Pre contest carbs and water

I am a little confused about the pre contest diets and water that I have been reading about. Maybe I am old school or maybe my methods are outdated.
I am a week out from bodybuilding competition and my carb intake is 0. My diet is a mix of chicken breast , lettuce, cucumber and fish until 4 days out and then replace chicken breast with fish. My water intake on Monday goes down to 4 L and 2, 1,1, .250L the following days.

Obviously, the day before competition, you feel like crap until you carb load the day of the event.

Can someone comment? This is entirely different than i am reading here. I realize that everyone is different, but mine is extremely different.

Taper water up until the day of the show. Not down. You have to keep aldosterone in check the whole time.

This is totally opposite of what i have been taught. Can you provide more details?
I will provide my train of thought so you can punch holes in it. Please remember i am trying to learn and not argue.
Increasing the water consumption will cause the flesh to be fuller and not be as tight as possible against muscle. In other words, my idea is that the decrease in water provides the shredded look.

The dehydration and diet also allows me to lose 10-15 lbs in about 5 days. Any comments about the carbs? It appears that i am also confused with these.

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Originally Posted by charger69

This is totally opposite of what i have been taught. Can you provide more details? I will provide my train of thought so you can punch holes in it. Please remember i am trying to learn and not argue. Increasing the water consumption will cause the flesh to be fuller and not be as tight as possible against muscle. In other words, my idea is that the decrease in water provides the shredded look. The dehydration and diet also allows me to lose 10-15 lbs in about 5 days. Any comments about the carbs? It appears that i am also confused with these.

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The less water you consume the more your body will keep for it's survival and you will lose muscle fullness cuz like 60-65% of muscle is water . Keep your water intake high until 1 day out and cut it out 12 hours before your stage and if it is needed use some dyazide

I drink 2-3 gallons a day during peak week with very little carbs. The night before I have a cheat meal and no more water during or after this meal. I also take half a dyazide the day before in the morning and the other half at night. The the day of I have a steak and pancake meal with some syrup. Still NO water. Works like a charm for me

Never taper water, as mentioned above once the body recognizes the decrease of water intake it will start releasing aldosterone a hormone responsible for sodium retention, yes one could combat it with diuretics, but you need sodium in lower intestine to properly absorb carbs during carb up, so the best way is drink as much as you can until the cut off time comes...yours is very out date in my opinion, and i strongly recommend against using this method...

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Originally Posted by MIKE_XXL

Never taper water, as mentioned above once the body recognizes the decrease of water intake it will start releasing aldosterone a hormone responsible for sodium retention, yes one could combat it with diuretics, but you need sodium in lower intestine to properly absorb carbs during carb up, so the best way is drink as much as you can until the cut off time comes...yours is very out date in my opinion, and i strongly recommend against using this method...

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Agreed....I do know of some guys that still do things like this but we're usually talking about much older bodybuilders that are simply stuck in some old school ways of thinking. Not always but often I'll have a guy drink even more water for a few days than normal and then back to his normal intake during carb up days....and continue water with diuretics. Diuretics work better with water for those that are unaware. All water intake normally stops Friday night before a Saturday morning prejudging.

I would like to thank everyone for straightening out the old man!
Since you do not go the extreme to dehydrate, how much weight do you lose? I may be stuck right now. I need to lose around 12 pounds by Saturday. I know that with my dehydration/diet technique i will lose it without an issue. The problem is that i do not know if the diet or the dehydration is the key element since i have always worked them in unison.

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Originally Posted by charger69

I would like to thank everyone for straightening out the old man! Since you do not go the extreme to dehydrate, how much weight do you lose? I may be stuck right now. I need to lose around 12 pounds by Saturday. I know that with my dehydration/diet technique i will lose it without an issue. The problem is that i do not know if the diet or the dehydration is the key element since i have always worked them in unison.

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I lose 10lbs of water quick