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Best carb load breakfast before a comp/photoshoot

steveP

Well-known member
With a photoshoot lined up in just over a week, I will be doing the typical carb deplete and load in the final week. However I'm still undecided on the best breakfast/morning snack to have. The photos will be taken early (8-9am).

Has anyone here had any experience or have recommendations? Is it best to having something small like a chocolate bar and jelly beans or have a regular breakfast of oats and risk having a full stomach?
 
I wouldn't be having a huge meal that late in the piece, would have thought you'd carb load the night/day before.

Get some tips from JZ
 
i'd prefer to see what we working with... pretty hard otherwise. general shit doesn't bring peak results.

but i would take 2 weeks not 1.
 
Obviously what I eat is not as critical as a bodybuilder as I'm no where near as conditioned as them. But these little tips and tricks help. Like I've seen people skull honey backstage before a show.

So far I'm thinking just a chocolate bar and nibbling on jelly beans while pumping up with a mini workout. I will be carb loading the night before with pancakes.
 
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you are holding water in those latest photo's, good physique tho mate.

just drop some water and make sure you get a good vascular pump for the shoot.

edit: i wouldn't do it dirty tbh. thats why your not razor sharp.
you got that potential if you stay away from the candy...
 
I found a good carb up meal to be -

- Peanut butter
- Honey

*** Microwave for 40 secs

- Add in Protein powder
- Oats

*** You can eat straight away or leave in fridge or freezer to cool.


I found this was a good mix of complex, simple carbs, Fats and protein (protein of course not so important) - but the mix of the different carb sources and also the fats - got me full, and I didnt get the unwanted bloated feeling from it.

I normally had this the night before like maybe an hour or 2 before bed - then in the morning - this meal again but on a smaller scale.

Of course you should be cutting your water as well - I'd prob cut it from the Thursday night - go all day Friday no water - then day of have a few Gatorade, powderades - and maybe a little water - gotta watch dat der bloat.

Also a sneaky secret - get what is called DeGas from woolies or coles - it is where the pandol etc is - this stuff is great for adding into the mix - this will pretty much stop any bloating from the carbs that could happen - recommend dose is about 4 - but lets just say some people take about 12 per serving...
 
Thanks for the tips. Yeah the last 2 days I'll be restricting water. I will take the advice and start it the Thursday night. Might also add some sweet potato to my dinner too.

The peanut butter and honey oats do sound good. Makes sense that this will give my body what it needs.

Btw, here's my roadmap to this final week.

carb-plan_1412725963-8481.jpg
 
theres literally infinite different ways to achieve the same result, so just stick to 1 persons info and do that exactly.

looks ok. not sure why you'd need 3 days to carb up tho. carbs are 3 parts water 1 part carb, thats why cutting carbs you lose a few kg of water straight away.

if you get the load wrong, you'll spillover and that shrink wrap look will dissapear (esp if your dirty carbing, things that may cause bloating)

its one of those things you need to practice and see how your body reacts. its not 1 size fits all.

good luck! and eager to see how it goes!
 
Yeah the final day (Sunday) isn't technically a carb load day. My morning snack/breakfast will be carb heavy, but that's it. Lunch and everything else will go back to normal.
 
I tend to stick to the same sorts of carb sources that I normally eat for the majority and just add some extra simple sugars (as they are low volume). So for me, that was sticky rice with condensed milk. Some fats is a good idea also, but not "too" many. I just added one tbspn of pb to the above.

As was said, there are MANY theories on this and I believe that the majority of them are probably passed down from BBers in the past who were most likely on some good gear so I doubt that what works for them will be that applicable to a typical person anyway.
 
Thanks for the tips. It does seem like a balancing act; increase carbs just enough to fill out the muscles, but don't go overboard. I will take the more conservative approach and keep the carb servings small.

Taken from my training diary, this what my 2 carb loading days will look like. Keeping the overall calories to around 1700, which is what my body is used to. The overall volume of food isn't that great.

Carb Loading
- No Workout (Remove Pre & Post Workout).
- 60g oats for Breakfast.
- Add 25g of peanut butter and morning protein powder to Breakfast.
- Buckwheat pancakes for Dinner. Night protein powder with pancakes.
----- Calories --- 1695.
----- Fat ------- 28% (51.5g)
----- Protein ---- 33% (139.9g)
----- Carbs ----- 39% (165.1g)

The buckwheat pancakes only contain 70g of carbs and 15g of sugar. I'll put up a recipe later. I'm mixing the protein powder into a topping for the pancakes to reduce water intake.

buckwheat-pancakes_1413173448-6132.png
 
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If you are actually fully glycogen depleted you can take in a lot more carbs than that.

12-16g/kg of LBM is what is recommended over 24hrs for UD2 (which is a similar low carb period to what you have said above)

But if this is your one and only carb up for photo shoot or whatever then you would go conservative. Still need to be above maintenance cals. My conservative carb ups were around 60% of the above figures and normally around 500 cals or so over TDEE. (I don't worry about that too much though, just getting the carbs in and fat low)
 
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I will be carbing up over 2 days eating the exact same food on both days. I'll see how it's going on the morning of day 2. At least it gives me a little room to increase carbs a bit more that night and the morning of the photos.
 
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