I just did my first show this past weekend. I was really worried about the carb up as well. I took the advice of an experienced natural competitor, Layne Norton, I did a natural show, and started carbing up at about 4 in the afternoon on Friday. I ate about 40 grams every two hours until 10. Then I got up at four to put on more tan and ate 40 grams at 4:30, 6:30 and then at 9 I had rice cakes with pb and jelly - pre-judging was at 11. I can't say that it worked great filling me out - I have nothing to compare it against, but it certainly did not bloat me. I maybe could have filled out more, but I felt good, had plenty of energy and no bloat at all. I also had some honey about 20 minutes before going onstage. I never cut water out, I drank two gallons on Friday, most of it by 6pm. After that I drank 6oz with each meal and about 6oz in between meals - same for Saturday. The thing with the water is that if you stop drinking it and loose too much your body will flatten out badly and you will probably
retain some under your skin. I had to be told this about 10 times before I believed it, as I was going to cut water too. I am glad I did not, I would have been really flat. A lot of the guys in my show were backstage complaining about being dehydrated and being worried about cramping up, but they did not look any harder than me - if as hard, and again - I felt great and really enjoyed the day. You obviously don't want to bloat your stomach with tons of water, but to take it down to nothing I doubt is a good thing. For those on anabolics and what not it may be something that has to be done, as they would be retaining a lot more water, but if you are doing it natural you really should'nt be retaining that much water. That is just my two cents, or I should say Layne Nortons two cents. Here is a link to the page that Layne Norton wrote that I got his contest advice from,
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/layne36.htm
Good luck with everything
