Pre-contest water depletion

[Roxy722]

I've been doing a lot of reading on the debate of water/ sodium manipulation pre-show....cutting sodium a few weeks out and cutting water/ using diaretics vs. not doing this. I only have one contest under my belt so am very curious what others have done and how you view this? Does it make a difference how you approach this if you are natural vs. using something?

My only show, I dehydrated, cut sodium etc and thought I looked flat....felt I looked better the day after.....after I had been out for a steak and lobster dinner!

 

[eClenbuterol]

You should have a glass of red wine each day 5 days before the show,this will help ,showtime a glass one hr prior

 

[mattie o]

You should have a glass of red wine each day 5 days before the show,this will help ,showtime a glass one hr prior

duuuuuuuuude....this has to be too good to be true! i LOVE red wine! haha

roxy, i didnt do water depletion, but i did cut my sodium in half about 4 days prior...this did help tighten me up a bit.

 

[superqt4u2nv]

You can ask a dozen diffrent people this and you will get diffrent answers from everyone. My best advice is trying things out for yourself. In my personal experience it is best not to mess to much with sodium loads. I have also had better lucky with OTC diretics then persecription.

 

[Roxy722]

LOL..I like the red wine idea!

Thanks for the feedback. Superqt....I'm coming to the same conclusion...so many different ideas and I'm thinking I need to figure out what works best for me. I started with an OTC diuretic about 3 weeks out and that worked well but didn't have any great success with the prescription ones. I expected to go down a lot more in weight with them and only dropped about 2 lbs. As I've been reading different thoughts, it was just getting overwhelming so I figured I'd ask people here!

Have a great night everyone!

 

[Roxy722]

You should have a glass of red wine each day 5 days before the show,this will help ,showtime a glass one hr prior

I'm wondering if we could do red wine before cardio too? LOL wishful thinking I know! I've heard some people do this though..interesting thought!

 

[superqt4u2nv]

LOL..I like the red wine idea!

Thanks for the feedback. Superqt....I'm coming to the same conclusion...so many different ideas and I'm thinking I need to figure out what works best for me. I started with an OTC diuretic about 3 weeks out and that worked well but didn't have any great success with the prescription ones. I expected to go down a lot more in weight with them and only dropped about 2 lbs. As I've been reading different thoughts, it was just getting overwhelming so I figured I'd ask people here!

Have a great night everyone!

Do you compete in bikini, figure, fitness or bodybuilding?

 

[Roxy722]

In figure...my trainers then were an older married couple..both long time bodybuilders so used a lot of the more "old school" methods. At the end of the day, I think the bottom line for me is that I just need to be leaner! I just found it very interesting that not everyone cut water and it didn't have to be quite as painful as it was for me!! lol

 

[RottenWillow]

You can ask a dozen diffrent people this and you will get diffrent answers from everyone. My best advice is trying things out for yourself. In my personal experience it is best not to mess to much with sodium loads. I have also had better lucky with OTC diretics then persecription.

So true. Diuretic action seems to be very user specific. Not sure even a "guru" could tell you with confidence what would work best for any given individual.

roxy, one possibility is Doxylamine Succinate. It is the active ingredient in Unisom. 12.5mg has a moderate diuretic effect on me. The Kroger brand sleep aid is Doxylamine Succinate and it's much cheaper than Unisom. Take 1/2 a scored tab and you may find yourself peeing quite a bit. Combine 1/2 tab with some coffee to counteract the sedating effect and of course you get even more diuretic effect.

 

[joe_garibaldi]

I am a physician and in the past I've been asked for prescriptions for diuretics; which ones of these are best for BB contest prep; some people think those go along with water deprivation which I'm pretty sure is wrong (hey cut me some slack, I'm a neurologist, not a nephrologist). Now I've also heard that before the contest you carb load which draw water into the vasculature and give you that vascular look. Finally I've heard that when you go onstage after all this people feel weak, subject to a lot of cramping and more and that maybe a few people who really didnt know what they were doing have in the past been found dead in hotel rooms; maybe they depleted their potassium too much too acutely. So what kind of protocols do people use?