How to dehydrate body fat in one week

Admiring the athletes you see shredded on social media or in the videos you enjoy every day is motivating, but is there a secret to dehydrating body fat?

We are not saying that graphic editors are responsible for creating these bodies on screen and dehydrating body fat. Rather, it may be a secret one-week strategy to get rid of that stubborn body fat, which could be what separates you from those defined athletes you see and who motivate you to train and diet.

Movie stars, men's and women's physique athletes, underwear models, and professional bodybuilders do not look like this all the time, but when the time comes, they are ready to use that key tool, a tool that is often kept secret from everyone.

The point is that there is no reason why you should not take advantage of these secrets, which are not myths, to dehydrate body fat too.

The first hard truth for those who have sweated and worked hard for a perfect body is that if you cannot see your defined abs, you must maximize your definition with a specific diet and training to reduce your body-fat levels.

You could do this with the help of your trainer through a trial-and-error protocol until you know which diet is most efficient for you; however, we provide some tips in the following video.

Now, if your stomach hangs over your waist, it will take you a long time to dehydrate body fat, because you are “fat.”

Do the math

You should already be following a diet to lose weight or define your physique and, therefore, you should know how much you are eating. But to eliminate any guesswork, we provide some numbers that may help you for the week:

• Consume 2 to 2.2 g of protein and 20 to 25 calories per kg of body weight, provided that you are already defined and want to maximize your condition.
• Twenty percent of those daily macronutrient calories should come from fat and the rest from carbohydrates. Remember to first subtract the calories from the protein you are also consuming from the permitted total before calculating the amount of carbohydrates.

For example, a 95 kg man following this program would consume 200 grams of protein per day and between 2,000 and 2,200 calories, that is, approximately 420 calories (approximately 50 grams) of fat and 880 calories (220 grams) of carbohydrates.

His protein and fat intake will remain relatively constant, but his carbohydrates can be increased or decreased as necessary, especially during a pre-competition week.

If you have fluid retention, follow the advice of Raúl Carrasco, our IFBB  Pro, to dehydrate body fat

Eliminate allergens

You may have lost a lot of fat with foods such as milk, wheat bread, and natural sweeteners, but during the week when you want to dehydrate body fat, eliminate them completely, even if you do not think you are intolerant to them.

Even the slightest irritation in your digestive system can cause bloating and fluid retention, so eliminate the risk completely.

While following your diet, to avoid a potential problem, read labels and monitor your additive intake as much as possible… to season your meals, use ingredients such as sea salt, extra-virgin olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.

Prepare your muscles

Stop training hard three days before a competition; if it is on Saturday, train no later than Wednesday, since muscles become fuller when they are flushed with glycogen (the carbohydrates stored in muscles).

You must give your muscles time to recover and replenish.

If you train on the days close to the competition, the carbohydrates stored in your muscles will be depleted and you will end up looking flat.

Also make sure that this final workout focuses on the areas you want to highlight, such as the chest and arms; glycogen is replenished more quickly in the muscles that need it most (that is, those worked recently), and these muscles absorb the carbohydrates you consume more effectively.

Some practical tips:

• Do not train your abs: since they do not pump like the biceps or shoulders, there is no point in introducing glycogen into them; in fact, doing so may make them swell too much and blur the definition you achieved.
• Do not do cardio (only once): since you want to maximize glycogen, HIIT, which uses stored carbohydrates as fuel, would be counterproductive. You can take walks or do some moderate aerobics for about 30-40 minutes to maintain your sanity, but you must not exhaust your energy.

Carbohydrates to dehydrate body fat

After your last training session (Wednesday in this example, two full days before Saturday's event), load up on carbohydrates according to your estimate, and if you train at night and find it difficult to consume them before bed, you can divide the total and eat the rest on Thursday night.

Insulin sensitivity remains high for 48 hours after training, so glycogen will continue to be directed to the muscles.

Once your muscle glycogen stores are full, they will remain that way for days, provided you do not perform another strength workout (because muscle glycogen is burned only during high-intensity exercise).

Exercising on Wednesday also gives you time to make adjustments, and if you feel that you look flat and small on Thursday or Friday, increase your carbohydrates slightly, adjusting them (25-50 g at a time) until before the competition.

Finally, we share how Roberto Castellano, our professional athlete and coach, plans his meals to dehydrate body fat.