I have my first Figure Competition coming up two weeks from this Saturday. I have been doing my best with the meal plan and have went from 15.8% body fat down to 11.3% body fat that was just taken on Tuesday of this week. My question is this: The show is on a Sat and I want to go out that night for a cheat meal and then the next morning maybe have pancakes or something yummy vs. the same ol' 4 oz. of meat and egg whites. If I keep the cheating to that evening and the next morning's meal is that going to affect my body a huge amount? What I am worried about is even though I will continue to eat healthy after the contest I want to be able to add that cheat dinner in every now and then (maybe once per week) and am wondering if I am going to gain a bunch of weight/fat/water back once I am not doing the strict contest prep meal plan. Anyone have any feedback??

N2,
Congrats on your progress so far and making the jump into the competition clan. I would say that your post competition cheat meal or even the next day is very understandable. Just be careful not to overdue it, that could lead to some bloating from what I have read in a few post here as of late. You can see a great post on post contest bloat in the DIET section its labled "How to avoid postcontest bloating"


As for the "occasional cheat meal" and its effect on your body, that is something you will have to experiment with. I myself have never done a competition but I am around 7 to 8 percent bodyfat. I know for myself I can not cheat once a week. I simply just put on fat too easy. I cheat about once a month. When I cheat its with "good food" such as a big steak at a nice place to eat. The most important thing is to just keep track of your progress and see what works for you. We are all different, what works for me may not work for you.

N2Health. Also - congrats on your progress and best of luck at your upcoming show! I am just 5 days from doing 3 shows in 5 weeks. So, I finally got to have a REAL cheat meal.. without worrying about being back on stage in 10 days. I also did allow myself to eat whatever I wanted all day Sunday. Then THAT WAS IT!! Monday, I went right back to clean diet, lots of water, eggs, lean protein and added only about 100-150 calories above my contest diet and 25g of oats to the daily plan. Nothing more. I want to adjust to diet slowly and up my nutrients in increments until my body has time to adjust. I did gain about 4-5 lbs in water weight.. but within 2-3 days it was all gone. Drink lots of water.. and take extra B6 and Vit. C. It will naturally rid your body of the extra water it wants to hold with the sodium manipulation for the show. I also don't want to cheat often.. no more than once a month. It just gets too far out of hand -- too fast. I've done it before and I'm right back to square one before I know it. Good luck.. keep us posted!

I too, just came of contest diet and I went off sat night and sunday. I felt terrible until wed! Keep it moderate, have what you really love instead of eating everything in sight b/c "now youe allowed" I was back to my normal way of eating on mon, very much like contest diet, just added oats and alittle cottage cheese. check out recipes on the board, you can be creative w/ MP snd US and still feel like your cheating!

I too just came off competition last week end. I like Tammy and Brochas, had a moderate meal after the show & some wine, had a bagel with PB for Breakfast a brownie late in the day and then was back to the regular food. I increased my calories by a few hundred calories a day (adding the Muscle Provider and more veggies back into the diet )and felt terrible so I backed back off a few days and went back on competition diet. Then after a day or two I felt normal again. So a good plan is to slowly increase the food and yes, keep it clean. I pretty much stick to the basic Beverly Lose Fat, Gain Muscle diet. I cheat with recipes using Choc MP, my favorite.

N2HEALTH, I don't know if you read my post from last week, titled "Whats your record", But it was about post workout weight gain. I gained 15lbs in one day and 20 by the 3rd. day. Just be real careful. In my case I was really dehydrated. You can expect to gain quite a bit initially from water, so don't get scared. Your body will stabilize in a few days. Try not to get too carried away with the eating , you'll find food never tasted so good after a show, but try not to let it go too long because the longer your away from that strict type diet, the harder it is to go back to. Good luck...

Both Tom and I eat what we want through Sunday night and then Monday it is back to a clean bodybuilding diet.

We systematically add calories back in -- increasing them each week until we are at a building level.

After our most recent show I had "tastes" of things I wanted instead of binging on the first thing that tasted good. I found that anything with sugar in it (i.e. candy, cookies, desserts) made me feel like S-H-I-T. However my McDonald's Happy Meal tasted like heaven!!!!!

Anyways -- I was back down to where I was at at the 1-week out point by Friday & Tom was also. He was up 14 lbs. on Monday -- I don't torture, myself and stay off the scale until Friday (which is my weigh-in day).

Oh and I taper off potassium through Wed. -- this seems to help with water.

Tom & Vanessa

Thanks to all of you for your posts - this is my first contest and although I ate "healthy" before the contest diet, it was never this strict!
I would normally eat 5-6x per day anyway with meals like Egg Beaters and old fashioned oats sweetened with Splenda for b/f, some kind of lower sugar protein bar later on, a salad with canned chix. and low-cal dressing for lunch (or a chicken breast and a sweet potato) then maybe a yogurt and some cottage cheese again later and then for dinner about the same as lunch. BUT, I have this addiction (honestly I think it is!!!) with anything sweet. My lovely father passed it on to me with his DNA! I have been having the hardest time with cravings for a cookie or a piece of chocolate! Once the contest has passed I will curb my cravings for chocolate with a Ross chocolate bar (sugar free, low carbs and calories) or another sugar free treat. I have been using choc MP and I can't wait to try some of the recipes with the vanilla (like Julie Lohre's recipe using 1/2 crushed apple, oats, water, and I think some vanilla US and then nukes until it is gooey and tops with Cool Whip Free). Sometimes though, I just want REAL chocolate or just a good cookie (oatmeal raisin I'm sure is one of the better choices if I am going to have one, right??). So, two more weeks until my first show (talk about nervous, even though it is a small one)I obviously am not eating any cookies! Sometimes I have such a hard time with not being able to eat a "bad" food. Although I am so much more disciplined these last 4 years I find it hard to be good all the time b/c I love food so much! I am addicted to the Food Network channel though! I figure if I can't have it then at least I can enjoy it on t.v.!

Hey, you got your sweet tooth from your Dad & I got my sneak-eating gene from my mom! I just posted on how to avoid my kitchen binges on natural peanut butter while my husband is napping. The only things I can think of are
1) keep husband awake
2) avoid my kitchen
3) don't buy peanut butter
All of which won't make my hubby very happy, but I might have to resort to #3 if it doesn't stop. I'm hoping someone might have other suggestions.

I'm currently 15 weeks out and prepping for my 2nd show. I don't want to be taking all these great Beverly supplements and then waste money on supplements plus all my time & effort in the gym by consuming stupid peanut butter!!!

We think alike (gee, an oatmeal cookie wouldn't be AS BAD, right?) but Rachel has replied to my emails of that type (usually that have to do with peanut butter) that if it is not on the plan, you simply DON'T EAT IT! I was trying to add extra apples & nuts in my plan and then wondered why I wasn't losing fat like I should. So much easier said than done.

I can say that I ate a clean pre-contest diet with no major cheats for 9 weeks, and even traveled a couple times with my baggies of stuff, so I know I can do it. It sure doesn't come naturally to me, but I'm determined that the next 15 weeks will be just as good. I'm prepping for an Oct 9th small show.

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Originally posted by N2Health:
I have this addiction (honestly I think it is!!!) with anything sweet. My lovely father passed it on to me with his DNA! I have been having the hardest time with cravings for a cookie or a piece of chocolate! Once the contest has passed I will curb my cravings for chocolate with a Ross chocolate bar (sugar free, low carbs and calories) or another sugar free treat. I have been using choc MP and I can't wait to try some of the recipes with the vanilla (like Julie Lohre's recipe using 1/2 crushed apple, oats, water, and I think some vanilla US and then nukes until it is gooey and tops with Cool Whip Free). Sometimes though, I just want REAL chocolate or just a good cookie (oatmeal raisin I'm sure is one of the better choices if I am going to have one, right??). So, two more weeks until my first show (talk about nervous, even though it is a small one)I obviously am not eating any cookies! Sometimes I have such a hard time with not being able to eat a "bad" food. Although I am so much more disciplined these last 4 years I find it hard to be good all the time b/c I love food so much! I am addicted to the Food Network channel though! I figure if I can't have it then at least I can enjoy it on t.v.!

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