I'm interested in giving the Atkins diet a try, but I was wondering what effect it would have on body strength. I had a college biology professor who said the high protein diets work through a disruption of the body's kreb cycle. This is supposed to put the body into a state of catabolysis which is burning up the body's own protein tissues (muscle) in addition to fat. While he said the diet is effective, 50% of the weight lost is your own muscle mass. This sounded a little far fetched, so my question is have any of you noticed a decrease in strength or muscle while on this diet?  

I lost 60 lbs on the diet and did not notice any muscle loss.

However, I was also working out three times a week.

When starting the diet, you will feel tired but only for the first few days while your body makes the change from burning carbs to fats for energy.  After that you will feel great!  It feels like unlimited energy, even when you skip meals!

You will still get hungry when skipping meals but there isn't that "LOW BLOOD SUGAR: MUST HAVE SNICKERS" feeling.

Thanks Donith, that's what I was hoping to hear!  

Wouldn't you still need carbs post workout?  Im not very familiar with ketogenic diets.

I lost 40#, and I gained some strength while losing weight.  I was working-out hard, but I was still surprised I didn't lose a lot of muscle.  I was on a diet where I ate less than 20g of carbohydrates a day.  How much are you planning on eating?  I've noticed (from my personal experience and helping half a dozen other people) that when you eat more than 30g a day, there is no benefit to a low carb diet.  The carbs have to be very low to work.

I find it interesting that the professor attacked the diet by claiming that your body will consume more of your own muscle for protein when you eat more protein.  That doesn't make sense.  At least he didn't claim your brain would die from lack of fuel like my wife's doctor did.

Like Donith said, you'll feel tired when getting used to burning fat for energy.  It takes longer and it takes more energy to use fat than it does carbs.  Unlike Donith, that tired feeling didn't go away for me.  For lack of a better description, it always felt like I was walking uphill.  I was 65 at the time so that might have had something to do with it.z

The "Atkin's Diet" is just a copy of what bodybuilders have been doing for decades for their pre-contest diet.  Go into Ketosis, etc., etc.

The idea is that eating high protien and hardly any carbs will allow you to shred fat but keep as much muscle as possible.

But, most bodybuilders only stay on this extreme diet for 6-8 weeks prior to contest b/c it is really hard to gain muscle w/out carbs.  They are concerned with simply keeping what muscles they have, not gaining.

Being an amatuer, I do a less extreme Atkins during the summer.  I consider the summer months my "contest", because of those shirtless days at the pool. etc. [:D]  

I don't cut carbs out, but I cut them down and "clean" them up.  This means high-fiber, low fat carbs like oatmeal and red potatoes are okay.  NO donuts, cookies, cake, soda, candy, white bread, etc.

Thanks for the information guys. I got started on it yesterday and will post my results in a couple of months.