Im really confused as to how to make the switch to the lowcarb lifestyle. My main goal is loosing fat and building muscle. Hopefully one day compete in figure.

A little history, I recently switched over to low carb a few days ago because on the diet I was following I was hungry all the time and it was causing me to binge eat. I was following a low fat, higher protien, moderate carb diet.

I do a four day split at the gym and do cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach (usually 5 to 6 days a week). I ususally have carbs before lifting and after lifting which is usually later in the day. On days I dont lift I have my carbs with my first two meals of the day.

Currently I'm taking the following supplements:

hot rox, glutamine, L-carnatine, CLA, Creatine, Multi-vitamin and Evening Primrose Oil

My questions are this:
*Do the muscles need carbs to heal?
*Can I continue to follow the above mentioned program while doing low carb?
*Am I taking the right supplements or should I be adding anything?

Any information or advice would be greatly appreciated. But if not thank you so much for reading this.

Someone will probably chime in with a lot more detailed response, but my .02 after looking at your current stats:

* no carbs needed
* yes
* supplements look fine. don't get too caught up in this one.

If you are still losing the unwanted fat, then keep everything as it is until it starts to slow down.

When the time comes to drop calories to continue losing, drop them from the carbs first. Don't be afraid to up the protein and fat if needed.

Be prepared to, at some point, figure out a good balance for yourself between how many more calories you're comfortable cutting versus increasing activity to create the deficit needed to continue your progress.

Everyone has a balance between cutting calories and/or increasing activity that they can live with long term to maintain their goal. If you're not a big eater, then you might find cutting the calories is easier than for someone that loves to eat. I fall into the second category, so for me, I need to be more active to keep the progress coming.

Hope you find this to be at least somewhat helpful.

Thanks kb, Im looking forward to seeing what others have to say. I just started to really low carb on tuesday so I havent really been even doing it a full week but it feels good so Im going with it.

Calories was one of the things I was also thinking about thanks for bringing that up. So I guess right now what I have to do is give it some time to see how my body responds to this and then take it from there?

I'd like to stick to the format Ive been doing which is eating five smaller meals although with the higher fat/protein Im not as hungry so maybe I'd be eating just to eat not necessarily because Im hungry. Hopefully someone will chime in on this and I'll get a better understanding of how it works...

Thanks again for your information, it was helpful.

one thing for sure, you will need plenty of protein to build muscle and activity to keep off the excess fat. be prepared to read your body and make your adjustments as needed.

Thanks. I was hoping to hear more from some of the veterans but I guess not. I appreciate you taking the time to answer my question though...

Your muscles dont NEED carbs to heal, but I believe they help the process. I would continue to take in the carbs around your lifing workouts, and maybe just in the first meal on off days. This is pretty much what i do. Keep your fats low in the meals when your taking in the carbs, especially after workouts. As you are near your goal weight i would recommend taking in roughly your maintenence calories, allowing you to slowly trim off fat while building muscle. You can then add / subtract calories to suit your goals of adding more muscle / trimming more fat respectively.

You are taking plenty of supplements, and i wouldnt recommend having any more. You have not gone into much detail on the diet, so the only other thing i would possibly suggest is a protein shake if you need to up your protein levels. Expect to hold a little extra water weight while taking creatine, ie dont let the scales mess with your head with the daily fluctuations.

Awesome advice, thanks. Im not watching my calories right now just watching my carbs (staying under 30). Im not over eating, actually I dont think Im eating enough. I started just today having a protein shake in between meals as a snack because I havent really been all that hungry. So I know if Im not eating Im not getting the amount of protein I should be getting. I was packing my food for the day four meals and carrying around a cooler every place I went so meals were right at hand, I'm going to start planning my meals again so I can keep track of calories. Ive only been counting carbs for a week now.

I have to admit that Im feeling a little nervous because I dont want to gain back anything Ive already taken off. Im sure its just nerves and it will be fine.

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond to my question.

If your diet is full of clean foods, your calories are in check, and your training hard you wont gain fat. If you do all the above, you should roughly maintain the same weight, while gaining muscle and trimming fat. It is a slow process so be patient, and most importantly consistent. Listen to your body, if your feeling a bit weak, add extra carbs around your workouts / in the mornings. If your recovery times are slow, add some extra protein. If your dropping weight, add extra carbs around your workouts (assuming your getting enough cals the rest of the day). If you find your adding weight consistently (not just natural fluctuations) then cut back on your fat / carb intake.

Edit: sorry, i misread your current weight / goal. In which case you should aim to drop around a pound per week, while still applying the above. This way you will maintain the muscle you have while cutting your fat.

A thousand times thank you...

Sorry one more question...

I have grown very fond of my natural peanut butter (no sugar added). Can I still have that?

edited to mention: WITHOUT THE BREAD (of course)...

Of course this is where keeping the calories in check comes in. The teaspoons of PB quickly add up! Otherwise its a good source of fat with a decent amount of protein.

Before my diet looked like this:

Training Day:
Meal #1
6 to 7 egg whites
1/2 c green veggies
1 yolk or 1 Tbsp. PB

Meal #2
3oz Chicken Breast, Fish or Lean Beef
1c. Any green veggie
1 Tbsp. PB

Meal #3
Same as meal two

Meal #4 (pre-workout)
3oz Chicken Breast, Fish or Lean Beef
1/2 cup either oats (uncooked), yam or brown rice

Meal #5 (post workout)
Protein Shake w/1/2 cup of oats or fruit

Non-Training Days (Cardio Only or nothing at all)
Meal #1
6 to 7 egg whites
1/2 cup oats (uncooked)
Coffee with 1 Tbsp. of non-dairy creamer

Meal #2
3oz Chicken Breast, Fish or Lean Beef
1/2 cup either oats, yam or brown rice

Meal #3
3oz Chicken Breast, Fish or Lean Beef
1c. Any green veggie
1 Tbsp. PB

Meal #4
3oz Chicken Breast, Fish or Lean Beef
1c. Any green veggie
1 Tbsp. PB

Meal #5
Same as #3 and #4

I very quickly got tired of this diet as it was pretty low in fat and there wasnt a whole lot to do with the meats because of the strict fat restrictions. I was often hungry and my cravings were out of control.

**I just recently switched over to 3 total body workouts a week and 4 to 6 days of fasted cardio.

Any suggestions or tweaks?

Looks pretty good to me. I do tend to stick to a very restricted diet for the simplicity of counting the calories. If your not losing fast enough, the only thing i would suggest is dropping your carbs from the second meal on off days.

Dont be afraid of changing your meat sources to some higher fat cuts now and again. Just drop the PB when you do this as you will get plenty of fat from the meat. As i said, its the calories that matter, and as long as they are lower than your expenditure you will lose weight. Your carb sources are also quite restricted. If im having oats, i have some fruit with it for taste. I get most of my carb intake from baked potatoes.

That is a lot of fasted cardio. Im not entirely sure on the effects of this, but dont be afraid of having a meal before cardio. If its low intensity cardio you should be fine. If you are upping the intensity i would recommend having your first meal before the cardio.

One other thing, im not a huge fan of full body workouts. If your lifting heavy its good to train muscle groups around once per week. What i would recommend is splitting your muscle groups over the 3 days, so that you cycle through them and train them once a week.

Hope this helps, I may edit a bit later as i typed this out fast before i leave for work!

Thanks for the information. I'll look it over again and see what I can tweak and what I can change with the workouts. Im sure I can do a three or four day split as I have done in the past.

If your primariy goal is to build muscle, I found that 100-150g of carbs daily, divided on three meals (Breakfast, Pre workout and Post workout) works best for ME (again, it's an individual number)

The thing about carbs is it depends so very much on your body. carbs themselves ain't fattening, it's when you're glycogen deposits are full they spill over as fat. If you eat them in the morning, you've been fasting for 8+ hours, so the chance of them spilling over is minimal.

By the time you hit the gym, you're glycogen deposits will be fairly low on carbs again, so you eat a small amount to fuel your workout, your bodies prefered fuel source for weight lifting is carbs, so after the weight lifting session your stores will be low again and you can once again consume carbs with a minimal chance of spillover.

Building muscle without carbs is possible, yes, but they aid tremendiously in recovery and keeping you in an anabolic state which is required for muscle gain. Yes, you will add a bit of fat you can shred later by removing the carbs, but you're overall body composition will be SO much better and you will look leaner over all.

Adding carbs might not be vital if you're a beginner, since beginners tend to add lean muscle mass in a caloric deficit with zero carbs, but if you're progress starts to stall in the gym it's surely a thing to consider.

And then again... this is from a male standpoint, and if you're primary goal simply is to get a toned rather than ripped, then carbs might not be neccesary whatsoever (beside your daily veggies, and maybe 20-30g post workout)