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I thought this was an interesting read:
GETTING SHREDDED - Part 3 THE LAST FEW DAYS
Water dropping and Carbohydrate loading - by Joe Meeko
Everyone should re-read my last two contest dieting articles GETTING SHREDDED before putting these final touches on your physique before your Bodybuilding show. It will refresh your memory - since it may be fading by now
Remember no professional or top ranking amateur Bodybuilder looks like he or she does on stage all year long - that is impossible and dangerous to even try. Some or most new age Bodybuilders have used harsh chemicals to drop water instead of doing it like we did in my era of Bodybuilding - the natural way with foods and the knowledge of how they work in the body. I don’t think that the Human mechanism and mind could let anyone deplete their body so much that you could hurt yourself by eating a no fat, no Sodium and no sugar diet. I don’t think anyone can have that kind of willpower to cause any problems to happen. Unfortunately this is not the case in today’s modern Bodybuilding world. If you rely on chemical diuretics to drop excess water, Thyroid to speed up your metabolism in order to lose fat and who know’s what else to do the job for you serious problems can arise as some have found and are no longer with us on this Earth. Nothing beats hard work in the gym and a proper diet to loose fat and water and to get totally cut.
Even if you had the mental willpower to try to hold your shape from a very strict no fat, no Sodium diet your body will adjust to it and you will flatten and smooth out anyway in time. The effect that the knowledge of this final contest diet article will have on your body only lasts for a few days, or at most the day of the show and maybe one day later - then it’s all down hill from there physique wise and you simply must eat and drink somewhat normally again, but not too fast. (I’ll explain more on that next article).
Remember this part of the diet is only going to work if you did everything else right from the last two Getting Shredded articles and DID NOT CHEAT on your diet all the way through. If you even cheated one time especially in the last two weeks with the no sodium foods you won’t look near your best and will hold water. Even by sneaking a few Egg whites or even a small piece of fish at this point “or anything” that contains Sodium your body and skin will hold water from it and you won’t be able to shed the water fast enough in time for the show. Remember at this point your about one week to 3 days away from contest time - so there is no margin for error. If you eat ANYTHING that has Sodium for even one meal it will take at least another week or two of hard no Sodium dieting and training for your body to start to shed the water again. (Cheating is just not worth it) Just ask God for the willpower to do it.
You will know if you did everything correctly because once you start dropping the Sodium foods from your diet you will begin to urinate all the time and also sweat from your skin profusely during your workouts. This is the bodies normal reaction to no sodium foods. It simply cannot hold onto water even if you drink - most of it will come back out again. If your starting to pass water like I mentioned above then you know you did everything right.
This is a very uncomfortable time of the diet because running to the restroom every hour is not a pleasant thing to be doing especially if your out in public somewhere. This is why I stress that you should be on vacation from your job or not working at all at this time.
Very strict pre-contest Low Fat or almost no fat, no Sodium, and no sugar diets are really hard on your energy and mental levels. Your depleting your body of necessary nutrients that your mind and body need to function properly so you simply cannot and will not feel like yourself. You will be very low in strength physically and also will not have the ability to think clearly. Your nerves will also bother you because of the mylon sheath that coats all your nerve endings will be deteriorating to the point that every little thing can start to bother you. The Mylon sheath is made up of basically animal fats and since you haven’t been eating any for a long time this sheath also gets thinner and you can get agitated very easily - some more than others. I really didn’t have much of a problem with that though.
Now for the foods - 3 days away from show time you should only be eating about half of a double boiled chicken breast at each meal (for about 3 meals of your many per day) and it should be let out to air dry to damp on a plate. Remember to pick it apart from re-reading the other two articles. It seems to help if it’s freshly boiled and warm. Chicken that’s old tends to be dried out, tough and very hard to get down while your not drinking. You can also pre-cook it and then store it in ziplock bags, then cool it in the fridge. The coolness of the meat from being in the refrigerator seems to help swallow it since you should not be drinking any water at this time (2 to 3 days away from the show). I use to go a full 3 days. Again it takes experimentation on how long you need to go without water. It took me a few shows of experience to see how long was necessary for me to look my best on stage. Remember about half of the thickness of your skin is water retention. As you stop drinking water and carb load for the show it will thin out considerably. Also if you have any stomach or internal organ bloat this too will flatten out from the water exiting your internal organs.
You don’t need allot of protein at this point before a show. You are just trying to have your body use the small portions of chicken breast for it’s source of protein instead of your body eating your hard earned muscles for fuel. The rest of the meal should be dry carbs.
Remember double boiled chicken breast is the ONLY source of protein you can have (read the previous articles) It’ the lowest sodium, lowest fat protein source there is.
You will notice a very strange thing happen to your mind after not drinking water for 2 to 3 days. You will stop being hungry and only crave something to drink. I can remember back to seeing any source of water - even a muddy, dirty puddle of it sitting on the side of the road.. All I wanted to do was dive right in and such up the water right into my mouth and nose face down and not just drink it, but inhale it - that’s how thirsty I was. It is the strangest experience someone could ever have. You suddenly don’t want food anymore just something to drink. It’s all you can think about. Now I know partly how someone feels while being stranded in the desert without anything to drink. You don’t even crave junk food or any of your favorite off season foods at all - just something to drink. But there is a part remedy for the thirst which I will get into soon.
You should train all body parts at least one more time a few days before the show just to keep them partially pumped. There’s no need to hit them real heavy anymore because you won’t be able to anyway due to your reduced strength from the diet. But at least train them hard enough to help sweat out some extra water and keep them somewhat pumped. Remember only rinse your mouth out and spit the water back out just to keep your mouth wet while training.
Now for the Carbohydrate foods - You can only have these low moisture, zero Sodium carbohydrates now.
Baked Potatoes
Boiled, well drained, air dried to dampness spaghetti (read last article)
Bananas (just very few to keep you going until you really start to carb up)
Plain rice cakes
Hold off on the well drained air dried spaghetti until you start to really carb load too.
Try to stick with just the baked potatoes for your complex carbohydrates right now for energy the last 2 days until the full blown carb loading starts.
Boiled rice is out - cut it out totally 3 days to a week before. It has too much water retained in it from the boiling process - way more than spaghetti holds.
These complex carbs must be eaten plain until the last day before the show then depending on the person you can start adding some moist sugar carbs to them.
You must start to also have Potassium tablets at this time with each meal. Swallow 2 or 3 of them with very strong coffee but only a sip of coffee, black with no sugar yet. The potassium will trickle into your body and stop you from cramping from being so low on Sodium and water at this time. Start these Potassium tablets 2 to 3 days before the show with each small meal. Take some along in your gym bag to the show. This is in case you need to chew a hand full in case you start to cramp (it happens sometimes and chewing them and swallowing them with a little water cures the cramping problem FAST).
Very strong black coffee will also help your body rid itself of excess water. Remember make it very strong and only sip enough to get your food down. Have it cold if you want. I use to add a full heaping teaspoon of instant coffee to only about a 1/4 cup of water. You will urinate out about a full cup of water just from a sip of this stuff. Just don’t over do the coffee either. You still want to stay as dry as possible until you start the full blown carb loading process. Always rinse your mouth out with cold water to keep it wet or suck on cold ice cubes but spit the melted water out.
Remember the last three days before a show are very, very hard. You are going to feel horrible but you wanted to know how we did it - so I’m telling you.
CARBOHYDRATE LOADING
I use to start with the following. I started to sugar an complex carb load one and a half to two full days before a show. This is going to be all experimental for everyone and may take a few shows until you get it right. For a beginner I would start late in the afternoon the day before the show to be on the safe side. This is so you have a full night to digest all the carbs and let your stomach flatten out by the next morning of the contest. Everyone is going to react differently to the amounts of sugars and complex carbs you can eat so this will have to be experimented with by everyone. Remember it’s better to go in a little small and ripped than too full, smooth and bulky. Some actually should wait until the night before the show to Carb load. But as you gain experience from show to show you’ll know what needs to be done (keep a log of what you did from each show).
Here is how Carbohydrate loading works. If you did everything right and are pretty ripped by now you still may look drawn and flat, but the carbohydrate loading is going to take care of that and will fill you out nicely.
During carb loading for every gram of complex and simple sugar carbohydrates you eat, 4 grams of water follow those carbohydrates into the muscles from under your skin and swell them up and also thin your skin. You are going to feel your muscles start to swell all over your body and your skin will also get thinner. Add to this the stretching effect of the skin having to form around a new larger swelled up muscle and you have a nice solid full muscle with nicely stretched thin skin wrapped around it. Then when you pump up before pre-judging and the show the pump you get will be one that you have never experienced before. It will feel like your skin is going to rip.
Here are the sugar carbs to use.
Smuckers jelly - flavor or flavors of your choice (check the label and make sure there is no Sodium in the ingredients. Get a few flavors you may get bored of eating just one flavor.
Dry Carob chunks
Dried pineapple chunks “can be sugar coated too”
Other dried sugared fruits of your choice
Hershey bars ( this might seem funny to most because of the high fat content in the chocolate but fat cannot accumulate and stick on your body until a few days after you eat it and by then the show is over.
The dried fruits can be purchased at any health food store. The Smuckers jelly at any super market.
Due to my metabolism I was able to carb up by eating about 20 pounds of Smuckers Jelly either scooped onto plain baked potatoes, rice cakes or mixed in with my air dried spaghetti. Usually I also ate about 10 pounds of chocolate, many Bananas, many pound bags of pineapple chunks and all of the above dried sugared fruits. I was so thirsty that I just simply scooped the jelly right out of the jar and ate it straight most of the time. This did take a few shows though to figure out how much my body could handle without overdoing it. So go easy on everything the first time around and see how you respond, feel and look. You will definitely notice an immediate awakening mentally and physically from all the sugar and complex carbs and get a sugar high that you won’t believe. You must combine both complex and sugar carbs so you have long lasting energy. That’s why I would scoop the jelly onto the plain dry baked potatoes, dry rice cakes and air dried spaghetti so as to get both types of carbs. You will then have never ending energy to do battle on stage.
The wet moist Jelly acts as the needed moisture medium necessary for the muscles to carry the carbs into the fibers of the muscles. Without the moisture from the wet sugar carbs barely nothing will happen and you won’t fill out properly.
The amount of carb loading I did may seem impossible for some to comprehend but it’s true. You also are probably wondering where it’s all going - you guessed it into the muscles - it’s not not just being held in your stomach. You’ll be surprised how little is left to pass through the body as waste. Also the cold wet moisture from the jelly and the sweets from the sugary dried fruits and chocolate tasted so good that your body and mind crave them since you haven’t had any of these for many straight months. That’s why it’s so easy to eat so much of it at one time. Your body will suck it up and fill you out because it’s starving for carbs, sugar and moisture from being sucked down for so long during the entire diet. You should carb all the time at small intervals and let it process, then have more throughout the day and night.
I had to find out by trial and error as to how much I could eat during the carbing up process. I also found out that I had to stop carbing about 8 hours before stepping on stage so my stomach was totally flat. Some guys could keep on carbing right up to a few hours before the show - I wasn’t so lucky. You will have to figure out how long to stop before your show on your own. From not drinking water for 2 to 3 full days your stomach and internal organs are usually so flat that you couldn’t push them out no matter how hard you try. This doesn’t seem to be the case today.
You’ll have to re-carb some and you also can have some water or fruit juice or an orange after prejudging. You still need to look about your best for the night show too. You will still sweat during pre judging even though you didn’t drink water for 2 to 3 full days. So you can quench your thirst a little and replace the water you lost during the pre judging but don’t over do it yet.
GETTING SHREDDED - Part 3 THE LAST FEW DAYS
Water dropping and Carbohydrate loading - by Joe Meeko
Everyone should re-read my last two contest dieting articles GETTING SHREDDED before putting these final touches on your physique before your Bodybuilding show. It will refresh your memory - since it may be fading by now
Remember no professional or top ranking amateur Bodybuilder looks like he or she does on stage all year long - that is impossible and dangerous to even try. Some or most new age Bodybuilders have used harsh chemicals to drop water instead of doing it like we did in my era of Bodybuilding - the natural way with foods and the knowledge of how they work in the body. I don’t think that the Human mechanism and mind could let anyone deplete their body so much that you could hurt yourself by eating a no fat, no Sodium and no sugar diet. I don’t think anyone can have that kind of willpower to cause any problems to happen. Unfortunately this is not the case in today’s modern Bodybuilding world. If you rely on chemical diuretics to drop excess water, Thyroid to speed up your metabolism in order to lose fat and who know’s what else to do the job for you serious problems can arise as some have found and are no longer with us on this Earth. Nothing beats hard work in the gym and a proper diet to loose fat and water and to get totally cut.Even if you had the mental willpower to try to hold your shape from a very strict no fat, no Sodium diet your body will adjust to it and you will flatten and smooth out anyway in time. The effect that the knowledge of this final contest diet article will have on your body only lasts for a few days, or at most the day of the show and maybe one day later - then it’s all down hill from there physique wise and you simply must eat and drink somewhat normally again, but not too fast. (I’ll explain more on that next article).
Remember this part of the diet is only going to work if you did everything else right from the last two Getting Shredded articles and DID NOT CHEAT on your diet all the way through. If you even cheated one time especially in the last two weeks with the no sodium foods you won’t look near your best and will hold water. Even by sneaking a few Egg whites or even a small piece of fish at this point “or anything” that contains Sodium your body and skin will hold water from it and you won’t be able to shed the water fast enough in time for the show. Remember at this point your about one week to 3 days away from contest time - so there is no margin for error. If you eat ANYTHING that has Sodium for even one meal it will take at least another week or two of hard no Sodium dieting and training for your body to start to shed the water again. (Cheating is just not worth it) Just ask God for the willpower to do it.
You will know if you did everything correctly because once you start dropping the Sodium foods from your diet you will begin to urinate all the time and also sweat from your skin profusely during your workouts. This is the bodies normal reaction to no sodium foods. It simply cannot hold onto water even if you drink - most of it will come back out again. If your starting to pass water like I mentioned above then you know you did everything right.
This is a very uncomfortable time of the diet because running to the restroom every hour is not a pleasant thing to be doing especially if your out in public somewhere. This is why I stress that you should be on vacation from your job or not working at all at this time.
Very strict pre-contest Low Fat or almost no fat, no Sodium, and no sugar diets are really hard on your energy and mental levels. Your depleting your body of necessary nutrients that your mind and body need to function properly so you simply cannot and will not feel like yourself. You will be very low in strength physically and also will not have the ability to think clearly. Your nerves will also bother you because of the mylon sheath that coats all your nerve endings will be deteriorating to the point that every little thing can start to bother you. The Mylon sheath is made up of basically animal fats and since you haven’t been eating any for a long time this sheath also gets thinner and you can get agitated very easily - some more than others. I really didn’t have much of a problem with that though.
Now for the foods - 3 days away from show time you should only be eating about half of a double boiled chicken breast at each meal (for about 3 meals of your many per day) and it should be let out to air dry to damp on a plate. Remember to pick it apart from re-reading the other two articles. It seems to help if it’s freshly boiled and warm. Chicken that’s old tends to be dried out, tough and very hard to get down while your not drinking. You can also pre-cook it and then store it in ziplock bags, then cool it in the fridge. The coolness of the meat from being in the refrigerator seems to help swallow it since you should not be drinking any water at this time (2 to 3 days away from the show). I use to go a full 3 days. Again it takes experimentation on how long you need to go without water. It took me a few shows of experience to see how long was necessary for me to look my best on stage. Remember about half of the thickness of your skin is water retention. As you stop drinking water and carb load for the show it will thin out considerably. Also if you have any stomach or internal organ bloat this too will flatten out from the water exiting your internal organs.
You don’t need allot of protein at this point before a show. You are just trying to have your body use the small portions of chicken breast for it’s source of protein instead of your body eating your hard earned muscles for fuel. The rest of the meal should be dry carbs.
Remember double boiled chicken breast is the ONLY source of protein you can have (read the previous articles) It’ the lowest sodium, lowest fat protein source there is.
You will notice a very strange thing happen to your mind after not drinking water for 2 to 3 days. You will stop being hungry and only crave something to drink. I can remember back to seeing any source of water - even a muddy, dirty puddle of it sitting on the side of the road.. All I wanted to do was dive right in and such up the water right into my mouth and nose face down and not just drink it, but inhale it - that’s how thirsty I was. It is the strangest experience someone could ever have. You suddenly don’t want food anymore just something to drink. It’s all you can think about. Now I know partly how someone feels while being stranded in the desert without anything to drink. You don’t even crave junk food or any of your favorite off season foods at all - just something to drink. But there is a part remedy for the thirst which I will get into soon.
You should train all body parts at least one more time a few days before the show just to keep them partially pumped. There’s no need to hit them real heavy anymore because you won’t be able to anyway due to your reduced strength from the diet. But at least train them hard enough to help sweat out some extra water and keep them somewhat pumped. Remember only rinse your mouth out and spit the water back out just to keep your mouth wet while training.
Now for the Carbohydrate foods - You can only have these low moisture, zero Sodium carbohydrates now.
Baked Potatoes
Boiled, well drained, air dried to dampness spaghetti (read last article)
Bananas (just very few to keep you going until you really start to carb up)
Plain rice cakes
Hold off on the well drained air dried spaghetti until you start to really carb load too.
Try to stick with just the baked potatoes for your complex carbohydrates right now for energy the last 2 days until the full blown carb loading starts.
Boiled rice is out - cut it out totally 3 days to a week before. It has too much water retained in it from the boiling process - way more than spaghetti holds.
These complex carbs must be eaten plain until the last day before the show then depending on the person you can start adding some moist sugar carbs to them.
You must start to also have Potassium tablets at this time with each meal. Swallow 2 or 3 of them with very strong coffee but only a sip of coffee, black with no sugar yet. The potassium will trickle into your body and stop you from cramping from being so low on Sodium and water at this time. Start these Potassium tablets 2 to 3 days before the show with each small meal. Take some along in your gym bag to the show. This is in case you need to chew a hand full in case you start to cramp (it happens sometimes and chewing them and swallowing them with a little water cures the cramping problem FAST).
Very strong black coffee will also help your body rid itself of excess water. Remember make it very strong and only sip enough to get your food down. Have it cold if you want. I use to add a full heaping teaspoon of instant coffee to only about a 1/4 cup of water. You will urinate out about a full cup of water just from a sip of this stuff. Just don’t over do the coffee either. You still want to stay as dry as possible until you start the full blown carb loading process. Always rinse your mouth out with cold water to keep it wet or suck on cold ice cubes but spit the melted water out.
Remember the last three days before a show are very, very hard. You are going to feel horrible but you wanted to know how we did it - so I’m telling you.
CARBOHYDRATE LOADING
I use to start with the following. I started to sugar an complex carb load one and a half to two full days before a show. This is going to be all experimental for everyone and may take a few shows until you get it right. For a beginner I would start late in the afternoon the day before the show to be on the safe side. This is so you have a full night to digest all the carbs and let your stomach flatten out by the next morning of the contest. Everyone is going to react differently to the amounts of sugars and complex carbs you can eat so this will have to be experimented with by everyone. Remember it’s better to go in a little small and ripped than too full, smooth and bulky. Some actually should wait until the night before the show to Carb load. But as you gain experience from show to show you’ll know what needs to be done (keep a log of what you did from each show).
Here is how Carbohydrate loading works. If you did everything right and are pretty ripped by now you still may look drawn and flat, but the carbohydrate loading is going to take care of that and will fill you out nicely.
During carb loading for every gram of complex and simple sugar carbohydrates you eat, 4 grams of water follow those carbohydrates into the muscles from under your skin and swell them up and also thin your skin. You are going to feel your muscles start to swell all over your body and your skin will also get thinner. Add to this the stretching effect of the skin having to form around a new larger swelled up muscle and you have a nice solid full muscle with nicely stretched thin skin wrapped around it. Then when you pump up before pre-judging and the show the pump you get will be one that you have never experienced before. It will feel like your skin is going to rip.
Here are the sugar carbs to use.
Smuckers jelly - flavor or flavors of your choice (check the label and make sure there is no Sodium in the ingredients. Get a few flavors you may get bored of eating just one flavor.
Dry Carob chunks
Dried pineapple chunks “can be sugar coated too”
Other dried sugared fruits of your choice
Hershey bars ( this might seem funny to most because of the high fat content in the chocolate but fat cannot accumulate and stick on your body until a few days after you eat it and by then the show is over.
The dried fruits can be purchased at any health food store. The Smuckers jelly at any super market.
Due to my metabolism I was able to carb up by eating about 20 pounds of Smuckers Jelly either scooped onto plain baked potatoes, rice cakes or mixed in with my air dried spaghetti. Usually I also ate about 10 pounds of chocolate, many Bananas, many pound bags of pineapple chunks and all of the above dried sugared fruits. I was so thirsty that I just simply scooped the jelly right out of the jar and ate it straight most of the time. This did take a few shows though to figure out how much my body could handle without overdoing it. So go easy on everything the first time around and see how you respond, feel and look. You will definitely notice an immediate awakening mentally and physically from all the sugar and complex carbs and get a sugar high that you won’t believe. You must combine both complex and sugar carbs so you have long lasting energy. That’s why I would scoop the jelly onto the plain dry baked potatoes, dry rice cakes and air dried spaghetti so as to get both types of carbs. You will then have never ending energy to do battle on stage.
The wet moist Jelly acts as the needed moisture medium necessary for the muscles to carry the carbs into the fibers of the muscles. Without the moisture from the wet sugar carbs barely nothing will happen and you won’t fill out properly.
The amount of carb loading I did may seem impossible for some to comprehend but it’s true. You also are probably wondering where it’s all going - you guessed it into the muscles - it’s not not just being held in your stomach. You’ll be surprised how little is left to pass through the body as waste. Also the cold wet moisture from the jelly and the sweets from the sugary dried fruits and chocolate tasted so good that your body and mind crave them since you haven’t had any of these for many straight months. That’s why it’s so easy to eat so much of it at one time. Your body will suck it up and fill you out because it’s starving for carbs, sugar and moisture from being sucked down for so long during the entire diet. You should carb all the time at small intervals and let it process, then have more throughout the day and night.
I had to find out by trial and error as to how much I could eat during the carbing up process. I also found out that I had to stop carbing about 8 hours before stepping on stage so my stomach was totally flat. Some guys could keep on carbing right up to a few hours before the show - I wasn’t so lucky. You will have to figure out how long to stop before your show on your own. From not drinking water for 2 to 3 full days your stomach and internal organs are usually so flat that you couldn’t push them out no matter how hard you try. This doesn’t seem to be the case today.
You’ll have to re-carb some and you also can have some water or fruit juice or an orange after prejudging. You still need to look about your best for the night show too. You will still sweat during pre judging even though you didn’t drink water for 2 to 3 full days. So you can quench your thirst a little and replace the water you lost during the pre judging but don’t over do it yet.
