The 3 Stages of Creating your own Competition Diet
Calculate your Calories
|
Work out your Macros |
Choose your Diet
|
Stage 1 - Calculate your Calories
Most people find it easier to put on weight than to loose weight. I think the reason is pretty simple, its because generally speaking it IS easier. There are 3500 calories in 1 lb of fat. We can over eat by that amount in a day. At the time of writing this, its the festive season. So particularly this time of year...while munching through stockings of chocolate, mince pies, huge portions of Christmas dinner and trimmings, but we can't under eat by this amount in a day to loose it. It of course is a gradual thing. To loose a 1 lb fat healthily you would need to eat or work off 500 calories a day less than your RDA (Average is supposed to be 2000 woman and 2500 men, although everyone should really work out there own personal BMR Basal Metaphoric Rate to get the true amount to eat adding there activity levels too) for 7 days which would equate to the 3500 calories. So one day to gain it, but at least 7 days to loose it.
This is why people get frustrated. Impatience is a big problem with dieting. People also think eating even less will make it happen quicker, but you will just end up possibly loosing muscle you don't want to loose, or putting your body into starvation mode where it starts to store. Your body is wise enough to know it may need that food later when its starving again. And of course it will always store in its favourite place...maybe your bum...or your belly..or wherever it likes to sit and stay! Or if you allow yourself to live off very low calories for a few weeks and you do loose the weight, when you do start eating again..again it will store..so you end up piling the weight back on and some when your go back to eating normally again.
So...smaller regular meals is the answer. Not a diet..a lifestyle change. If you eat every 3-4 hours your body in time will trust you and start utilising each meal as fuel, not needing to store anymore as it knows it will be fed again in a few hours time. For this to happen can take weeks, sometimes months if your diet habits have been irregular. But once it does...and your food is properly utilised..this is what is known as speeding up your metabolism. What you consume is being distributed to what needs it throughout your body without storing, proteins feeding your muscles, helping you recover, carbohydrates keeping you energised and fats utilising your vitamins and feeding your brain. You WILL feel better, fitter and be thinking clearer.
Try it.
Step 1 - Work out your BMR Calculator here. This tells you what your rested calories are. So what you should eat if you did NOTHING all day. Find out what YOUR daily calories should be. Mine is 1381 calories.
Step 2 - To determine your total daily calorie needs, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor (This is known as the Harris Benedict Formula), as follows:
If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9
So mine would be 1381 x 1.725 = 2382 calories a day
Step 3 - If you want to loose weight, - 500 calories per day. Either eat this amount less, or work it off.
And now for Macros...
This is why people get frustrated. Impatience is a big problem with dieting. People also think eating even less will make it happen quicker, but you will just end up possibly loosing muscle you don't want to loose, or putting your body into starvation mode where it starts to store. Your body is wise enough to know it may need that food later when its starving again. And of course it will always store in its favourite place...maybe your bum...or your belly..or wherever it likes to sit and stay! Or if you allow yourself to live off very low calories for a few weeks and you do loose the weight, when you do start eating again..again it will store..so you end up piling the weight back on and some when your go back to eating normally again.
So...smaller regular meals is the answer. Not a diet..a lifestyle change. If you eat every 3-4 hours your body in time will trust you and start utilising each meal as fuel, not needing to store anymore as it knows it will be fed again in a few hours time. For this to happen can take weeks, sometimes months if your diet habits have been irregular. But once it does...and your food is properly utilised..this is what is known as speeding up your metabolism. What you consume is being distributed to what needs it throughout your body without storing, proteins feeding your muscles, helping you recover, carbohydrates keeping you energised and fats utilising your vitamins and feeding your brain. You WILL feel better, fitter and be thinking clearer.
Try it.
Step 1 - Work out your BMR Calculator here. This tells you what your rested calories are. So what you should eat if you did NOTHING all day. Find out what YOUR daily calories should be. Mine is 1381 calories.
Step 2 - To determine your total daily calorie needs, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor (This is known as the Harris Benedict Formula), as follows:
If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9
So mine would be 1381 x 1.725 = 2382 calories a day
Step 3 - If you want to loose weight, - 500 calories per day. Either eat this amount less, or work it off.
And now for Macros...
Stage 2 - Workout your Macros
So now to work out how much Protein, Carbs and Fats to eat. These are your Macronutrients. The first thing to do is your protein.
A body builder needs to consume 1.5 – 2 grams of protein per pound of body weight. So let’s say my current body weight is 140 lbs x 1.5 = 210 grams of protein per day minimum is what I need to grow, or if I worked off the 2grams per lbs, 140 x 2 = 280 grams of protein, so between 210 – 280 grams of protein for me each day is what I would need.
Now, looking back at where I calculated my calories earlier, I worked out that my BMR (Basal Metaphoric Rate or my rested calorie intake) was 1381 calories. Then using the Harris Benedict Formula, worked out my active calories by multiplying it by 1.725.
So mine would be 1381 x 1.725 = 2382 calories a day
Then minus off 500 calories, so that I was deficient in calories, therefore dieting. (Or I can work these off in the gym) which leaves me with 1882 calories a day to eat on my diet.
Of those calories I need to include 210 – 280 grams of protein. I am going to average it out to say 245 Grams. Each gram of protein contains 4 calories. So 245 x 4 = 980 Calories.
This means of my daily allowance of 1882 calories, 980 of them needs to be protein. Or 52% of my macros should be protein. Or let’s say 50% to round it off.
Are you still with me?!
Then the other 50% will need to be made up of Carbohydrates and Fats.
A nutritionist would tell a normal person that there macros should be broken down to 50% Carbs, 30% Fats and 20% Protein. But us body builders have different requirements.
How you break down your remaining carb’s and fats can be different for everyone depending how you react to carb’s and fats when dieting. But they are already both running low so you may as well try a 25/25 split to start, and see how you get on.
So my macros are – 50% Protein, 25% Carb’s and 25% Fats on my 1882 calories a day diet.
What's yours?
A body builder needs to consume 1.5 – 2 grams of protein per pound of body weight. So let’s say my current body weight is 140 lbs x 1.5 = 210 grams of protein per day minimum is what I need to grow, or if I worked off the 2grams per lbs, 140 x 2 = 280 grams of protein, so between 210 – 280 grams of protein for me each day is what I would need.
Now, looking back at where I calculated my calories earlier, I worked out that my BMR (Basal Metaphoric Rate or my rested calorie intake) was 1381 calories. Then using the Harris Benedict Formula, worked out my active calories by multiplying it by 1.725.
So mine would be 1381 x 1.725 = 2382 calories a day
Then minus off 500 calories, so that I was deficient in calories, therefore dieting. (Or I can work these off in the gym) which leaves me with 1882 calories a day to eat on my diet.
Of those calories I need to include 210 – 280 grams of protein. I am going to average it out to say 245 Grams. Each gram of protein contains 4 calories. So 245 x 4 = 980 Calories.
This means of my daily allowance of 1882 calories, 980 of them needs to be protein. Or 52% of my macros should be protein. Or let’s say 50% to round it off.
Are you still with me?!
Then the other 50% will need to be made up of Carbohydrates and Fats.
A nutritionist would tell a normal person that there macros should be broken down to 50% Carbs, 30% Fats and 20% Protein. But us body builders have different requirements.
How you break down your remaining carb’s and fats can be different for everyone depending how you react to carb’s and fats when dieting. But they are already both running low so you may as well try a 25/25 split to start, and see how you get on.
So my macros are – 50% Protein, 25% Carb’s and 25% Fats on my 1882 calories a day diet.
What's yours?
Stage 3 - Choose your competition diet and creating a diet plan
If you think there is a secret to the eating in getting stage ready in body building, you couldn’t be more wrong. All the diets are out there for you to try, and most experienced body builders would have tried them all! And then settled on the one that works best for them...but still probably change it again somewhere down the line!
It’s rare to get this right first time. If you do...you are blinkin’ lucky!
A competition diet normally start 16-20 weeks out of show depending on your starting point. How long you’ve been training for, do you need a lot of muscle growth and how much you’ve got to loose should be taken into consideration.
Now, what you need to do is decide which diet to go with. And there are a few out there. There is your standard or traditional ones with all 3 macros split in each meal.
Or what about Back Loading? Or Carb Cycling? Or Carb Nites? Or Keto? But what are they, and how do they work?
Let’s just stay traditional for now !
Traditional Dieting –
Generally you always split your meals into 5, 6 or even 7 meals sometimes, but most girls go with 5 or 6. You need to eat small and regular as this speed’s up your metabolism. This can mean your body begins to trust you, and knows that it will be fed again in 3-4 hours, so no longer feels the need to store reserves, and utilises the entire portion you give it and sending all the nutrients around your body to be used as and where it’s needed. this should be done all year round, not just when you start your show diet. It takes time ...sometimes months to get to earn your bodies trust, and it will function best during show diet if it already trusts in your eating regime.
Ok, so splitting your meals. An example of this based on my diet macros which was 1882 divided into 6 = 314 (ish) calories per meal to base on, 50/25/25% ratio which in calories is 980/451/451, or in grams per nutrient is 245/112/50.
This is worked out as follows –
Protein - 980 cals / 4 calories = 245 grams
Carbs – 451 cals / 4 calories = 112 grams
Fats – 451 cals / 9 calories (Fats have a higher calorie content) = 50 grams
And then start to formulate your meals. Use something like MyFitnessPal to help you work them out. It could look something like this –
6am – Meal 1 – 40g Porridge, 2 scoop protein
9am – Meal 2 – 4 egg omelette (one yolk) with 2 slices lean ham
12pm – Meal 3 – 200g Turkey breast, 100g Sweet Potato, 150g Broccoli
3pm – Meal 4 –50g Almonds/ 25g Blueberries
6pm – Meal 5 –Tin of Tuna in Spring Water, 40g (Dry weight) Rice, 100g green beans
9pm – Meal 6 – 2 x scoops Casein Shake before bed
The macros in total for this day are –
A total of 1872 calories made up of -
Grams – Protein 231/Carbs 114/Fats 52...my target was Protein 245/Carbs 112/Fats 50
It’s rare to get this right first time. If you do...you are blinkin’ lucky!
A competition diet normally start 16-20 weeks out of show depending on your starting point. How long you’ve been training for, do you need a lot of muscle growth and how much you’ve got to loose should be taken into consideration.
Now, what you need to do is decide which diet to go with. And there are a few out there. There is your standard or traditional ones with all 3 macros split in each meal.
Or what about Back Loading? Or Carb Cycling? Or Carb Nites? Or Keto? But what are they, and how do they work?
Let’s just stay traditional for now !
Traditional Dieting –
Generally you always split your meals into 5, 6 or even 7 meals sometimes, but most girls go with 5 or 6. You need to eat small and regular as this speed’s up your metabolism. This can mean your body begins to trust you, and knows that it will be fed again in 3-4 hours, so no longer feels the need to store reserves, and utilises the entire portion you give it and sending all the nutrients around your body to be used as and where it’s needed. this should be done all year round, not just when you start your show diet. It takes time ...sometimes months to get to earn your bodies trust, and it will function best during show diet if it already trusts in your eating regime.
Ok, so splitting your meals. An example of this based on my diet macros which was 1882 divided into 6 = 314 (ish) calories per meal to base on, 50/25/25% ratio which in calories is 980/451/451, or in grams per nutrient is 245/112/50.
This is worked out as follows –
Protein - 980 cals / 4 calories = 245 grams
Carbs – 451 cals / 4 calories = 112 grams
Fats – 451 cals / 9 calories (Fats have a higher calorie content) = 50 grams
And then start to formulate your meals. Use something like MyFitnessPal to help you work them out. It could look something like this –
6am – Meal 1 – 40g Porridge, 2 scoop protein
9am – Meal 2 – 4 egg omelette (one yolk) with 2 slices lean ham
12pm – Meal 3 – 200g Turkey breast, 100g Sweet Potato, 150g Broccoli
3pm – Meal 4 –50g Almonds/ 25g Blueberries
6pm – Meal 5 –Tin of Tuna in Spring Water, 40g (Dry weight) Rice, 100g green beans
9pm – Meal 6 – 2 x scoops Casein Shake before bed
The macros in total for this day are –
A total of 1872 calories made up of -
Grams – Protein 231/Carbs 114/Fats 52...my target was Protein 245/Carbs 112/Fats 50
That’ s near enough for me!! An then play around with your diet, changing it up, having a steak and eggs instead, or a pork chop loin with a jacket potato, and always count your macros in a diary to stay on track! Now go build a plan, and get prepping!
