Hello everyone -- I'm 8 weeks out from my first figure competition. I'm 5'7" and 125 lbs. Over the last 8 weeks, I've lost 13 pounds from eating clean and working with a trainer twice a week. In addition to 1 protein shake a day, I haven't taken any supplements. What should I take? At this point, I don't want to lose more weight but I do want to lose fat and gain muscle.

At this point, I would say to start using 2 shakes per day using fresh fruit, frozen, if fresh is not available.

Supplements: Lean Out, 7-Keto, Muscle Synergy, Ultra 40 and a vitamin pack.

What else have you been taken?

Post your current diet. We can throw all the supps at you that you can handle, but the most important factor in adding in supps is what you are lacking from within your diet already.

Post your daily intake!

Here's my basic diet:

breakfast--4 egg whites and 1/2 cup oats or cereal, coffee (I use sugar)
snack--protein shake made with water
lunch--6oz chicken breast, salad & sometimes veggies, sometimes a slice of bread
snack--protein bar or salad with tuna
dinner same as lunch plus veggies (usually broccoli or spinach)
1 gallon of water

On my workout days, I add creatine to my protein shake but other than that, I'm not taking anything else. My trainer doesn't want me to eat fruit at this point at all.

I'm starting to feel sluggish, especially about and hour post workout.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I think you need more carbs spread throughout the day evenly like from white or sweet potatoes. I would stay away from the bread also. I would have another shake instead of the protein bar, because most of those have to much sugar, and use splenda or something instead of the real sugar for your coffee.

Your meals seem too low in carbs. 8 weeks out, you should be having fruits, such as apples, grapefruit, strawberries, etc.

I would say to discuss it with the trainer and say, "WHY?"

You also need the Omega fats.

I also recommend you explain to your trainer and that you will be using someone else.

quote:

Originally posted by Jen G.:
Here's my basic diet:

breakfast--4 egg whites and 1/2 cup oats or cereal, coffee (I use sugar)
snack--protein shake made with water
lunch--6oz chicken breast, salad & sometimes veggies, sometimes a slice of bread
snack--protein bar or salad with tuna
dinner same as lunch plus veggies (usually broccoli or spinach)
1 gallon of water

On my workout days, I add creatine to my protein shake but other than that, I'm not taking anything else. My trainer doesn't want me to eat fruit at this point at all.

I'm starting to feel sluggish, especially about and hour post workout.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

WOW! Where are your fats??? You can't eat that low carb and not have calories from fats!?? No wonder you are dragging!

Ditch the bread, ditch the protein bar as those two things are absolute **** especially for being 8 weeks out! If you are going to add in some quality carbs, you can get away with lower fats, and vice versa for lower carb. Your diet at this point should look something like this:

Meal 1: 1 whole egg, 3 egg whites, 3 oz. Lean ground beef, 1/2 cup oatmeal (measured dry)

Meal 2: Protein Shake? (1.5 scoop of UMP would be great here), 3-4 frozen strawberries

Meal 3: 6 oz. Chicken Breast, 1 cup (cooked) Brown Rice, or, 6 oz. Sweet potato, 2 cups green salad w/ 1-2 tbsp Olive Oil and Vinegar

Meal 4: Same as meal 2

Meal 5: 6 oz. Lean Beef, Chicken, or Tuna, 1-2 cups green veggies w/ 1-2 tbsp Olive Oil and Vingar

Supps: 2 lean out w/ every meal, Super Pak w/breakfast, 10 density tabs during weight workout, or, 2-3 tabs in between all your meals

This is a lower carb plan and about as LOW as you want to go. Anything more is silly and catabolic. You WANT to keep your muscle and keep your fat burning going! At 8 weeks out, you don't want to change anything to drastically. Small changes will make a big difference!

For your next contest, it may be wise to start the diet with much higher QUALITY carb intake rather than to start so low?

Give it a shot and keep us posted.

Thank you all so much for your advice. My trainer has told me to add more carbs on the days I'm working out. I think her concern about carbs is that I only lift 2 days a week. She has won a few figure competitions and looks awesome so I trust her judgement. When I told her how I was feeling, she did tell me to add brown rice, sweet potato and some fruit to my diet.

I'm really confused about the supplements. I was thinking of the super pac and lean out. Some of you suggest muscle synergy, others say density... I was thinking glutamine plus. Don't I need the amino acids? Thanks so much!

I would go with synergy and glutamine for sure. 3-4 synergy upon waking, 30 mins before workout and at bedtime. Glutamine 5 grams upon waking, before workout and bedtime. You could stack density before and after training as well for the aminos.

Why just 2 days a week? Time crunched? Can't imagine you could lean out effectively lifting only 2 days a week? Are you doing HIIT cardio the rest of the week or something?

IF you are continue to only lift 2 days a week, Muscle Synergy will almost be a waste of time and money. Go with the Density. According to your diet, that would be your best bet to hold on to some of your muscle and burn fat at the same time.

Density is an ESSENTIAL AMINO ACID product whereas protein/lean meats/eggs/ect consist of essential and non-essential aminos.... So to answer your question; yes, you need amino acids, but more importantly you "need" essential amino acids more so than non-essential.

Super Pack is a MUST, Lean Out is Very helpful. Hope this helps! Good luck to you.

Thanks again for the input. I only work out twice because I have 4 children and not a lot of time but I am adding a third day of lifting and I run 3 days a week. I'll give your suggestions a try and let you know how I make out.