how many carbs should i eat the day before and the day of the show?
Tad, as you may know, each individual would react very differently... trial and error is still the best way to learn it... and for your first show, i would suggest (as for the water and sodium manipulation) not to try anything to drastic!
But if you want to read a good article about this, here is some pretty good infos... Dont take everything in this article for granted, but in general i think it could help you as much as it helped me some years ago!
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This is the very first step bodybuilders commonly use during the pre-contest period. Glycogen is the glucose polymer stored either in the skeletal muscles or liver. It serves as fuel for energy, but its release from the skeletal muscles occurs under different stimulus compared to its release from the liver depots.
Liver glycogenolysis (the glycogen breakdown process) occurs in order to maintain an adequate blood level of glucose to satisfy brain requirements; instead muscle glycogenolysis occurs only during emotional and/or physical efforts in order to satisfy the need for energy.
Glucose is a molecule that consists of Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen... in fact its chemical structure is: C6 H12 O6. It contains water!
Let's see why that is so important!
In normal conditions the skeletal muscle glycogen concentration ranges from 1.5 grams to 2 grams per 100 grams of skeletal muscle tissue. A Swedish researcher BERGSTROM (1969) has shown that after a low carbohydrate diet that lasts for a period of 3 days accompanied with prolonged physical exercises/efforts one's skeletal muscle glycogen depots fall to a concentration of about 0.6 grams! After this limited 3 day period of carbohydrate depletion, a carbohydrate-rich diet was followed causing a new higher level of muscle glycogen content.
As you may see from figure number 1 above, marathon contestants also use the method of downloading and reloading the glycogen through diet manipulation before the marathon. As shown in the figure, exercise is gradually reduced during the week and the carbohydrate intake of the diet is increased for the last three days. (From Sherman, W.M., et al.: Effect of exercise-diet manipulation on muscle glycogen and its subsequent utilization during performance. Int. J. Sports Med., 2:114, 1981).
The consequences of this study have been of great utility for those endurance athletes whose performance is high and who need larger amounts of ready-to-use energy stored as glycogen. Furthermore, these results apply very well to bodybuilders too. You may be wondering why an increase in glycogen depots should be an aid for a bodybuilder during the show.
Here's the reason:
If the "depleting glycogen phase" has been done correctly, inducing a dramatic lowering of glycogen depots, it creates a "hunger state" for your muscles so that during the next "super compensation" phase they will store more glycogen than in normal conditions. In other words, they could store from 3.5 grams of glycogen to even 4 grams per 100 grams of skeletal muscle tissue. Don't forget that 1 gram of glycogen is linked with 2.7 grams of water. This means that if a bodybuilder has 45 kg (99 pounds) of Lean Muscular Tissue, (don't confuse Lean Muscular Tissue with Fat Free Mass; Lean muscular tissue is in other words "MUSCLE", instead Fat Free Mass consists of Lean Muscular Tissue + Bones + Water) he can increase his bodyweight about 4.86 kg (10.69 pounds) with glycogen and water during the carbohydrate loading phase.
The calculation goes like this:
1) Kg 45 x 10 = 450 hg
(Kg of skeletal muscle converted into hg; 1 kg equal 1000grams, 1 hg equal 100grams)
2) hg 450 x 4 = 1800 grams (total muscular glycogen content)
(the number 4 stands for the maximum glycogen content per 100 grams of muscle tissue)
3) 1800 grams x 2.7 = 4860 grams (final bodyweight achieved)
(2.7 is the grams of water linked to 1 gram of glycogen)
All this weight gained comes from glycogen and water. It's not water retention! Water retention means that water is being kept between the cells (in this case between the muscle cells) giving the muscles that smooth look that won't give you that ripped look that is so hard to reach after all the sacrifices that you made while preparing for competition. The water gained is all carried into the muscle cells because glycogen depots are located only inside and not outside the muscle and liver cells. That's why this loading phase makes the muscles appear bigger and fuller!
To cause this "supercompensation" it is very important to reload the right amount of carbs. The consumption of fewer carbohydrates than those needed won't lead to the desired effect and you may even notice that your muscles feel empty and become smaller. This is what usually happens to competitive bodybuilders! If this does happen, it would have been better NOT to have done the "depleting carb phase" at all.
If the consumption of carbs exceeds the amount needed to refill all your glycogen depots completely, that surplus will be converted into subcutaneous bodyfat. NOT GOOD.
Now you probably want to know how many carbs you should be eating in order to refill all your glycogen depots while avoiding the risk of reducing your muscle size or gaining bodyfat.
The recommended carbs consumption has been estimated at 400 to 600 grams per day for a period of 3 days after the depleting phase. There are also other very reliable experts on bodybuilding that instead of suggesting the 3 day depleting formula, they opt for 2 days for depleting and 2 days for reloading. My opinion on this is that the difference between the number of days for depleting and reloading is strictly personal and not applicable to everybody; and this is for many different reasons. Even the good results obtained with different schedules on different individuals cannot be simply applied directly to everyone else.
The factors that contribute to the different responses that people get are mainly due to either genetics and/or their personal training schedule during the depleting phase.
(A) Genetic factors
Personal ratio of FTF (Fast Twitch Fibers) to STF (Slow Twitch Fibers)
Personal Ratio Of FTF To STF
During evolution, the human being developed its muscular structure as well as its muscular functions to adapt himself to the environment. In fact, the muscular skeletal ratio of FTF to STF has been set to satisfy that same purpose: SURVIVING!
Since the STF muscle fibers are characterized by a "resistance" quality and low fatigability, they developed on the body within those areas that are involved in continuous movements (such as walking, long running etc.) and efforts that require (of course) resistance: lower limb, abdominal wall, and so on!
The upper limbs instead are mostly composed of FTF to match different purposes from the other fibers, like rapid movements (such as throwing, fighting), and strength etc., but not resistance. Even though this is the general distribution, each of us has a different ratio of these fibers in our bodies. This is an important factor because the capacity to use glycogen varies enormously in these two types of fibers.
FTF are the glycolitic fibers, meaning that they use primarily glycogen for energy production. STF are the oxidative fibers, meaning that they need oxygen to produce energy and they need oxygen to completely oxidise the organic substrates.
FTF generate energy even when oxygen is not available to them, during pure anaerobic efforts like when weight training with a max rep range of 12 (while using a weight that is heavy enough to only allow you to get 12 reps).
STF are mostly recruited during aerobic efforts, like running, jogging, etc., but also during weight training where the number of reps goes beyond 12.
Returning to our purpose, we aim to deplete our glycogen stores as much as possible and this depends on your genetic predisposition to the fiber ratio as well as the kind of workout you follow. If you do have a favourable ratio of FTF to STF in your muscles, you would hold more glycogen depots than if you had the contrary, and this in turn translates to more glycogen that can be stored during the replenishment phase.
Depletion And Replenishment Of Glycogen Stores.
Sunday is the first day of the depleting phase of glycogen stores. There are some athletes that totally cut the carb consumption and others that do not.
Monday is the second day of the depleting phase
Tuesday is the third and last day of the depleting phase
Wednesday you will begin the replenishment of glycogen stores.
Thursday is the second day of the replenishment of glycogen stores.
Friday is the third and last day of this phase.
As I mentioned before at the beginning of this article, if you do deplete all your glycogen stores you should then be able to store 35 to 40 grams of glycogen for each 1000 grams (1 kg) of skeletal muscular tissue. This translates into about 1800 grams of carbs to be consumed during the 3 days of the Carbohydrate load phase for a subject that has 45 kg of Lean Muscular Tissue
After 3 days of low carbs or no carbs at all, the enzyme (Glycogen Sintetase) that stores the carbs you consume into your muscles as glycogen is very quick in doing that task. That's why in the bodybuilding field we say that after the "Carb Download Phase", our muscles are hungry.
Type Of Carbs
Knowing this, it is important to make the right choices in the source of carbs to be consumed. At this point, during the carbin' up phase, not all carbs are equal.
During the very first 24 hours after those 3 days of carbohydrate depletion, the Glycogen Sintetase acts at a very fast rate. So, at this point you should eat carbs that match its fast acting glycogen-storing work.
The best carbs to be consumed in the very first 24 hours are from high glycemic index sources. For example: glucose, white bread, white rice, rice cakes, white potatoes, bananas, etc. Right after the first 24 hours of glycogen replenishment, low glycemic index carbohydrates sources are recommended to fulfill the remaining glycogen depots. This comes from the observation that Glycogen Sintetase does its storing work at a slower rate. So in order to avoid a very high blood glucose peak from high glycemic index carbs which can then be diverted to adipose tissue (body fat), low glycemic index carbs are ideal! Of course only personal experiences on the matter can tell you if you should prolong the consumption of high glycemic index carbs over a 24 hour period or not.
You can find a searchable list of the glycemic index of different carb foods at here.
Train During Carb Loading Phase?
Don't do any weight training and aerobic activity while on your "Carbohydrate Replenishment Phase"
There are also many athletes that prefer to keep on weight training and doing aerobics even during the "Replenishment Carbohydrate phase" claiming that those workouts would allow them to store more glycogen while carbin'up and claiming that aerobics help them to excrete more subcutaneous body water. According to me, while individuality plays an important role when it comes to one's physique, some techniques used by athletes still don't have any scientific application and just go in the opposite way of Human Physiology.
Let me explain scientifically:
There are two main physiological reasons that support the need to fully rest while on your carb up phase.
1) If the Depletion Phase has been done correctly either with a proper diet and/or weight training, there's no need to further deplete the muscles. They need their time to fully recover from the previous days without carbs. Nevertheless, many bodybuilders still continue on training after the depleting phase. That's why they claim their muscles are much fuller and tight 1 or 2 days AFTER the contest! This is because they continued on training even on the carbin' up phase and therefore kept on depleting glycogen instead of promoting its full replenishment.
2) Exercising either with weight and/or aerobics during the 2 days prior to the show doesn't allow you to get totally rid of subcutaneous body water:
While training, a sensible loss of sodium and water occurs in the sweat; this leads to a decrease in the volume of extra-cellular fluids and thus to a Hypo-perfusion of the kidney; while exercising a "Blood shift" also occurs to the muscles because they need more perfusion. Consequently it translates into less blood flow that arrives to the Renal Glomerul of the Kidney which in turn means less sodium that arrives to the "MACULA DENSA" of the Kidney and constitutes the direct stimulus for Renin synthesis. (As a reminder, Renin is the starter that leads at the end to Aldosterone secretion).
Physical exercise induces the sympathetic activation of Renal nervous terminations that are located next to Juxtaglomerular cells; this stimulus is felt by Beta-receptors on the membranes of these cells and leads to the release of Renin.
Being that Blood flow is diverted to the muscles while exercising, it induces a decrease in the blood flow to the liver and consequently of course a decrease in the metabolic clearance of Renin. It means that Renin is destroyed by the liver, and since the blood flow to the liver decreased, Renin continues its Aldosterone stimulation.
In one study (Wade et al., 1987) the use of an "ACE-inhibitor" (therefore able to reduce the Angiotensin II levels) hasn't inhibited the Aldosterone secretion induced by exercise; It has been supposed that Aldosterone is sensible also to ACTH stimulation, inevitable while exercising.
