Four Weeks Of Dieting
Results
'll cut to the chase as to how things are going. I just finished up my first month of training for a fitness competition with my bikini coaches.. So far I've lost about 5 pounds, 1% body fat, and an inch off of my waist, hips, and thighs. I've also increased all the weights on my lifts. So far, so good!
Food
This week I'm going to tackle the topic that I think is the most misunderstood about how to diet down and lose weight: the food. When I started out on this adventure last summer (about seven months ago) and told a few of my friends that I was gearing up to do another fitness competition, I got the following questions and comments:
I guess it's time to start starving yourself.
Is this when you start eating like 1000 calories a day?
Oh no - the torture diet.
TIme to cut out all the carbs!
What? No alcohol or treats for the next nine months?
Some of these comments were so far from reality that I thought I'd spend this post discussing what a real-life competitor's diet looks like.
Months 1-6: Calories Up
If you've been reading my blog since July you know that I worked on reverse dieting from last July until December. When I started on this journey I was messing around with a 1500 calorie low carb, high-fat diet. I wasn't particularly consistent with that diet because I didn't have great energy, so there were definitely days that I'm sure I ate a lot more than 1500 calories a day. I sought the advice of Allison (then my friend and now my business partner!), and she challenged me to get my calories up to over 2000 a day at least through the end of the calendar year, especially if I was planning on doing a fitness competition. Why? Because the name of the game is to lose weight EATING THE MOST FOOD THAT YOU CAN! Yes, you read that right. There's no valor in 1000 or 1300 calorie diets. And if I were to start out dieting or cutting at 1500 calories a day, there's really nowhere to go from there except immediately down to 1300 calories. From there I'd probably lose a little weight and then my body would plateau and stall out. So, given that I was almost a year out from doing a show, I had some time to get my calories up.
Months 7-11: Calories Down
Now that I'm ~4 to 5 months out from a show, it's time to start doing a cut or dieting. This means cutting calories with the intention of losing weight. Because I had been working to get up to 2000 calories a day, my coaches knew exactly where I was starting. So my first nutrition plan cut my daily caloric intake from 2000 calories down to about 1800 calories a day. It's funny because when I started reverse dieting and my first daily goal was to increase from 1500 to 1800 calories a day, I felt full all the time and like it was so much food. But now that I'm going back down the ladder, I'm pretty hungry on 1800 calories a day. It's doable, but my tummy is definitely growling by the evening (note: for me, hunger is different from feeling depleted, exhausted or like my blood sugar is on a crazy roller coaster. It just means that I have that hollow feeling in my stomach and it's growling a bit. This is very manageable for me (vs. exhaustion, depletion, and low blood sugar)) . I hadn't felt hunger much these past six months, so it's all good! I take it as a sign that my metabolism is nice and healthy.
In addition to cutting my calories, my coach also adjusted my macros. When I was reverse dieting I was aiming to get about 120 grams of protein a day, and I let the carbs and fat land where they did. I also had an occasional glass of wine here and there and just fit it into the macros. Now we're aiming for about 160 grams of protein ( a gram per pound of body weight), 180 grams of carbs, and 45 grams of fat. This was a pretty significant decrease in fat for me, which is probably another reason my tummy has been growling.
Months 11+: Calories Back Up
Once the competition is over I'll have been cutting/dieting for about four months . It's hard to say right now how where my calories will land, but most likely I'll cut my calories more before I hit the stage. And when I hit the stage, I'll venture to guess I'll weigh about ten pounds less than my ideal weight. The goal after the show will not be to sustain those calories or that weight. So, after the show it will be time to go back up the calorie ladder, SLOWLY, until I get to at least a solid and healthy maintenance caloric intake. Again, it's hard to say what that will be right now, and I'll be relying on my coaches to guide me. But this is a very important part of competition prep.: the reverse diet after the show..
What I'm Eating
So now that we're done with the math, it's time to talk about what I'm actually eating during this dieting phase. I won't sugar coat anything here - eating 160 grams of protein and only 45 grams of fat requires some intentional eating that is a bit different from the Standard American Diet (SAD) There aren't a lot of treats and no alcohol, but the flipside is that I have had loads of energy eating this way. All while losing weight. That's far from starving or being tortured.
My coaches gave me some recommended whole food sources (lean chicken, pork tenderloin, egg whites, oatmeal, rice, sweet potatoes, almond butter, etc.) and my overall macro and fiber goal, but otherwise I’m just figuring it out my putting everything into My Fitness Pal and making it work . Other than a post workout meal (protein + carbs eaten within 30 minutes of finishing my workouts) that is a must, there is some flexibility with how I get the rest of the food in.
Here's a typical day for me:
Breakfast
Pre-workout (~5:30 or 6 a.m.): chicken sausage + sweet potato
Post workout (7:30 a.m.): shake (protein powder + almond milk) + apple
Snack 1
1/2 cup of greek yogurt + berries + 1/2 cup of oatmeal + tea w/ MCT oil
Lunch
Tuna salad (6 ozs. canned tuna + celery +artichoke hearts + 1/4 cup cottage cheese) + 3 rice cakes + 1/4 avocado
Snack 2
Soup made with lean ground beef and veggies + rice cakes and almond butter (for at least one of my snacks I make a large batch of soup, chili, etc, to eat over several days.)
Dinner
6 ounces pork tenderloin +1/2 cup brown rice + broccoli.
So, as you can see, not starving but not SAD, either!
My first shopping trip after getting my food plan.
FAQS
No treats? No wine? How can you stand the deprivation? As some of you know I'm in the process of getting certified as a life coach, and I've spent a bit of time learning about the mindset around eating and dieting. Here's where I've landed - whether I feel deprived from not eating treats and drinking wine depends a lot on what I tell myself and what I believe to be true. I don't help myself when I tell myself that I'm entitled to oreos and wine everyday (those were my treats and alcohol of choice during my reverse diet) and woe is me for not getting them on this food plan that those mean coaches created for me. I mean, if I had been handed me a food plan that was loaded with flour, sugar, and alcohol, I'd probably question their credibility and be mad at them when I didn't get the results I wanted. In other words, I feel a lot more empowered when I remember that I am choosing to eat this way for the next four months or so to achieve a particular result. The urges/desire do come (as urges and desires tend to do when we apply discipline to any area of our life), but I have strategies for dealing with those that I'll address in another post.
Did you have any withdrawals from sugar or other foods eating this way? I did have a headache for about a day, but I think that was from the decrease in fat macros. I can't say I've had any other physical withdrawals from my prior diet, and I started feeling pretty fabulous a few days into this nutrition plan. It's really hard to argue for sugar and wine when you have loads of energy and are losing a pound a week. .
How do you eat that much protein? Very intentionally. When I did my last fitness competition my daily protein intake increased pretty significantly, and I learned then that each meal and snack was going to have to include a pretty big slug of protein. To me there is only upside to eating a lot of protein: it keeps me full, stabilizes my blood sugar, and gives me tons of energy.
Do you spend all of your time cooking? Not really. I just find that I'm cooking different things. I usually make a large batch of soup or chili to eat as one of my snacks and a large batch of protein (grilled chicken, tenderloin, etc.) that we eat for dinner one night a week and that I continue to eat throughout the week for dinner. I also pre-cook sweet potatoes at the beginning of the week so that my first breakfast comes together quickly.
What about eating out? No more date nights? With Covid, date nights are a little tricky, anyway. But when I do get the opportunity to eat out, I usually order grilled fish or chicken (dry, so that it doesn't arrive at the table swimming in butter or oil) and a vegetable. This is still a treat because the fish I prepare at home never tastes as good as what I can get at a restaurant.
If I want to do a fitness competition or lose some weight, should I just follow your nutrition plan? No! There are no cookie cutter plans for losing weight! If you are interested in doing a fitness competition, you definitely need to hire a coach. Even the most elite competitors use coaches. The food and workout plans they created for me are very personalized. If you are looking to make some body composition changes, you could try tracking your macros and increasing your protein intake and see what results you get. If you are looking to get some help this is exactly what we do at Couture Fitness & Lifestyle Coaching. We provide strategy, structure, support, and accountability through our couture nutrition and exercise plans and our 12 Week Programs.
Want to learn more about metabolic health? Join our private Facebook Group (Boost Your Metabolism After Age 30), listen to our podcast, follow us on Instagram, get our free video on how you can increase your metabolism, or book a free metabolic assessment. Finally, feel free to reach out to us at info@couturefitnesscoaching.com with any questions!