Some Thoughts on Your Competition Diet – Part 1

It fills me with great joy to see how our scene is enjoying tremendous popularity right now and attracting an equally large number of active athletes. Competing against others as a competitive athlete requires a great deal of discipline and ambition.

It’s often only during the course of preparation that many people realize that real bodybuilding is much more than just a “lifestyle” (and by that I also mean bikini athletes and the guys in swim trunks!). Competition preparation means living in a state of emergency—it means deprivation and rock-hard guidelines that must be followed without compromise, not just for 1 or 2 weeks, but for several months! How well your preparation goes depends on a number of factors. Every time, you’re fighting a battle with yourself all over again.

My new three-part series is designed to provide all interested athletes—as well as coaches and trainers—with the most important basic principles and plenty of practical tips to keep in mind when following a competition diet.

Let’s dive in with Part 1.

 

When should I start the diet?

If you’re looking to work with a coach for your prep, this question is actually what separates the wheat from the chaff.

If someone answers your question, “How long will my diet last?” with a specific timeframe without ever having taken a CLOSE look at you, unfollow this page and keep looking for competent guidance!

The very least they need to know about you to roughly determine when to start the diet is your current and target body fat percentage. Based on “where I am and where I need to go,” a conservative timeline can then be established.

Studies such as Alpert’s (1) cite impressive figures ranging from 249 to 290 kJ/kg/day, which are cited as the maximum rate at which fat is mobilized from human fat stores under hypocaloric conditions to maintain a moderate activity level, provided that lean body mass is preserved.

In practice, the realistic range is likely somewhere between 0.35 and 0.75 kg of fat per week, depending on how well and consistently you stick to your diet.

Here’s a sample calculation:

Athlete A (88 kg) starts the diet with 23% body fat and sets a target body fat percentage of 7%

• 23% body fat currently corresponds to 20.24 kg of body fat
• A body fat percentage of 7% would correspond to 6.16 kg of body fat at his current weight
• Difference: 14.08 kg, which must be lost
• Diet duration: between 19 and 40 weeks

That’s certainly a wide range, but ultimately, an experienced opinion is needed here. Whoever makes the decisions for you must assess your individual potential. Body type—including genetic predisposition in this context—as well as your current diet and training regimen must be factored into the decision before determining the actual number of weeks for the competition diet.

IMPORTANT
: Dear athletes, as you can see from this example, it makes NO sense to hire a competition coach solely for the preparation period. In order to truly assess you effectively, a coach must have worked with you for some time beforehand—or, ideally, even established your nutrition and training guidelines during the build-up phase. Only then do you give them the chance to do a good job in determining when to start the diet!

Conclusion
: The start of the diet is determined by the current and target body fat percentages, as well as the athlete’s specific conditions.

 

Rapid weight loss at the beginning—incorrect diet parameters?

…not necessarily! One thing you should immediately cross off your list of expectations is the idea that your body will lose the exact same amount of weight—and consequently, body fat—week after week once you start the diet. It won’t work that way!

If you initially lose more than 0.35 to 0.75 kg per week on the scale, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re already losing lean body mass or that your calorie intake is set incorrectly. Major changes in your diet also require a certain period of adjustment for your body’s fluid balance.

Especially when it comes to carbohydrates, it’s important to know that the 350 to 900 g stored in the body—which varies from person to person—binds 2 to 2.8 ml of water per gram.

This amount corresponds to a net weight of approximately 700 ml to 1,680 ml. Changes in electrolyte balance, as well as new guidelines for fluid intake, initially result in varying degrees of kidney activity—which must first stabilize.

Conclusion
: If things go a bit faster than expected at the start, don’t panic—trust your guidelines!

 

Starting a Diet—or Diets Lasting More Than 15 Weeks

Beginner’s mistakes or errors due to lack of knowledge—cutting out far too many foods far too early!

We’ve just read that our diet will last 5 months at best and 6 or more months at worst. Now, there are indeed specialists who (for whatever reason) eliminate certain foods—including some natural foods—from the diet right from the start.

These include, for example

• The oh-so-evil dairy products

(There is NO concrete evidence that dairy products generally impair calcium absorption or cause water retention under the skin (2, 3))

• Salty foods

(That “evil” sodium is essential for life and a MUST for muscle function (5, 6))

• Artificial sweeteners

(Makes sense, right? After all, it’s not called “sodium cyclamate” for nothing—nonsense!)

• Bread

(According to Loria-Kohen et al. (4), those who can tolerate it can even use it to support their weight-loss efforts)

• Fruit

(Wasn’t there something about fructose and the liver? — YES, but not with natural fructose from fruit. Here, Madero et al. even demonstrate the benefits of a low-carb diet with moderate intake (11))

Does it really have to be that way?

Is it beneficial for the athlete’s mental well-being and the progress of the diet to impose very strict food restrictions very early on? – NO!!

Depending on the athlete’s personality, not only have slightly more flexible guidelines but even the modern approach of flexible dieting proven to be extremely beneficial at the start of a competition diet (7–9). This approach becomes even more interesting in light of study results such as those by Bray et al. (10), which show that occasional “unrestricted” meals do not actually have a detrimental effect on hormones that regulate metabolism and appetite.

Conclusion
: A competition diet actually starts out relatively loose. Most of the regulation comes from training and the power of the calorie deficit.

 

Summary

Good competition preparation actually begins before the actual “diet” itself, with careful planning during the preceding off-season. Those who overeat excessively will pay the price with an immense number of diet weeks to get through—a scenario that, strictly speaking, doesn’t have to happen!

Ultimately, the duration of the competition diet is determined by the current body fat percentage and conservative estimates of how much body fat can be reduced per week without simultaneously losing significant amounts of muscle mass.

The longer the diet is scheduled to last, the more attention must be paid to maintaining the athlete’s motivation. Anyone who has to submit to the strictest guidelines and deprivations right from the start may soon give in, start cheating, or abandon their preparation altogether.

As the diet progresses, however, the guidelines must gradually become more precise. You’ll learn exactly what this entails in Parts 2 and 3.

Until then, I wish everyone the best of luck

 

Best athletic regards
, Holger Gugg

www.body-coaches.de

 

 

Sources

(1) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15615615
(2) http://www.body-coaches.de/mythos-milch-calciumaufnahme-und-gesundheit-stimmt-teil-1
(3) http://www.body-coaches.de/speichern-milchprodukte-wasser-haut
(4) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22209501
(5) https://www.peak.ag/blog/natrium-ein-mit-mythen-behafteter-mineralstoff
(6) https://www.peak.ag/blog/natrium-ein-mit-mythen-behafteter-mineralstoff-teil-2
(7) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10349584
(8) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10336790
(9) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11883916
(10) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17536194
(11) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21621801

 

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