So my plan was to maintain my current cutting diet for 2 more weeks in the run up to my holiday to Ibiza on 29th June, however I’ve decided to give the fluid manipulation technique a try this final week.
If you’re not familiar with this technique let me explain, the goal is to manipulate your fluid intake throughout the week to achieve a leaner and ‘dryer’ look, be it for a bodybuilding competition, photo shoot or to simply look your best on the beach. This is very common amongst bodybuilders and fitness models where they manipulate their water and carb intake, to get rid of "water weight".
This technique isn’t just used within the fitness industry, actors often use this technique before a topless scene or photo shoot in order to look their leanest. Obviously I don’t know for sure but I can imagine Brad Pitt did something like this for his role in Fight Club.
The three main principles I’m going to be manipulating to cause my body to dump water fast are:
· Water Intake: A common mistake I found when researching this is people thinking you can get the ‘dry’ look by not drinking any water/fluids, wrong! Firstly I’m going to put my body into flushing mode by consuming 8 litres of water on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Then suddenly drop my water intake down to 2/2.5 litres on Thursday and drop down again to 1.5 litres on Friday.
· Carbohydrates: Low carb and high protein diets are another way to help put your body into flushing mode, so I’ll be dropping my carbs to around 120g on Sunday and Monday followed by 2 no carb days (Tuesday and Wednesday), followed by 2 high carb days (Thursday and Friday). Some people have one high carb day, others have two, I'm going to give two a try and see how I get on.
· Training: I’m not going to any muscle in 6 days, my goal instead this week is high reps on all muscle groups (10-12 reps) in order to get myself glycogen depleted. If all goes to plan by the end of the week my muscles should soak up the carbs (Thursday and Friday) and inflate the muscles dramatically.
Again from my research in to this I’ve found a number of different example programs and more importantly that it takes most people a few attempts to perfect the fluid manipulation technique solely depending on how their bodies react, which is the main reason I thought I’d give it a try and see what works best for me.
Ideally I wanted to have this article up on Monday but with work and the gym I was too busy so wrote it all up today and here is a photo of my diet for the day (zero carbs).
If all goes to plan I’ll post a few progress pics up on Friday along with my current stats.
To keep track of how I’m finding it and my workouts follow me on Twitter: lee_malone
