This is what worried me..

[Coach33]

I got onto to Atkins to get a little leaner. I was not highly overweight but did want to lose some fat throughout my body. Now, I did have a decent amount of muscle and strength before going on to this diet. I am almost 3 weeks in, I have lost about 10 pounds but boy I have to ask, where did the muscle go?? It eats away at your muscles like there is no tomorrow.. I look down at my legs or around my chest and it is like things dissapeared. Wow, how can you stop this negative effect?? Remember, I have been eating protein like crazy the past few weeks...

[not2late]

Originally Posted by Coach33

I got onto to Atkins to get a little leaner. I was not highly overweight but did want to lose some fat throughout my body. Now, I did have a decent amount of muscle and strength before going on to this diet. I am almost 3 weeks in, I have lost about 10 pounds but boy I have to ask, where did the muscle go?? It eats away at your muscles like there is no tomorrow.. I look down at my legs or around my chest and it is like things dissapeared. Wow, how can you stop this negative effect?? Remember, I have been eating protein like crazy the past few weeks...

Have you been eating fat with that protein? Atkins is a high fat diet, not a high protein one. It's the dietary and body fat that we are targeting for energy use and they also are more energy dense than protein or carbs. So by not getting enough dietary fat, your body will start looking elsewhere for energy and after it's depleted it's carb stores (glycogen), it starts going after muscle.

The other thing too is that there is a layer of fat that lies directly beneath our skin and over our muscles. So if you lost some of that "subcuteanous fat", your muscles might look "smaller". It's like if you always wear multiple layers of clothing. You'll look larger. But when you take those layers off, you look smaller.

[fawn]

are you sure that muscle wasn't fat? I'm sorry but that comment just doesn't make sense. You would have to be in a nutritional deficit to "eat" at muscle.

[Lyssie]

I don't know what you do for a workout, but last year, doing weight lifting and cardio 5/7 days a week, and eating Atkins, I lost 60 pounds and gained muscle, like, mad muscle, like, I went from bench pressing 45 lbs (the bar) to pressing 135 (bar + 2 45lb weights).