Hello- I'm wanting to compete in an upcoming figure competition (Novemeber 07). I am in pretty good fitess now (I have been active at the gym for 10 years), but I need a little direction with diet. I am 5'1", 117 lbs, and approx 19%BF. I have not competed in the past. I work out about 4-5 times a week with weights (5-6 days cardio; 25 min HIIT or 30-40 min moderate intensity)- Can someone give me a sample diet for my first phase of training? Should I folllow diet A or B below?

DIET A


Meal #1
3 egg whites, 2 oz. chicken or turkey breast, 1/3 cup oatmeal before cooking

Meal #2
1-2 Scoops Ultra Size and 12-oz water

Meal #3
5 oz. chicken, 4 oz. sweet potato or ½ cup brown rice, 1 cup vegetables or salad with 1 TBSP olive oil/ 1 TBSP vinegar

Meal #4
(Same as meal #2) Ultra Size or UMP

Meal #5
5 oz. 96% lean beef, chicken, turkey, or fish ;1 cup vegetables 1 tsp flax oil


DIET B

Meal #1
3 oz. chicken 3 egg whites plus 1 whole egg, 1/2 grapefruit

Meal #2
2 scoops Protein

Meal #3
4-5 oz. chicken or 96% lean beef, 2 cups lettuce salad or green veggies, 2 TBS Paul Newman's oil & vinegar dressing

Meal #4
(Same as Meal #2)

Meal #5
5 oz. chicken, 96% lean beef, salmon (twice per week) or 10 egg whites, 1 cup green veggies

Meal #5 on Wednesday & Saturday:
¾ cup oatmeal, 4 oz. sweet potato, 1 small banana, 1/2 cup veggies, 1 TBS butter (or 1 tbsp almond butter)

Any suggestions will be great!!

How good of a diet were you maintaining prior to stay at the 19%?

At 16 wks out I would go with diet A. I might also add 1.5 tbs of heavy whipping cream to my Ultra Size shakes. This will give you more energy to train harder right now, very important; as well as give you something to remove in 3-4 weeks when progress stalls. You dont want to lose to quickly since it sounds like you are already in pretty good shape.

The bodyfat measurement, how was it taken? Itd be better to know your skinfolds, bodyfat %'s on someone so petite doesnt really tell me much. But, Id think thats pretty lean for only 117lbs woman.

At meal one Id do one whole egg and 3 whites and 3 oz of beef for now. As you progress you would then remove the whole egg and then go to chicken and then finally to turkey burgers along with finally dropping the oats in favor of a grapefruit.

As for your shake meals Id go with 1.5 scoops of Ultra Size for now, not just one and probably 1.5 tbs of heavy whipping cream.

Id also take 3 ultra 40 and 3 mass. You could incorporate Muscle Synergy as well.

Then you would continually remove saturated fats probably replace with some EFAS and then remove carbs until you are down to diet B which should be maybe 4-5 weeks out.

This is all based on not seeing you and just knowing your weight at the moment.

Good Luck,

Jason thank you so much for your suggestion! I am going to be doing a skin fold this Saturday (7-21-07) for better accuracy. Also, I will post some current pictures here to track my progress.

About my diet before, its been pretty clean. I have always been a health nut and I never eat anything processed or high in fat. All natural. I also eat high protein/low carb 90% of the time. I rarely eat starchy carbs, so thats why the oatmeal and potato/rice has me concerned. I think I am slightly carb sensitive. But I know that this is where my source of energy comes from for training, so I gotta just do it.

Thanks again..

I had my skinfold done this weekend and just want some suggestions on where I should be come contest time. I am now 14 weeks out from figure comp and here are my current readings:

BF% 17.1%
Age: 33 yo female
Weight 113
Height 5'1"
Fat Mass: 19.3 lbs
Fat Free Mass: 93.7 lbs
Tricep: 12.5 mm
Abdomoinal: 5.5 mm
Thigh: 22.5 mm

The trainer at my gym who did this analysis told be that I should shoot for a goal weight of 105 lbs and to not go lower than 12% bf and that 10% is too low (he says that you shouldnt get too lean for figure- that's more for fitness (??)). He also suggested that I change my weight lifting from 4 set of 10 (heavy) to 3 sets of 15 (moderate).

Any suggestions on this? I'm just not sure where I need to be.