What the heck is Fat + Carb loading  and how Ben Siong uses it to get insanely ripped and vascular for body building competitions

My hand gets crushed with Ben's insane grip strength. I cry inside.

During FitConMNL 2017, I was able to attend one of Ben Siong’s workshops where he unveiled a protocol he uses to transform himself and his clients to give them a vascular and insanely ripped physique to get that winning edge in body building competitions.

Ben Siong is a renowned body composition specialist and founder of Australian Strength Performance. During the workshop, he provided an in depth discussion of physique transformation which includes the science of fat loss, muscle gain as well as other physiological factors to consider for optimal physique transformation.

Caveat: If there’s one thing you can take away from this post, it’s not the specific protocol but a peek inside the mindsets of elite athletes in their field and what it takes to achieve their level of success.

The protocol he discussed in the workshop is not for someone who is just looking to lose weight for their wedding day or take off a few flabs of fat in the belly.

It is not your run of the mill nutrition and fat loss advice of don’t eat rice, switch to whole grain breads and eat more tofu and milk for protein which is good if you want to increase your estrogen level and get in touch with your man boobs and feminine side… but that’s another story. It’s designed for elite level body builders looking to gain an extra edge or for the fitness model who needs to get insanely ripped for a photo shoot.

 FAT + CARB LOADING and H2O manipulation

During his presentation, he went into the specifics of program design, training protocols, nutrition and supplementation timing, appropriate application of tools, mindsets and physique maintenance for the competitive body builder, elite athletes and fitness models to take their physique to the next level.

I’m already familiar with warrior diets, paleo protocols and all the other variations of carb cycling, cyclical ketosis, intermittent fasting. What’s interesting was his protocol on FAT+ CARB loading and H20 manipulation a few weeks before competition. In a nutshell, he switches from high protein, moderate fat and low carb eating to a high fat + high carb, low protein and h20 manipulation (a protocol similar to what MMA fighters and boxers use to make weight 1-2 weeks leading up to competition). He also doesn’t bother counting the exact grams of each macros but instead just go by feel.

The problem with other diets especially low carb and low fat is that it can lower your testosterone and mess up your hormones if you are an active individual that trains a lot for your sport and do a lot of high intensity workouts.  Hence, you need to cycle from low carb to high fat and high carb. Carbs and Fat will make you anabolic. However, if your thinking fat+carb loading is eating donuts, pizza, and meals cooked fried in canola oil, be prepared for heart disease, inflammation, cancer causing oxidized free radicals running through your body and a host of nasty stuff. Ideally fat+carb loading should be composed of healthy fats (avocado, nuts, butter NOT MARGARINE!!! ) and low glycemic non-allergenic carbs like starchy vegetables, sweet potatoes and white potatoes. Now these differ from person to person because one person can have a very high glucose spike in a banana or rice and other people won’t even see their glucose rise to 100 after eating a cup of rice. 

H2O manipulation consist of loading up on water (8 litters a day 8-9 days before competition and slowly cutting it back until competition day where you are reduced to just a few sips of water here and there). This results in a massive pump, vascularity and ripped look physique athletes have during competition.

 

Certain level of crazy

For the average fitness junkie, you probably don’t need this and admittedly I would probably never do something this extreme but the big take away for me is the realization and appreciation of the mindsets, hard work, knowledge and the level of crazy that elite level physique athletes have and do to achieve mastery in their field. This is true if you want to get good in other fields. If you want a 10 km run of under 35 mins or qualify for the Milo Marathon, then you need 100 km minimum week average mileage or train 25 hours on average per week. Competitive runners do a lot more. 

This is not a surprise to most runners but to people who are not into running, it’s crazy. 

Is there a way around it? Probably… but most of the runners I’ve gotten the chance to speak with who achieved this kind of feat trains this way. This is applicable to any field or passion you’re into, weather you’re a runner, crossfitter, a writer, a doctor, coach or whatever your passion is… if you want to get crazy good, then you need to get crazy levels of hard work, knowledge, application and practice of your craft.