Good evening everyone,

I'm 21 years old and a college student and have been throwing around the idea of competing in figure competitions for quite some time now. I've been using Beverly products for about 2 years now for the sole purpose of staying in shape and maintaining my healthy lifestyle.

Now I can feel myself itching to step onstage and have a lot of friends that are currently competing or have competed in the past, both bodybuilding and/or figure.

Right now I'm looking at one of the OCB shows in Oct/Nov 2008. Any advice before I decide to actually pursue this dream of mine?

Thanks in advance guys,
Stephanie

1)The diet stinks sometimes, but you'll get used to it. It will occasionally play games with your mood, don't let it ruin any relationships you might have. Always remember this is voluntary and stay positive about your contest prep.
2)Keep your supplement intake high and trust in your dietary prep scheme. Don't rush to change things at the last second.
3)Have fun with it... GOOD LUCK!

and also for your first time get with someone who knows what they are doing, there are many ways to contest diet, analyze them and pick a way based on what you know about your body from your current eating and training.

I dont recommend going it alone on your first try as Kevin said the diet will play with your mind and its very easy to want to start to change things too quickly.....

Hey Stephanie! Congrats on making a good decision to compete. There are a lot of things involved in getting ready for competition, but the number 1 thing for you to do is have your head on straight! Know what your goals are, know how to get to that point, and BE CONSISTANT.

As far as dieting advise, these boards will provide you with as much information as you can handle. You have to be able to know what works for you, but at the same time you may not know that yet.... maybe try an 8 week diet just to see what it would be like and to maybe get a grasp of knowing what type of diet will help you the most? It is heck of a learning process, but one that everyone in this sport has to go through. Good luck and don't hesitate to ask any necessary questions.

What is your diet like now, body fat, weight, height, etc ?

Hi Vijay,

Right now my diet is pretty clean, usually consisting of steel cut oatmeal and egg whites for breakfast, protein shake for mid-day snack, chicken or fish, sweet potato and veggies for lunch, cottage cheese for a pre-dinner snack and dinner is pretty similar to lunch. I understand that my caloric intake may be a bit low right now but I'm constantly running around with school and work. I know that's no excuse though :-/

As far as body fat is concerned, I haven't had that done in about 2 years. I'm 5'8 and usually 155. I workout and lift on a daily basis and am a Spinning instructor on the weekends.

Thanks :-)
Steph

That is not bad. Pretty good. Like I said, why don't you try a little 8 week'er and see how it goes? Give this a shot:

Meal 1: 1 whole egg, 4 egg whites, 1 cup cooked oatmeal

Meal 2: 1.5 Scoop UMP, 3-4 strawberies

Meal 3: 6 oz. Tuna, 1.5 cups cooked Brown Rice, 2 cups salad w/ 2tbsp Olive Oil and Vinegar

Meal 4: (same as Meal 2)

Meal 5: 6oz. of Lean Beef, or Steak, 2 cups salad w/ 2tbsp Olive Oil and Vinegar


Now a little warning: this is a Lower Carb diet but not super low carb for someone of your stature. So to fight any fatigue, every 5th day replace Meal 5 with this:

2 cups Brown Rice, 1 5oz. Sweet Potato w/ 1-2 tbsp butter, 1 banana, 1 cup mixed veggies.

Just give it a shot for 8 weeks and see how you feel? This is a general diet with the typical 50/30/20 calorie split but works pretty well for most people (as far as fat loss is concerned)

Jtheo is gonna chew me out for that.....

i have been following a iow carb diet since about 2 weeks after competing in the northern. i'm currently looking at another show in june and was going to hit a beverly pre=contest diet starting next week, which will put me at 6 weeks out. i recently have been reading the comments from jtheo about adding more carbs, i've been adding a half cup of oatmeal with bfast and lunch the last 3 days or so. my question is, should i still have a carb up meal or a reg. meal of 8oz. chicken 1.5 cups broccoli and continue my 1/2 cup oatmeal tonight.

quote:

Originally posted by tiemeyer:
i have been following a iow carb diet since about 2 weeks after competing in the northern. i'm currently looking at another show in june and was going to hit a beverly pre=contest diet starting next week, which will put me at 6 weeks out. i recently have been reading the comments from jtheo about adding more carbs, i've been adding a half cup of oatmeal with bfast and lunch the last 3 days or so. my question is, should i still have a carb up meal or a reg. meal of 8oz. chicken 1.5 cups broccoli and continue my 1/2 cup oatmeal tonight.

what do you weight, what is your current bodyfat, the answer to your question will be there.

As you probably know I dont do low carb and then the carbs ups. I eat while I contest diet and use training to failure and cardio to strip fat this works best for me and many others Ive introduced this to.

So Im not sure I can fully answer the question.

I for one if I was already lean would not be eating 50/20/30. I dont set my diet up on those macros I set it up based on lean tissue Im trying to feed and the lbs of fat Im trying to lose or starve prior to my show.

The amount of carbs and cardio will be dictated by lbs of fat to lose in X weeks.

Sorry I cant be more specific.

If you are really lean alraedy you can probably carb up, but I fear you are mixing protocols.....

I am going to try the 8 week diet but I've found that my sweet tooth always gets the best of me. I am disciplined and do well for a few weeks and then for whatever reason I succumb to my cravings, it's bad.

If I get past this barrier, I'll be totally fine. I know it.


Stephanie