Water weight and body fat

kjhalter · 07-20-2006, 09:52 AM

I have recently decided that I would like to compete in figure competitions. I want to give myself the rest of this year to attend some shows and get a little more knowledge under my belt. I also am taking this time to "bulk" up a bit. My shoulders and back are my weak spots and I am seeing some progress, but I decided to begin to use NO Explode preworkout and add creatine to my post workout protein shake. I have been doing this for about 2 weeks now. When I weighed in this morning I was up 5 lbs. My question is I'm guessing that this must be water? My bodyfat has went up a little (from approx 16% to 16.5%) but I have not increased my diet enough to make this much of a difference. Have any of you ladies experienced this? Does the water eventually level out? Also how high do those of you that compete allow your bf to get to before you cut again? Since I am not looking to compete until early next year should I plan on cutting every few months to keep my bf at a relatively low %? I have been reading these boards for a few months now and many of you are a wealth of knowledge and I appreciate any guidence you can give me.

Roxana01 · 07-20-2006, 03:54 PM

The weight gain you are experiencing is likely water and some lean mass. I have tried supplementing with KreAlkalyn (which is a Ph balanced creatine supplement) and Nytric. Even though the claim is that Ph balanced creatine is supposed to eliminate water weight gain, I'm sure I gained a couple of pounds while taking it. So to answer your question, I have experienced something similar. As soon as I stopped taking it though, the 2-3 pounds came off quickly. The strength gains I found were minimal - I just love training hard, so it's hard to say for sure whether it was the Nytric or the KreAlkalyn... How much creatine are you taking?
As far as BF levels, I like to stay within about 5-10lbs off my contest weight -I feel much healthier that way. Not certain what exact BF would be...I generally judge it by how I feel and my overall look.
Hope this answers your questions...

All the best with competing next year!!!

kjhalter · 07-20-2006, 06:08 PM

Thank you for the reply. The NO Explode seems to give me the extra push I need to train hard. My theory is there is no point to do it if you are not going to train hard. I realize that there are some people at the gym who so not have the same goals as I do but I can't help thinking how much more they would benefit from pushing themselves harder. I am only taking 5 grams of creatine a day. I guess my problem is more of a mental block than anything. I hate watching the number on the scale go up even if I am gaining mostly muscle and not fat. I am a numbers person and up until now I liked to track my progress with the scale and calipers. I think I need to throw them out the window for my own sanity. So do you recomend I do a "cut" every couple of months for the next 9 months or so to maintain a lower bf level? Or should I just bite the bullet and concentrate on gaining some lean mass and cut when it is closer to competition time? Thank you for your advice.
Karen