1st competition: help with diet

[figurechamp]

After covetting the physiques of various female bodybuilders and figure competitors since the late 90s, I'm taking the plunge at 39 years old in my first competition. I'm looking to compete in May of next year in women's physique.

My weight training is pretty solid and I don't have many questions about that-- I lift heavy and hard, 4 days a week. Monday is back day, Wednesday is chest and biceps, Thursday is legs, Saturday is shoulders and triceps. I sprinkle in abs and calves throughout the week, most of the time on "off" days when I do cardio.

I know I have to up my cardio days. I've slacked on that so far coz I hate it, just like everyone else.

But I need diet help. I imagine that my diet, at the moment, doesn't need to be super-strict-- the contest isn't until next spring. But i will list what I'm eating now (which is fairly clean) and if someone could please tell me what to do with diet from here on out, I will be forever in your debt!!!

Stats:
39 yrs old
5'10
169lbs
Dunno my bf%-- must buy a fat caliper, but I do have a decent amount of muscle. I wouldn't consider myself to be "fat".

Typical daily eating plan:

Meal one
Bowl kashi cereal (10 g protein) w/ skim milk
Lite cranberry/raspberry juice, watered down to make a 16 oz drink 50%juice, 50% water)

Meal two
1/2 of a supreme protein bar

Meal three
4oz tilapia
Small salad with 1tbsp non fat dressing (7 calories, no fat, nominal amount of sugar)
Natural applesauce

Preworkout supplements (I realize this is not a meal)
No explode
Bcaa 5000 mg

Postworkout
Whey protein shake (usually mixed with water, a banana, and frozen berries)
Bcaa 5000 mg

Dinner
Chicken, turkey, or lean beef
Potato

Night snack
Peanut butter on a Thomas bagel thin.

Throughout the day, I drink tons of water, except for the occasional green tea. And I usually have a cheat day-- usually Fridays.

It should also be noted that I intend to use var in prep for this. I have prior experience with it and have had decent results. I will only take 5 mg daily, to avoid sides.

When should I begin getting stricter with the diet? What will I absolutely have to eliminate and what do I need to add? Please don't say oatmeal. I hate it. I made an earnest attempt at eating it, but it literally makes me want to vomit. I can't stand the texture!

Are there other supps I should add? I've read about yohimbine and I'm considering adding that. And I'm a carb-aholic. I crave carbs! I read about a supp that's supposed to inhibit those cravings so I might look further into that as well.

Thanks!

 

[zedhed]

Hey sista.
Im no diet guru.....but to me your diet def needs some attention.
My suggestion for you would to be to PM RADAR ASAP.
He has lots of years of expereince and is an all around gr8 person.
Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[figurechamp]

Thanks zed! I contacted him and searched his name to find articles written by him. Found a good one on diet and he also messaged me back. Still don't know everything, but I made some changes to what I already posted above based on what he said. Added flax seed for one, twice a day. And added a whey shake to breakfast and one before bedtime.

There was a pretty good article in mf hers this month on nutrition and supplements that I found helpful. Usually I get discouraged by mags like that coz they're not "tough enough" meaning I can't stand all the pics of these kickass women holding 5lb dumbbells, as if we are to believe they got that way by lifting the itsy bitsy weights. Cmon!!! Lol but this issue was a good one.

So, I'm plugging away, day by day, trying to improve here and there.

 

[figurechamp]

Oh! I forgot-- I also added a caffeine supplement. Just starting out with 200mg daily. Don't wanna go crazy til I see how I react to it. Right now, I can't sleep and it's almost 1am, so not real sure how that's gonna work out for me.

 

[trex74]

Oh! I forgot-- I also added a caffeine supplement. Just starting out with 200mg daily. Don't wanna go crazy til I see how I react to it. Right now, I can't sleep and it's almost 1am, so not real sure how that's gonna work out for me.

When did you take it?
Try only taking it 45 min before your workout (not after 4 p.m. though)
200 mg is only the equivalent to two cups of coffee, so maybe you're either taking it too late, or you are sensitive to caffeine already.

 

[caligirl85]

This is where I would start....

I'd plan to give yourself a 20 week prep time. Some do 12-16 weeks but 20 weeks will give you room for error and room for losing a little bit slower, as well, even with the var included. So I'd take the show date, count 20 weeks back and then figure out how much time you have between now and prep starting. Then I'd decide what your goals are between now and then. Do you want to maintain where you're at? build a little muscle? drop some fat? I'm guessing you'd have approximately 5-6 months to play with before a full blown prep should start. I'd look at getting my weight to a place where going in to prep, I'd only have to lose about 1 lb/ week. It doesn't sound like much but there will be weeks when you fight for that lb.

Depending on which direction you want to go for the next 6 months, would depend on how I'd structure your diet. The biggest thing...especially moving into the competition realm, is to count your calories and your macros. At first glance, I'd say, even just for maintaining, it doesn't look like you're eating enough. This will haunt you as you get ready for a show. If you start out too low, you'll have no room to move when your body stalls out and it can be disaster. My stats are not far off yours and I'd start a prep at about 2250 calories a day, which is a lot of food!

In terms of cardio, I wouldn't stress too much about it yet. I'd try to get 3-4 sessions in a week but I wouldn't start the daily, hardcore cardio until prep. You have plenty of time to be dying in the early morning hours! lol The other thing I'd add (and I'd note that this is my own personal bias) but I wouldn't spend a ton of money on supplements at this stage of the game either. Even caffiene. If it helps you with your training, great but I'd save all the stimulants and things like yohimbine for prep (unless you want to do a mini cut now). They will tax your system and to start using them regularly, this far out, could leave you very exhausted as you get closer to stage time (especially if you're not used to them). Again, it's a personal preference I have, so take it for what it's worth but I think if you really dialed in your diet, now, with a clear direction, you would see results without the extra stims.

Anyway...that would be how I started thinking about it and planning! I think it's great you are working towards that goal and I'd be happy to help however I could!

 

[figurechamp]

Oh my goodness! What a wealth of great information!!! Thank you so much.

I kinda suspected that I'm not eating enough. Sometimes it's hard to figure out what else to eat coz it seems I've eaten everything in my house! I haven't counted the exact calories yet, I've only made guesstimates. I guess I have to put my math hat on soon (and that's scary coz I SUCK at numbers!!! Lol).

I'm meeting with a female BB this weekend and she's also gonna help me with my diet. It's soooo confusing coz there's so much info out there and some of it is conflicting. I wish there was just one really good book I could read about it!

Once I meet with her, i'll post the changes. And probably ask more questions!

 

[caligirl85]

It can definitely be overwhelming and a little bit like learning a new language! When I first started, I read everything I could, asked lots of questions and realized I will always be learning. The one thing to keep in mind for diet is that there are many different ways to approach it and EVERYONE will have an opinion. There are certain things that should be consistant no matter how you diet, ie: higher protein levels, but the best diet is the one that you can stick to and that will give you results. Sometimes you have to experiment a little bit to see what really works. For me, I do not do well with higher fat diets so ones like keto, don't give me the best results. You have a bit of time to play around with calorie levels and with different macro breakdowns and I'd take notes on how you respond to various changes.

Sites like fitday.com are great for counting out calories and it will give you your macro breakdown. Once you start a more formal prep, it gets easier to count because you often tend to eat the same things.

Good luck with your meeting and let us know how it goes!!

 

[RottenWillow]

I see you got a lot of info already, so just a quick note on the timing of your BCAA's. Do not take them with whole protein as you are PWO. AA's compete for the same transport pathways, and you will get substantially less absorption of the BCAA's when you are consuming them at the same time as any sort of whole protein. Avoiding metabolic competition is why I favor intramuscular injections of my AA's.

 

[figurechamp]

Injections of BCAAs? How? I never heard of that. Hmmmmm....