Caffeine and competition on Sat.

[Sassy69]

K I'll stick to the one or two speed stacks I have a day. I've been drinking a 1 - 1 1/2 gallons of water a day. Tomorrow I plan to drop it to a gallon, and then Friday, drop it to 1/2 - 3/4 of a gallon and stop drinking by 6 pm. I'm worried about losing water from my muscles?? I've been on 150 carbs for the past 2 1/2 weeks, but today I jumped it up to about 275 to start filling back in. How should I adjust my carbs as I taper the water off? Do you have a different opinion on what I should do? I'm basically just keeping my sodium at about 1500 mg or below (have been doing that for awhile). Hmmmmmm......

I probably would've done a full carb depletion from last Saturday or Sunday until Wed -- i.e. no complex carbs at all, but it sounds ok. You are on schedule with the carb-up. I would continue w/ the water depletion as you are. Keep a bottle of water around just to sip on as needed from 6 pm on through the whole day on Saturday - remember to continue to stay on only sips as needed through the night show -- it can be easy to forget that and start sucking down water in the afternoon between the shows and then you are bloated for the night show. The morning show is the most important of the two shows, but you can screw yourself if you dont' look just as tight or even better at the night show. Ice chips are fantastic for tryign to get thru the 'sip only as needed' phase of the water deplete.

I'd probably drop the sodium altogether at this point. You want to suck out all the subcutaneous water to get as dry as possible for stage time. The idea is that you are slowly dropping your water intake, you are using diuretics to dump as much water as possible and then the complex carb load sucks up any water it can find out from the subQ areas and into the muscles to fill them out. So its sort of a 3-pronged attack to get rid of as much water as possible that can make you look soft. And it can be brutal under the lights if you are the least bit watery.

How much more carb are you planning to eat Thurs & Fri? It takes 36-48 hrs to fill out from a carb load so you want to make sure you are getting enough. When I deplete and then load, I go 2-3 days no carb and then load starting Thurs w/ like 300 g carb -- to control it I eat about 30 g of carb (potato) every 1-2 hrs based on how I feel & how I look. You may respond better than I do to the carb load - but see how you look tomorrow and make sure you are loading enough.

The potassium tabs will help you if you cramp up at all. The biggest issue with "enhancement drugs" is the really aggressive scheduled diurtetics like lasix because it can screw up your electrolyte balance - that's when you see people pass out on stage. Or cramping up from dehydration -- the potassium pills can help with that.

A little trick I learned on show day if you are getting ready to go on stage & you feel like you are starting to feel dizzy from dehydration / electrolyte imbalance, is to keep a small bag of potato chips around -- if you just chew on a couple the sodium will help you retain a little bit of water to balance your electrolytes and alleviate the cramping.

I'm trying to think of anything else... do you have any other questions?

 

[krishna]

Well since I jumped my carbs up some today, should I back off a little tomorrow to avoid spilling over? Then on Friday, I can up em some more as I cut off the water to help dry me out? I may have started a little early with the carbs, but I wanted to see how I responded. I'll cut the sodium as low as I can and I've already started taking a couple potassium tabs today. Should I stay on the dandelion root? It's actually called DiurX (OTC diueretic). I appreciate all your help. Just need your advice on the carbs since I started upping today instead of tomorrow.

 

[BigCracker]

I say keep the caffeine as usual. No point in freaking your body out by removing it from your normal daily regimen.

 

[The Shadow]

the Droot replaces potassium as it goes(there is a LOT of potassim inthe actual leaves)...its is K sparing.....so you should be fine on the cramping.
Remember that each gram of carbs will pull 4 grams of water.

Ideally - you should be carbing up on rice cakes....basically zero water content, so you can easily calculate the amount of water you should be taking in.

I LOT depends onyour weight etc,

 

[Sassy69]

Thx S - lol I had to go to bed - it was after 3am. And yes I agree w/ the Cracker as well - the less stuff you change now the less your body has to figure out how to respond to. Focus on the water manipulation.

What are your stats right now? What weight class? What show??

 

[krishna]

194-195 lbs. light-heavies. I am below 5 1/2% which is not quite where I want to be, but I don't think my competition will be that dramatic. Natty pro Craig Toth will be in my weight class and he'll probably win, but I basically just want the experience as this is my first shabang.

 

[jcmule]

Sassy69 I also do 2-3 days of zero carbs before loading. Do you do three day loading phase or two? In my last show I did 1500 first day, 1000-800 second and 500 third.

 

[Anthony Roberts]

Regarding Caffeine...I did an article on stimulants with another dude...you might benefit from reading it (or not...):

http://www.t-nation.com/portal_includes/articles/2006/06-098-diet.html

 

[chazk]

194-195 lbs. light-heavies. I am below 5 1/2% which is not quite where I want to be, but I don't think my competition will be that dramatic. Natty pro Craig Toth will be in my weight class and he'll probably win, but I basically just want the experience as this is my first shabang.

krisha your in a natural contest? or is craig natural in a open or randomtested event?

 

[ProtienFiend]

This is a kinda cool depletion article....

http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=266seven2