Ketosis losing muscle?

[Buddyjay]

Many articles have been written concerning ketosis and it's "bad" qualities. One being that you loose muscle.
I have been on Induction for 1 week and my bicep lost 1". I do home improvement work and my arms have always been lean (even before this type of work). This to me is not good?

[not2late]

If you have concerns about this, then I suggest you get your % body fat measured.

I know this sounds indelicate, but many fat people--myself included--have a distorted image of what our bodies really look like. At my heaviest, I saw my calves as "slender"--because the rest of my body was huge. But in reality, my calves were as fat as the rest of me.

[cocobelle]

Don't know about the others, but I found better definition after being in ketosis. The one inch you lost is most likely subcutaneous fat or water weight (which even lean people have). Ketosis is the burning of fat, not muscle.

[djay]

From what I've read (on the internet), when you go into ketosis, not all of your body can run on fat. Your brain and parts of your nervous system run, indirectly, on protein.

Your kidneys break down protein to things your brain and nervous system can run on. The Induction Flu transition is often unpleasant because there is a lapse between the time you run out of glucose and the time your body starts breaking down protein and running your brain on it.

If you aren't getting enough protein to both repair your muscles due to daily, normal breakdown AND enough to power your brain, it would make sense that your body goes to your own muscles to power your brain. Your brain tends to get priority in your body.

This might NOT be happening to you - much more likely, you're losing fat and water.

The beauty of the Atkins diet is that you should be getting plenty of protein to power your brain - if for some reason you aren't eating much protein, I would guess it would make sense to up the protein.

(Note that on the "Fat Fast" there more risk of lean body mass loss, as noted in DANDR (at least in my version, which I recently noticed is 1999), because you aren't eating much protein on Fat Fast. But, I'm assuming you aren't on Fat Fast.)

[AZNick]

I do not think you lost muscle that fast.

First of, did you see any changes in your strength at all?

Also, as someone said, unless you are "dry" like Lance Armstrong (if he has 4% body fat, that means he just ate a large portion of French fries), then your biceps are obviously surrounded by fat.

If you did not lose any strength at all, then you are fine.

I hit the gym myself and do weight training and have not seen any decrease in my strength.

[Vasili]

Actually, what happened was you had your body full of glucose including your muscles, so when you burnt it all out your muscles lost some of its fullness....the size they are is really the same size.

Samething happens when people cut for a bodybuilding show....theres no concern, you are not "losing" muscle....trust me!

[Buddyjay]

Thanks. That makes sense. I don't believe (too much) that my bicep has a lot of fat. I build decks and remodel kitchens, basements, etc. So I am lifting drywall, wood, all day and my arms are pretty "lean"; always have been. So, losing the fullnes, as you say, makes sense.