Water Loading versus Cutting Water

The big problem with all the voodoo prep-week strategies you hear people talk about is that it winds up producing inconsistent results, is hard to predict, etc. Then you have the scores of people who look worse on the day of their show than they did several days before their show.

Water loading? IMO and from my experience is virtually a fool-proof positive netting everyone the EXPECTED benefit.

Do you know what the ultimate diuretic is? WATER!! What happens when you up your water intake? More bathroom trips. Why? Because your body has upregulated the physiological mechanisms that promote flushing. Why? Because if it didn’t well, you’d explode (not literally lol).

When you increase water intake (similar to when you increase sodium intake by the way) your body DOWNregulates both aldosterone and anti-diuretic hormone. These are hormones that govern fluid balance in the body.

When aldosterone is low for example, your body flushes out water and sodium. This is good. However, when aldosterone is high, it promotes the reuptake of water and sodium in the kidneys; not so good in the context of this goal.

So how do we suppress aldosterone levels? Drink tons of water. How do we elevate aldosterone levels? Cut your water. One good, one bad.

This is a physiological mechanism intact in all humans and the only thing that varies from person to person and not by much is how soon the hormonal adjustment takes place.

When you first dramatically increase water intake, you’re going to hold water simply because aldosterone and ADH are at a certain level when you started based on the amount of fluid your body was accustomed to receiving on a daily basis. Don’t be alarmed.

As you continue to keep the water intake high, these hormones respond (via negative feedback) and they gradually decrease further in order to address the increase in fluid intake.

So after a few days, it’s like a light switch was flipped and things just start to tighten up more and more, see bodyweight drop, etc., as a very high rate of fluid removal is created.

Here’s an interesting thing that happens in many as well. At first drinking so much water is really challenging. After several days, people often find it’s not just easy, but it’s almost not enough as they’re actually still THIRSTY.

I always get a kick out of running this with first timers since at first there is sometimes some concern, worry, etc., and I’m always sitting calmly by saying, “you’ll see, you’ll see”, and then I get back … “I see, I see!”

On average, we’re talking 10 liters a day during a water load – every day.

The less you do in a prep week, the less can go wrong; a minimalist approach is hard to beat for predictability but if you’re going to do ONE thing different in your last week. do this!