Countdown to Competition Log......

[Aries13]

Oh and by the way....I JUST got told by my trainers that I NEED TO DROP MY CARBS....WTF??!!!

Im already at 50p/40c/10F
They want me at around 55p/35c/10f-60p/30c/10p

Im worried about that only because I dont want to become a giant crab ass. LOL Also, I thought that if you eat a high protein low carb diet, you will gain a lot more than you lost when you introduce carbs back into your diet????

*The suggestion was to drop the sweet potato/baked potato that I have at 1pm every day and instead eat 1-2cups green beans OR broccoli......I understand that this is a -contest- prep diet and that I am very new to this but i am worried about post contest weight gain. They also mentioned for me to do carb cycling if I have a problem with the carb drop. Any input ladies???? Bring it on me....right now Im confused..i thought I was doing good...

 

[*Bunny*]

From reading the ladies logs re: comp prep ... it's great to get other opinions, but most of the time, the ideas thrown at you will NOT be what your trainer is telling you ... and guess what, you are even more confused.

I've seen when 100% trust is put into comp trainers, it can be VERY successful or completely backfire ...

Sassy always says Trial & error ... I'm sure the others can help elaborate

 

[Sassy69]

Oh and by the way....I JUST got told by my trainers that I NEED TO DROP MY CARBS....WTF??!!!

Im already at 50p/40c/10F
They want me at around 55p/35c/10f-60p/30c/10p

Im worried about that only because I dont want to become a giant crab ass. LOL Also, I thought that if you eat a high protein low carb diet, you will gain a lot more than you lost when you introduce carbs back into your diet????

*The suggestion was to drop the sweet potato/baked potato that I have at 1pm every day and instead eat 1-2cups green beans OR broccoli......I understand that this is a -contest- prep diet and that I am very new to this but i am worried about post contest weight gain. They also mentioned for me to do carb cycling if I have a problem with the carb drop. Any input ladies???? Bring it on me....right now Im confused..i thought I was doing good...

My guess is that you've been running the higher carbs to provide enough energy to lift like a beeeyotch! There is a point in competition prep where the idea of "building muscle" is just not feasible because you are trying to cut the bodyfat so whatever muscle you have at this point you want to preserve and start to shape. So if you hear people who are trying to "build up their quads" or somethign like that at say 8 weeks out, probably time to just not worry about -- building mass is what they call "off season bulking cycle".

Ok so now they want you to drop your carbs some. What did they say about total calories? When you drop your carbs but don't increase something else, your total cals will drop as well. Here you need to find that happy medium where you aren't underfeeding yourself to get the lower amount of one of the macro nutrients (protein, fat, carb). For example, if you are going down to 30% carbs, then are you going to up your fats by 10%? (for 50/30/20 ratio). You want to start training your body to run more efficently on smaller amounts of carbs because you don't need them to build muscle any more - but because you are reducing the amount of fuel your body is used to running on, it helps to increase your fats to sort of preserve the energy.

Fats BTW are a necessary part of a diet - I don't know that a lot is really understood about fats as far as manipulating them for bodyfat loss - when I drop my carbs, for ex in a carb cycle, I do increase my fats so my total cals stay the same, but the macro ratio changes. Helps keep me from being completely lethargic & run down on the really low carb days. For me, my best cutting happens at 1700-1800 cals. My bodytype requires that my carbs stay relatively low and also the fats. If I load either of those, my progress stalls out. That's just me. I know other girls who do great on a fat load. So I'm not going to get into a discussion on that because I just know what works for me so I stick w/ it. But good quality fats have their place in a diet - don't be scared of them. Good quality fats do not equal the "bodyfat" we see on our bodies.

Have you ever done carb cycling? And do you understand the reason for it? You can definitely hit your trainer up with those questions - make them explain things to you if you don't get why. But the short answer is that you would now be using changes in your carb intake over a short cycle (e.g. 3-4 days) to burn at efficient burn rates. Your body takes a day or two to respond to what you feed it if you make a change to a consistent state of things that it has come to expect (does that makes sense..?) e.g. if your body is used to getting 150 g carb / day, it will set the metabolism rate to burn that amount.

Then if you suddenly cut it to 100 g for a day, your body may see that as just a small change in your daily intake - it will continue to burn at the rate that burns 150 g carb, but it actually only has 100 g carb to burn. So it will start going into the bodyfat stores to burn that extra amount it was expecting but didn't get. Then the next day you drop it to say 50g carb - you'll feel a little more sluggish, because your body is still burning like it expects 150 g carb, but now it only has 50 g. It willl burn thru that quickly and then tap into your stored energy (bodyfat) to get the last amount.

If you go too many days (usually start seeing this around day 3 of a carb cycle) at low carb, you will notice that you are tired & sort of fuzzy in the brain -- that means you ran out of carbs to burn. Your body will recognize that the amount it has been expecting to get (e.g. 150 g carb) has been short of that for at least 2 days - so it will start to slow down metabolism to accommodate the lower amount of fuel. So the beauty of carb cycling comes in when you go back to the start of the cycle again -- eating 150 g carb BEFORE your metabolism starts to slow down to match the now expected smaller amount of carbs. So you just keep repeating that cycle until you get to where you want.

Anyway -- I would agree w/ the carb reduction - see how you react to it --I'd say watch it for a week and see if you are getting some results. You should also expect to see a drop in your weight due to dumping a little more water as a result of the reduction in carb intake. Also watch to see if you start to feel sluggish on the lower carbs - if yes, then you might want to start looking at that carb cycle because you are getting a high carb day which will help reduce the days of sluggishness.

Hope that helps!

 

[Aries13]

Thank you THANK you THank you.....you just made my day. My trainer suggested that I drop the carbs and add in more protein....such as salmon etc.

I will try the carb cycling as well, and you VERY much cleared up all that for me. Just to make sure that Ive got it right:

Go ahead and drop the carbs(the potato in my third meal...replace w. more protein, a good fat, and some broccoli...)do that for about 3 days...and just WHEN i feel like COMPLETE hell and shutting down(when my body sends out that hint that Im about to slow down my metabolism b/c ive used the fat stores for 3 days.....) just bump up the carbs that day and start the cycle over again the next day???

Right now, I was told to stay away from nuts as a source of fat and instead use flaxseed oil..or fish fat from like salmon. Any other fat ideas? For now, I have to stay at 55p/35c/10f...OR 55p/30c/15f.

The carb cycling sounds like a good idea and I hope I can do it properly. I will also ask my trainer to point me in the right direction. THanks Sassy(and everyone else....hugs and kisses for you all!!!)

---any other inputs???

 

[Sassy69]

YAY! That's pretty much the "carb cycling" secret -- but definitely get your trainer's version of it - there are many specific ways to do it, but the general concept is just to get work your metabolism in shorts spurts to kick up the fat burning.

I've had some trainers tell me use flax oil, others said to use almonds. Personally I find the flax oil to be "safer" for me - its easy to measure for accuracy and I usually just include it as the "oil" part of vinaigrette on spinach as my fibrous carb source. I don't care to consume it by itself though. That just means I need to use things like broccoli w/ my non-fat meals and spinach + vinaigrette for my fat meals. Otherwise you can drop it into your shake (if you are using a shake). Basically as long as I can bury it in something to kill the taste.

My problem w/ almonds, natural peanut butter, etc. is that it tastes SOOOOO good when you are a boring as hell diet. And then I can't stop or I agonize over trying to make myself BACK AWAY FROM THE NUTS!!!!!! I just don't need that sort of distraction for all the work that goes into competition prep.

Other fat sources I've used are pretty much in the fish & red meats.

 

[Aries13]

YAY! That's pretty much the "carb cycling" secret -- but definitely get your trainer's version of it - there are many specific ways to do it, but the general concept is just to get work your metabolism in shorts spurts to kick up the fat burning.

I've had some trainers tell me use flax oil, others said to use almonds. Personally I find the flax oil to be "safer" for me - its easy to measure for accuracy and I usually just include it as the "oil" part of vinaigrette on spinach as my fibrous carb source. I don't care to consume it by itself though. That just means I need to use things like broccoli w/ my non-fat meals and spinach + vinaigrette for my fat meals. Otherwise you can drop it into your shake (if you are using a shake). Basically as long as I can bury it in something to kill the taste.

My problem w/ almonds, natural peanut butter, etc. is that it tastes SOOOOO good when you are a boring as hell diet. And then I can't stop or I agonize over trying to make myself BACK AWAY FROM THE NUTS!!!!!! I just don't need that sort of distraction for all the work that goes into competition prep.

Other fat sources I've used are pretty much in the fish & red meats.

Thanks dear.....I will do the carb cycling for a while and I will add in the flaxseed oil.....lol....quote::::"BACK AWAY FROM THE NUTS"....LMAO...thats funny. I dont have that problem b/c I need to lose weight so no cheating or cravings for me. I just spoke with my trainer and he said the same thing as you pretty much....so lets see how it goes.

 

[Aries13]

By the way, I just had my first hour of posing practice. OMG am I tired. I worked out tris/shoulders today an hour before posing. BIG MISTAKE.....Im so damn tired. The whole time I was shaking and SWEATING non-stop. LMAO....I loved it and I cant wait till next week ....my body should start to change a lot now and I will have pictures up in no time

today the breakdown was at: 58p/30c/12f

I am also going to be upping the cardio to 45min-hour +30min ab workout(which I will post for comments...if any?). Ive only been doing 30min 4-5xweek<-------SLACKER!!!!!

 

[nelmsjer]

There is a lot of great info here! Thanks, Sassy and Aries!

 

[Aries13]

so far today has been a good day....Got to sleep in b/c class was cancelled....slept in till 8am.....chilled in bed for an hour relaxing with my hunnie(finally some time for hugs and kisses ).

10am: 1/2 c oatmeal w. 1/4 cup apple(no skin), 1tsp cinnamon, 2 pckts splenda(SO YUMMY!!!!)
1.5 scoops protein
11am-12pm: cardio + the new ab workout(IT WAS KILLER!!!!)-took 30 min!!!
it goes as follows:
-regular crunches on bench: 2 sets of 100
-lying flat on the ground, ankles on a bench 90deg.: 200
-leg tucks w. 10lb weight:3x20
-reverse curl on bench:3x20
-decline raises:3x20
-leg raises: 3x20
-this one is weird..dont know the name ... sitting on bench w. a straight bar over shoudlers(arms stretched holding it)... moving side to side flexing abs(back staright): 2x100
12:30pm: 1/2 c brown rice, 1 can tuna
2:30pm:4oz. turkey breast, 1cup broccoli
4:30pm: 7egg whites, 1 cup green salad w. green peppers, flaxseed oil, vinegar
8pm: small apple, 3oz. turkey breast
last meal at 9:30: 5oz. chicken breast, 1cup broccoli

breakdown at : 61P/30c/9F......1350cals.....not too great but its hard b/c of the carb cycling.

-----for the carb cycling, I was wondering if this is a good breakdown:
start at 150g/day...next day drop to 100g, then 80g(stay there for 2 days) and back up to 150g/day(when I get that "hint" that im about to pass out LOL).....is that ok????

 

[Aries13]

I finally found something that kicked the bad sleeping habit. Ive used it now for a week and the sleep is SO MUCH BETTER. It is BIGELOW brand tea ....called Sweet DReams. It is a "relaxing" herb tea that is a blend of chamomile and hibiscus flower. This, plus 2 ZMA right before bed is great.
My mom told me to drink chamomile if I cant sleep and I said yea whatever, then I got desperate and tried it...and what do I know, mom knows best.

------------Good Night----------