How do you set up your diet.

[Gunsmith]

Was having a discussion today with a few other guys about caloric needs and such which led to how you would set up your diet for a contest prep.

Do you use some calculations to figure your calorie needs??

Do you use an educated guess??

Do you not worry about calories and just focus on macros??

 

[TheOtherOne55]

Was having a discussion today with a few other guys about caloric needs and such which led to how you would set up your diet for a contest prep.



Do you use some calculations to figure your calorie needs??



Do you use an educated guess??



Do you not worry about calories and just focus on macros??

Well hopefully when getting ready to prep you already have been tracking where you are nutritionally. As you start a 16 week diet, you should already have an idea where maintenance was...ie week 17-20 were. At least for me.

I usually can always figure out my maintenance but I track all the time. And I usually calc macros and cals...


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[danieltx]

I track calories and macros year-round, but I also eat the same stuff year-round so it's easy. Filling in MyFitnessPal for the week takes literally 5 minutes or less. I think that's the best way to know what you need to adjust for a contest prep.

I usually stay in maintenance mode from December through February or so. I let my body weight settle and stay consistent. With a few months of calorie data at a consistent weight, it's very easy to know what to cut back for dieting.

I've never found a calorie formula or calculation that was accurate for me. They always give me a much higher number than I need for maintenance, though I'm likely an outlier with that. Currently maintaining a lean 228lbs - 230lbs at ~3,100 calories a day.

 

[OutToLunch]

Mostly low carb high protein moderate fat mon-Friday. Saturday mostly proceeded carb refeed. Includes low fat and moderate protein. Sunday’s high protein low fat and only fruit carbs.
Train 3x week. Serious peri wo nutrition. Cardio now sun - Friday. 40 to 70 minutes per day

 

[Delt123]

Well hopefully when getting ready to prep you already have been tracking where you are nutritionally. As you start a 16 week diet, you should already have an idea where maintenance was...ie week 17-20 were. At least for me.

I usually can always figure out my maintenance but I track all the time. And I usually calc macros and cals...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Agree. Basically less food than I was eating before prep. Unless you're trying to add weight first, but havnt tried that so I cant comment.

Usually less than I was eating before, like 200-300 caloriees less preferably from fat.

 

[Brickshthouse79]

Track macros and cals year round. My body is carb sensitive, so when cutting I eat 50% protein, 25% fat, 25% carbs. Im 250 lbs at 12% bf. I use 1.4g protein per lb of lbm, so around 300g protein and then another 1200 cals of fat and carbs (so around 2.5k cals).

When bulking/gaining I up cals 500 a day across fat and carbs.. which ends up being 300g protein, 250g carbs, 100g fat (so, around 3k cals).

Note, im not a competitive bb, but its a serious hobby and ive been training for 25 yrs.

 

[Cito33189]

educated guess, mirror, and feel.

eat clean, do cardio. need to lose more weight or get leaner do more cardio. get shredded manipulate carbs, and carb cycle. striated glutes protein veggie days

 

[FK86]

I'm currently in a deficit and calculations I made were:

Calories: Body weight x 12

Protein: Body weight x 1.3

Carbs: Post-workout and with one other meal. Only trace carbs on Sunday and Wednesday.

Fats: More emphasis on fat than carbs

Weight workouts 4 days a week, cardio 2 days a week, refeeds on Saturday.

 

[swim15]

I used to track all my macros year around but at this point its pretty worthless and I just go by feel. Not too hard to know roughly what macros you’re getting if you’ve been doing things a while. Also the best I’ve ever looked compared to constant tracking funny enough.

For prep I’d generally go by feel and mirror until 8 weeks out and then go to strict tracking