FIRST TIMER PRE CONTEST TIMING

[Shelby]

Q: I'm 45 weeks out from my first comp. While I do have the competitive spirit, my goal is primarily to prove to myself what I'm capable of and present my absolute best on stage having left nothing behind.
For a first timer that has a good handle on diet and a good progressive routine, how would you determine how many weeks out the trainee would begin contest prep dieting?

Shelby: Any true competitor is always on a contest prep diet. By that I mean they’re always eating with the next competition in mind, whether it be their “offseason” or “precontest”. You want to give yourself every advantage over your competitors that you can, so you need to be committed to your goals year round.
As for how many weeks one should devote to fat loss, it would depend on how much fat they have to lose. Most bodybuilders will diet for 12 to 16 weeks leading up to a contest, but that’s assuming that they aren’t too out of shape to begin with (perhaps 12-15% body fat at the most).

For someone that has let things slide a little more than that, i.e. they can’t see their abs even in the best of lighting, and they can not only “pinch an inch” but can also grab a good old handful of the soft stuff, a longer prep would be a good idea (20 weeks or even more, depending on how things look).

A good rough guide would be to give yourself at least one week for every percent of body fat that you carry, i.e. 14 weeks if you’re about 14% body fat. You won’t get down to 0% at the end, but losing roughly 1% per week is a good rate of fat loss if things are set up properly. You also want to be ready a bit early for your show, if at all possible. I like to have my clients close to stage-ready by 2 weeks out, so we have some “wiggle room” to play around with to see where they look best in terms of fullness, flatness, etc.

Remember – you can always be ready early for a bodybuilding show, but you never want to be ready late.

 

[cthompson]

Very good info. I know after all the hard work it took just to be in decent off season shape. I can't imagine trying to prep for a show if u were more than 15% bf. I sometimes get nervous when it comes time to add calories . I guess I will always have that fear of getting too fat when I was a former fat boy.

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[GreenTLB6]

Very good info. I know after all the hard work it took just to be in decent off season shape. I can't imagine trying to prep for a show if u were more than 15% bf. I sometimes get nervous when it comes time to add calories . I guess I will always have that fear of getting too fat when I was a former fat boy.

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I agree, being a former fatty its hard to add fluff. Got to do what makes ya happy though.

 

[sazo75]

Q: I'm 45 weeks out from my first comp. While I do have the competitive spirit, my goal is primarily to prove to myself what I'm capable of and present my absolute best on stage having left nothing behind.
For a first timer that has a good handle on diet and a good progressive routine, how would you determine how many weeks out the trainee would begin contest prep dieting?

Shelby: Any true competitor is always on a contest prep diet. By that I mean they’re always eating with the next competition in mind, whether it be their “offseason” or “precontest”. You want to give yourself every advantage over your competitors that you can, so you need to be committed to your goals year round.
As for how many weeks one should devote to fat loss, it would depend on how much fat they have to lose. Most bodybuilders will diet for 12 to 16 weeks leading up to a contest, but that’s assuming that they aren’t too out of shape to begin with (perhaps 12-15% body fat at the most).

For someone that has let things slide a little more than that, i.e. they can’t see their abs even in the best of lighting, and they can not only “pinch an inch” but can also grab a good old handful of the soft stuff, a longer prep would be a good idea (20 weeks or even more, depending on how things look).

A good rough guide would be to give yourself at least one week for every percent of body fat that you carry, i.e. 14 weeks if you’re about 14% body fat. You won’t get down to 0% at the end, but losing roughly 1% per week is a good rate of fat loss if things are set up properly. You also want to be ready a bit early for your show, if at all possible. I like to have my clients close to stage-ready by 2 weeks out, so we have some “wiggle room” to play around with to see where they look best in terms of fullness, flatness, etc.

Remember – you can always be ready early for a bodybuilding show, but you never want to be ready late.

The bold is SOOOO important! One thing I recently learned is how much building your metabolism in the off season can help! Being able to eat 600 -1100 more calories while dieting this time around made dieting better physically and mentally.