However, some of them provide this weight loss at the expense of health and fitness resulting in continual fatigue, listlessness, apathy with limited fitness-gains due to muscle-loss as well. Atkins is one of these diets (along with any of the other low-carb diets). Low-calorie diets with large deficits end up destroying too much muscle in order to get higher weight-loss rates. Sure you'll end up as a thin twig, but you'll also have no muscle-tone and still have love-handles and a double-chin. It is low muscle-glycogen from low-carb intake that destroys muscle the fastest, eating more proteins may help rebuild the damage afterwards, but it does nothing to ward off muscle-catabolism in the first place.
I disagree!
if you are eating enough protein and fat, you'll get all you need to build and maintain muscle. Your body makes all the glycogen it needs under normal circumstances, however if you ride for hours at a time, you might need to carefully and judiciously add some carbs to your diet.
here's what you can expect if you switch to a low carb diet:
- you'll have plenty of protein to protect your muscles.
- your lipid profile will dramatically IMPROVE.
- your long term health will improve-low carb diets are helpful in treating and preventing various diseases, such as diabetes, alzheimers, parkinsons, and on and on. Maybe even cancer (tumors live exclusively off of sugar. think about that....)
- you'll be eating a diet that is much closer to the diet that humans evolved on. high carb diets are only a fairly recent thing, in evolutionary terms.
- High carb diets are far more inflammatory than low carbs, and inflammation is becoming more and more the prime suspect as the cause of heart disease.
- You'll be eating a diet that is much more similar to mother's milk.
important things to remember regarding performance on a low carb diet.
- it can take a few weeks to adapt, during which time you may feel less energy, impaired perfomance, etc.
- if you are riding really really hard or for a long, long time, you may need to add some carbs. start with a low carb diet, and add just enough to support your rides.