ok, so I'm getting a lot of PMs. Please understand I can't go into detail regarding my diet as I work with a nutritionist and it wouldn't be fair to him. If interested, contact Shelby Starnes of Troponin Nutrition.
I posted this in another thread and other forums as well. In general, I'll say this...
I found a good nutritionist and followed their advice without question. Then, pretty much Eat, Train, Rest, Repeat. (sounds familiar I know, but many people can't do it, day in - day out for months on end)
Overall consistency with diet is key. That and making sure everytime I was in the gym I was making progress on my lifts; meaning more reps or weight on the same exercise than the last session.
My prep for this show basically began March of last year. Since then, I have never missed a meal or didn't meet my macro requirements for the day. I never missed a training or cardio session and in the offseason I made sure I never got less than 8 hrs of sleep.
You also have to remember, I pretty much just started BBing in Nov 07 and never really had an "offseason" prior to my first show last March. So I think a lot of my gains are from the initial influx of food and heavy training.
Another key is taking advantage of the post contest rebound. I weighed 190 for my first show and was up to 220 about 6 weeks after the show. The heaviest I got was about 235 before I started dieting again.