Hi Louise,   Here's the tricky part here: uniquely, you're trying to lose weight and cut carbs at the same time. Obviously cutting the carbs is fantastic for your blood sugar control, but it's also going to help you lose weight/thus make it difficult to gain weight because carbs are stored as fat (because insulin is a storage hormone, storing the carbs you don't need for immediate energy as body fat).   So, do you want to gain fat? Increase the carbohydrates in your diet which will increase the amount of insulin you need each day.   Do you want to gain muscle? Weight lift! Not cardio,  and not light "toning" exercises. But actual weightlifting.   There's also the issue of putting in more calories than you're burning, so if you don't want to increase the carbs in your diet, try increase the protein and healthy fats that you eat: turkey, chicken, eggs, cottage cheese  -- and -- nuts, avacados, olive oil, peanut butter, etc.   Does this help?   What do you think your plan will be?   Ginger