Big Question, Really Concerned

[chrisie_20]

Okay, I had a friend tell me that she read in a book and also saw something on t.v. about that when you do Atkins that the first weight you lose isn't you body fat at all. It is water weight (which I knew this you do that on any diet) and then the needed fat you are born with in your muscles. Is this true? I have never heard this before and it kind of freaked me out. Of course to her I rebuttled that made no sense because we eat the main source of food for muscles protein. It would make no sense that this diet would be hurting our muscles when we are eating something that helps make them strong. But, have any of you ever heard this. Is there any facts to it? I would really like to know, and if it is true is there anyway to prevent it. Monday I will be on Atkins a month (not for the first time, but I have stuck with it this time ). And, I have lost 16 pounds so far. I would hate to learn that that is coming from my muscles, not from my body fat.

Hmmmmmm you are right this makes no sense to me either and I am pretty sure you can leave this in the bone pile of crap misinformation..just keep doing what you are doing and congratulations!!!

[dotsamantha]

I'd love to know what book it was for research purposes. It really doesn't hold any validity, if you look at just some of the members here who are weight lifters and great athletes.

[changing]

She might be talking about glycogen, which is used to store glucose in the body for later energy usage. It is stored in the muscles (the percentages by volume are low, but the total amount overall is larger than what is stored in the liver) and also in the liver. When you first start Atkins and get that huge induction weight loss, a large portion of your initial loss is water and that glycogen (which becomes depleted as your body basically says "hey, where's my glucose gone? guess I gotta dip into my stash). While glycogen is not a fat and you are not born with it, I find that when people are dissing Atkins, they get pretty creative and start changing things. That initial glycogen loss is absolutely nothing to worry about and your body bounces right back. Homeostasis, the body's desire to keep all systemic activity steady, is a beautiful thing.


Also, everybody seems to think that the 2-week Induction is the entire diet. So what if a lot of the weight lost the first two weeks is things like water and glycogen! You've got a looooong time to lose other kinds of weight. You're on week 4, so I'm betting you've lost more than water and glycogen and are well on your way to being a lean mean sexy lady.

Keep up the good work.

[not2late]

Originally Posted by chrisie_20

Okay, I had a friend tell me that she read in a book and also saw something on t.v. about that when you do Atkins that the first weight you lose isn't you body fat at all. It is water weight (which I knew this you do that on any diet) and then the needed fat you are born with in your muscles. Is this true? I have never heard this before and it kind of freaked me out. Of course to her I rebuttled that made no sense because we eat the main source of food for muscles protein. It would make no sense that this diet would be hurting our muscles when we are eating something that helps make them strong. But, have any of you ever heard this. Is there any facts to it? I would really like to know, and if it is true is there anyway to prevent it. Monday I will be on Atkins a month (not for the first time, but I have stuck with it this time ). And, I have lost 16 pounds so far. I would hate to learn that that is coming from my muscles, not from my body fat.

Initial weight loss on any diet is water weight.

Muscle loss happens too, which is why you need to eat enough protein to prevent it, but not so much that you start converting that excess protein into sugar.

The best way to measure body fat is to get it measured before you begin then get measurements to see what's happening.

[Rick]

Yep, water weight is the first to go... but if you do this WOL correctly, eat your proteins and take your vitamins and get your exercise, then you're going to be building muscle mass, and burning off fat, and that's what you want to do!!! Atkins, done correctly, is the perfect fat burning WOL.