Debby > Also I find it very disturbing that so much lean muscle was
lost.  ... I always thought that low carb diets were protein sparing?

I'll repeat that, although the study is a solid one, there are serious
problems with the way they measured lean muscle.  As Manninnen, a
reviewer of the study, said, "I would like to compliment Noakes et al.
on their well-controlled study comparing effects of different diets on
body composition and cardiovascular risk.  [However,] I feel it is very
unlikely that the [very low carb, high saturatated fat] group
catabolized more muscle protein than the high-unsatured fat diet
group."

You can read the review yourself here:
http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1373635