What should I do for my competition diet?

[mpresiv]

What's up People

Last year was my first experience in competitions. For a brief summary: I'm 23 yrs old, 165lbs (Off season weight), and 5'7". During my diet phase last year, I did some research and most of the articles I found said to start around 12 weeks out for a diet. So that's what I went with. During this time, I was consuming around 200 grams of protein daily, 150 grams of carbs, and 1/2 gallon of water a day. When time got closer, I started taking in no more than 75 - 100 grams of carbs a day and 1 gallon of water. During the last week of the diet, I didn't do any sodium loading but I did do a carb load. I believe on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday I carb depleted and carb loaded until Saturday of the competition. I competed in novice lightweight and got 5th place out of 8 contestants. This is my question to you guys... I didn't look as cut as the top 4 competitors in my class. Their skin looked paper thin and their abs were awesome, mine weren't. By looking at my diet, what should I do for this competition? I don't need to loose any weight, but I need to build muscle and shed fat. Also, should I be worried about sodium? Please let me know...

Thanks a lot!
-Mpresiv

<small>[ February 03, 2003, 11:43 PM: Message edited by: Mpresiv ]</small>

[Thai Guy]

try looking at previous posts before asking questions..

as said by skii....

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="3" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Found by JGR [Smile]

COMPETITION DIETING
by Aaron Maddron-
1999 NPC National Champion

Aaron Maddron
Age: 28
Height: 5' 11"
Competitive Weight: 250
Off-Season Weight: 290

I began weight training in August, 1987, as I was preparing for my football season and track and field. My style of training, even then, was geared towards bodybuilding. Actually, I began high school playing basketball and track and field. It wasn't until my sophomore year that I moved to football as well. I really started training for my first bodybuilding contest in April of 1988. The own of my gym, Mark Delp, urged me to give it a try because I was fairly gifted genetically and it sounded like a great challenge.

As with any beginning bodybuilder, I had to learn how to diet for that first contest. I learned my dietary techniques through a combination of advice from other body builders, magazines and a great deal of trial and error.

Through the years, I've learned from the various other sports I participated in that to succeed in any sport, you had to sacrifice, suffer and have a great deal of discipline, all of which lead me nicely into the bodybuilding lifestyle. Another benefit is having my wife Brandy involved in the sport along with me. She recently earned her IFBB Pro Fitness card at the NPC Team Universe Fitness Championships. Of course, my goal was to win my class at the NPC Nationals, which would get me my pro card as well, but I also wanted to win the overall as well. I took what I learned over the years about dieting and applied it for the Nationals.

Because of Brandy being involved with me, we prepare meals together and we're very careful to prepare each other's food properly and in the right proportions. We find that we cheat much less because of the support system we give each other.

I begin my pre-contest diet at varying times depending on my body fat level. My goal is to lose « % body fat per week and reach 3% at contest time. If I'm at 8% in the off-season, I begin ten weeks out. For meals, I eat five or six times a day in the off-season and to between six and seven for pre-contest. I'll eat around 5,500 calories per day in the off-season versus around 3,500 calories pre-contest. The additional calories come mostly in the form of carbs and fat, both of which are very important when in growth phases. The occasional cheat meal adds tons of calories as well!

My typical daily meal plan during pre-contest time consists of;

Meal 1: 1 Cup Oats (dry & measured)
15 egg whites
1 yolk
1 Meso Tech packet

Meal 2: 1 Meso Tech packet
8 oz. chicken breast
1 cup plain rice

Meal 3: 12 oz. turkey breast
Large salad
1 large sweet potato

Meal 4: 1 Meso Tech packet
1 cup plain rice

Meal 5: 8 oz. chicken breast
« large potato
Steamed vegetables

Meal 6: 1 Meso Tech packet
1 large salad
15 egg whites

Meal 7: 2 scoops whey protein
1 large salad

Off-season I'll eat the same foods in larger portions. My protein content is always the same year round, but my carbs are much higher in the off season. I also allow myself to cheat anytime I want during the off season provided that I've eaten my six healthy meals first.

In addition to my meals, I also use vitamins and supplements as follows;4 multi vitamin / minerals per day
4 meal replacement packets per day
20-30g Creatine per day
40g Glutamine per day
3-4 Tbs. Flax seed oil per day
8-12 Hydroxycut, 5 days per week

If I find that I'm ever ahead of schedule with my dieting, I will add more complex carbs in the first three meals. If that doesn't do the job, I'll decrease my cardio by ten to fifteen minutes. Should the reverse be true, then I'll increase my cardio first. If this doesn't get me back on track, I'll decrease my carbs.

I find that I get asked if I ever use sodium loading/depleting or carbohydrate loading/depleting? Actually I've found that both methods help me greatly. I sodium load on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday for a Friday night pre-judging. I then cut my sodium to around 400 mg. for Wednesday and Thursday. Friday afternoon I eat some sodium to keep my electrolyte balance, but I don't drink any water.

I'll carb deplete on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, taking in 100-125 g. per day. On Wednesday I eat 500g, Thursday I'll eat 400g and then drop to 250g on Friday. I find that using these two methods together allow me to be full and dry at the same time. Unfortunately you have to try all scenarios to know how your body will react. Everyone's different, so trial and error is going to be your best method for most things.

Brandy and I are also fortunate to have our own facility, Flex Fitness and Aerobics Center in Medford, Oregon. We've owned the gym for four years and it does well. The first three years we owned the gym I was so busy that often times my training was interrupted or cut short. However, the last year has been great because we've hired a management team to runt he club for us so my training and dieting will be on the money from now on. That really helped with my preparation for the Nationals.

Since winning the Nationals, my goal right now is to compete in May at the 2000 IFBB Toronto Pro and IFBB Night Of The Champions. I hope to qualify for the Mr. Olympia at one of those contests. I hope to continue to do a good amount of guest posing and appearances as well because I love this opportunity to meet the fans and the promoters of the NPC all over the country. In a broad sense, my goal is to help bodybuilding become a widely accepted sport to everyone, everywhere.

Truly, my life is a dream come true because of bodybuilding and fitness. I met Brandy at a health club and I get to compete in a sport that I love. I get to meet people from all walks of life. I've learned discipline, respect of others, the power of hard work, self control, pain tolerance, humility and so many other things through competitive bodybuilding. I truly love the sport and I feel blessed each and every day that I have the opportunity to compete and train. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="3" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">good luck bro

5 ft 7 165 similar to me bro...

im 5 ft 6 165 9% body fat...im only 18 though

[Skii]

What did your contest cycle look like?

Did you use any natural diuretics?

How much water did you consume during the last week, day by day?

Did you take any Vitamin C the last week?

Any proviron use?

Did you use any "Hot Stuff" b4 stepping on stage?

[mpresiv]

What's up guys

I really appreciate the replies. Very interesting article by Aaron Maddron. I read it earlier and gained some info about dieting. The only thing thats wrong is the fact that he's 250lbs and I'm 165lbs. I found out last year that trying to imitate someone elses diet will get you 5th place in a competition. I didn't use any diuretics for the competition. I was relying on the whole "water thing" so I decided against that. I thought that if I consumed the right amount of water, and if I cut if off around noon time friday before a saturday contest, that would work just fine. This time I will be trying a diuretic. Which do you recommend Skii? Also I didn't take proviron or did I worry about vitamin c. How should I take these and when should I take them? But I did use "Hot Stuff". And man does that stuff WORK!!! About 3 or 4 minutes after applying that stuff my whole body was burning. It gets you pumped just like a workout. But for some advice of my own...I used "Hot Stuff" for the prejudging and "Pam Spray" for the evening show. The "Pam" gave me a better appearance on stage than did the "Hot Stuff". I put in on heavily and dabbed it off with a towle, and it worked very well. If I used them both, my tan would have started coming off.

For the cycle phase of my competition...
I took an 8 week cycle of Omnadren 250 about 3 months ago and feel in love with it. I didn't gain a whole lot of weight with it, but my overall appearence looked better on that than it has with anything else. I'm considering taking that for the competition. I realize that it's a weight gaining steroid, but with the fact that I'm a light weight contestant, I believe this may work for me if I watch my weight. Also, by using a diuretic, this will prevent me from holding water caused by the omnadren.

What do you guys think???

Thats for the replies Skii & Thai Guy !!!

<small>[ February 05, 2003, 10:04 PM: Message edited by: Mpresiv ]</small>

[Skii]

Well when is your next show and we can plan it out from there.