can you build lean mass when on a low carb diet?
607487
In theory you can build lean muscle while low on carbs, it just is very unlikely to happen. Two things need to happen to build lean mass:\n* your muscles need to be in an anabolic state (i.e. a "build up" state), and \n* you need to provide them with the right nutrients (building blocks) to mass up\n\nWhen you're on an Atkins type diet, the second point should be no problem: if your diet is high on proteins, than your body is likely to have to building blocks necessary to construct new muscle tissue, i.e. lean mass.\nThe problem is the first point: to get into an anabolic, muscle building, state, you typically exercise. Cardio type exercise will help you loose fat. Not a bad thing, if you have to much of that. This will also help improve your body composition, as your existing muscle mass will be paired with fewer and fewer fat.\nHowever, cardio exercise will not help you build new muscle. Only strength training will do that. And herein lies the problem: you need lots of energy to do strength training. The theory behind Atkins is that you can derive energy from burning stored body fat. However, the reality is, that most people find it hard to impossible to do so. Most people on Atkins find that you can derive enough energy through fat burning to hop on the treadmill for 30 minutes, but not enough to hit the weights seriously enough to build muscles.  Only carbohydrates seem to give you the energy boost that allows you to do serious lifting.\n\nBody builders, when preparing for a contest, always face the task of having to build lean muscle, while loosing the fat they accumulated in the off season. I don't know of any such athlete who uses Atkins for that.
166130
Protein and carbohydrates! Vegetables! Eat three good meals a day, and two to three healthy snacks. Don't skip. And exercise. Muscle weighs more than fat, so if you can get on a good regimen of lifting light weights, you can put on muscle and gain the weight. (Even if you just get 2 lb. dumbbells and work out your arms, you'll see a difference in a couple of weeks.)
952363
Eat a balanced diet. If you cram in too much sugar and carbs you will only make your internal system go crazy and get weaker. You need to maintain a sensible pattern of eating but increase the calorie content. That is the key. Eat your maximum number of calories a day; eat them with foods that also give you protein (to build muscle mass which equals more concentrated weight and bulk); eat with three good meals a day; lift some weights to build mass.
1101829
If you switch to a low glycemic carb style of eating, combined with that much exercise you can often lose 3-4 pounds safely each week. More importantly though is that you will be resculpting your body to have more muscle and less fat. Check out Dr. Shari Lieberman and her Transitions lifestyle for more info.
814983
lean meats,vegetables, something to help build muscle mass...vitamins and supplment pills. Limit carbs...only good carbs..oats,wheats,etc. bad carbs....fatty food
205484
Well, I have a bit of the same problem. Like you, I've been lean my whole life. If you feel you are underweight, try going to see a doctor who can check out your thyroid. You may have what I have, hyperthyroid. So we burn off energy faster than the normal person which is why we stay lean. However, to gain weight consists of certain factors. For one, people will tell you to try eating more. Instead, write down what you eat for about a week and then compare it to the food pyramid. Based on what you eat, it will tell you what food to eat more of to gain weight. For me, I realized I needed to eat more carbohydrates. Be careful if people tell you to eat a lot of protein. Everything must be done in moderation. Too much protein can have an effect on female hormonic changes as well as other things not so good. Also, start weight lifting. This will increase muscle as well as weight (What's called BMI; you can look it up online). I hope I've been of some help.
1089217
Yes.  Low carb diets mostly make your body shed water weight.  So, eventually, you will not have any more water to shed.
758163
All that kind of diet will do is lead to hypoglicemia.  If you want to gain weight, you should focus on eating a healthy diet with higher percentages of complex carbohydrates.  Don't skimp on the protien, but add a carb and/or an animal or soy-based fat (like whole milk) to each meal in addition to the standard sized portion.\n\nAgain, you want to avoid loading up on junk food, since your added calories will be stored as fat and will sap your energy.  You want to DEVELOP your body, not FATTEN it.\n\nYour best start is dairy.  Keep eating balanced meals and add in eggs, milk, and cheese where ever you can.
1122850
No.\n\nYou need to have some balance in your diet of fruits and vegetables, meats and fish, and fats.\n\nAnd also count calories.\n\nGood Luck!
85213
Of course.  Just because you are in a ketogenic state, that doesn't prevent you from absolute weight gain.  It simply means your body will convert fats into energy.  It's actually dangerous to maintain a ketogenic state for long periods as your fooling your body to use fat as a primary energy source rather than glucose which can affect your metabolism negatively in the long-term.  \n\nIf your caloric intake exceeds your caloric expenditure, your body will still convert excess calories to fat unless your physical activity levels are very high.\n\nUse this tool to roughly estimate how many calories you burn per day to better assess your calorie intake.\n\nhttp://www.preventdisease.com/healthtools/articles/bmr.html
210921
Eating healthy and EXERCISE!! Work out 5 days a week for an hour to 2 hours and have a protein based diet with low carbs.. try not to eat carbs late at night or for dinner... it usually takes 6 weeks for results to be seen.. but it depends on weight and age.. good luck!
437688
Low carb diets are not healthy. You need carbs to give you energy. The best way to lose weight is exercise. Eat healthier. Once a person starts to exercise they tend to like it. I like running. Running helps reduce stress, gets you in shape, and makes you feel better. Try running with friends. Oh yeah and remember, patience is a virtue.
153641
cut carbs eat more protein and excersie but you should not worry about 1kg its only 2.2 pounds itt may be water weight
514559
Healthy eating habits and a great weekly exercise routine will assists. I have also heard pilates is wonderful for assisting bone density so keep that in mind. If you follow a low GI healthy eating plan you will succeed. \n\nIf you want to do this it is for life so you need to totally change your way of eating and exercising. This is not a diet rather than a healthy eating plan for life. So no more talking diet cause it means time limit. \n\nHere are the golden rules: \nInitially cut down to 1200 (women) & 1500 (men) calories. \nExercise 6 times per week for 1 hours a day. Do three weight sessions and three cardio sessions. No gym involved. \nDon't eat carbs after 4pm, never eat carbs within 2 hours of exercise or within 1 hour of exercise. \nDrink 3 litres of water per day. You can have a green tea at the end of the day. \nLimit your fruit in take to 2 pieces per day. \nNever eat dinner after 6pm.\nAdopt of low GI eating plan this is sustainable for life!\nMake low fat dairy choices \n\nFollow this menu plan as a suggestion: \nBreakfast 7am - 1 cup hot water w lemon\n20 minutes later have a bowel of oats w water (no honey) OR\nfruit salad w low GI soy yogurt\nSnack 10am - pear or apple (both low GI)\nLunch 12.30pm - multigrain sandwich w 50g tuna & salad (no butter)\nSnack 3pm - low GI yogurt OR skim berry smoothie (no honey or banana) plenty of ice, 1/2 cup skim milk & 1/4 cup yogurt\nDinner 5.30pm - 120g grilled lean meat/fish/prawns/tofu patties (not fried) w spinach salad & mixed vegies (no whites, carbs) OR 3 egg white/soy omlette with ham, cheese and tomato\nSnack - 1 scoop of low cal low fat ice cream (if hungry)\n\nExercise is must be intense. Refer to www.bodybuilding.com for your weights routine. Never do weights two consecutive days have a cardio day in between. \n\nCardio needs to include running, go hard up stair wells and cycling. You get the most benefits from exercise when your body is totally fatigued and this is when you see changes. Also do heaps of stretching and include pilates in your weekly routine to assist with bone density and recovery of joints and increasing flexibility. \n\nTo maintain you can increase calories to 1200 (women) 1500 (men) and reduce exercise sessions to 3-4 times per week. If weight creeps up again due to holiday period etc.. go back to 1200 cal (women) 1500 (men) and 6 sessions again. \n\nGood luck it worked for me it can work for anyone.
963382
actually, a fast metabolism works against you with mass building. you are burning more calories than you would at a slower rate... meaning to put on mass you have to take in a lot more calories than someone with a regular metabolism. the good thing about a fast metabolism is that since you efficiently burn calories, you have more room to play with as far as diet goes. you can eat more in general and not have to worry about excess calories getting converted to fat as much as a average person would.\n\nFor food choices, just stick with good choices as much as you can. The better quality sources for protein, carbs and fat, the leaner your muscle mass gains will be. Eliminate as much sugar (simple carbs) as you can from your diet (at least try to get simple carbs about a 1/3 of your total carbs... less than that, the better). Eat good veggies and oatmeal. If you have to eat bread, stick with 100% whole wheat. If you want fruit, try and have it only with a morning meal (because of the fructose- it's still sugar). Good protein like tuna and chicken. Say goodbye to sodas and other bad drinks. Fruit juice, same fructose warning as above. Water as your liquid of choice is your friend. Stay away from the bad fats... flaxseed and Omega's from fish are sources of the good fat (I actually have to have flaxseed supplements to get my fat intake to 20%... fat is almost nonexistant in my diet).  A multivitamin is also good to take daily. With your protein shake, beware of the sugar amount. It should be ok if it's a protein shake and not a weight gain shake. Whey protein is the best. \n\nTry to eat many smaller meals spaced throughout the day instead of just 3. Smaller but more frequent meals increases your metabolism and keeps the fat burning primed. Shoot for 5-6 meals if you can, spaced about 3 hours apart. Try and have the last meal at least a couple of hours before bed. Unfortunately its hard to work all those meals in when you have to deal with work and all, but try for at least 4. \n\nShoot for about a daily calorie split around 30% prot, 50% carbs and 20% fat. Go to a website that has a BMR calculator, and make sure you can enter your activity level. When you get your BMR (adjusted for activity level) that's the amount of calories you should be consuming each day to maintain your current weight. To gain mass, you want to consume more than that. I'd increase it by 25% to start (say your maintainance level was 2000 cal. Increasing to 25% would mean a daily intake of 2500 cal), and see how it goes for a while. If you are gaining size (take your muscle measurements) and staying lean (keep track of your fat %), then that's a good amount. If you are gaining fat, then drop it back some. \n\nYes, you have to pay attention and count calories. You'll be reading a lot of calorie info off of your groceries... it's a pain in the neck, but it's worth it. \n\nRemember to keep re-figuring your BMR and adjust your calories accordingly after you've put on several lbs of new weight. The more you weigh, the more calories you'll need to take in to maintain it... the more you'll have to be eating daily to have that +25%.\n\nFor workouts, a general rep range is 8-12 reps. If you go about 6-8, that lends itself to more mass building. 12+ is more for strength and endurance.\n\nSince you want to use your excess calories for mass building, you might want to keep any cardio/ aerobic activity to a minimum. \n\nGood luck!
124994
Drink lots of water and don't shun carbs, our brain needs them to function! Stick with smart carbs. Stay away from processed foods. Good healthy snacks to keep you going are V-8 juice, lowfat mozzerella sticks and whole wheat pita bread with hummus. That way you feel sustained and don't break down and gorge at meals!\nWhen I cook pasta I make the Barilla Plus, which has 17g protein, 7 g fiber, and 360 mg of Omega 3! Now that is a healthy way to get your pasta. I put veggies in my pasta dishes every chance i get to add some fiber and help fill me up. Bell Peppers are a good choice sliced and mixed in with some chopped chicken breast.\nTry and eat fruits and veggies every chance you can. They are amazingly low in calories and will help fill you up. Good choices are spinach salad, crisp, cold green grapes, and sweet sugar snap peas for snacking on.\nEat lean and low-fat sources of protein at every meal, it should be part of a calorie-controlled diet that's also rich in 'smart carbs' such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, along with healthy fats like nuts, seeds, olives, oils, fish, and avocado.\nBe sure to look for protein sources that are nutrient-rich and lower in fat and calories, such as lean meats, beans, soy, and low-fat dairy.\nI think the best diet is the 3 hour diet. \nThe problem with other diets is that they require starving your body of needed calories or carbs, things we need to survive and have proper brain function! When we do that, our body goes into survival mode and doesn't want to burn fat like we want it to! They cause you to lose lean muscle tissue and lean muscle is your metabolism, your resting metabolism.\nIt is well known that high levels of cortisol hormone (which is produced when we cut too many calories & put our body under stress) are closely associated to abdominal fat. Medical research has shown that eating every three hours helps reduce levels of cortisol and that is the key to losing belly fat first.\nBy eating every three hours you lower belly fat, you burn two pounds a week and you prevent muscle loss, which keeps your metabolism active. Then you constantly reset the metabolism so you're constantly burning fat. That's the beauty of what it does, and because there are no bad foods, it brings back the joy of eating.\nThat is what I try to do and recently I learned that there is actually a Yale University endorsed 3-Hour Diet™!\nI could explain how it works, but I'll let the experts do the talking.\nGood Luck!\n\nMango\n\n"The Yale University endorsed 3-Hour Diet™ is about uncovering the buried concept of timing – the fact that when you eat is critical to weight loss. By eating every three hours you’ll constantly set in motion your metabolism™ and lose two pounds a week starting with belly fat first. And you will never have to count calories or ban any foods including carbs.\n\nSo how does the 3-Hour Diet™ work exactly? The answer is found in what we call: Time Based Nutrition™. It’s the future of effective nutrition. Think of it as a new category of nutrition. Forget low-fat or low-carb. It’s the power of combining smart eating with smart timing. Yes, timing. You see, the secret to losing weight and keeping it off has to do with much more than what you eat.\n\nWhy every 3-hours? Countless numbers of research studies have confirmed the power of eating every three hours. What specifically happens if you wait more than 3 hours to eat? Well, after 3 hours your body passes a tipping point and signals your body to launch its natural “starvation protection mechanism” or your SPM. When your SPM is switched on, your body preserves the most calorie-rich tissue in the body to ensure your survival. That tissue is body fat. But there’s even more bad news. This is the most critical point you must never forget about the 3-Hour Diet™: Anytime you allow more than 3 hours to pass without eating, your body not only preserves body fat, but wors
651697
lean cuts, yes. meat has protien which is ESSENTIAL to any diet and exercise program. assuming you are working out or exercising, if not, then do it. protein helps build up your muscles, and having muscles helps burn more calories