed to sticking to a relatively healthy diet and THEN try more advanced stuff.  It's more important to build a healthy base, to find healthy foods you enjoy, and to get accustomed to being consistent with your diet.


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## Built (May 1, 2009)

I would tend to agree, for any of a number of reasons - one  of which being "learn how to maintain your weight FIRST". If you don't know how to do that, how can you hope to maintain your loss?


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## sexy_animal (May 2, 2009)

danzik17 said:


> I wouldn't necessarily say that.  As a beginner, tNhe best diet for you is simply one that you can stick to.
> 
> Some may disagree, but I would never ever try to have a newbie run a PSMF or some other ridiculously rigid diet, they don't have the diet or training experience to do it.
> 
> Just get accustomed to sticking to a relatively healthy diet and THEN try more advanced stuff.  It's more important to build a healthy base, to find healthy foods you enjoy, and to get accustomed to being consistent with your diet.



That's pretty much what I meant.  I tried the Atkins diet when it was the rage, had good results, but eventually I got fed up and quit.

Some time later, when I decided to make a commitment to my health I started looking for foods that were enjoyable and non-fattening.  It took me about a year to establish what kind of stuff I like and can live with.  I was losing fat and building muscle all throughout.  Then when I plauteued I started to look for methods to break the plauteau, and that's where carb restricted stuff came into play for me.  I wouldn't have done it unless it was totally necessary because I like carbs...a lot


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