You are getting close to the contest and this article deals with the practical aspects of carbohydrate-sodium-water manipulation, commonly called carb-loading.

Low-carb diet is at the moment one of the most popular ways of loosing body fat. The reason for this is mainly due to its success (also shown by scientific studies) in overweight sedentary people. This has spread to the athletic community as well. During the eighties, extreme low-fat diets were used by bodybuilders. If you go further back to the 70's, you found that low-carb diets were popular...