Originally Posted by groovyguy

I'm sorry to bring this up again, but after doing some thinking, I have some more questions and the topic that I discussed this in is dead now.

Nick500 informed me about dairy products and water retention, and as I'm on a cut, it would be best to avoid, as my daily intake includes 300ml milk, 250g cottage cheese and 250g quark. The thing is, as after the cut I don't plan on cut and bulk cycles, I would rather stay at the same bf% and make slower gains - I basically don't want to live without dairy in my life as I'm a skint bastard and non-dairy alternatives are expensive apart from tuna and I don't want to have it every meal, so I'd rather just cut with the dairy (and I love Muller Lights ). I wanted to ask:

1) Not cutting the dairy doesn't make it harder to lose does it? It just makes me look softer? Is that right?

It makes you look softer, i think its just a property of milk solids to smooth you over. I suppose looking at it calorifically, it wouldnt stop your calorific daily deficit so theres no real reason why it would hold you back on weight loss though.

2) What about the water retention created by creatine? Wouldn't cutting out dairy be pointless when I'm back on CEE?

Water retention shouldnt be THAT much of a concern really on creatine, i would say that on CEE you will be alright. Yes the muscles are fuller due to more water intake but subcutaneous water won't increase significantly - i.e. just stay on cee.

3) Diuretics; couldn't I just take diuretics such as cranberry juice or a lower calorie alternative?

Why so bothered to shed the water? your not doing competitions...
Lose the fat and overall you will look leaner, if you needed to lose water desperately for a photo shoot or whatever, then yes you might want to resort to a diuretic, but they are arguably more dangerous than some of the potent roids and fat burners if used incorrectly (e.g. lasix removes a hell of a lot of water but at the same time causes a huge electrolyte imbalance)

Nick

Thanks for any info to a very confused guy!