budybuilding and atkins diet, do they mix?.....

[bumdart420]

first my stats and then my question

6'2"
210 lbs
11 % body fat
3 years of heavy wieghtlifting
I eat 200+ grams of protien a day and less then 200 grams of carbs. About 40% of my caloric intake comes from fat.
daily caloric intake= around 2200 cals (give or take)

For the past 3 years, all I have been doing was trying to gain mass, so I ate just about anything. I brought my wieght up from 155 lbs to 228, then I started a low carb diet.

That was three weeks ago and to date I have lost 18 pounds, (mostly water, i was talking some anabolics which were making me retain some water i didnt want)

My question is: There is a debate weither an Atkins style diet is good for bodybuilders who need carbs as a sourse of fuel and others who say that the fat increase makes up for that.
Should I continue on 200 grams of carbs daily. Or should I be going 2 days high, 3 days low for carbs.

My goal is to get down to 200 pounds 5-6% bodyfat.
Any opinions would be appreciated.

[Brandon]

You probably already know this but a low carb diet works by putting your body into a state of ketosis (also called lipolysis) where it burns fat instead of carbs. In order for you to get into this state you need to restrict your carb intake for at least 2 days (the normal amount is under 20g.) Once you exceed your bodys limit of carbs, you will no longer be in that fat-burning state, and it's for that reason that the x days on, y days off idea isn't very effective. You can certainly give it a shot and see what happens but my guess is you won't notice much of a difference.

Here's a good article on the subject, maybe you can get some better info there.. (yes, I know it says femalemuscle.com, but it still applies :) )

http://www.femalemuscle.com/q_a/question32.htm

Have you looked into refeeding? That could be an alternative for you..

Best of luck!!

Brandon

[Elihnig]

You may find more answers in the Body For Life forum, or the General Exercise forum.

I did 9 weeks of Body For Life and did fine on around 50 carbs or so.

If you do a search, look for posts in the General Exercise forum by Trainer Dan. Also, the sticky by Natrushka in the Body For Life forum right at the top is full of good basic information.

You may also wish to consider a CKD, where more carbs are consumed on the weekends. We have a forum for that too!

From what I understand, body builders eat a lot of protein and such during their muscle growing phase and right before competition, low carb to cut--lose body fat to show off their muscle definition.

I wish TrainerDan and Nat were still around. I try, but I'm not nearly as well informed as they are.

Beth

[bumdart420]

thanks folks.....

[RedOmega]

An even better forum to check out would be the CKD/Body Opus forum. CKD is a cyclical ketogenic (low carb) diet in which you "carb up" 1-2 days a week to replenish your muscles glycogen stores. The rest of the week you stay in a ketogenic state and burn fat. I think this is the forum that most matches what you're looking for.

[bumdart420]

thanks red, I think you hit the nail on the head! this is the exact diet I am doing right now and most interested in....thanks again