Bodybuilder's Diet

Swole2

New member
This coming year I will be entering my first bodybuilding competition. I know many of you have this question asked thousands of times, but here it goes one more time. Does anyone know of a good diet to get on before my competition? I'm weighing around 215, I want to get to 200 or maybe 195 to come in really lean and dry for my competition. Please help. Thanks:bb3:
 
Have you looked into the cut diet? I know the book was put out to hopefully sell some supplements, but from what I've heard it is a really good pre-contest cutting diet.

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Basically, your goal should be to lose as much fat as possible while keeping as much muscle as possible. This is accomplished the slower the better. I personally don't like to see guys lose more than a pound a week, although some may lose more & still not look like a concentration camp survivor at the end of the rainbow.

Also, I don't think it's all that safe to jump straight onto this or that "name" diet. For example, for decades, thousands of bodybuilders have done well on thousands of completely different diets. You take the top 20 guys, & they're all on 20 different diets -- and that's the way it should be, since everyone's gonna have a different response to protocol.

I've debated the holy **** out of the Cut Diet concepts with Chuck & Mark, and we're still friends - we just don't agree on carb placement.

For your 1st contest, I suggest that you keep things as simple as humanly possible so you know what changes to make for your subsequent contest (if you decide to do so). In the beginning, if you have about 15 lbs to lose, give yourself a minimum of 20 weeks to prepare. I don't think it's a dumb thing for 1st-timers to do a dress-rehearsal type of peak a few weeks before the show to find out what exactly your upper & lower thresholds are for carb intake, etc, not to mention what those thresholds are for looking cut but not flat as a pancake.

You can get all kinds of advices from this person or that, but in the end, you have to pay the most attention to what's going on with your own physique.

There's a brutal scarcity of good information out there on the specifics of precontest dieting, but here's one of the few done by Layne, not sure of it's his latest:

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Also read Joe Klem's stuff:

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Good luck. Remember that individual response overrides all outside advice.
 
alan aragon said:
I've debated the holy **** out of the Cut Diet concepts with Chuck & Mark, and we're still friends - we just don't agree on carb placement.
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Sorry to hijack,

I've always wondered about the carb placement in the Cut Diet myself. When do you think the optimal time to "refeed" on a diet like Chuck's? I've always felt they should come early in the morning. The only benefit I could see from refeeding late in the evening is better sleep.
 
Popa Murph said:
Sorry to hijack,

I've always wondered about the carb placement in the Cut Diet myself. When do you think the optimal time to "refeed" on a diet like Chuck's? I've always felt they should come early in the morning. The only benefit I could see from refeeding late in the evening is better sleep.
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Carb refeeds are best done at the height of depletion/insulin sensitivity/lean partitioning, which would ideally be right after your workout (regardless of what time you work out).
 
good posting alan... ive done many different style diets and the end result is really similar among all of them. the cut diet was one of my least favorite approaches. im one of those people whoe needs SOME carbs or else im walking around like a zombie. for all know, it could be my mentality not including carbs but i prefer my own approach much more.

for contest dieting, include green veggies in several meals to help with satiety. water also helps here as my intake increases quite a bit during contest prep. i also make minor changes such as cutting back on supplements for my dietary needs. ill only do shakes weather it be a protein powder or MRP after training. whole foods have a higher thermogenic effect and every little bit helps. definitely give yourself a lot of time to make up for any plateaus or screw ups. my first show, i dieted for 6 weeks... not smart, lost much muscle. i usually start around the viscinity of 8-9% and give myself 12 weeks. as your bodyfat lowers, it becomes harder to keep losing. going from 9 to 7% is a cakewalk yet going from 5 to 3% takes about 3 times as much time and effort for me.

alan, couple questions if you dont mind...
you said 1 week per 1 lb, but can you give an estimation of time frame per % of bodyfat?
i was always told to cut dairy out a couple months before competing but have been reading about possible "myths." do you think it is necessary to avoid lactose? if so, when?
 
WannaBeHulk said:
alan, couple questions if you dont mind...
you said 1 week per 1 lb, but can you give an estimation of time frame per % of bodyfat?
i was always told to cut dairy out a couple months before competing but have been reading about possible "myths." do you think it is necessary to avoid lactose? if so, when?
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In my experience, here's how the average person progresses: from 20-10% BF you can pretty reliably zap 1% BF almost every week. From 10-5%, 2 percent a month is fast. From 5% to 3%, 1 percent a month is plenty.
 
WannaBeHulk said:
i was always told to cut dairy out a couple months before competing but have been reading about possible "myths." do you think it is necessary to avoid lactose? if so, when?
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There's nothing evil about lactose. It's simply a molecule of glucose stuck to a molecule of galactose. One legit reason for cutting milk out precontest is because it's a source of calories (& carbs) which some folks are trying to avoid at that time. But if you can 1st of all digest milk without any problems, & then 2ndly fit it into your macro targets, there's no reason - other than possibly finding a more satiating nonliquid source of calories - to cut it out. I think most of the reasons people cut out milk are based upon fairytales & folklore.
 
alan aragon said:
There's nothing evil about lactose.
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Oh thank god! Someone with reason! ;)
 
alan aragon said:
Carb refeeds are best done at the height of depletion/insulin sensitivity/lean partitioning, which would ideally be right after your workout (regardless of what time you work out).
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I'm assuming this would still be the optimal time to refeed even if you had been drinking BCAA's during your workout? I know that BCAA's create an insulin release but I'm not sure on how this would effect carb timing.
 
Popa Murph said:
I'm assuming this would still be the optimal time to refeed even if you had been drinking BCAA's during your workout? I know that BCAA's create an insulin release but I'm not sure on how this would effect carb timing.
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It still would be the optimal time to refeed, regardless of BCAA intake.
 
Hey guys thanks for all of the input. I'm terribly sorry for not getting back. Trying to do too many things at one time. My contest is 12 weeks away. I know I want come in where I need to be, but if I'm not as lean as I need to be for my first competition then I'm not! Again here's wishing everyone a profitable and healthy new year!
 
Swole2 said:
Hey guys thanks for all of the input. I'm terribly sorry for not getting back. Trying to do too many things at one time. My contest is 12 weeks away. I know I want come in where I need to be, but if I'm not as lean as I need to be for my first competition then I'm not! Again here's wishing everyone a profitable and healthy new year!
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Right back at you man. Good luck with the comp, be a rebel & actually have fun with it ;)
 
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