Burning Lean Muscle?

[jessiehere]

:wave: Hi! My name is Jess and I'm 10 days into TSP and love it. I feel great and not deprived in the least. I also feel like I've been eating better than ever. I do have a question though. I have not been eating many starchy carbs. I usually eat two vegetables per meal and a small fruit. I feel good and not hungry. I want to make sure my body is not burning any lean muscle, does anyone know what symptoms I could look for?

Thanks.
Jess

[DebPenny]

Hi, Jess, welcome to TSP.

I wouldn't worry about losing lean muscle mass. The beauty of low-carbing is that you are eating the nutrients you need to build muscle while you lose fat.

You need protein and fat to build good muscle, bones, hormones, organs, etc. Not carbs of any kind.

Carbs are only good for quick energy and fat storage and to encourage your body to make insulin, which is good in limited amounts.

What's really nice about TSP is that you get enough carbs to keep your diet interesting, but still low enough to encourage fat loss. You will find that you feel stronger and have more energy the longer you low-carb. I feel better than I have since I was a teenager and I've been TSPing for just about 8 months now.

Check out our research forum for lots more information about the science behind low-carbing.

;-Deb

[jessiehere]

:dazzle: DebPenny, want to hear something funny? Having you be the one to answer after reading so many of your old posts is like being answered by a celebrity! You, LisaF and TheBetty have been really helpful to me so far.

Intellectually, I understand the whole TSP thing. Its just that in wandering these boards I've read things about ketosis and I became concerned that I might fall into that. You are right, though, I just feel wonderful. My head is clear, my energy up, I think I will be able to spend the rest of my life this way.

Thank you.
Jess

[tigersue]

I wouldn't worry about loosing to much muscle. Add good weight bearing exercise in your routines and you should be able to actually add great muscle you need. SP doesn't put you into ketosis because you eat more carbs than the programs that do that.
Glad to see you here.
Tanya

[lisaf]

You can make sure you aren't losing lean body mass by taking your waist measurements on a regular basis...plus your weight...and plugging it into an online calculator (http://www.users.voicenet.com/~petrizzi/fitness/ckdcalc.html) to see what your body fat is. If you go to the bottom and ask it compute values the next page will tell you what your lean vs. fat mass is!

Lisa

[jessiehere]

Thanks for all the good advice everyone.

--Jess

[TheBetty]

Great to have you here. Glad you are on SP, too! :)

On the ketosis thing, I don't believe it's a bad thing. Unless I'm completely mistaken, I believe it ketoacidosis (sp?) that's the bad one, which is completely different than ketosis (which means you burn fat, not muscle).

As long as you don't starve yourself and you make sure you are eating enough fat and protein, you will not burn the good stuff, just the yucky fat. :rolleyes: :lol:

Sounds like you are really motivated and I'm happy to hear that you are experiencing some nice "symptoms" of eating lo carb, like a clear head--that's a great "symptom" to have! :lol:

Looking forward to sharing experiences with you. :wave: