Low-carb protein diet causes muscles to grow without training

[liftsiron]

Low-carb protein diet causes muscles to grow without training

Low-carb protein diet causes muscles to grow without training

If you go over from a standard Western diet to a low-carb protein diet your muscles grow. Sports scientists at the University of Michigan discovered this when they did an experiment with 8 young men and women. And interestingly, the subjects did no weight training.

Insulin, textbooks continue to tell us, is an important anabolic hormone. Because your insulin level rises if you eat carbohydrates – the insulin level reacts less to glucose fed intravenously – scientists believed until recently that a low-carb diet reduces muscle mass. Empirical evidence and studies by anthropologists and archaeologists, however, indicate that the reverse is true.

That’s why these researchers decided to do an experiment in which 4 men and an equal number of women, average age 29, exchanged their standard diet for a low-carb protein diet for a week. The figures: the subjects’ diet before starting consisted of 60 percent carbs, 30 percent fat and 10 percent protein [Before diet]. They replaced this with a diet consisting of 35 percent protein, 60 percent fat and only 5 percent carbohydrates.

The figure below shows that the diet caused a drastic lowering of the subjects’ insulin level. You’ll notice how the insulin level peaked after the 3 main meals in the ‘Before diet’, but that on the low-carb protein diet the peaks have almost disappeared. (GO TO LINK for the graph - DrVJ)

The manufacture of growth hormone decreased but the decline was not statistically significant. The same is true for the concentration of IGF-1in the bloodstream. Most of the IGF-1 found in the bloodstream comes from the liver cutting up growth hormone into smaller pieces.

You’d expect muscle mass to decline, but this didn’t happen. The researchers extracted cells from the vastus lateralis leg muscle and recorded the muscle tissue growth. This actually increased after the subjects went over to the low-carb diet.

The protein diet had increased the activity of anabolic signal molecules in the muscle cells. The most noticeable effect was that the muscle cells started to produce more IGF-1. This is different IGF-1 to that found in the bloodstream.

Ok, but insulin is an anabolic hormone. But the increased activity of anabolic mechanisms in the muscle cells as a result of a low-carb protein diet outweighs the disappearance of insulin. "Increasing dietary protein content during a carbohydrate restricted diet may be important for preventing or attenuating a net loss of body protein", the researchers conclude.

Source:
J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2005 Sep; 90(9): 5175-81.

[Bouncer]

low carb diets cause my to loose muscle WITH training. lol.

sorry buts its one of those things that looks good on paper but just dosent work in the real world.

you need carbs to grow.

[liftsiron]

low carb diets cause my to loose muscle WITH training. lol.

sorry buts its one of those things that looks good on paper but just dosent work in the real world.

you need carbs to grow.

Moderate carbs for energy, excess carbs cause you grow fat.
Carbs don't build muscle, they supply energy and any excess is stored as fat.


I think that I know what your saying is that without adequate carbs you won't grow because you need carbs to fuel the CNS and enough stored carbs as muscle glycogen to power your weight training. I agree if your carbs are to low, your body will actually break down lean muscle. I don't advocate any of those ultra low carb or ketogenic type diets.

[Bouncer]

Moderate carbs for energy, excess carbs cause you grow fat is all.
Carbs don't build muscle, they supply energy and any excess is stored as fat.

Carbs indirectly build muscle. Take carbs out of the equation and you will shrink away. This is a fact

[liftsiron]

Carbs indirectly build muscle. Take carbs out of the equation and you will shrink away. This is a fact

As I said in my above post if your diet is to low in carbs your body will actually break down muscle to provide sugar to fuel the CNS. I'm not in disagreement with you.
A proper way to look at carbs and protein in building or maintaining muscle is that protein is anabolic and carbs are anti-catabolic.

[ROCKETW19]

A proper way to look at carbs and protein in building or maintaining muscle is that protein is anabolic and carbs are anti-catabolic.

I like that analogy

[jack tors]

i cut carbs i stop growing period and lose muscle. when cutting i keep it to moderate to low which allows me to maintain without signifigant muscle lose. interesting article...

[Bouncer]

A proper way to look at carbs and protein in building or maintaining muscle is that protein is anabolic and carbs are anti-catabolic.

yea thats fine but i think it undermines the importance of carbs when trying to grow.

[Tizz]

Carbs indirectly build muscle. Take carbs out of the equation and you will shrink away. This is a fact

Not True. If you have ever done a low carb diet and felt like you lost muscle, then you probably didn't increase your fat intake high enough. On a true low carb diet, you should be at about 60% fat, 35% protein, and 5% carbs. It's also the best way to get lean. Cut your carbs, increase your fat which then trains your body to use it's own fat for fuel. This has been proven by scientifically and it's the only way I can get into single digit bodyfat levels. Most people fail miserably on low carb diets because they don't increase their fat intake high enough.

Low carb AND low fat is not productive for muscle growth, but you don't need carbs to grow muscle - that simply just is not a true statement.

[Tizz]

As I said in my above post if your diet is to low in carbs your body will actually break down muscle to provide sugar to fuel the CNS. I'm not in disagreement with you.

Your body WILL break down your muscle and use it for fuel on a true low carb diet UNLESS you increase your fat intake, then your body will use the fat for the fuel and it will spare your muscles!

[Tizz]

Good article concerning this subject. I've bolded the important parts:


Nutrition and Maximal Fat Loss
by Christian Thibaudeau


It's pretty safe to say that low-carb dieting has a proven track record when it comes to maximizing fat loss. When done properly, it's also the best way to diet when trying to maintain (or even gain) muscle mass while shedding the blubber away. This is mostly because the high level of fat intake allows for a greater level of testosterone to be produced and turn the body into a fat-burning, muscle-sparing machine.

Another factor is that low-carb dieting generally allows for a higher caloric intake for the same fat loss: in other words you can eat more and still lose the same amount of fat as you would with a lower calorie, higher carb diet.

Obviously these great effects can only be achieved if you do the ''low-carb thing'' smartly. Generally I see three mistakes when people decide to go low-carbs:

MISTAKE #1
People do not increase their fat intake enough. A lot of people don't limit themselves to a low-carbs diet; they also ingest very little fat. They reason that if they drop the carbs, their body will be forced to use fat for fuel, which is true. Where they go wrong is that they take their reasoning one step further and assume that if they cut off fat from their diet too, then they'll burn much more fat because the body will have to scavenge its own fatty acid reserve.

Now, this will, happen, to some extent. But the thing is that if one energy source is disproportionately high compared to the other ones, the body will adapt to use this fuel source are their main one.

So if your protein intake is way higher than the other nutrients, your body will become good at using protein for fuel. Since protein is an inefficient fuel source, the body will be quick to breakdown muscle tissue to produce the enery required: you'll be burning down the walls to heat the house!

So remember, when using a low-carb approach, fat intake should be high enough for your body to avoid turning into a protein-burning machine. During a proper low-carb diet your fat intake should be pretty close to your protein intake. Remember that 1 gram of fat has 9 calories while 1 gram of protein has 4. So 110g of fat is equal to 250g of protein. A 50/50 ratio (plus trace carbs) is a good place to start.

As your body becomes ''fat adapted'' (good at using fat for fuel... this requires 10-14 days) it is possible to gradually reduce the proportion of fat in the diet. But I would avoid going down lower than 30-35% and personally I stick to 40-50%. So if your caloric intake is set at 2750kcals/day (a good place to start for a 200-210lbs individual) it means that your should ingest around 320g of protein, 150g of fat and anywhere from 0 to 30g of carbs.

MISTAKE #2
People reduce calories too much. This pretty much goes hand-in-hand with the first mistake; if you drop carbs AND fats, it's pretty much impossible to avoid dropping down to a dangerously low caloric intake... after all even if you were to eat 500g of protein with minimal fat and minimal carbs that would still only represent around 2000 calories!

On a low-carb diet its best to start at a relatively high caloric intake as the reduction of carbs will lead to drastic rate of fat loss even if your calories are pretty high.

As progress slows down (and it will) then you have to drop down your calories. But only do so gradually. If your calories are too low from the start you'll have nowhere to go when progress stalls. For example, let's say that you consume 400g of protein, 20g of carbs and 30g of fat (1950kcals).

You'll lose a lot of weight at first (some of it will be muscle) but very quikly progress will stop. The only way to keep on losing fat is to cut down calories even more. But what can you drop? You are already consuming next to zero carbs or fat. The only thing you can drop is protein. The problem is that by now your body is ''protein-adapted'': it is good at using protein for fuel.

So what happens when you reduce the flux of dietary protein? Your body will compensate the decrease in protein (fuel) by using its own protein structure (muscle) for energy production. So not only will you not lose more fat but you'll lose muscle at an alarming pace... because you are protein-adapted, not fat-adapted!

These two problems are fairly common and easily avoided with proper diet design. The third one is a bit more problematic and has plagued low-carbs dieters seeking more muscle mass for a long time...

MISTAKE #3
Not using peri-workout nutrition. I think that it's fairly well established by now how much proper pre, during and post-workout nutrition can drastically enhance your muscle growth. We understand the need to quickly replenish the depleted glycogen stores post-workout, to spike insulin in order to create an anabolic milieu, to shuttle protein to the muscle as fast as possible after a session to mazimize growth and to reduce the negative impact of cortisol during the workout with proper nutrition.

The problem is that proper ''normal'' peri-workout nutrition revolves around two major things: carbs (to spike insulin, replenish glycogen stores, block the effect of cortisol) and protein (to rebuild muscle and also diminish the effect of cortisol). And it might come as a shock but low-carbs dieting ...well... is low in carbs; and that means no carbs peri-workout.

So the good ole peri-workout nutrition approach is not applicable to most low-carbs dieters. Does that mean that they are doomed to accept inferior muscle growth forever? YES! Unless they are willing to apply a drastic low-carbs peri-workout approach. If they decide to go that route they can expect to actually stimulate muscle growth while losing fat on a low-carb diet.

Carbs themselves are NOT anabolic ... they can help muscle growth via an insulin spike which prevents muscle breakdown and facilitate the uptake of amino acids in the muscle (for building) and glycogen replenishment. If we can get these same benefits without using carbs, the anabolic response will be the same.

[Bouncer]

Not True. If you have ever done a low carb diet and felt like you lost muscle, then you probably didn't increase your fat intake high enough. On a true low carb diet, you should be at about 60% fat, 35% protein, and 5% carbs. It's also the best way to get lean. Cut your carbs, increase your fat which then trains your body to use it's own fat for fuel. This has been proven by scientifically and it's the only way I can get into single digit bodyfat levels. Most people fail miserably on low carb diets because they don't increase their fat intake high enough.

Low carb AND low fat is not productive for muscle growth, but you don't need carbs to grow muscle - that simply just is not a true statement.

sorry but i just dont agree.

you can maintain what you already have on no carbs by adjusting fat and protein levels. but you will never in a million years GAIN mass on a no carb diet.

huge difference between maintaining mass and actually gaining mass.

[Bouncer]

Your body WILL break down your muscle and use it for fuel on a true low carb diet UNLESS you increase your fat intake, then your body will use the fat for the fuel and it will spare your muscles!

yes everyone understands that.

you are talking about maintaining muscle.

[Tizz]

BTW, nice board. I come from xxxxxxx.com and post frequently in the nutrition section over there.

Bouncer, I noticed in this post that you said you don't even eat olive oil? Are you against healthy fats? They are very important..... are you anti fat in your diet? Just curious.
http://www.superiormuscle.com/forums/541232-post4.html

[Bouncer]

BTW, nice board. I come from xxxxxxx.com and post frequently in the nutrition section over there.

Bouncer, I noticed in this post that you said you don't even eat olive oil? Are you against healthy fats? They are very important..... are you anti fat in your diet? Just curious.
http://www.superiormuscle.com/forums/541232-post4.html

only fat i take in comes from the meats i eat, steak etc.. and fish oil.

if i go out of my way to add in fats like Peanutbutter, olive oil etc.. i just store the fat.

for me what works best is high protein, medium carbs, low fat. i get lean on a diet plan like that and my muscles stay full and pumped.

p.s. no links to your site bro. its not fair to the paying sponsors of the site. if you are interested in sponsoring this site you may pm me.