Water, sodium, carbs, OH MY!

[RynoSRQ]

What about water in/water out manipulation start one day before contest?

[str8flexed]

did you read this thread?

[Agostage]

unlikely

[RynoSRQ]

did you read this thread?

rather than reading every post for 3 pages I figured I'd ask a simple question.

unless it's stated in the original post, in which case then I clearly just overlooked it.

[Agostage]

3 pages isn't very long

[RynoSRQ]

3 pages isn't very long

Usually the original post would be where you'd find information, forgive me for asking a simple question without reading every single post. Thanks for all the help guys!

[Agostage]

- piles of threads get made about this subject - the info is out there - don't get defensive because you were lazy - also, a lot of us are dieting and irritable - so don't take it personally

[Webber91]

Great read. Peak week is next week for me, and for the best month or so I've had guys telling me about how they are going to cut their water and asking me when I'm going to start...I just bert stare them.

One thing I'm a little confused on though is the carb loading...typically at the moment I cycle them: 230 - 100 - 40 - 210 - 100 - 80 - 40 ... Before that I was doing ~100g a day with 1 refeed at 300 but it was just way too much, I prefer the 2 smaller ones.

I'm starting to think that the whole depleting/loading phase isn't really that neccessary for me since I seem to fill out pretty well on my own little experimental cycling approach. My show is on a Sunday so it will be the morning after my 40g day...if I keep everything the same in the last week, just adding a more carby meal at night on the saturday and then eating some carb+fat snacks before the show, I'm thinking that should be enough. My reasoning being if its worked so far why bother changing anything drastically and risk screwing up lol. Any opinions on this?

[GetCarved]

Hey layne this has to do with water retention in a roundabout way. In your article you state that one should limit their 100% whole wheat bread to 2 slices a day - and should cut out wheat bread before the show(due to allergies to wheat). Do you still hold true to this or has your opinion changed on either? I eat up to 4 pieces a day sometimes as french toast (egg whites and walden farms pancake syrup) but I am 5 weeks out. Thanks!

[AlwaysTryin]

its worked so far why bother changing anything drastically and risk screwing up

Key words there

[RynoSRQ]

- piles of threads get made about this subject - the info is out there - don't get defensive because you were lazy - also, a lot of us are dieting and irritable - so don't take it personally

I understand, that day was one of my carb depleting days. It was a rough one for sure.

[Gun Master]

Hey layne this has to do with water retention in a roundabout way. In your article you state that one should limit their 100% whole wheat bread to 2 slices a day - and should cut out wheat bread before the show(due to allergies to wheat). Do you still hold true to this or has your opinion changed on either? I eat up to 4 pieces a day sometimes as french toast (egg whites and walden farms pancake syrup) but I am 5 weeks out. Thanks!

i can help you as far as the 2 slices a day goes, for the first 7 weeks of my prep i was taking in 6 slices of wheat bread a day, obvously i was losing weight however the 7th week i dropped it to 2 slices a day and from that point on there was a noticable difference in the rate i lost weight.

wheat bread takes a little longer to digest, which can be good in small doses but if its making up the bulk of your carbs then your going to want to limit it down.

hope this helps!

[str8flexed]

well yea there was a noticible difference... by dropping 4 slices you dropped approx 40-60g of carbs out of your diet dude

[Gun Master]

well yea there was a noticible difference... by dropping 4 slices you dropped approx 40-60g of carbs out of your diet dude

the four slices of bread were replaced with brown rice of the same carb value.

my B, i probably should have mentioned that.

[GetCarved]

well yea there was a noticible difference... by dropping 4 slices you dropped approx 40-60g of carbs out of your diet dude

Hey layne, I know you were talking to the poster above, my question is basically do you count 100% whole wheat bread as a normal complex carb? In your food list in your old article (the old one) it says "limit to 2 slices per day", I've always had good results with 4 or so, I just treat it like any other carb. I know you have went away from the broisms somewhat, and eat popcorn and such (so do I), so just wonderin if you still consider wheat a "not as good" carb source with negative consequences on bf loss at higher doses?

[str8flexed]

wheats fine so long as you don't have a gluten allergy

[OnTheRoad]

8 days out from my next comp so bumping this to remind me to hold my nerve

[surfergirl36]

8 days out from my next comp so bumping this to remind me to hold my nerve

Keep holding it girl! You are an inspiration to me! You can do it!

[KAYTEBUGG00]

Great post Layne!! Now what about figure competitors? I was told to drop my sodium the day before the show and water that night. I looked great the night before but held onto water. I also could have been leaner as well.

Thanks

[str8flexed]

why would it change for figure competitors? The only time I would ever recommend reducing sodium is if you had your period the day before or day of the show as that will cause you to increase sodium retention above normal

[KAYTEBUGG00]

why would it change for figure competitors? The only time I would ever recommend reducing sodium is if you had your period the day before or day of the show as that will cause you to increase sodium retention above normal

very true but with the "softer" look that they say they want..but ****...you never know what they want! Next show I am just doing that..gettting leaner.

Thanks again and congrats on your pro show!

[str8flexed]

so if they want softer then just don't lose as much bodyfat. but you just said that you weren't lean enough. so your question confused me a bit. Thanks for the congrats!

[tdinh]

I apologize if this was already asked and answered in the past, I just found this forum. I have done an extreme deplete/load with carbs and water intake....and it has been a trial and error process. A show I did this past April I went through my the typical process from which I have learned: cut carbs sun-wed and did circuit training to deplete glycogen with water intake load, and thurs-fri, raised carbs (300-500 grams, which I thought was way to much after the fact) and incrementally cut water back up until Friday. I noticed wed night and Thursday I was getting smoother, however, by Friday mid day I realized I needed to cut my carbs back (or so I thought until reading this), but I thought it was to late. I still was in great condition, except that I did have a film of water over my skin.

So the show I did the following month I tried to remedy the film over my skin issue, so I did a slight deplete, slight load and did my water load and cut and noticed I was a tad flat Friday a.m., but still leaner that I was in my April show. So after prejudging I continued to sip water, ate a fatty steak with yams and had a few ice cream bars and a few oranges (but was not bloated) and noticed I was a little smoother, but was a lot fuller.

Does this second paragraph agree with what you believe? What I mean is after prejudging I had alot of wet carbs which did fill my muscles with glycogen and made them fuller, but at the same time, I lost a little conditioning, which I imagine was from the last minute wet carbs I had.

Does that make sense?

Thank you very much for you advice.

Ty

[SupaaJ]

How about going in line with what Layne said in regards to water and sodium? I mean this as pertaining to your training and carb levels. Halt training 3-4 days from the show, earlier in the week just a lower day, then a upper day. As far as carbs, just eat what you've been dieting successfully on and do the carb up from your normal levels slowly starting a few days out from the show. This way you aren't changing things dramatically in a body that's not used to that. I think massive carb manipulations can be just as detrimental as massive water/sodium fluctuations.

[tdinh]

Sure. It makes total sense and it seems that his approach is a more common sense approach then what I have been taught.

[str8flexed]

it's not just common sense, it's just what make sense if you understand physiology which most prep gurus don't

[Bangzy]

very educational! cheers

[OnTheRoad]

Held my nerve...was freaking out all week as everyone I knew was water loading and mucking around with the sodium. I also had my carbs still in my diet and protein shake the night before!!


Trained lightly Mon, Tues and Wed, rested Thurs, Friday and put on my tan on Saturday.

Won my open division and then went on to take the Overall.

I am now INBA's Australias Ms Figure Champion!

Huge show I was number 324.

Oh yeah..I did another show the next day with no problems at all, if anything I came in even harder with no loss of energy,

Thanks for the thread

[Wilde]

How about going in line with what Layne said in regards to water and sodium? I mean this as pertaining to your training and carb levels. Halt training 3-4 days from the show, earlier in the week just a lower day, then a upper day. As far as carbs, just eat what you've been dieting successfully on and do the carb up from your normal levels slowly starting a few days out from the show. This way you aren't changing things dramatically in a body that's not used to that. I think massive carb manipulations can be just as detrimental as massive water/sodium fluctuations.

with Halting weights 3-4 days prior does this mean no cardio also?

[str8flexed]

not a big fan of totally stopping training days before a show either