I am bodybuilding. I use a electrode fat reader scale that tests my body fat, i test every day, am very disciplined with eating, supplementation, am working out 5 days a week now. I started at 29.8% body fat and am now teetering between 23-24% I want to get down to 9%.

I am on the atkins diet to lose fat, but dont want to lose muscle. The first month I lost 13 pounds fat and Gained 8 pounds of muscle. I am now Stalling on fat loss and am burning and losing muscle at a good pace now, I dont know why. Nothing has changed in my diet. My workouts are longer with more cardio in them (1 hour weightlifting, 30 mins cardio) 5 days a week.

Q1:
I test my body fat % every day and i have lost 3 pounds of muscle in the last 2 weeks and only lost 2 pounds of fat. I need to keep losing fat, but I can not afford to lose muscle. What do I do?

My Basal metabolic rate is 1780 cals. My average daily intake is 1600. I average 25 grams carbs/day, 180 grams protein and the rest fat. This seems obviously not enough to retain muscle as I am losing it. I do take supplements including Cortislim type supplements, a mild anabolic non steroid to help as i have a history of easily going catabolic. And a meta-booster that has all the known active meta boosting ingredients of all the major-known items like hydroxy, etc. I take whey protein supplements and creatine as well.

Q2
: my trainer and the FDA says my diet needs to be 30% carbs 40% protein and 30% fats.When the fda says this, what the hell are they talking about???

My trainer says I will NEVER gain muscle eating so few carbs as my glycogen stores will not have enough to work out and replenish. But he is stupid and says my diet needs to be 30% carbs 40% protein and 30% fats. He can not even tell me 40% of what...calories or grams. It could mean 40% of anything for petes sake. 40% of 8000 calories per day will guarantee I will be a blimp as well. 40% of 200 calories per day will mean I will waste away like a leaf in days. What a moron. I have been searching for months in this info and NO ONE has answers. Do you?

Q3:
How much carbs do i need to retain muscle?? this is a question also no atkins person can tell me, no trainer, no book, no doctor, noone. Its like a pure mystery. Seems so dumb no one knows...wouldnt everyone want to?? Do you? Without this crucial information we are all just dieting blind deaf and dumb here.

Q4: Caloric intake Vs Basal metabolic rate. What happens???

- If my basal is 1780 and I eat less, will I waste away?
- Can I eat less then my basal and retain muscle? HOW MUCH LESS?
- If its more will I not?
- If its even, will I be optimal and be able to gain/retain muscle and still lose fat?

I am eating 1600 cals a day on 180 grams protein, 25 grams carbs and the rest fat. I will have a hard time adding to this in cals unless I eat easy cals like bread etc or peanut butter etc with a lot of additional cals. Idont understand what everyones problem is with eating few cals. I eat 6 times a day and only get 1600 cals (2-4 meals protein shakes tho).

Q4A:
Am I wasting my time if I eat less then my BMR?

These things also are talked about NOWHERE. No one has answers, not one trainer I have talked to, not nutritionists, no one. Do you?

Q:5 At what point can I retain muscle and still burn fat?
Q:6 At what point can I build muscle and lose fat?

In the glycogen use/fat burning process, glycogen is burned for energy, depleting muscle stores of glycogen. Then and ONLY then will your body burn fat, BUT...BUT your body might use Muscle INSTEAD of burning fat, which happens to many of us and especially stallers. This is the whole stall process in fact it seems to me. What determines which source your body will consume??? Still this is not answered by atkins with all the research. They only say maybe maybe maybe inhibitors that cause your body to stop burning fat MIGHT be workign against you. Well if its not burning fat, and you have no carbos (25 is nowhere enough to replenish glycogen stores for working out to any degree, the brain uses more then this a day) then it is burning MUSCLE. This is destructive to the whole process and MUST..MUST be avoided and if not you are defeating the whole purpose and are in fact moving backwards.

This SHOULD be the ENTIRE basis behind dieting and atkins but they do not adress this much at all. they talk about your body burning the fat after it gets through the glycogen by limiting glycogen (low carb - glycogen replenishment) But then fall COMPLETELY short and do not talk about how to make sure this does not go the easy overboard into muscle depletion which is SURE to happen. Why it goes into fat consumption and not muscle depletion IS NOT EVEN DISCUSSED!!! what a joke.

This seems completely rediculous to me that no one talks abotu this because this is the WHOLE POINT.

please give your input as I am frustrated that all this atkins hype has revealed nothing of what really matters. Everything he talks about has been known for a long time, it was just not educated to many ppl. WHERE ARE THE GOODS THO?


P.S.
I am going to try to do carb cycling to see if i can stop my muscle loss and still be able to at least slowly lose fat and tinker with this to try to find the true method of making this work. I will add some 100 gram carbo days here and there and also try increasing my carbs until I stop losing muscle.

I will continue to update on this issue with my progress and findings..lets solve this together as this is the HUGE key in doing whatever you want with your body. Also I am desperate to get back to 9% like i was 7 years ago.

P.S.S I look Way better then I did before, have lost 1.5-2 inches in many places, but when I come home from the gym my stomach looks bigger then when I havent gone for some reason...wierd. My musculature is much better as well since starting again. Also, last year i did atkins and lost way faster then this time, and I was eating 100 grams a day in Pure 100% apple juice for carbs. This is what makes me want to go back to adding carbs to theoretically give my muscle enough to gain more muscle and retain it and also prevent starvation from eating under my BMR.

Q7: What water % level is optimal? My scale also measures body water % and I know the higher I have the higher reading it gives me for lean mass and less body fat but I have no idea what a good level is.

thankx
Baine

It seems obvious to me that glycogen is the WHOLE GAME in fat vs muscle loss.

Why isnt atkins talking more about GLYCOGEN and what the body does after the stores are used?

If you have enough glycogen, the body will burn fat and retain muscle, but you need to have low enough to burn fat. If you have too little, the body will not burn fat and will eat the muscle instead. There is a fine line balance here and it seems to me that this might be the HOLY GRAIL in weight management and bodybuilding.

I will attempt to illustrate.

- High Glycogen level == Fat gain as excess glycogen is stored as fat
- Normal (just enough) Glycogen Level == Maintenance level, no loss/gain
- Somewhere under normal == some minor fat loss
- Depleted completely glycogen stores but not less== ("Possibly..but no one seems to know for sure") quick fat loss, no muscle depletion (THE HOLY GRAIL)
- Somewhat Overly depleted glycogen stores == Body eats muscle and little fat
- Highly depleted glycogen stores == Body eats muscle and stores fat (glycogen starvation mode essentially)

The more and more i learn about atkins and bodybuilder diets, the more convinced I become that the WHOLE GAME is glycogen levels.

For example...on 2 different time I did atkins. i retained and gained more muscle, and lost more fat with 100 grams per day of carbs to fuel my workouts then when i am currently using 25. Now that i am on 25 grams a day, I have stalled and am not losing fat but losing muscle. This clearly is not enough to retain muscle for any length of time. It worked for 30 days and now is not and has reversed to catabolism as myworkouts have gotten more frequent and more intense with more cardio added. This is obviously depleting my glycogen stores more significantly cause a much greater glycogen shortfall and I am now losing muscle. I could make millions on a new diet outlining this but dont have the time for that so i will volunteer the next huge billion dollar diet breakthrough to be realized. (nothing more then common sense really) Its all about glycogen.

Also, no one talks about what causes the body to switch between fat burning and muscle burning once the glycogen is used up!!!!!!
This is the whole POINT!! If we can control this and understand it, we will just be fat burning machines and never have to worry about muscle loss/fatigue. this will maximize all our dieting, permenantly prevent stalls, and optimize. So why is no one talking about it? How the heck should I know, maybe people are all hypers and know it alls and dont seek solutions generally. Just look at the 48% of america that jumped on the finger pointing bandwagon crowd that lost in the election in nov. No solutions only problems, okay enough political analogies and back to nutrition.

Pros and Mods and Vets please give input on the whole glycogen process in great detail and how to solve this issue and the mechanics of it all.

thank you from all of us and LETS DO IT!

Major Stall buster here that goes into all the science of "Refeeding" and Leptin levels. Touches on cortisol, high and low glycemic foods and what kinds of food ultimately to eat to properly and effienciently "refeed"

This is exactly what I am talking about folks. This is the Glycogen replenishment I am referring to that I am saying is probably THE WHOLE DEAL.
This article also touches on glycogen replenishment.

I would assume that fat levels would be a non issue and spiking fat would be a non issue since atkins is a moderate to high fat diet generally to trick the body into wanting to feed off fat.

So what this leaves is carbohydrate intake...or..GLYCOGEN replenishment. Once your Glycogen stores lessen and lessen consistently, your body seems to want to get into that muscle as their are no new stores. We have plenty of fat and plenty of protein, but no glycogen due to the lack of carbs. Maybe leptin also controls this fat to muscle burning switch to some degree it seems. So many cases on this site of people "refeeding" (short term carb boosting and glycogen replenishment essentially)

A lot of people listed what they ate, and most of it was crap, contributing to even more fat on their bodies right away they admitted. It seems the ones who had results had a good influx of carbs and the ones who didnt or had less, did not have the carbs. This is further proof to my theory!!

I am starting to get excited here. I am definitely going to use this...this worked for me having even 100 grams steady carbs a day before when my caloric intake was at a severe deficit and protein was not even as high as recommended. I just didnt realize it till now.

This research also says that we should eat low fat foods to "refeed" and they should come mostly in mid to higher glycemic foods. Why it does not really say, Could there be a correlation between high glycemic foods and maximum glycogen refilling? or possibly it fills it less, and just gets us to that frontier level. In any way, we would want to refeed only as much as required to start fat burn again and NOTHING more.

I will personally try a boost of 200 grams carbs possibly and I am going for a low glycemic white pasta. I will do it one day only and hit full induction again for 7 days and do it again. I will see how this goes for 2 weeks. If it doesnt help my muscle loss right away, I will scale to 100 grams carbs a day right away to see if that curbs the muscle loss.

everyone, read this article!!

http://www.theministryoffitness.com...s/article18.htm

Hi Champ, sounds like you are in great shape! Perhaps you could direct your questions to Trainer Dan. He's very eduacted on those things. Somewhat to technical for me. I think at your age and activity level you could probable do well with re-feed. I dosent work for me, I'm inclined to binge once I get off track. I will watch and see what Trainer Dan says. Good luck to you.

Everyone interested in atkins or low carb stuff, please please read the Stalling/how to break stalls forum! Some of the best info I have gotten on atkins so far. There are a few very technical and educating articles in there that really get into the technical side of how this all works and the challenges and I have found that indeed I was correct, it is ALL about GLYCOGEN.

If you go on atkins from your normall high carb life, instantly everyone sees good fat losss, this is a known fact. What happens is you went from having high glycogen stores. You lose fat and burn your glycogen and eventually run out of it. Once you do, BAM! plateau and fat loss stops. Once you refill your glycogen (commonly called refeeding) then you go back on low carb again, its like starting atkins all over again and POW the fat loss accellerates again.

Your body is programmed to go into starvation mode once you run out of glycogen stores. Metab slows down, and your body feeds off of muscle instead of fat. this has happened to me countless times in my life and I had no idea why. Now I know

I have started "Glycogen replenishment" through high glycemic carb feeding.
there are optimal ways to do this however.!!!!!

OPTIMISING.

1.You should eat ONLY high glycemic carbs in your first 24 hours of Glycogen Replenishment (the proper term for refeeding) as they are absorbed way more efficiently and turned into more glycogen without fat storage in the glycogen replenishment phase. (very different reaction then in normal eating..of course you know this)

2.You should move to low glycemic carbs in the 2nd 24 hours of refeeding so your body glucose level evens back out and you get ready for ketonic dieting again in day 3.

3.You should keep all these foods low in sugar!!! This is important it seems, I do not yet have the information why but perhaps it is because the sugar metabolizes too much into fat and not glycogen.

3.Keep your fats low...eating too much fat during GR (Glycogen Replenishment) will cause the fat to go directly to stores (adipose tissue) do not to eat more then 80 grams of fat in a day! It is good to eat some, but not too much as too much will just go on the ass and you will have to burn it off...it is NOT the fat that replaces glycogen, it is the carbs!!! and this is what we want. So excess fat is OUT!

4.Eat approximately 3 grams of carbs per pound of bodyweight
so if you weigh 175pounds, eat 525 grams carbs on your GR day and scale down to half that in day 2. (extra 2100 calories added day 1)
(extra 1050 calories day 2)

This means you are adding less then 1 pound of fat even IF it ALL went to fat, which IT WILL NOT CHEMICALLY DO!! your body can store almost 3500 calories between muscle and liver in Glycogen stores.

This means that without addition non needed anyway fats and sugars you will gain maximum of 1 pound of fat (wont happen, but to put this in perspective for you worriers)

There are over 50 posts on this site of actual cases of people posting before trying this and after with stunning success levels, average of 2-7 pounds fat loss the following week alone and ongoing from there!!

i am trying this right now.

5. Look for foods with low fat, low sugar, and high in carbohydrates. Food like mashed potatoes for instance, or baked. Perfect example of high glycemic food that meets this demand.
check www.atkins.com for a glycemic index of foods
READ LABELS

6. Read the article I posted 2 posts above this one, it goes into this in chemical detail and is fantastic!!! Also has another glycemic index there for food ideas.

7. DO NOT..I REPEAT..DO NOT go eating cake and ice cream and anything you want if you want this to be optimal...MOST of those additional Fat and Sugar calories WILL go straight to your ass and do not have to. You will have to work them all off and have even more pain getting back on induction. You CAN eat what is recommended and still have fun and great food. I look forward to gorging myself tonight on 4 cups of mashed taters and buttah for a total of 160 pure carbos, no fat, no sugar
Taco Bell = 20 grams carbs, 10 fat 10 protein soft beef tacos mmmm!! had 4 last night. 80 total carbs
Low sugar cereal = 40 grams carbs per cup!! mmmm having 2 bowls = 160 grams carbs
Brown rice pasta is good too, tough to find in stores but perfect on this scale!
White rice is okay but not the best.
Tortilla chips are great too if you can find low fat sour cream and low fat salsa!!! WOOHOO!

This will restore your glycogen and start the fire again, its just like starting atkins all over once its done, but from your new lower weight...IMAGINE!!!!

This is the holy grail for bodybuilders to lose weight pre-competition I am learning. I will report more with findings as I learn more. I have many unanswered questions I will share with all. There is even more optimization that can be done on this!!

I highly recommend a body fat %age scale they are cheap at walmart www.walmart.com I got one for $45 bucks and it tests body water levels too. It is a great guide and great motivator as you struggle to break every half pound in body fat!! exciting to see it go down, constant reconfirmation and emotional reboosting!!
This will let you know whether you are truely on a plateau or not, are losing fat or muscle and what you need to do for total optimization!!! After all, you ARE doing this to lose fat and know whats going on and lose it AS FAST AS POSSIBLE ARENT YOU??

Get the scale!

MAJOR kudos to TrainerDan for getting all this cutting edge info to this site and helping me so much with your posts and links.

you can do a lot of research just google searching on CKD (Cyclical Ketogenic Dieting) and find all kinds of supporting articles to this.

Also search on here for alll Trainer dans posts, AWESOME!!!! this guy is a training GOD! trainer dan PLEASE EMAIL ME WITH YOUR PHONE NUMBER BUDDY WE NEED TO TALK!!!
there is a search feature by poster you can use to help you find them easy

Read ALL the stalling posts on here and refeed (proper term is "Glycogen Replenishment") topics as well on here, very good!!!

Champ

Im Carb loading...11:20 pm now after day of eating.

Ive been eating like a freakin pig all day long now. Puff Puff...shit man..I dont know how anyone can possibly eat enough to stay over 225 pounds. Geeeezus!! How do people eat this much??? I still have 1.5 cups of mashed potatoes to eat, a bagel and a bowl of corn flakes in order to meet my loading requirements. Then after the gym I have to have my protein shake.
Huff Puff..

I have now eaten almost 550 grams of carbs for the day..when I am done I will hit this. This is what was recommended buy Trainer Dan and his pals so I am doing it. I have been bouncing off the walls excited all day about getting leaner and also scared about being in that awesome of shape. Fear of success? I guess I have some.

I am really happy that I get to eat doritos tomorrow, I only wish I got to eat them as I watch the Steelers kick the Jets ass on saturday afternoon. Back to induction on saturday

Bagels are awesome for carb loading, especially the blueberry ones. 51 grams of pure carbs per bagel, low sugar, no fat, and 9 grams of protein. Corn flakes with not that much milk are the bomb too. Mashed taters load you up fast and make you feel stuffed, all those starches I guess...puff..puff.

White bread tastes good enough to even eat by itself, but you can make some good meat sandwiches for protein, low fat and high carbs.

Okay to the technical side now.
Q1. Anyone know why the sugar content has to be low for glycogen replenishment? Some interesting science behind it turning to fat rather then glycogen.

Q2. Anyone know what the chemical breakdown/structure of glycogen is?

Heres an interesting tip as well:
The reason the body loses so much weight early on in atkins is because the body needs 7 times the amount of water to metabolise protein as it does to metabolise carbs. When you inject more protein into the body and drop carbs, more water is used and passes. therefore it is necessary to rehydrate at incredible levels to keep up. This is why so much waterweight is shed early on giving the impression to atkins users that bodyfat has decreased significantly. I read this from a very good source.

Some conflicting information to this however as well is my own case, where i stated atkins, and lost 13 pounds of fat in the first 30 days and did not notice a huge difference in water change, it was virtually none the entire time. in fact, My body water %age has been increasing as i have been taking in more fluids.

More later...gotta recoup from all the mashed tatos and then ill be back.

OKay, Went to the gym last night after an entire day and evening of carb loading 550 grams of carbos.

HOLY COW! more strength totally noticeable! A 10-20% gain in weight plates over the previous workout, I was moving up on everything and that which I didnt was way easier. Major difference here for sure. I felt way more into my workout, i was also noticaeably more focused and determined and mentally able to do more of everything. I didnt get quite as hard a squeeze at the end of my sets in my muscles for some reason or at least i couldnt feel it, even tho i was using more weight, and i was trying to really squeeze out, which was interesting. I felt fat as hell after my workout tho, especially when I got on my fat%age scale when I got home and it was all over the map not giving a good reading until it finally settled down into 23.5% which is where I was 2 days earlier 2 pounds heavier tho.

I had way more energy in the gym, on my cardio I felt like I wanted to start sprinting psychotically the whole time and was totally psyched. I was grunting a bit more and really pumping it while lifting, totally getting into it and able to release a bit of energy to get those perfect lifts and final reps more then usual. Even tho i moved up in wiehgts on nearly every last excersize i didnt have to drop set like i usually often do for the last 2 -3 reps of many sets. Incredible instant strength gain wow!

Its tough finding low glycemic carbs without sugar, shoot, tough finding any without sugar for that matter, but i did. Going to be great to have that appleJ and OJ and banana today, some pasta tonight. Thank god I dont have to gorge like i did yesterday, then back onto full induction again saturday.

I sure have developed a lot of questions during this experience.

Q1: how much fat can you gain through this kind of "Glycogen replenishment"?
550 grams carbs is a ton, in order to gain one pound muscle you sure do not have to eat 3500 grams of protein, muscle is like 96% water! so you need only a little protein for each muscle pound. if I eat 550grams i could then theoretically gain more fat then one pound possibly, contrary to my earlier post. hmmm this makes me think, why so many carbs are needed? whats the science behind requiring this many to quickly superload the muscles with glycogen?

Q:2 how long do glycogen stores last in the muscle if you are training? Some places say one workout, some say 7-10 days. This would make an astromnomical difference and if it is only one day, would mute a lot of the benefits if not all of carb loading due to for certain muscle loss once induction really kicks in again which would defeat the purpose, unless you lose fat significantly faster then you lose muscle shortly after induction starts up.

Q: Again, why low or no sugar in foods?

okay well thats my input for the day. I will keep updating on my progress...

post your comments!!

Although I have no answers for any of your questions, I do find the whole Glycogen Replacement issue fascinating. I will be avidly reading to see what your results are!

I do remember reading, although this was YEARS ago, in a book by Covert Bailey ("Muscle Power," or something like that - it was after the Fit or Fat series) that he went into detail on glycogen stores in the body. All his research may be outdated by now, but you might want to check it out. Maybe Trainer Dan knows...?

Good luck!
Michelle

Hi, Champ!

I have some information that might be of interest, and I tried to PM you, but was unable to get a PM through to you. I think it's because you can't be PM'ed until you've made at least 25 posts. (So up your posts! )

If you'd like to contact me with a way to reach you, let me know. Otherwise, I think you're creating a very interesting thread, and I wish you the best of luck with your experiment!

Best, Sona

Yes, Sona, this is really interesting to me too.

Sona, do you have a gym log anywhere?

Hi, Guess~

No, no gym log; sorry. But I have a journal--and you're welcome to post there at any time!

I Carb loaded on Thursday 550 grams high-glycemic carbs. Low on sugar was a must as i read so i made sure evrything I ate had as low a sugar content as possible. Friday, day 2 of Carb Loading, I ate only low glycemic carbs 225 grams. I went to the gym both days, thursday night after finishing all 550 grams carbs and Friday night after finishing all 225 grams carbs. Wow my workouts were intense! I felt like I was on steriods I had so much more energy and strength. My muscles felt bigger, stronger, I had way more stamina, way more energy and way more focus. I enjoyed my workouts a lot more and was pumped up and excited like crazy because of how good I felt.

Back onto induction.. I went back onto induction on Saturday, back under 25 grams carbos. I did not work out since I had the 2 days before. I rested my body. I felt good enough to go thats for sure and was very close to going just for 30 mins of cardio, but chose to rest and study instead. (side investment im studying for) I went again today (Sunday night) Once again, really good strength boost, moved up in weight in squats, lat pull downs, upper back machine rows, gorilla press, tricep extensions, and cardio also. Man 3 days of straight strength gains in the gym, unreal!! I dont think I have ever had that before, and over the years there have been many times I have hit the gym in spurts etc.

I test with ketostix in the evening generally and there were still ketones Thursday night showing after I had binged on the 550 grams carbs. The next day Friday there were none showing tho. I have never shown a high ketos level, even when I lost 13 pounds of fat during induction in december..only a trace or halfway to the next one for me.

Throughout the Carb-Loading process I have gained 2.2 pounds of muscle and 0.6 pounds of fat. I can tell because I test myself every day with a body fat %age/body water%age/weight scale I have. I think the lack of fat gain is attributed to what I had mentioned in above posts to limit fat, do not go over 88 grams of fat (I did in day 1 tho I ate 110..oops) and day 2 I was only 70 or so. Also I did not eat processed crap carbos, no cake, no sugary foods, no pastries, no ice cream, no beer, no garbage food. I did have however a double quater pounder with cheese and a double cheeseburger from MCds and 4 beef soft tacos from taco bell. But that isnt as bad a krispy creme or beer etc, that stuff will go straight to the ass. I gained way less fat then most posters on here did through carb-loading. I thought it only made sense to do it this way and (smile) it worked. I look WAY better already then i did previously to carb loading. I look firmer, feel firmer, my muscles look bigger and I look leaner and better. My bodyfat % is the same as before I started, but this is my first workout post-carb load. I tested with ketostix tonight and no ketones yet. That was prior to my workout tho, I will test again in the morning and more often now to see when exactly they start again. I am going to make sure I eat close to the maximum allowable carbs per day on induction to allow for as much glycogen levels in my muscles during induction now. I think it is 25 but I will go check atkins once again. If it is 25 I will make sure I eat 20. When I do this, as Atkins says I will make sure they are low glycemic carbs. I think it makes sense to try to prolong your ketogenic phase as long as possible between your carb loads. Carb loading obviously stalls the game for a few days until your body can get back on track and start burning fat again.

Most posters experienced a drop of 2-7 pounds in the first week after carb loading. Man this would be awesome, I sure hope I drop that much! I look like I have already but i havent, in fact I look like I have lost fat from previous to carb loading so much, I am suspecting that my scale doesnt work right or something. I will measure myself tomorrow night as well to check against my previous measurements.

One thing is for sure, carb loanding sure screws up your body water measurements. i think it is important to drink even more water when carb loading. Since you are eating way more then normal you need more water to metabolize the major excess food your eating.

I also read something interesting. It takes 7 times the amount of water to metabolize protein as it does to metabolize fat. WOW! better drink lots of water folks. I hate water and dont get enough as i should so Im trying to come up with easy ways to drink it. One idea thats working well is this:
You know how bloated you feel and bogged down when you drink 2 glasses of water close together? Well Im just drinking 2 right before I go to bed. then I dont feel anythign cause im asleep. HAHA! tricked my body. When I wake up I feel fine, I just have to go to the mens room

Someone posted that crystal light might have stalled them or diet soda. I am now suspicious of them, but I am more suspicious of diet soda then CL. I was on induction last summer and lost bigtime and was drinking both the same time. However it is a known fact that soda of any kind dehydrates the hell out of you and this is not good for induction when you need it to metab all those extra proteins and need the water to flush out fats and flush your system. I think it could therefore stall you and since I dont get a gallon of water in me a day, I have now quit diet soda.

If you cant stand water like me, try putting some lemon in it. Much better

Well the carb-load has gone well, 4 days of not losing fat in the process so far, but I have stopped losing muscle and already look better, feel better, can work out harder and have gained muscle, so I am happy so far If I get back on ketosis again soon and start dropping fat, I will be ecstatic about this strategy.

COME ON 22.5% bodyfat!!! I just cant wait till it says that on my fat %age scale. When I think about it I feel like Im rooting for the blitzburgh steelers defense or something. I have to double recommend to everyone to get one of those scales, they are cheap at walmart.com and are soooooo motivating and soo help you track your progress.

I have built a 12 week plan for myself till april 15th where I am trying to get down to 12% bodyfat. 1% bodyfat loss per week or 1.75 pounds per week. I sure hope i can do it One thing is for sure, I will look damn well better then I do now, and I think I will look great. Very motivating 12 weeks isnt long at all.

I will keep posting and when I have time will post research materials here as well, I am making a list of good article links and will post them soon.

YOU CAN DO IT GUYS!!!! ta ta for now.

My email addy is xkknet at shaw dot ca
you can each me there! anyone else too.