Eating a low fat diet to lose weight will make you fatter ..

[Im Still Ballin]

yeah, its for losing weight. cutting. bulking is different. i eat carbs when bulking. and as a result gain some fat as well. but go back on a cut to lose it. professional athletes cycle carbs depending on when they have to perform. when i was in the army, i used to do carb loading a day before my pt test. different scenarios, different diets. no one diet is the end all.

So you're saying that it is better to go low carb when cutting as apposed to just lowering calories? In terms of maintaining muscles mass/LBM which route is better? I've heard that a stretched out, slower fat loss cut was better for maintaining mass?

[SupermanOnSteroids]

well of course you're going to have to cut calories too to lose weight. how many calories you wanna cut is up to you depending on how quickly you want to lose the weight. the lower your cals, the more you run the risk of losing your gains. i normally cut cals to 1800 and limit my carbs and add cardio on my off days when cutting. bulking i consume 2800 cals and don't worry about carbs that much (still its not like i start binging on em) and cut out cardio. but that's because i hate doing cardio.

[shlver]

glucose is your coal for your body. body burns glucose to produce energy. fats, carbs, even proteins that are burned, are first converted into glucose and then metabolized by the body. glucose is broken down to produce Acetyl-CoA which enters the kerbs cycle. the main objective for metabolism is to produce ATP for the body and the most efficient way to do this is via the kerbs cycle (only when o2 is present). the reaction to do this is the same all over the body, whether its your brain or your muscle cells. its how you get that glucose to burn, is different. what you need to monitor is the blood glucose levels. if glucose levels are high, insulin spike, glucose stored as fat. if glucose levels are low, lypolosys and catabolism to create more glucose to bring glucose levels to norm.

the biggest problem with low carb is that it keeps your body in ketosis, so the risk of catabolism is high. even though body would still be getting the majority of glucose through lypolosis, catabolism would be at a high enough level that it could hinder your gains. thats why its important to intake a good amount of protein while on it to keep the nitrogen balance positive which helps keep catabolism much more in check.

that's why i have a hard time buying all that IIFYM guys that keep saying eat whatever you want. IIFYM means If It Fits Your Macros. you still have to set a certain amount of macros and make sure youre getting ample protein and fats, and that would not leave much room for carbs if you still want to keep your calories in check. You can eat whatever you want, as long as you meet your macros.

edit: had to look it up to make sure and the bolded is wrong. carbs are broken down into glucose. fatty acids can be converted directly into acetyl CoA. been a while since i took that ochem class.

but it is still important to monitor glucose levels and keep sure that you don't let them get too high because your body responds to the level of glucose in the blood.

The electron transport chain is the real generator of atp, the krebs cycle provides the elecrrons through a series of oxidation steps and produces phosphate carriers during that process.
A doctor would never recommend a prolonged ketogenic diet. Complex plant carbs for a steady stream of glucose provides longer periods of satiation without the insulin spike you get from refined carbs. You do not need to be in a state of ketosis to lse weight,