A client recently told me that he’s never cheated on a contest diet in 10 years.  Obviously that iron will is impressive, but I would ask, has your diet cheated you?  You may be perfectly executing the wrong plan.  Last night I scanned my own precontest dieting notes, charts, and stats.  Muddling through sixteen years of competing can read like a comedy and then whip you into an epic drama or even a tragedy in pretty short order.  I could see the influence of fad diets and even industry “experts” in the early years and then as my own education roared down the tracks, I gradually saw shades of knowledge, consistency, and once in awhile, success.  One thing I’ve always done after a contest is conclude my notes and stats with a “lessons learned” section; a few points I will integrate into my next season to improve (actually to screw up less).  Consider this article your set of directives on creating this year’s precontest diet; an accelerated course to avoid mistakes and move you to the center of the stage. 

            Similar to my own notes, there are two general categories to think through when you start planning.  The first is making sure you’re working under the premise of correct physiology.   And that’s not as easy as it sounds.  Our drive to succeed leads us to the newest diet books and bizarre, twisted theories in magazines (Part Seventeen of The Breakthrough Super-Anabolic, Magna-Striating, Chromatographically-Proven Way of Controlling the Catalyzation and Condensation that Occurs in 2-Carbon Thiol Ester Subtrates:  Gain 67 pounds of Lean Muscle While Dieting!!!)  There are things that are true and things that are not.  Then there are things that just don’t matter.

            The second importance of diet design is your body individually.  We’re all on a continuum of metabolic genetics.  As I recently told a client desperate for a thicker stage presence, “You’re a Greyhound trying to be a Rotweiler; we have to work within your body’s genetics and bring the absolute best look you can attain, not try to look like someone else.”  She won the overall at her next contest (against almost 50 other women) and frequently now signs her emails to me, “Greyhound.” 

            Not that these are small tasks by any means, but once you grasp the overall construct of what makes a good diet strategy and you’ve fine-tuned it to match your metabolic type, it’s time to look at the variables that will lead to perfect timing and predictable peaking.  Whether I’m designing a plan for a pro World Champion or a client looking forward to their first time in a line-up (at least a line-up where handcuffs aren’t involved), I work through a mental list of objectives something like this:

1)      Body type: Do I need to consider a slower met rate that may make me fear not being ready on time or maybe an ectomorphic met rate where muscle retention is going to be key?

2)      Starting point:  Is my client 8 pounds away or 38 pounds from our goal?

3)      Time:  Are we 6 weeks or 6 months from the contest date?

4)      Dieting history:  What types of diets have been used in the past and what were the rates of weight loss and the outcomes?  Previous mistakes and successes are invaluable lessons.

5)      The winning look:  Men’s bodybuilding, women’s bodybuilding, figure, fitness, and the newer modeling categories all have different judging criteria.  Discerning a client’s strengths and weaknesses in light of these criteria can help us tip-toe one way or another in final preparation and presentation.  Even knowing the specific competitors a client will face and what “look” may be necessary to win has led to planning decisions that resulted in big wins.

Let’s go back to the beginning for a second.  We still have to decide what the best

diet “formula” will be.  I maintain that this is inseparable from body type.  Regardless of how much time we have or what starting point we’re at, I can have two clients of the same height, age, weight, etc., and they’re hundreds of calories apart on metabolic rate and worlds apart in what the best approach will be.  Genetic differences in the way we store and lose fat is truly a subject that needs it’s own article, but keep in mind that everyone doesn’t do well on the same diet.  There is no “perfect diet” – there is only perfect for you.  But, I want to conclude this article addressing some starting point principles that get you on your way to your best condition for this year.

            Start with the end in mind.  What body weight are you shooting for?  How much do you have to lose per week?  (A little hint: be ready early – be at your planned contest weight weeks in advance.)  Now, with just your own observation and body knowledge, do you typically need to do more cardio and eat less carbs or do you lose fast?  Use this to create a framework and then fill in the gaps with the specifics – the amount of food you need.  The next three paragraphs put these details in the context of your body type.

            Depending on who we’re listening to, protein intake perceptions can be all over the place.  It’s more the norm than the exception, though, to see bodybuilders eating more than they need.  I’m aware of current research proving that protein requirements are much less than we think – even to build muscle – and that parallels my findings in one case study I did for a dissertation in grad school.  But, even I would err on the side of slightly more, not less.  After all, we’re bodybuilders – what would happen to all the chicken farmers without us?  A slower metabolic, endomorphic-leaning person may do just fine with one gram per pound of lean body mass even while dieting.  These people just don’t lose weight (muscle or fat) very fast and the benefit of such a torturous body type (when you’re trying to lose) is that muscle retention is easy.  Many, though, eat too much protein, which is converted to glucose (slowing fat loss) or to fat.  On the other end of the scale, an ectomorph can get away with eating more protein, and does need more.  But, when the “enough” line is crossed, more protein may limit carb consumption, which could be more necessary for them to keep muscle – their necessary focus.  I would typically recommend 1.5 to 1.75 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass for these competitors (sometimes even 2 grams per pound in some circumstances).

            I’ve moved around a bit on fat intake theory but the bottom line is that when it’s time to get lean, it’s time to get lean.  You can think that eating tons of beef is “necessary” to keep your testosterone high, but too much fat in one meal and you’re storing a lot of it as fat.  It only takes 7% of the total energy of the fat you eat to store it as fat, compared to 23% if it’s carbs, and even more if it’s protein.  That means that of all the food we eat, fat is stored as fat the easiest – and it is.  You don’t have to stomp every gram of fat out of a grilled chicken breast, but I like to see a diet with 20 to 25% of the calories from fat if you’re a metabolic rabbit, but as low as 10 to 15% if you know you lose fat slowly. 

            This leaves carbs: the glue of the diet.  Carbs are THE double-edged sword.  The more carbs you eat the more anabolic you are, the more energy you have, the fuller you are, the stronger you are – but you have to cut them to lose.  When you cut them you are more catabolic, lose size, feel flat, and you start thinking you’re going to be the smallest person to ever stand in front of a judging panel.  This is where you have to know your body.  If you have a slow met rate, you need to go low, period.  Sorry.  If you’re fortunate to be able to lose fast you may get to eat more, but it’s all relative.  Your goal will be to keep them low enough to lose fat, but high enough to spare muscle that your metabolism will gladly chew up like a piranha if you don’t feed it consistently.  Both body types will do better to have controlled carb increases, sometimes once a week, sometimes twice (have I mentioned we’re all different?)   Use the amount of carbs to dictate how fast you lose.  You know how much time you have and how far you have to go.

            These numbers are just ranges to point you in the right direction; don’t lose sight of the greater context.  The big picture is determining what your genetics dictate as a necessary approach and then fine-tuning it as you gain experience.  As you gain experience and can become consistent and confident with your contest preparation, the sport will move from frustrating to fun and you just may win a few shows along the way.