Dieting for competitions?

[Sakura]

I hope this makes sense. A few people on the forum are dieting for comps. What are the reasons for adding or omitting different food types at various stages(particularly the last week or so)?

I guess I just thought that you'd have pretty much the same "dieting" diet with more cardio until you got to you goal weight/BF%.

Some things I don't get; no protein shakes a week out from comp, carbs and alcohol on the day of the comp. What are these changes for? What do they do for the body? What about water retention? What do you do to get rid of excess water and when do you do it?

Can someone give a brief outline of the different stages of dieting down and the reasons for the diet changes?

Thanks :grin:

[Pseudonym]

Way back in the early days of this forum, I "shared" an excellent article from bb.com. It's quite in-depth, but it does list virtually everything you might want to do, and why.

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=261

[Sakura]

Sweet, thanks.