Muscle Ventures Podcasts

Nancy and I discuss carb depletion in the final week of show preparation. To watch, you can click on Nancy's picture to download the 34 MB Quicktime file. Carb depletion is one of those aspects of preparing for bodybuilding shows that has nothing to do with weight lifting or any other athletic endeavor. Rather it is all about manipulating your body chemistry to achieve a particular look, a constant theme in bodybuilding.

As Nancy, and later her diet consultant Kevin Kelsey, will explain, carb depletion works as follows. First, the competitor starts to reduce carbs the Sunday before a Saturday show. The idea is to reduce glycogen stores both between muscle and skin and then within the muscle. By the Wednesday before the show, the competitor is eating perhaps 25 grams of carbohydrates, and all glycogen stores are depleted. Thursday and Friday, the competitor begins to increase carbs. These carbs are added first to the muscle's glycogen stores, pumping the muscle up but not the space between muscle and skin.

At the same time, water binds to the glycogen increasing the size even more. However, water also can cause puffiness between the muscle and skin. So, the competitor reduces water consumption as he or she is increasing carbs.

Additional Links

• Carb depletion is not universally lauded as an approach, and it is generally recognized that it is differentially effective for different people.
• Tom Venuto provides a detailed description of his carb depletion strategy for a 2005 competition.
• Dehydration is flat out dangerous.