why do legs get weaker SO MUCH FASTER than other muscles when you diet

[ireekofawesomeness]

well...?

 

[spatts]

There's more of em...they do more work...or less work, as the case may be.

 

[coolcolj]

well...?

you must be losing a lot of muscle..

 

[ireekofawesomeness]

nope, according to my weekly bf testings ive put on about 6 lbs of muscle since i started dieting, cuz my weight has hardly dropped but my bodyfat has, not to mention im holding like no water because 3 days a week i have zero carbs, and the other 4 days i only have 90 with my shake after lifting

 

[Baoh]

nope, according to my weekly bf testings ive put on about 6 lbs of muscle since i started dieting, cuz my weight has hardly dropped but my bodyfat has, not to mention im holding like no water because 3 days a week i have zero carbs, and the other 4 days i only have 90 with my shake after lifting

Your post here says it. You deplete your muscles of glycogen and possibly your CNS of some of the glucose it would prefer. Weakness can be expected.



On a side note, when I have experimented with low carb dieting in the past (for shits and giggles, as I am never over 8% anyway), I found I usually could manage to gain some degree of strength if my training was spot-on. Also, if I psych up enough, nothing seems to make a negative impact (except failure training).

 

[SeymourCuts]

If you're doing regular cardio, you're possibly not getting enough recovery for your legs (localized overtraining).

 

[collegiateLifter]

a lot of the above are possible. Low glycogen always = weakness for me.

 

[ireekofawesomeness]

yeah the low glucose definitely makes sense, but the thing thats got me puzzled is why my legs have gotten SO much weaker and my upper body is still around 85-90% of my max strength...i used to squat 285 for a few sets of 8, or do 5x5 with 300-315, below parallel in both cases, now im having severe trouble repping out the last few reps of my 4th set of 8 with 225...granted my squat was not too impresive beforehand either but 225 is just pathetic...and i KNOW i havent lost any muscle tissue...could the glucose make this big of a drop?