Here's my question(s): I had someone assess my physique at the gym Friday. He said I'm holding water. He recommended taking potassium tablets. The theory is; It'll pull the subcutaneous water into the muscle therefore giving me more muscle volume. It won't get rid of the water just redirect it. Should I stick with this and not do a herbal diuretic?

About myself: I've been working out almost 3 years. Competing for the last year in natural & NPC fitness shows. I do well in both organizations BUT I do need more size. Jim Manion said I need another 5 to 7lbs to stay competitive.

If I have any AS or Clen questions I will post them..........you never know

Be careful with potassium (K). I keep hearing about using potassium for this purpose, but I'm still unclear on the mechanism.

Too much extracellular potassium can get you in big trouble, a condition called hyperkalemia.

Normally the kidneys rapid excrete excess K, however if you are dehydrated, using NSAIDs like Advil, etc. you could accumulate K in the system. In addition, if your insulin is low along with low carb intake, this will reduced the uptake of K.

With acute hyperkalemia, cardiac dysfunction is common. They inject K to stop the heart during executions.

AND, under NO circumstances ingest a potassium sparing diuretic when taking additional K.

She said and the guy I talked to said the internal potassium balance, potassium transfer to and from tissues, is affected by insulin, acid-base status, catecholamines, aldosterone, cellular necrosis*(I think this is right), glucagon, and drugs.

She said the kidney is the primary organ for preserving external K balance, excreting 90% of the daily K burden. The gym guru I talked to say if I potassium load too long it will turn into sodium, therefore smoothing out my physique.

I don't take any nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, cyclosporine, or potassium-sparing diuretics(I was going to use one, not now!).

The question now is: If I take a diuretic it should be dandelion root or any herbal that isn't potassium sparing? I don't want to come in flat from losing so much water from the diuretic. I'm at 8% bodyfat, I want to have full muscle bellies not show up stringy
flat and thin from the diuretics.

This is following several months of low sodium dieting (around 2 grams per day max)

Sunday afternoon start hydration. This is essentially drinking as much water (and then some more!) as you can. You'll be peeing constantly and won't sleep very well. At the same time increase your sodium intake to 5-7 grams per day. Continue this deluge of water and sodium until Thursday afternoon.

Monday morning begin carb depletion. Follow a very low carb diet in conjunction with total body workouts and cardio. Have your last cardio session Thursday morning, and follow that with a change to a high carb (but complex carbs like rice, sweet potatoes, oats). Don't overdo the carbup, just take in some carbs every few hours. Thursday morning also start you Slow K, B6 and herbal diuretics. I also start taking creatine, vitamin C and glutamine every few hours.

Thursday afternoon cut back on your water and sodium. Drink just enough water to get down your all those supps, plus around 2mls of water for every gram of carbs you eat. Relax and don't do any exercise. Enjoy the carbs. If you have someone with a good eye for precontest prep, have them take a look at you often and adjust the water and carbs so you'll look awesome on Saturday for the pre-judging.

Your gym guru is a moron. Potassium cannot be converted to sodium, period. The next thing they'll tell you is to eat lead bars so you shit out gold.

I agree with MS, but you may want to go lighter on the slow-K. I don't know how much MS weighs but you should convert his doses to your body mass (i.e., mg K/kg body mass).

What do you think MS?

Regarding water intake, I suggest less water restriction. Cutting the sodium 36 hours out will cause significant water excretion in itself. You have to have water to fill the muscles out. The water follows the carbs into the muscle (2.8g water to 1 g glycogen). I wouldn't completely eliminate sodium, sodium helps with carb uptake in the gut.

When I was doing the body comp study on women BBs, I was working with a pro who won the Jan Tana the year before. When she came out on stage it was clear she was the winner. Looked like she was chisled out of granite. That following year at the Arnold, she was told to cut her water a couple of days out. She had never done this before. My suggestion was NOT to do that, but this recommendation came from a big-time guru, so she did. I worked with her on a WED and she looked pretty good. I think she weighed about 146 at that time and was carbing up. When she hit the stage Sat morning, she looked flat, weighed 143 instead of 150 as she did at the Jan Tana (carbs didn't work because there was no water available). She was crushed. Thus, I suggest keeping the water in, reduced somewhat, but in.

Just my $.02

By no means am I suggesting total water restriction. My intake is usually right on 3mls per gram of carbs, which works out to around 1-2 litres per day for the last 36 hours. I also drink a bit more on the morning of the show when I'm fine-tuning the carb up. I also do not completely eliminate sodium, merely reduce it back down to around 1.5 grams per day, which seems to be enough to carb-up on (for me). But most of all I think having someone keep an eye on your drying out is the most important. A lot can change (for better or worse) in just a few hours, and if you're too dry or too flat or too watery, etc.... on the Friday night you can still make adjustments so you wake up looking and feeling good. Even Saturday morning is not too late if you're a bit flat. Small females tend to carb-up more quickly than large males so in some ways we have more leeway for last minute manipulations. Slow K is, by fuzzy memory, around 90mg potassium per 500mg, so 3 x 500 mg is around 270mg total. This works out to about 4.5mg/kg. At 1.5 grams of sodium this works out to a 1:5 ratio K/Na which is not extreme in my book.

I also forgot to mention the glycerol thing which I do. I'm not sure if it really helps, but it doesn't seem to hurt. I drink around 25mls 100% glycerol at midnight on Friday, and another slug of 25mls the next morning when I wake up.

I hear mixed reviews on the glycerol issue. We used glycerol in a study on endurance athletes a number of years ago. It hung around in the blood for at least 4 hrs, little change in insulin, so some glycerol can't hurt, but not too much. Can dehydrate the brain and cause headaches.

I think the most important thing is not to overkill or panic. Always be conservative when making changes day before or day of the show. Panic always results in disaster.

I have already started (almost finished) my 1 1/2 -2 gallons of water. I think I'm floating I will start carb-depleting tomorrow. I had small amount of carbs today, oatmeal and a yam.

I weigh 131lbs. Contest day I'm usually at 128, I hope to be at 130lbs.

I'll take the 99mg tab of potassium spread out over 3-5 hours. I'll keep my sodium intake the same and cut out the salsa on my egg whites.

After practicing my routine today and all of next week I'll be brain dead from that and carb depleting.

This thread is a defanatly a cut and past to the Lobo files.

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LAte

I'm doing the NPC show in Connecticut. The guest poser will be IFBB Fitness Pro Amy Yanagasawa & Sean Allen. I'm not doing the Gold's show in NJ, it's the same weekend.