i'm in last week of contest prep and feeling very tired. I have been following the m,th carb up and skipped monday the final week. I was wondering when it is best to hit the spike on thrusday or wait till friday night and Also what is the reasoing behind the potassum loading I'm 202-203 and very hard and been loading water like crazy to flood system (3-4 gallons a day) I just feel really really flat any suggestions ?

Guns

Carb up Wed night 2 times normal meal.

Carb up Th night normal carb meal.

Both as last meal.

Fri optional 1/2 carb meal before bed.

Potassium
The body tries to maintain a homeostatic ratio of electrolytes. As BBers we are concerned specifically with sodium and potassium.

In a generic sense the body likes a certain ratio of sodium to potassium. When we cut sodium (which should be late in the week!!! cutting to early can lead to water retention) the body tries to cut potassium to maintain its normal ratio of sodium to potassium.

Sodium causes water retention outside the muscle. As such it will cause one to lose definition.

Potassium causes water retention with in the msucle (basis for Creatine Select). So we want as much potassium as possible as this leads to hard full muscles.

Adding supplemental potassium is to offset the potassium the body is trying to get rid of as we cut sodium. In other words we are trying to keep the potassium in the muscle and change the ratio of sodium to potassium.

Flat
You should feel real flat early in the week. Especially when loading water. This is normal. Comp prep is all about one day. As you cut water back (again late in the week or you may end up holdign water, not too much either) the bloated flat appearance will be replaced by full hard muscles.

Good Luck!

Ray

Thanks ray I will give this a try and see how it goes.

on wed do i eat fiberous veggies as well or cut them out like on thursday and friday?

should i keep my fat to a minuim as well in other meals ? becuase traditional carb loads are low fat that day
i'm going to creatine load as well to help me fill out even more. I need to be full and dry as possible

the day of contest

6 oz beef with 1 scoop muscle provider and yam
6 oz beef with 1 grapefruit 1 scoop muscle provider
alternate about every 2.5 hours till prejuding and then some peanut butter cups while pumping up

what about stomach distention from all thatg oatmeal. is there any other alternatives? yams do not bloat me as much

so could i do
2 cups oatmeal dry with 24 oz yam with 2 bannas instead?
can you list other suggestions all that oatmeal will bloat me and from all the water i think it may be difficult to consume . I cup do may be a 1.25 cups dry of oatmeal and 1.25 cups of oatbran with 20 oz yams 2 bannanas

thanks

Will try to get to all of your ?s

For oatmeal and bloat

Do a search for Seans carb up bread. It is still alot of food but not quite the same volume of food as there is less water content in the oatmeal this way.

Ray

Guns

See above regarding bloat.... the bloate and oats is from all of the water. The bread has much less water.

Keep diet normal up until the last two days.

So keep you veggies on Wed

Keep fat where it has been at meals all the way through.

In other words change nothing except carb up size on Wed and an extra carb up on Th.

You could load the creatine the whole week.

Have fun on Saturday and best of luck!

Ray

Thanks ray I hope i can make weight LOL I should be at top of light heavy weights bu have a whole different look. I think for next show my carbs are going to be higher becuase I lost way to much strength !! i might add more carbs in like 6 oz yam and 1/2 cup oatmeal for 2 of my meals on training days. I was doing great till I dropped the oamteal and other carbs ..live and learn right !! I'd rather eat more caloires and do more cardio to stay bigger fuller and harder. after 2500 i have metbolism shut down even with the refeed. So I will keep my carbs in the 100-150 complex range vs the 50 to 75 range (that was just killing my performance in the gym ) I feel like a weekling right now. Last year my carbs where higher and I was still benching 405 going into the contest at less then 200 lbs. I hope this carb load fills me out enough !! thanks for all your imput