I was wondering if someone could give me some advise on getting my quads and clutes larger while dieting for competition in less than 10 weeks. I am 5'6" and currently weigh 132 lbs (17%BF). I use to weigh 198 lbs (24% BF) Went from a size 18 down to a size 4-6. I am lean from running/doing triathlons and have some loose skin yet around my thigh area. Do you have any suggestions? I am drinking a boat load of water, the only other beverage I drink is coffee (black) at this time. How much cardio should I do for the last 8 weeks during the lean out period? Again this is my first competition. Thanks!

K. Larger during contest dieting?? Well you can expect to put on a little lean mass while dieting down, but gaining a ton of size in your quads and glutes may not be 100% doable?? I guess it has to do with your expectations. However, you should just concentrate on getting as LEAN as possible instead. Afterall, the leaner you are, the bigger you will appear. If those legs are conditioned, thats all that really matters.

What does your diet look like? To much cardio during contest prep at the wrong time can be a muscle killer. Go ahead and post your diet.

CB is right. Gaining a lot of size in those areas in the short 10 weeks you have may not be possible. Building mass amounts is for the off season where you have the carbs and energy to give you the umph to lift heavier. It's hard to do that when eating so few carbs on a contest prep.

As for the loose skin. That could be contributed to low carbs too. I have found that after several low carb days, I am really loose. One high carb day of 170g yesterday really made me more noticeably tighter. As Jason says "Carbo HYDRATEs." You should be able to do a carb load in peak week and that should help with the loose skin. Do you have a peak week prep for yourself? If not, Jason (aka Jtheo) provides that service.

Protein shake first thing in the morning
1/2 hour later 1 cup oatmeal with 1/4 cup blueberries or strawberries or just plain with cinnamon in them
meal 2 - protein shake and a small apple
meal 3 - 6 oz chicken, whole yam or 1 cup brown rice, 2 cups salad w/ oil and vinegar, or green beans or peas.
meal 4 - protein shake and berries 1/4 cup
meal 5 - same as 3 or I will have 6 egg whiles with turkey sausage and 2 slices whole wheat toast.

84-124 oz of water daily and coffee as my other beverages of choice

My legs are tone, and I am hoping it all falls into place, but the girl I am training with feels they may be to skinny.

Actually with this being my first figure competition I did not know that I should have a peak week prep for myself, suggestions would be great, thanks.

Also I forgot to mention that I am taking Bev International Glutamine with BCAA, 2 density and 2 ultra 40at each meal

So why the meal breakup in the first meal?? Why eat the carbs at a separate meal? Try to NEVER do that! All macros should be eaten together. Doing one at a time will give your insulin levels to much to play with. NOT GOOD FOR BURNING FAT.

What do you consider a "protein shake" at 3 of your meals? Also, I would ditch the whole wheat toast altogether. Bread simply doesn't belong on the menu of a pre-contest diet if you TRULY want to be in the best shape possible.

I wouldn't place much stock into what your friend is saying. You have 10 weeks to get into shape. That is MORE than enuff of a goal to acheive than to also place the burden of trying to "put on size" while contest dieting. Remember, the LEANER you are, the bigger your legs will appear! Its what you look like onstage that matters, not what the tape measure says around your thigh.... concentrate on getting as lean as possible, that should be your focus!

I think that a peak week prep is very important regardless of whether you are a figure or bodybuilding competitor. And it doesn't matter that this is your first contest. I say do everything you can to present your best physique. The week prior to the contest, I did my trng over the weekend and didn't do anything else after my last workout on Tuesday evening. I did a carb load (800 grams of bagel, white pasta, childrens cereal, oh what fun!) on Wed, added some natural diuretics, drank a ton of water on Friday kept the legs elevated, cut off all water at bedtime on Friday night and sipped small amounts of water on Competition day. Jason set me up with the peak week dos and don'ts as part of the precontest diet. His wife competed in Figure and she also did a peak week and went to the Monster Mash looking fantastic.

CB is right, lean out and your legs will appear bigger, more muscular. I couldn't believe what mine looked like in the pics. I had no idea really.

My protein shake is just protein and water. I do not add anything to it. I did not realize I should not be breaking that meal up. Since I may not eat eggs everyday...I want to make sure I get my protein in by drinking it. THis is all exciting and new to me. Thank you all so much for the tips and giving me guidance. Any other changes to the diet that you may see? I was going to ditch the bread (again, I dont eat it everyday) 8 weeks out. But I guess I need to do it sooner. Thanks!!

I think what CB is asking is what kind of protein powder and how much?

Maybe mix the protein powder in with the oats rather than split it into two meals? I do an hour of cardio first thing in the morniing (my body is more resistant to fat loss this contest prep) and immediately follow with approximately 6 egg whites, one yolk, and oats. All measured to the gram of course and that changes depending on what day of the week it is. I am carb cycling from 170 to 100 to 70g of carbs per day with Jason's diet. I eat the same thing everyday. It's pre-contest so variety isn't a factor. Neither is bread.

Hi, sorry to bother you all again. OK. I got recaliperated today and here are the figures. I am in need of knowing how much cardio you would recommend during the last 8 weeks prior to competition.
body weight - 132.50
height 5'6"
body fat % - 14.69%
lean tissue weight - 113.03
fat weight 19.47

Circumference measurements:
arm rt 9.75 left 9.75
chest 33.25
waist 26.75
hips 35.25
thigh rt 21.5 lft 21.5
calf rt 14 lft 14

Again, I just need to know how much and how often I should do cardio during the last 8 weeks. I am thinking 3 times a week, Mon and Friday I would like to run 2 miles and Tues I would like to take a spinning class. Your thoughts? All other workouts would consist of weight lifting. Protein is Whey isolate from Gnc 28 grams per scoop.

Thats a pretty subjective question PlanWrecker. Knowing "much cardio" to do is subject to what kind of cardio, what intesity, how much body fat you would like to lose, your target lean body mass, what your weight-lifting schedule looks like, what your diet is like, how quickly you are dropping body-fat......etc. Remember, cardio is just a "TOOL", it is NOT the be all and end all of your leaning out plan. I guess there is no clear cut answer unless your only means of getting leaner was FROM cardio???

You seem like you are doing a higher intensity cardio and are wishing to do so 3 times a week. I would think that is PLENTY of higher-intensity cardio at this point. In conjunction with your current plan, you should be more focused on your lower-intensity cardio if fat burning is your goal with maximum lean mass retention. Are you doing AM and post-lifting LISS cardio (low intesity, slower, steady)?

With 8 weeks to go and depending on what BF you think you will be competitive at, I would suggest the AM and Post-Workout LISS cardio of 30 mins of each. What is your target body-fat percentage goal??

Well, to be honest. I was hoping to be at 10% BF. I am not sure if that is to low.
Monday is Chest and tris - run two miles at 5.5 at 1% - 10% incline. followed by running .50 @ 1, .50 @ 2, then only .10 for 3-10 inlcine. Then back down to 1 to finish a two mile run.

Tuesday - Back and Bi - followed by Spinning can be high intensity.

Wednesday - off

Thursday - Shoulders

friday - legs - followed by the same run as monday.

I did a VO2 test a few weeks back and use a heart rate monitor to target fat burning. it was an eye opener to say the least when it comes to intensity and duration of a cardio work out.

My diet is shown above. Only I did tweek it to do the protein with my oats in the morning now.

also with the last 8 weeks I will be following the following diet
1 -6 egg whites and a cup of oatmeal
2 - protein with 4 strawberries or 1/4 cup of blueberries
3 - 6 oz chicken or fish, 1 cup rice or yam, 2 cups salad with oil and vinegar
4 - protein with 4 strawberries or 1/4 cup blueberries
5 - 6 oz chicken or fish, 2 cups salad with oil and vinegar

every fifth day, for the fifth meal I will switch it with 1 yam, 1.5 cups brown rice, 1 banana, and 1 cup mixes veggies.

Is this working for you at this point?? Not how I would do it, but there is more than one way to skin that cat.... The best thing to do is MONITER your progress. You have 8 weeks, this is no time to be changing things around to much. You need to drop about 0.5% bodyfat a week. Get your 9 site test done weekly or 2wice weekly to make sure that progress is being made.

If anything slows, then you can start throwing more cardio into the equation and certain diet tweaks. I think as long as you are making progress, you should hit your target just fine. 8 weeks and 4% bodyfat is doable.

What about your weekends?? What are you doing in that time? Veggin' out?

So far this is working, I lost 1.22% BF since 11/08 and lost 7 lbs.
But I havent cut any of my meals yet. the diet listed is for 8 weeks out

On my weekends, they are dedicated to my children. So, on every other saturday I make it into the gym to work on my legs. Sundays I do nothing but clean and pickup around the house. Single mom of 2.

Thanks for all your help and taking the time to answer my questions. good information!

Understood. Kids first fo sho! Like I said, just moniter your BODY FAT%. Don't bother to much with the scale, it will play mind games more than anything else, but the calipers NEVER lie

quote:

Originally posted by PlanWrecker:
So far this is working, I lost 1.22% BF since 11/08 and lost 7 lbs.
But I havent cut any of my meals yet. the diet listed is for 8 weeks out

On my weekends, they are dedicated to my children. So, on every other saturday I make it into the gym to work on my legs. Sundays I do nothing but clean and pickup around the house. Single mom of 2.

Thanks for all your help and taking the time to answer my questions. good information!

1.22% since 11/08 which is what basically 2.5 month isnt a lot of percentage points, no disrespect intended. Id venture to say you lost as much muscle as fat if you are showing a 7 lbs weight loss, 7 lbs of fat would have moved your percentage more I think on someone with such small weight. Just something to think about.

If you are holding 20 lbs of fat you still need to drop around 10 lbs to be competitive in figure.

So you need to drop 1.2 lbs per week. Look at your cardio this way. It takes 3500 calorie deficit weekly to lose one l lb. So you need to burn around an extra 4200 cals per week. Or about 550 cals per day extra than what you are doing to get that fat off. Didnt run the math just shooting from hip on the figures.

So look at diet, and cardio, say in 30 mins of LISS you can burn 200 cals, well then you are gonna have to create a 300 cal deficit from diet, id prefer to burn more doing cardio though.

Another thing running isnt wise, its not quite HIIT, and its not LISS. It creates all the cortisol of HIIT but doesnt stimulate the mechanism that blunts cortisol like HIIT does.

For prep two forms are advisable, LISS or HIIT, never moderate intensity such as running.

So low intensity steady state or intervals.

Good Luck!

All I know is listen to your body and look in the mirror...Don't make it do technical that your confused and worried all day.... Judge your body and go from there...If you aren't lean enough, kick up the cardio...If your right on pace and happy with your progress don't change anything....One of the many beauties of bodybuilding is that it is you and no one else...So listen to you!!

Yeah but you certainly want to be "the best" when you step on that stage. So, I recommend following the advice that Jason has given. He has helped me come in at my best for the past two shows ultimately earning me my pro card thru IFPA. I was so pleased with his services, he is currently helping me get ready for the Northern KY. Not to mention that I will use him on my lean gain/maintenance diet before I compete again. His advice is dead on and its the approach he uses for me.

It's much easier to track fat losses with BF checks using the 9 point caliper check rather than sight. Seeing yourself in the mirror every day isn't a very good measurement of losses, nor is the scale. Do everything that you can to ensure that you are at your peak physique when stepping onstage. Anything less would be a little unfair to yourself. Feel free to PM me if you want to plan wrecker. BTW, what's up with choosing that as your userid? Sometimes I am just plain curious.