Pre-Contest Diet, take a look..

[sdahlum]

Ladies,

I told you I would have lots of questions :) My hubby asked me to post the diet he worked up for me and see if he could get some feedback. I'm 5'4" and 127lbs, he measures me using Lange calipers and the 7-point test at 12.5% right now. Let me know what you think. If you like it, feel free to use it :) He has it setup with Palumbo style ratios and a single refeed on Sunday. WooHoo - Pizza this weekend!!

Here you go:

Meal 1 - 60g (60g powder 46g Protein) whey with 1 tsp of peanut butter

Meal 2 - 6oz of chicken with 2 cups spinach 1tsp oil / 1 tsp vinegar

Meal 3 - 5oz of flank steak with 1 cup asparagus

Meal 4 - 6oz of chicken with 2 cups spinach 1tsp oil / 1 tsp vinegar

Meal 5 - 60g (60g powder 46g Protein) whey with 1 tsp of peanut butter

Substitute Meal (Use in place of one of the chicken meals):
Meal # - 8oz of Orange Roughy with 1/2 cup of avocado (salt and vinegar)

Calories: 1566 Pro: 237 (61%) Carb: 22 (11%) Fat: 49 (28%)

Thanks,

Ana

[bree marsh]

this looks like a ketogenic-style diet to me...have you done this before? how does your body do with it? i am NOT an advocate of this kind of diet, but i have heard of great results from others! i am a registered dietitian, so my style is a bit different, as i highly encourage inclduing ALL food groups, grains included, and fruit and legumes! let me know how it goes...

[sdahlum]

Correct. This is a keto style diet and while I've never dieted down for a show before, I have dieted this way in the past with great results. I do struggle for the first week or so adjusting to the lower carbs but then my energy levels come back and I feel great. The weekly refeeds are very nice as well.

How are the calories? Do they seem in line with what you would recommend? Do you typically diet with a more balanced approach? 33%/33%/33%?

This is all very interesting to me, I actually love the diet part of it!

[bree marsh]

Correct. This is a keto style diet and while I've never dieted down for a show before, I have dieted this way in the past with great results. I do struggle for the first week or so adjusting to the lower carbs but then my energy levels come back and I feel great. The weekly refeeds are very nice as well.

How are the calories? Do they seem in line with what you would recommend? Do you typically diet with a more balanced approach? 33%/33%/33%?

This is all very interesting to me, I actually love the diet part of it!

my diet is more like 40% protein, 30% carb and 30% fat to start, and then the carbs go down just a bit the closer i get to showtime. the calories seem low to me, however, it all depends on the person...how much cardio are you doing?, how fast do you lose weight?, what is your normal calorie intake? these factors all make a difference. my cals off season are pretty high - 2500-2800, so i don't have to go as low when i start out...about 1800. my cardio is only about 20-30 minutes, 4-5 days/wk. if that diet has worked for you in the past, i'd say stick with it!

[dvsness]

I like your plan. This type of diet works great for me and the variety of protein sources you have are good. Personally, I have to keep the calories a little lower (10-12xbw) but if you are losing on these cals, don't drop them.

[sdahlum]

Thanks again for the response. The calories were just lowered this past Monday from 1720 down to 1566 now, if all goes well, I'll be in that range for a while. I'm having trouble getting my lower body to budge right now. Upper is leaning out well but lower is barely moving. I am shooting for about 1-2lbs per week loss, no more than that and so far we're on track. I try not to worry too much about the scale actually, he measures my body fat weekly and takes measurements of waist, hips, thighs, etc. Those seem to be better indicators of progress.

Offseason, I'm usually around 2200 calories or so depending how much I cheat but keep in mind I have really only started focusing on diet this past year so I don't have a lot to compare to.

I mix my cardio up right now, I'm doing 5-6 days per week with a mix of 30-40 minutes of long slow incline walking, HIIT for 15-20 minutes once per week, and I throw in a spin class to make it a little more fun once per week.

Thanks again!!

[dvsness]

HIIT and keto don't mix.

[bree marsh]

HIIT and keto don't mix.

i would have to agree with this top a certain extent! it all depends on the person, but it seems to me like long, low intensity cardio would work best with the keto diet...i pretty much only do HIIT, but my diet is very different!!

[sdahlum]

Actually, I do agree with you guys on this. We added this for the past two weeks to try to kick start the lower body fat loss but we've been really careful to monitor my lean mass and strength and so far so good. I think you're right though. We should probably drop it.

Thanks!!

[LaurenDenapoli]

Sounds good! Would you include a re-feed with this??

[sdahlum]

Lauren,

Yes. Right now, we do a weekly refeed where I get an opportunity to eat the things I crave so badly. This is only for one meal a week though. I had PIZZA and ICE CREAM last night! I'll have to clean up my refeeds as I get closer but for now this seems to be working. I always weigh less the day after the refeed. Thanks for looking.

Ana

[SBT]

HIIT and keto don't mix.

I did get away with teaching spin once a week on the keto diet I tried for my last show, but I wore a HR monitor and was careful to keep my HR at or below 130 bpm.

[LaurenDenapoli]

That sounds good Ana! I feel the same way when I re-feed....well, I'm not really on that type of diet you are one right now, but when I did have my higher carbs days I felt great the next AM!

Good luck with things!
Lauren

[fitdiva06]

my diet is more like 40% protein, 30% carb and 30% fat to start, and then the carbs go down just a bit the closer i get to showtime. the calories seem low to me, however, it all depends on the person...how much cardio are you doing?, how fast do you lose weight?, what is your normal calorie intake? these factors all make a difference. my cals off season are pretty high - 2500-2800, so i don't have to go as low when i start out...about 1800. my cardio is only about 20-30 minutes, 4-5 days/wk. if that diet has worked for you in the past, i'd say stick with it!

This sounds more like my style of diet as well. When I saw the low calories and low carbs in the first post I cringed. I guess everyone's body is so different! I could never survive on this diet. I crash really hard as it is, and my carbs remain pretty consistent throughout my diet cycle. :respect:

[sdahlum]

Two weeks so far into this diet, I have seen fantastic results. If I begin to stall on my progress, or begin feeling too worn out, I'll probably up my fats or switch to some carb cycling. It's interesting to try out different styles of dieting and figure out what my body does best with.

I've been a bit surprised to see a few people post that they thought calories may be too low. We came up with this amount, because it's just over 12 cal per pound for me. I thought that when trying to lose fat, you should stick with 10-12 cals per pound. Would any of you go more than that? I'd love to hear how everyone else calculates the number of calories they need.

Thanks for the feedback!

[bree marsh]

Two weeks so far into this diet, I have seen fantastic results. If I begin to stall on my progress, or begin feeling too worn out, I'll probably up my fats or switch to some carb cycling. It's interesting to try out different styles of dieting and figure out what my body does best with.

I've been a bit surprised to see a few people post that they thought calories may be too low. We came up with this amount, because it's just over 12 cal per pound for me. I thought that when trying to lose fat, you should stick with 10-12 cals per pound. Would any of you go more than that? I'd love to hear how everyone else calculates the number of calories they need.

Thanks for the feedback!

i'd say the last 4-5 weeks should be that strict, about 10-11 cals/lb, but starting out, i'd go with about 13-14 cals/lb...BUT, again, it totally depends on the person!!! depends on how many cals you are burning durig workouts. i would starve on 10 cals/lb starting out, but that's just me! sounds like it is working out for ya! great!

[Dawn Melanie]

This is all very intriguing Ann. I usu. start with PROTEIN needed for my goal(s) - then back into the other #s accordingly.

For instatnce, we agree about 2.0g Protein per lb., then Prot is 240g. From here, we determine Carbs and Fat grams per desired macronutrient ratios.

E.g. 40P/30C/30F slpit -->
240g Protein = 40% of 2,400 Calories.
Carbs thus 720 Cals (30% ofo 2,400) or 180 g.
Fat is 720 Cals or 80g.

WOW - 10 Calories per lb.?!?! That would equate to LESS than 1,200 calories per day. I NEVER think below this threshold is good for Anyone. Sure, weight may come off, but the long-term may not have such sustained results OR be healthy.

Just my 2-cents Girl, let us know how you tweak it all...:cool:

[sdahlum]

Dawn,

I think something got misunderstood, I'd also NEVER go down to 10 calories per lb. That is simply too low. My calories are just over 12 per lb right now at a roughly 60%/10%/30% ratio. I do not intend to go below 12 calories per lb in the foreseeable future, I'll just add some additional cardio if I need to.

In your calculation, I totally understand your method but where did you come up with 2400cals (maybe it was simply an example). 2400 calories would be bulking for me :)

The diet aspect of all of this is the most interesting part. The training and cardio are the EASY part compared to getting this right! For my next prep I may very well try a more "standard" 40/30/30 split but I'm doing well on this right now so I'll stick it out.

Your thoughts?

Ana