Does water / carb manipulation need to be adjusted if on the Keto diet?

[Wife Beater]

I have done the water / carb manipulation process in the past following a guide with good success. Basically I drink a ton of water and take in little to no carbs for 5 days, then I significantly reduce water and carb load the day before. The day of I lose tons of water weight and look good and dry.

I've been on the Keto diet now for a few months taking in less then 20 carbs per day. I'm wondering if anything needs to be adjusted in the system above. Since I don't take in carbs anyway, should I begin loading up carbs maybe two days before instead of one day since it may take longer to fill up my muscles? Or the opposite - meaning wait till the 2nd half of the day before and maybe even the morning of since my body may be so desperate for carbs that it soaks up water even more. I'm not sure how being off carbs for longer than the usual 5 days would affect this system if at all. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[greytarzan]

I have the exact same question. Any input?

[Plateauplower]

Might be individual. I ran keto for about 6 months and still eat pretty low carb. Carbs tend to fill me out pretty quick when I increase carb intake (usually with 12 hrs). I always look best when I pull carbs back down after increasing them and dry out. It seems any spillover and interstitial water is lost first and the muscles remain full of glycogen. Several days of low carbs with heavy high volume training and I start to look flat again....YMMV

[coachchris22]

Really good question!

A couple of things that are important to understand about carb loading and water specifically is that you need water in order to properly carb load and get muscle glycogen stored for the fullness. Another factor would be if you are natural or not - if so, during a peak week for the most part your water should remain relatively steady with maybe a SLIGHT drop towards the end of the week but nothing drastic.

In terms of the question of timing - typically what folks find after being carb depleted for a while they are hyper-sensitive when they reintroduce them. In general carbs take about 1-3 days to completely fill glycogen stores (perhaps this changes after being so depleted).I have always used a 2-3 day load for shows and it has always resulted in waking up full and tight the morning of the show so that is something you have to judge for yourself based on what you know about your body. My only suggestion is to not cut water (unless you are on gear, in which case WHOLE different conversation) while you are doing the carb load to make sure you can be full enough - it is a lot easier to flush water than to get muscles more full so its best to not interrupt that process by cutting water.

Hope this is helpful!

[ucsumma]

How long until the contest?

I think a great idea would be to do a trial run a couple of weeks early to see how you respond visually. Start with one day of loading carbs and see if it's sufficient to fill you out or if it's too much and you spill. That way, you'll have an idea of whether you need to load for a bit longer/harder or cut back slightly.