Ranging from claims to be the best way for fat loss and improved metabolic health within specialty fitness world, low-carb diets are bellowed as a panacea. Many people these days are cutting carbs as a way to lose weight and get in shape, whether it's through the ketogenic diet, Atkins or just an outright commitment to eating load-carb. The only problem is that while these diets work, they can also lead to muscle loss.
So the question becomes: is the low-carb craze undermining your muscle growth while quietly robbing you of your gains? In this article, we'll explore the science of low-carb diets and how they might affect muscle mass.
Your body proteins will be saved for the most part to deliver portions of muscles it does in some cases still change over protein into vitality when different substrates are inadequate, yet your muscles are broadly separate save parts legitimately by methods for deamination and endless supply of starches.
Carbohydrates act as the body's primary source of energy, especially during intense workouts. They fuel your muscles during exercise to perform more effectively and assist in recovery and repair. Carbs are consumed and broken down into glucose for immediate energy or stored in your muscles and liver as glycogen.
Adequate glycogen levels: Glycogen is responsible for your energy level and without enough of it your body may start breaking down muscle during weight training. During exercise – especially when you lift weights or perform other types of intense physical activities — your muscles dip into these glycogen reserves for energy. A low-carb diet can wipe out these stores, and when that happens you get weaker (and it is hard for most to lift heavy and train intensely).
How Low-Carb Diets Cause Muscle Loss
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Reduced Glycogen Stores
On a low-carb diet, your body will essentially run out of glycogen stores. Therefore, your muscles do not have immediate access to the energy they require in these types of workouts. As noted, this lack of glycogen can result in fatigue more quickly during training, leading to reduced performance and less stimulation for your muscles. This can eventually stall muscle growth or potentially cause a catabolic state if intense enough.
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Protein Breakdown to Calories
When the body does not have enough carbohydrates, it may use protein for fuel. This process, known as gluconeogenesis, uses your own protein (either from what you eat or your muscles) and turns it into glucose. Low-carb diets are typically higher in protein, but can still lead to muscle breakdown if the body needs more energy. It is more likely to be an issue for individuals who are participating in endurance events — sprint triathlon, half marathons, marathons or the like— as they likely had greater energy requirements going into the event.
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Hormonal Changes
Carbs help to manage hormones — i.e. especially insulin and cortisol Insulin signals the body to store protein and helps maintain muscle tissue. Insulin reduces the rate at which muscles repair and grow after workouts so low-carb diets can sink your progress. Not to mention, the stress hormone cortisol is often raised on low-carb diets which could also lead to muscle catabolism over time.
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Reduced performance of the model.
You need carbohydrates to perform better in explosive movements, resistance training and endurance exercises. Performing at your individual best in the gym is compromised without enough carbs. If you are always feeling weaker or more tired during your workouts, then you will never get to create a good stimulus of muscle growth. This decreased training volume could lead to a plateau, or worse, muscle loss.
Muscle is the Priority Despite a Low-Carb Diet
Having and maintaining muscle mass is so important not only for strength and aesthetics but also for metabolic health. The muscle is an active tissue, and so it continues to burn calories even when at rest. Lean tissue is metabolically active — it burns calories even at rest, so the more lean muscle mass you have, the greater your resting metabolic rate and potential to help manage longer-term weight. Your metabolism will slow down if you lose muscle mass, which could make it more difficult to maintain the fat loss in the long term esp. post low carb diet.
Further, muscle mass is important for functional strength, injury prevention and overall health. Fat loss is not the goal with low carb, but muscle preservation is.
Here's How You Can Keep Your Muscles During A Low Carb Diet
This is a good thing if you are losing fat, and research does show that low carb diets can offers benefits such as increased fat loss and improvements in insulin sensitivity, however, it is crucial to implement methods for preserving muscle while on a low carbohydrate diet plan. Here's how to keep your muscles without eating so many carbohydrates:
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Prioritize Protein Intake
One of the most necessary points in low-carb weight reduction is to consume tons of protein. Protein — For muscle retention because it provides the essential amino acids needed to repair and build muscle. Consume roughly 1.6 grams to 2.2 grams of protein per kg of body weight DAILY (range depends on physical activity). This provides a constant access to amino acids for muscle mass, even when carbs are low.
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Incorporate Carb Cycling
With carb cycling, you alternate between low and higher-carb days, which helps replenish those muscle glycogen stores and improve your performance. This means that on days you work out more intensely, you eat a higher amount of carbs to help support energy demands or that, on days you either rest or train less hard, you drop down your carb intake. Using this technique, you can enjoy the advantages of a low-carb diet without jeopardizing your muscle.
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Strength Train Regularly
To help maintain muscle on a low-carb diet, resistance training is important. The #1 physical performance truth is that your body needs to lift very heavy weights for the muscles to have any reason not to flee from all that weight loss restriction and starvation type of change. Include compound exercises such as squats, deadlifts, and bench presses in your workout to work multiple muscle groups at once and trigger hypertrophy of your muscles.
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Consume Healthy Fats
A low-carb diet focus on consuming fats is also not the same as encouraging THAT much fat in ones day. Healthy fats, such as avocados, nuts and seeds, olive oil, can help to support hormone production and are an excellent source of sustainable energy. In general, healthy fats are not only important for cell membranes but also overall muscular health.
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Refeed Days
Periodic refeed days, which are high-carb days inserted into a lower-calorie diet, can help refill glycogen storage and replenish performance stats. A useful side effect of refeed days is up-regulation in hormones such as leptin, which are decreased with long term low carb dieting (slow metabolism and muscle loss).
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Monitor Your Calories
One of the more frequent errors on low-carb wards them from falling into a calorie deficit that is too aggressive. This may cause muscle breakdown as the body thinks that requires to break down muscles in order to make energy. Make sure you are eating enough calories to maintain muscle growth later even if you are focusing on losing fat now.
Conclusion: Can a Low-Carb Diet Shrink Your Muscles?
Although low-carb diets can be great for fat loss, this way of eating also has the potential to eat away at our muscle mass if we're not careful. Low glycogen stores that negatively impact workout performance and resulting protein breakdown for energy — in addition to the two survival-era melee modes detailed above — will all promote atrophying muscle. The truth is that if you focus on eating enough protein, add in some resistance training and use carbs thoughtfully here and there – your worst case scenario will be that you minimally lose muscle to protect yourself for the long haul.
The key is balance. If you are on a low-carb diet you must take that into account regarding your performance and muscle maintenance. You can still hit your fitness goals whilst preserving that hard-earned muscle and here is the smart way to do so.