Low carb to lean out ?

Gaz

I am currently at 18% bodyfat (12 point caliper tested) with a goal of getting to 10% , would low carb be a better approach to simply restricting calories on a clean diet ?

My diet is spotless and I do weights 3 nights a week and regular cardio. I was losing weight steadily for a month by reducing calories but a personal trainer told me recently that I would have better results by going low carb.

My concern would be muscle loss with this approach ( I do get at least 1g per lb of body fat however)

Appreciate your opinions.

Hanley

Spotless diet... go on...

And if you keep your kcals at a decent level, protein and fat high, then you shouldn't be too worried about muscle loss. Seems to be the flavour of the week on here actually.

Gaz

Ok , maybe not spotless but as close as I can get it. Today I had. ...

Oats, milk and whey

Handful of almonds, apple

Chicken breast and large salad

Chicken breast and mushroom omlette with veg

Haddock

Spoonful of Peanut butter.

I think thats clean.

Hanley

Gaz wrote: »

Ok , maybe not spotless but as close as I can get it. Today I had. ...

Oats, milk and whey

Handful of almonds, apple

Chicken breast and large salad

Chicken breast and mushroom omlette with veg

Haddock

Spoonful of Peanut butter.

I think thats clean.

It can be as "clean" as you like, but if you don't at least have a basic idea of your required level of kcals for fat loss, and eat accordingly, it doesn't matter that much.

EileenG

It's clean, but not low carb.

Why do you think you will lose muscle if you reduce carbs? On a strict keto diet, you normally eat around 1g of protein per pound, it's the carbs you reduce, not the protein.

If you go low enough to hit ketosis (which is not necessary, it just makes you feel a lot less hungry), you'll lose some water weight, which can make your muscles look smaller and flatter, but they are still there. As soon as you carb-up (essential for anyone who is lifting hard), they will get all swollen and pretty again.

Gaz

I know its not low carb, I havnt moved to low carb yet .... I aim for about 1850cals a day , which is about 500 below my maintenance level.

I am losing weight at a nice steady rate , was just the personal trainers advice that got me thinking. I didnt understand his comment that I would have better results, i mean, Im loosing 2lbs a week at the moment ... how can I improve on that, or why would I want to?

Will I be less likely to hit a plateu by low carbing ? At my current weight (87kg) I think I have to lose about another 8kg to hit 10% .... just looking for best approach I suppose.

Chet Zar

Keep the calories at such a point that you are continuing to lose weight. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

If you stall or aren't seeing the progress you want then only then would I consider low carbing it.

Hanley

Gaz wrote: »

I know its not low carb, I havnt moved to low carb yet .... I aim for about 1850cals a day , which is about 500 below my maintenance level.

I am losing weight at a nice steady rate , was just the personal trainers advice that got me thinking. I didnt understand his comment that I would have better results, i mean, Im loosing 2lbs a week at the moment ... how can I improve on that, or why would I want to?

Will I be less likely to hit a plateu by low carbing ? At my current weight (87kg) I think I have to lose about another 8kg to hit 10% .... just looking for best approach I suppose.

Prime example of a trainer not knowing WTF they're talking about tbh. If you're consistently losing 2lb of fat per week, you're doing a great job. When that stops working, go low carb. You'll probably notice a more significant drop initially with that, but only because low carb tends to lead to water and glycogen loss initially.

corkcomp

Hanley wrote: »

Prime example of a trainer not knowing WTF they're talking about tbh. If you're consistently losing 2lb of fat per week, you're doing a great job. When that stops working, go low carb. You'll probably notice a more significant drop initially with that, but only because low carb tends to lead to water and glycogen loss initially.

+1. if you lose any more than 2lb a week consistently then it probably wont be fat anyway. op, your diet looks very good to me so keep it up, just make sure you are getting plenty green veg in at one meal ..

Transform

Gaz wrote: »

I am currently at 18% bodyfat (12 point caliper tested) with a goal of getting to 10% , would low carb be a better approach to simply restricting calories on a clean diet ?

My diet is spotless and I do weights 3 nights a week and regular cardio. I was losing weight steadily for a month by reducing calories but a personal trainer told me recently that I would have better results by going low carb.

My concern would be muscle loss with this approach ( I do get at least 1g per lb of body fat however)

Appreciate your opinions.

at 18% and as good as your diet it currently i would be looking more at the training than the diet as to get to 10% is not that hard using a fairly good diet BUT hard training.

Post up your stats - age, height, squat, deadlift, etc

Gaz

Age: 30
Height: 6ft
Weight: 88Kg

Once a week 5 a side football
Once a week do strenght/endurance training in local gym, prowlers etc
Cycle 60km a week commuting to work
3 nights a week do weights , mainly compound work. I have reduced the weight I am lifting and increased to 12 reps.

I think I am on the right track and I am making good progress , just wasnt sure about the low-carb approach.

Thanks for all the replies so far:)

J-Fit

EileenG wrote: »

Why do you think you will lose muscle if you reduce carbs? On a strict keto diet, you normally eat around 1g of protein per pound, it's the carbs you reduce, not the protein

It's possible he thinks this because as far as I know carbs can be protein sparing? By that I mean muscle proteins not being utilised as fuel thus preventing degradation.

EDIT: By the way Gaz, you're diet looks great and you're keeping generally active. 2lbs per week is steady progress and I don't think there is ever a need to go low carb. I used to be carbo-phobic but undertook a very severe cut from July to November where Carbs constituted more than 40% of my caloric intake. I ended up in much better shape than I ever did by going keto (in terms of body fat) and my strength did not diminish in any way. Keep up the good work.

heybaby

Gaz wrote: »

Ok , maybe not spotless but as close as I can get it. Today I had. ...

Oats, milk and whey

Handful of almonds, apple

Chicken breast and large salad

Chicken breast and mushroom omlette with veg

Haddock

Spoonful of Peanut butter.

I think thats clean.

hey guys help me out here, how is the above diet not low carb? the only carbs he has are oats, an apple and veg, that sounds pretty low carb to me !!:)

corkcomp

heybaby wrote: »

hey guys help me out here, how is the above diet not low carb? the only carbs he has are oats, an apple and veg, that sounds pretty low carb to me !!:)

look, the diet is clean and it is the OP is clearly doing well and achieving his goals, so what does it matter whether it is low carb or not? you might be better off asking that question over on nutrition forum .

Moman

only thing i could suggest for fat loss with your program is to try some different cardio that keeps the heart rate up consistently 20 minutes or more a time
5 a side football and cycling 60km a week is very active and keep it up, id throw in an extra session or two of cardio to get the fat% down

Chet Zar

heybaby wrote: »

hey guys help me out here, how is the above diet not low carb? the only carbs he has are oats, an apple and veg, that sounds pretty low carb to me !!:)

You don't need to go to the nutrition forum because I can confirm it is low carb - not very but it is low carb. Carbs for breakfast and then just veg/salad throughout the day. Definitely a clean diet.

Transform

Gaz wrote: »

Age: 30
Height: 6ft
Weight: 88Kg

Once a week 5 a side football
Once a week do strenght/endurance training in local gym, prowlers etc
Cycle 60km a week commuting to work
3 nights a week do weights , mainly compound work. I have reduced the weight I am lifting and increased to 12 reps.

I think I am on the right track and I am making good progress , just wasnt sure about the low-carb approach.

Thanks for all the replies so far:)

why decrease the weight?

Get stronger and lift more when possible not drop the weight and do more reps.

you certainly do not need more cardio - maybe a good metcon session once a week would help

Gaz

Transform wrote: »

why decrease the weight?

I always thought higher reps for weight loss and low reps/heavy for muscle building ?

Transform

Gaz wrote: »

I always thought higher reps for weight loss and low reps/heavy for muscle building ?

when learning a new exercise high reps can help but for fat loss getting stronger will help more as its going to increase metabolism massively and generally make you look a whole lot better

always be getting stronger and to do that doing high reps is not going to help too much unless its part of a metcon