I have a big concern with which style of carbing up to use during the last 4 weeks of my contest prep. I have been doing 5 day cycles of refeed "days" in which I have 6 carb meals each with 50 grams of carbs from grits or oats. Now that I am nearing the end of my contest diet I feel it may be smarter to go with carb up meals instead. I am on a Beverly diet with Steven Wade and have been for 8 weeks of my 15 week cut. I have other sources as well in which I use to reason for my diets. (Kinesiology undergrad here!) So I am very curiouse as to which style of refeeds is more effective.

Right now I have 3 carb meals a day, breakfast, pre and post workout. Each has 45 grams of carbs from grits. Any other carbs I get is from veggies(fibers).

As a side note I will give my stats.

6'1''
21 yrs old
194lbs
9% bodyfat
4 weeks remain till contest day as of Saturday the 1st!

Josh,

Are you incorporating your method of dieting along with advice from your Beverly advsior?

quote:

have a big concern with which style of carbing up to use during the last 4 weeks of my contest prep...

Josh,

I don't mean to throw a wrench in your contest diet machine, but at 9% with 4 weeks left, I think you're going to go in either too soft, or you'll be too flat. I believe you're mixing in too much different info and you're not getting the results your Bev is trying to achieve. I know Stephen and he's quite successful at dialing in his people.

Changing things up without his knowledge will totally mess up his next evalutation.

You're carrying too much fat at this point. A carb up day would be good for you if you were off season. If you were doing, say, your third contest of the season, a carb up day just may fit in.

You still have a lot of fat to shed and at this point, you're going to burn up muscle in the attempt to drop in those 4 weeks. 8-9% is what you would want to be when you begin the 12 to 16 week dieting for a contest.

It's not about size, strength, or weight (other than class) or should I say weight-loss. It is about shedding fat and keeping as much muscle as possible. Any time there's a calorie defict, muscle may be lost. It is rare that a person doesn't lose muscle. Roger has spent years of research on how to maintain and he has proven that bodybuilders CAN preserve, if not add muscle during the contest diet. It has been done by natural competitors.

Are the grits you're using contain corn? Doesn't corn raise estrogen levels?

I think you need to call Stephen, talk about whether you should do this contest or wait for the next one and either follow his instructions or go on and line up your set. This way, you know what happens and Stephen isn't scratching all the hair off his head wondering what's happened, because his plans have worked on others.

Is that what you were referring to, Bill?

You can do this contest, work on the posing and talk to the judges after. That's always a great part of your learning.

Frank

Yeah Frank that's where I was heading with that question. I've made the mistake of combining different methods, not a good idea.

Good luck with your contest prep Josh. You're in the right place for information, and IMO you should definitely do the contest, just pick a plan and stick with it. Even at 8-9% at 4 weeks out, you could still get to 6-7% for the show, maybe lower if you use do some serious dieting, although to get lower than 6-7% you'll defintiely lose muscle at this point.

Have you competed before?

To clarify on the matter I was not totaly honest with all of you. I was given a diet from Steven Wade back at week 8 of my cut. Due to some very tight budget issues I have with being a full time student and a job that pays less then 300 a month I am very limited as to what supplements I can afford into my diet regime. I have thus has to modify my diet to that of another expert with different takes on diet and contest prep. That is the reason for the 3 carb meals I have been consuming for since weeks 1 up till now. I relize the importance of beverly products over all others but at the same time you cant always get what you want (or know you need). The contest fees and related costs have greater priority at this point. To clarify another matter, yes I have competed before. WI State Fair where I took first as a teen and then a year later as a adult light heavy in a INBF show in Madison, WI, I took 4th out of 11 men in my class. I was 181lbs and 8% on show day. Thanks for all of your advice, it means alot and I apologize for my act of decite.

Great going on your placings!

Nothing wrong with limited supply of funds. Join the club.

That's why many have resorted to using other websites to purchase supplies. I'm not going to lie. I do.

Getting back to the diet, trim off some carbs and make sure they're high on the Glycemic Index, meaning complex carbs. Oats, brown rice, and sweep totato (on purpose).

Frank

It's all good Josh. You can do alot with diet alone. Food is the most important thing. There are a number of posts on the absoulute basic supplements you should try to take. There are some things that would not be a good idea to do as far as supplements go, one that you may want to think about is not using cheap protien powders. I don't know if you are doing this, just trying to help you avoid some trouble. You'd be better off not using any powders than going this route.

Finally, I would get back with Steven and let him know your situation, and keep asking questions here, there is a alot of knowledge to be had, from some great people.

I have done as you all told me and I got in touch with Steve once more and this time I let him know exactly where I was with funds and such. I think your all right about going with whole foods over cheap useless protein powders. I will be awaiting Steves reply to see exactly what he wants me to do. I get paid tomorrow and so I can thus go out and get any foods at all he might need me to get. Sams Club comes in handy for college guys like me living in a dormatory! Thank heavens! And thank all of you for your help as well.

The dorms eh?? Why not just take some zip loc bags to your cafeteria and stock up, heh heh, not that I ever did anything like that

Did someone have videos of me?!

I have looked into that zip loc idea before but my cafeteria has very limited food options conducive to my diet. They never have grilled chicken breast ready, they only make scrambled eggs, have all sugar based oatmeal packs, no tuna, lunch meats are packaged. I think you get the idea, not a beverly friendly place to be..lol. I even have a 700 meal plan (now at 300) to use as part of my employment compensation but I find it hard to use on myself with the limited options. I cook in my room alot since I have a full kitchen at my disposal. But once more, my finances are small and so I budget very conservitivly.