01/27/2018
‼️**LONG BUT IMPORTANT POST! ESPECIALLY FOR ANYONE (LADIES IN PARTICULAR) WHO HAS, IS OR HAS THOUGHT ABOUT COMPETING IN A BIKINI, FIGURE OR FITNESS COMPETITION!**‼️ With the Spring shows Approaching....I find this EXTREMELY RELEVANT!
I want to first start off by saying that in all the years that I have competed I have NEVER STARVED myself to the point that I had a Binging Problem after the show. Because, There are 2 ways of "Dieting" and Exercising for a Competition. "THE HEALTHY WAY AND THE UNHEALTHY WAY"
With that being said I want to touch base on something that is very disturbing in our Sport! Its the stuff that we don't like to talk about in fear that you are going to be looked down upon or that you might "Get in Trouble" with your "Coach" because they think this is the "BEST" way to achieve an Outcome. I am here to tell you that YOU are in charge of not only your Physical Health but more importantly your Mental Health! and just because someone claims to be a "Coach" DOES NOT mean that they know how to "Coach" YOU! Everyone is different, we call this your "Homeostasis" Homeostasis, from the Greek words for “same” and “steady,” refers to any process that living things use to actively maintain fairly stable conditions necessary for survival. The term was coined in 1930 by the physician Walter Cannon. His book, The Wisdom of the Body, describes how the human body maintains steady levels of temperature and other vital conditions such as the water, salt, sugar, protein, fat, calcium and oxygen contents of the blood. Similar processes dynamically maintain steady-state conditions in the Earth’s environment. Homeostasis has found useful applications in the social sciences. It refers to how a person under conflicting stresses and motivations can maintain a stable psychological condition.
Okay, so lets get into why I'm Posting this Novel.. Bare with me..
A normal contest prep for a male bodybuilder is usually in the 12-16 week range – but if you stay lean year-round (something I recommend) you can probably get away with half that. It doesn’t need to be all that complicated. Drop carbs, up the protein, vice versa and add some daily treadmill or stepmill sessions of 30-60mins..until Lean! (Ok, maybe its not always that simple...But)
So, Let’s talk about women. If they try to emulate this strategy it usually doesn’t work very well. Evolutionary speaking, while men are hunters who thrive on higher activity levels and fasting and gorging patterns, women are gatherers and nesters. Women’s bodies are basically the ultimate survival machine and via hormonal and neurobiological means have an advanced set of defense mechanisms against starvation and (too much) activity.
OK ALLY, THEN WHAT IS THE HEALTHY WAY?
First of all... PATIENCE! Take your time. This goes for both first time competitors and women in general. Unless you stay really lean year-round, double the time you THINK you need for a contest prep. I’d say 20 weeks (yup, that’s almost 5 months) of slow and steady dieting is necessity if you want to get really lean. Then you won’t have to kill yourself with PSMF-type diets (basically veggies and protein and nothing else with Intermittent fasting) and 2 hour cardio sessions because you’re not progressing as fast as you thought you would. I’ve seen women eat 3-4lbs of veggies just because they’re so hungry all the time, and then constantly complain about bloating and constipation.. The first half of the diet might seem like piece of cake (even if you can’t have any), and the upper body usually leans out nicely, but the stubborn fat deposits on your buttocks, hips and legs might take a full 8-10 weeks alone to get nice and tight.
I usually set calories at 14-17 x bodyweight depending on activity level, which translates into 1700-2000 kcals for a 120lbs girl, and go from there. Most will usually drop a pound or two in a few days just from cleaning up their diets and eliminating the sugars and junk food.
Now for the macronutrient ratio management. I know low carb/Low Fat diets are popular among women, but in my experience this isn’t a good long term strategy. I’ve successfully “reprogrammed” several girls from low to higher carbs/Fats and the contest prep is a lot easier – or at least more predictable.
For the first part of the diet when bodyfat is higher, I find low carb dieting (in my world this is below 80g per day which is Mostly from Fruit and Veggies) and Higher Saturated and Monounsaturated Fats is a nice introduction to get things moving. I can also get some quality weight training for the delts, back and glutes/hams in this phase (the most important muscle groups for a female competitor) by dropping cardio to just some easy walking. Meaning: no intervals or 2 hour spinning/aerobic classes – but more on that later. Carbs are eaten post-workout. One or two higher carb days at 150g or thereabouts focused around priority muscle group workout days, just to keep the machinery going and various enzymes upregulated for the reintroduction of more carbs later.
As the competitor leans out, 90% of the time I transition into a more carb-based, and lower fat diet. I add in some interval-based cardio at this point. I will keep carbs at a 120g minimum per day that is focused around the muscle group workout, and will keep omega-3 and 6 fats in there as they are essential, meaning your body can’t make them, you have to source them through your nutrition plan. This will only be for a short period, as fats are vital to proper hormone functioning and general health.
I will, however, bump up carbs here and there if you get very tired or lethargic, in the range of 50-100g extra for 1 or 2 days, then drop back down. Slow, gradual adjustments are the key. Try cutting calories too hard and progress will invariably come to an abrupt halt. Try doing anything fancy, or wildly and randomly fluctuate calories, and progress will also slow or at least appear to be and frustrate both me and the competitor. Patience will be your best friend during a diet, so aim to lose only 1 lb or 2mm average if you use skinfold calipers – every 10-14 days. Instead of worrying about daily weight fluctuations, they are not only inevitable but also normal!!
To give you an idea, calories are rarely dropped by more than 150-200kcals per week and more often just 100kcals. Depending on how much training and cardio is being done, I will add more training instead of dropping calories the next time an adjustment is needed.
**LETS TALK ABOUT FASTING OR INTERMITTENT FASTING!
To put it simply, intermittent fasting can cause hormonal imbalance in women if it’s not done correctly. Women are extremely sensitive to signals of starvation, and if the body senses that it is being starved, it will ramp up production of the hunger hormones leptin and ghrelin. So when women experience insatiable hunger after under-eating, they are actually experiencing the increased production of these hormones. It’s the female body’s way of protecting a potential fetus — even when a woman is not pregnant.
Of course, though, many women ignore these hunger cues causing the signals to get even louder. Or, worse, we try to ignore them, then fail and binge later, then follow that up with under-eating and starvation again. And guess what? That vicious cycle can throw your hormones out of whack and even halt ovulation.
Intermittent fasting can sometimes throw off a woman’s hormonal balance, cause fertility problems and exacerbate eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder.
NOW FOR THE TRAINING-
Women tend to think they need to do pump and toning with 5 lb weights to avoid getting too muscular. That’s not going to happen with testosterone levels 1/50th of a guy, and it’s even less likely on a diet. Keep the Weight Medium to Heavy in the 10-20 rep range.. Then just to top that off, you do cardio like a long distance runner because you want to burn as much fat as possible. While lengthening the muscles by doing Pilates and Yoga. Sure. What you’re really doing is sending mixed messages to your muscles, and even though Oxygen magazine or the buff personal trainer at the gym tells you that confusing the muscles is a good thing, this strategy will have you spinning your skinny-fat, cellulite-ridden wheels forever. You see, it’s not all about the caloric burn, it’s about what stimuli your body is receiving and adapting to. Since the heart rate monitor is telling you that 30 minutes of cardio burnt 200kcals, and since a magazine article told you that low/moderate-intensity cardio burns the most fat (%age-wise at least), you should go for 1-2hrs sessions if you REALLY want to burn fat. Right? Wrong, and it’s actually been shown both in research and in real life that the female body can preferentially mobilize fat from the upper body and store them right back in their lower bodies with long duration moderate-intensity cardio. Also, this type of cardio directly inhibits muscle growth, so you’re basically sabotaging your Butt Blaster/Thigh Master efforts as well.
Sure, you may burn more fat DURING the session itself by doing low- and moderate intensity cardio, but what happens the remaining 22-23 hours of the day is of far more importance, don’t you think? There’s a reason why most long-term studies show high-intensity intervals to be superior for fat loss. Even if it’s mainly glycolytic in nature and burns less calories on an acute basis, it will effectively tell your body to refill muscle glycogen stores from the carbs you’re eating, while burning fat as fuel when you are resting and recovering. You can probably see where I’m going with this – I like interval based cardio, and especially so for women. Let me reiterate what I said earlier, women’s bodies are a complex survival machine. Cutting calories too much or doing too much activity will stop progress in its tracks, so don’t overdo the cardio aspect. You’re most likely already doing intense weight training 4+ days per week, which has a very similar neurological and biological impact and signaling effect as intervals, so stay on the conservative side and gradually build up your work capacity.
THE FINAL (PEAK WEEK)
I don’t play around too much with carbs at this point. The judges usually prefer the dry, hard look, and not fullness or vascularity as in a bodybuilder – so don’t try to carb up like a bodybuilder. What usually works best is just dropping down cardio and Lower body exercises and increasing carbs ever so slightly for a few days at the beginning of the final week. Depending on conditioning, drop back down for the last couple of days to get rid of any subcutaneous water retention. If you need more fullness on contest day, add a couple of meals of carbs and fats before pre-judging and you should be good to go. Only if someone is really lean, somewhat stringy and flat and/or under-muscled will I try to improve their look by carbing them up more, but I still prefer to do that early in the week (Tuesday-Wednesday) and drop carbs back to diet levels Thursday and Friday (for a Saturday show) if they start spilling over.
Just keep water throughout the week (5-8 liters is a good rang, then tapering slightly.. Water is kept in the whole time, but Saturday you only need small sips between meals if you’re really thirsty. The rest is an individual adjustment process, so I can’t give you any cookie cutter routine here – it will depend on how you have responded to various diet manipulations on the way and how lean you are.
A trial run 2-3 weeks out will save you a lot of trouble, and take note on what days you look the best, but when in doubt "Keep it Simple!" and don’t waste 20 weeks of dieting by doing something overcomplicated and silly the last couple of days. Having a coach with a good eye to give you honest feedback and keep your head in check is not only a bonus, but a requirement unless you’ve competed many times and know your body inside out.
So there you have it, my contest prep Tips, Recommendations for female fitness, figure and bikini competitors, based on 75% science, 50% experience. which adds to 125% of me Caring for the well-Being of my Athletes Pre-During and Post Competition.
**FINAL THOUGHT**
Also, SHOOT YOUR SCALE! Yes, its a way of "tracking" a numbered progress but as a Bikini, Figure and Fitness Competitor WE are NOT Weighing ourselves for a Class Selection like Bodybuilding. The Scale has NOTHING to do with Aesthetics.. Thats what we are ultimately trying to achieve here! If I ask you to guess How much I weight at this very moment at 5-3 and Pretty Lean, you would NEVER guess that I am 142 lbs. I DO NOT NEED TO KNOW YOUR WEIGHT EVERY DAMN DAY OR WEEK! Thats OBSURD!
