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Contest Dieting
Competing is basically about burning off body fat, retaining
muscle, and displaying the physique to the competitor’s best
advantage. Most competitors seems to start anywhere from 8
to 16 weeks in advance to get ready for a show. It really
depends on how much fat needs to be burned. For example, a
person needing to shed 20 pounds of fat will need la longer
time for dieting than a person who only needs to shed 10
pounds of fat.
Competition Body Fat Percentages
The fat that surrounds the spinal cord, heart, and vital
organs is called essential fat and is necessary to sustain
life. The lowest body fat percentage a person can have is
their amount of essential fat. Essential fat is
approximately 2-3% of total body weight for males, and seems
to be range between 7-10% for females. The difference in
levels between genders is due to reproductive and hormonal
factors. It is not likely for a competitor to reach the
lowest possible body fat percentages though. If competitors
can get within a couple percent of the lowest possible
levels, they will display unbelievable definition. Most
amateur regional level competitors don't even get that low.
Fitness and figure girls may can come in at a wide variety
of body fat percentages, largely depending on where and how
their body holds fat, as well as the desired look of the
competing organization, but generally speaking, body fat
levels range from 9-15%, not nearly as low as female
bodybuilders must go to show adequate definition.
How Long to Diet to Get Ready for a Show?
A common question people ask when starting out in physique
competition is how long they need to diet to get ready for a
show. Many gyms offer body fat testing. Calipers (skin fold
measurements), bioelectrical impedance (painless electrical
current through the body) and near infrared reactance (light
absorption and reflection) are the most common methods for
obtaining body fat estimates. With proper application and
derivation, they can provide fairly accurate results that
are useful for estimating time one would need to plan on
dieting for to reach their desired contest conditioning.
Here's how it works:
In this example, the competitor is a female weighing 152
lbs. She has set a goal to be at 11% body fat for her
competition. Say her test yields 18.6% body fat. 18.6% of
152 lbs is: 0.186 x 152 lbs = 28.27 lbs, so she currently
has about 28.25 lbs of body fat on her frame. A bodyweight
of 152 lbs - 28.25 lbs = 123.75 lbs of lean bodyweight
(muscle, water, bones etc.). Using algebra, (who said that
stuff would never get used in the real world?) to find to
her goal of 11% body fat:
123.75 lbs/ x = 100% - 11%, or simply 0.89, 123.75 = 0.89x,
123.75/0.89 = x, 139 = x, so about 139 lbs would be about
the target 11% body fat. As a check, weight of 139 – lean
bodyweight of 123.75=15.25 lbs of fat, and 15.25/139=10.97%
or 11% rounded).
28.25 lbs of fat now - 15.25 lbs of target fat = 12.75 lbs
to lose. Losing 1-2 lbs per week is a common rate of weight
loss to shed body fat while maintaining muscle mass. Losing
weight too quickly can come at the expense of losing muscle
tissue. Figure on about 1.5 lbs lost per week for this
example. It would take 12.75 lbs/1.5 lbs = 8.5 weeks of
dieting to reach the target body fat level from this
starting point. You can plug in your numbers and see how
long you should allow for.
Note: When dieting, competitors should weight themselves
first thing in the morning each time. Water weight can vary
several lbs throughout the day. By recording weights at the
same time of day, like first thing upon waking after about 8
hours of fasting insures more accurate weight readings when
monitoring weight loss from one week to the next.
Once you decide to begin your dieting for a contest, it
becomes more important to know your food intake. You pretty
much have to be a calorie counter at this point, at least
until you gain plenty of experience with dieting down. To
determine the breakdown of foods, you can go to a local
bookstore and pick up a nutrition or food guide that lists
the amount of carbs, protein, fats, sugars, sodium, etc. in
foods. Begin dieting by eliminating all the junk food,
excess sugars and foods high in fat from your diet and piece
together your meals using a source of lean protein, a source
of complex carbohydrates, and some vegetables for fiber and
vitamins/minerals. A good ratio to follow if not on a carb
cycling type of diet when starting is around 60% carbs, 25%
protein, and 15% fat. This may differ from individual to
individual. Many people do fine with these ratios, others
feel they must take in lower carbs when dieting for a
contest. Your body type, metabolism and number of fat cells
in your body (which is hereditary) can affect what works
best for you. There is also speculation about blood type
playing a role in what works best for an individual, but
there doesn’t seem to be scientific evidence backing that
theory. You can check into other books about these topics if
you wish to explore them more thoroughly.
You should continue eating frequent meals, but the portions
will likely become a little smaller the closer to the
contest you get. As an example, say your normal food intake
averages 3,500 calories per day. When you start dieting, you
should maintain that number but use a stricter (cleaner)
diet. Counting calories serves as a gauge for where to go
next. If after the first week you don't experience any
weight loss, you should then cut your calories back 10-15%.
After another week you can gauge your progress and take it
from there. For example, if you lose 5 pounds in a week, you
should add some calories back to your daily diet. Ideally
you should try to lose 1-2 pounds per week. Much more than
that would probably be at the expense of your muscle mass,
not the fat you want to get rid of. Continue adjusting your
calories (or exercise amounts) as needed in order to
continue losing 1-2 pounds per week up until the week before
your show.
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