If you are concerned about muscle loss, I would avoid ketosis. Lyle is a really smart guy, but seems to contradict himself. Or maybe he's not, because the rules for fat loss and muscle growth are different. Anyway, here are some other comments by Lyle regarding ketosis:
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Here's the thing: all hypo caloric diets cause fat loss. And, for the most part, once you meet some basic requirements (mainly protein and essential fatty acids, without generating too massive of a deficit), the differences in fat loss are pretty minor and even more highly variable. Some folks appear to do better on keto diets (although I suspect that's the carb-load more than anything) but some do better with moderate carbs. Even there the differences are minor. Folks were reporting *maybe* 3 lbs extra fat loss over 12 weeks for CKD vs a Zone type of diet.
Others reported better fat loss on the Zone type of diet. These were lean folks who were meticulous about counting their calories.
As far as I'm concerned it becomes a case of food/appetite/calorie control at that level (note: one exception is that women will tend to lose bodyfat better on lowered carbs, men might mobilize ab fat more effectively but that's debatable and highly variable). If a higher carb diet makes you hungrier and you eat more calories, you're going to lose less fat. Because you're eating more.</div>
And in terms of adding muscle:
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I would certainly put carb intake above keto levels (100 g/day) for hormonal reasons. Odds are it'll be much higher than that. How much higher will depend on total caloric intake and how much fat you eat.</div>
Anyway, personally, I have done just fine by eating carbs and lowering total calories. Over the past several weeks, I have been cycling my calories (similar to CKD, but I'm depleting & loading the calories & not really concerned with carbs). It works just fine - I've lost about 5 - 6 pounds and cut 2 inches off my waist. I don't know that you'll see any better results in ketosis, and if you do, I don't think the extra fat you loose will be worth the muscle loss.
Plus carbs are yummy, so I'm not about to give them up if I don't need to.
Lyle will probably come smack me now, but there's my opinion.
