pre contest loading- would this idea work?

[bigfatandugly]

everyone who has competed at one time or another will tell you they have always looked better the day after thier show.

for the most part this is attributed to the re- introduction of fats/carbs/sodium and fluids back into the diet.

so, following this type of response i plan on doing something a little atypical this year in regards to my carb up.

i will not load on thrus/fri. but keep the same diet i have used my whole prep.

on friday nite around 8pm i will taper down the heavy consumption of water that i have been injesting in the week leading up to this, and begin diazide.

logically, as there will be no carbs in diet (i am ketogenic) i should be dry as a bone come 5-6 am.

now, this is the thing- i plan on re-introducing my carbs/fats/sodium (maybe chinese food- havent decided) ALONG WITH FLUIDS (500ml- 1 liter) 6 hours before prejudge. (the amount of water will be played totally by ear, dependant on how i react, as it will only take minutes to see what will happen at this point)

3 hours after this i will again have a meal high in carbs/fat/sodium with no fluids (or maybe, again depends on how sharp i look and how i feel) in order to help pull (in theory) whatever water may have gone sub-q from the first meal.

i have never heard of this being done. some will say it wont work. logically, i think it would.

any feedback or discussion would be good. i do plan on doing this, i just am trying to 'think' it out.

i have thought about doing this for some time and am finally going to try it. do the same things in life and you get the same results. time to see if it'll work.

thoughts?


BFU

 

[Dad]

Biog,

No offense, but I think you're making this way more complicated than it needs to be. Sodium gets stored in the extracellular spce (i.e. connective tissue, and subcutaneous tissue of the skin) becuase it is actively pumped out of cells by the Na+/K+ ATPase pump. So sodium isn't the thing to add to yuor diet, but then neither is potassium.
Here's a plan I've used MANY times to trim and down and get ready for competition.

I use the 10 day cyclic ketogenic diet that Dan Duchiene came up with in '82 called (and it is!) The Ultimate Diet.

Day 10: Calories half of maintenance levels, 30 gms of complex carbs
Day 1: Same calories and carbs, training 20 sets per bodypart, 15-20 reps per set, low rest between sets, chest/delts/triceps. Training first thing in the AM on an empty stomach.
Day 2: Test for Ketones in urine immediately upon rising using Ketostix-shuold be in Trace to Small ketosis. Same calories and carbs, training 20 sets per bodypart, 15-20 reps per set, low rest between sets, back/biceps/legs (calves, hams, and lastly quads). Training first thing in the AM on an empty stomach.
Day 3: Test for Ketones in urine immediately upon rising-shuold be in Small to Moderate ketosis. Same calories and carbs. Rest day.
Day 4: Test for Ketones in urine immediatley upon rising-shuold be in Moderate (possibly Large) ketosis. Training Heavy Duty (forced reps, etc) or DC style chest/dlets/triceps. Training first thing on an empty stomach. Food is oatmeal or brown rice 250-300 gms carb, same protein and fats, below manitenance calories.
Day 5: Test for ketones in urine immediatley upon rising-probably will be back into Small (possibly Moderate still) ketosis. Training Heavy Duty or DC style back/biceps/legs. Training first thing on an empty stomach.
Now carb load! Taking in 700-900 gms carb, mostly complex (pasta, rice, etc). Do NOT go below maintenance no matter how desperate yuo are to lose fat!
Day 6: Sugar loading day! Taking in 500-700 gms carb, all simple sugars, except dinner and after which are complex. Rest day.
Day 7: Powerlifting. Training for triples on multi-joint exercises, low sets, heavy weights, chest/delts/triceps. Maintenance levels of cals, proteins, carbs, and fat.
Day 8: Powerlifting. Training triples on things like squats, deads, rack pulls, shrugs for back/biceps/legs. Maintenance levels of cals, proteins, carbs, and fat.
Day 9: Slightly below maintenance levels of cals, proteins, carbs, and fats-the less yuo cut, the better yuo'll recover.
And then we're back to Day 10.

A few tips:
*POUND down the water on Day 5 & 6. Each gm of glycogen holds 3-4 gms of water in the muscle, so load the water, too.
*I like DC style training on Days 4 & 5 as I think forced reps and negatives are a great way to get hurt, and don't much care for a lot of the "Heavy Duty" stuff as advocated by Mentzer (whom I knew) and Jones
*If you're in a real hurry to lose weight, the days to really cut cals are Days 10, 1, 2, 3. Go below maintenance on Days 4, 7, and 9. Stay just at maintenance on Days 5 & 6.
*Yuo can play with the calorie levels depending upon how fast yuo're trying to lose fat.
*THE CALORIE LEVELS GIVEN ARE FOR A LIGHTHEAVYWEIGHT - you can adjust up or down if yuo compete in heavier or lighter classes - heavyweight up to 225, Middleweight down to 176, etc.
*It takes a couple of runs through to individualize this, but start by knowing where maintenance is for you. Weigh and write down everything yuo eat and drink for at least 10 days. Weigh yourself at the beginning and end of the 10 days. If your weight hasn't varied by more than a pound or so, yuo're at maintenance.
*Plan yuor show for Day 7 or Day 8. Yuo will naturally begin to drop excess water on day 7 after all the carbs, UNLESS yuo are on drugs that hold lots of water like test, and yuo aren't on any anti-estrogens. The drugs portion is a whole separate topic.

I've used this diet to get ready for 5 shows, winning at least one overall NPC title. I've also used it many times to just get into better shape after my schedule has left me a bit "smooth." Having tried just about everything else, I wouldn't use anything but this.

And no, I don't do aerobics - hate 'em, and yuo won't need them with this diet unless yuo don't leave yuorself enough time to lose the weight.

The ONLY thing yuo need to do at showtime, provided of course, that yuo've been on anti-estrogens and aren't holding excess water, is:
*Plan for contest day to be Day 7, 8 or 9 of the cycle (I always did Day 8). Yuo'll get a bit of water spill-over from carb loading, but yuo'll naturally start to pee this off on day 7.
*Cut yuor sodium hard after breakfast on Thursday for a Saturday show. It takes 48 hours or so for yuor kidneys to "catch up" to what's going on and begin to retain sodium.
*Yuo can cut water a bit on Friday if yuo like, but I'd avoid diuretics. Even the so-called potassium-sparing ones will pull water out of the muscle. Diuretics are usually for people who haven't used anti-estrogens and find themselves holding water, OR for people nutty enough to play with "potassium loading." Excess potassium is sensed by the kidneys quickly, and they excrete potassium and retain sodium - the exact opposite of what yuo want!

Hope this helps!

 

[norm1220]

Do a search on 'Shitloading'. This is nothing new. Lots of guys will start their loading the evening before but 6-8 hours of loading works best for me, just like you mentioned.

Don't taper the water just cut it off before you go to sleep.

Be sure and do a trial run 3 to 4 weeks out to find out how many hours it takes you to hit peak condition.

 

[bigfatandugly]

dad...thats kind of the prep i have been following, but have stuck to my own routine in terms of workouts. i have been going ketogenic with trace carbs with a re-feed every 10 days. i am now 2 weeks out and had my last feed a week and a half ago.

i have not run anti-e's this prep at all, not because i dont have them, as i have both femera and arimidex, but because i had planned on using some form of diuretic, either natural or otherwise in the last week as im keeping my test in till the day of the show, and water in until late the nite before. would you suggest i start them now, and at what dose? i have heard higher does anti-e in the last week of prep or so works well...

norm- i am very familiar witht he shitload principles, however this is not a shitload. a shitload involves usually carbing up on one or two of the days before the show, dropping your water and then having a meal high in fats/carbs with NO water to pull anything that may be sub-q.

i do not plan on carbing up in the days leading into, and i plan on consuming water, drinking as i normally would, with at least one of my 2 meals. in essence, this is the furtherst thing from a shitload protocol you could follow.



BFU

 

[wakejump4me]

on friday nite around 8pm i will taper down the heavy consumption of water that i have been injesting in the week leading up to this, and begin diazide.

logically, as there will be no carbs in diet (i am ketogenic) i should be dry as a bone come 5-6 am.

now, this is the thing- i plan on re-introducing my carbs/fats/sodium (maybe chinese food- havent decided) ALONG WITH FLUIDS (500ml- 1 liter) 6 hours before prejudge. (the amount of water will be played totally by ear, dependant on how i react, as it will only take minutes to see what will happen at this point)

3 hours after this i will again have a meal high in carbs/fat/sodium with no fluids (or maybe, again depends on how sharp i look and how i feel) in order to help pull (in theory) whatever water may have gone sub-q from the first meal.

i have not had the time to read the other replies , so i apologize if i may repeat something , that has been said already . just looking at the above tells me that you are asking for trouble and might end up ruining your condition . why not start your first carb load as you are stopping your water intake ? i believe , that there will be enough water to store your food and let it do it's job . if you are doing a keto , i don't think that you will need that much food to get into a great condition .
and then , the next morning , you just go by your condition and judge what you need . if you are dry , but flat , just some extra water introduction will fill you out nicely .
IMO , you are doing things way to complicated .


wake