Bodyweight and glycogen depletion

I was surfing around the internet and came across this. I understood that the initial big weightloss people see with a low carb diet was water weight. This explained more to me how that works.

Understanding Bodyweight and Glycogen Depletion

So going low carb depletes the glycogen stored in your body. Each gram of glycogen requires a certain amount of water (2.7-4g?) to bind to it. When it goes, the water goes too. And you get a spectacular initial loss and think "Man this diet is working awesome!" Then your weight loss slows to where you're losing real weight (assuming you are in a calorie deficit still). You think you've hit a plateau, maybe you get depressed and slack off one day. BAM! Weight gain as you store more glycogen & water. You're mad at yourself, and promise to recommit, to focus and do it right. You're back to strick low carbing and shed the water weight - reinforcing in your mind that low carb works wonders when you stick to it...

I could be misunderstanding this. Feel free to attack me

That's my understanding of it too. Cut the carbs, ya cut the water weight.

so couldn't a person lose weight on a regular carb diet at the same rate, and just carry those 'extra 5lbs of water' with the whole time? rather then depleting yourself into a...is it dehydrated(?) state?

I wouldnt call it being dehydrated, you just lose those extra water grams that binded with each gram of carbohydrates when it was converted into glycogen for energy storage. I drink on average 2 liters of water daily and pee a lot, so my body must still be pretty hydrated. I notice I don't sweat as much as before as well. Which seems to correlate with this; less glycogen being burned off means less water that was bound to those cells being burned and sweated out.

Initially when I went low carb, I lost weight quickly then it slowed. Which made sense to me since I was holding on to less glycogen and turning to fat for energy use.

As far as your question goes, seems level of activity for the person could be a difference. I see glycogen and fat storage both as fuel tanks. With glycogen carrying the water weight, it's simply about using up those glycogen reserves to get rid of the water weight. When I go carb crazy (ohh and maybe sodium crazy), I easily notice the next day when I look in the mirror. My face and love handles are puffier!

It's not dehydration per se, but that's basically right. Although if you don't have a very high calorie budget to work with, you're likely to see water weight losses and fluctuations anyway. Because carbohydrate is not essential, if you have a diet sufficient in protein and fats, CHO is the first obvious target for calorie reduction.

Restricting your CHO - which is usually combined with an increase in activity when trying to lose weight - will often have the effect of lowering your glycogen, even if the effect isn't as dramatic as someone starting a ketogenic diet.

And all of this highlights why the normal fluctuations in the scale aren't a good way to gauge fat loss. If you can add 6 pounds in a day but little to no actual body fat, just by manipulating your water balance, it should be easy to understand why the scale can not move at all for several weeks, while you're in fact losing body fat the entire time.
It also helps explain why so many "plateaus" can broken through via carb reduction - it doesn't necessarily increase the rate of fat loss, but it can get the scale moving again by flushing some water out of your system.

Glad to see my understanding is on the right track! Well said, Nimm.

In general I would agree with you. That was my experience when I started the Atkins diet. I lost 15 lbs those first two weeks. However I knew from previous experience that this weight was mostly water and was due in large part to using up my stored glycogen. Currently I am losing a more sustainable 2-3 lbs per week. I would go further and say that this is a common occurrence with many styles of dieting not just for us low-carbers.

The difference is when an Atkins dieter or other low-carb dieter "falls off the wagon" and eats a half tub of ice cream or a bag of Doritos they often see an immediate 2-3lb gain. Its not all "fat gain" of course but it is discouraging if you don't put this "weight gain" in the proper perspective. For example, last week I broke Atkins and had pizza and real beer. I knew that my weight was going to go up and it was going to take a while to burn off the stored glycogen I had built up. Turns out it took me about a week to get back to Ketosis (the point at which your body starts metabolizing fat for energy instead of carbohydrate). I could have freaked out and said, "I quit!" but I didn't. I just went back to following the diet and eventually things went back to the way they were.

I suppose they could yes. It would depend on a number of variables. All diets (and I say this with some sense of irony as an Atkins supporter) work the same basic way: fewer net calories in = weight loss.

Right! Like with me, my weigh in this morning on the scale is really no reflection of what's truly going on within my body. Today I was 135, and back on April 27th, I was 135. But the difference is, during the time I spent being glycogen depleted through strict low-carbing, I was burning body fat. And like Nimm also stated, by increasing physical activity over the previous 2 months for me, I've gained muscle.

I don't have the funds or access to a bodpod or any other highly dependable methods of fat/muscle percentages. But I do have a bioimpedance weight scale. I know it's often touted as inaccurate, but since it's the only numbers I have to go by, it's somewhat accurate overall for me. I just make sure to test no more than once a week, sometimes every other week. I test same time, straight out of bed, fresh from the blankets where I've just sweated all night, and before any liquid consumption.

The results for me? All of March, some of April my reading for body fat was between 31-33%. All of June it's been 24-26%. And so far for the month of June I've done no actual dieting at all. Honestly though, I suspect my BF% to be even lower than that, or else I wouldn't have the visible signs of my abdomen muscles popping out.

It seems to me, depleting my glycogen stores briefly did in fact allow me to burn my own body fat.. while AT THE SAME TIME, concentrate on building muscle. It was totally worth giving up carbs like I did.

However, I found I needed a break from extreme low-carbing. It got repetitious, and created an atmosphere where I was constantly thinking of food, almost to an addiction point.

But I really don't think I've un-done all the hard work that was done during April-May. Sure my weight is pretty much the same, but my body composition is not. And now I can continue on with a fresh mind set, a slower planned loss, continuing muscle gain, and definitely adding in more carbs just for the sheer enjoyment of them.

Overall, I gotta say staying glycogen depleted worked for me, but in a short term sense. From here on out, I'll be focusing more on a calorie balance, and less of a macro-nutrient balance.