Get your diet on the right track
Here are eight ideas you can put into practice to keep your current diet working. Most dedicated bodybuilders probably already know the basics of eating to get results from their work in the gym.
Meals: eat moderately sized meals every 2.5 – 3 hours.
Protein: each meal should contain 30 – 40 grams of protein.
Fat: don’t fear or ignore fat. A good 20 – 30% of your daily calorie intake can come from healthy fats.
Carbohydrates: pay attention to the quality of the carbohydrates you eat. Try to get them from sources such as fruit, vegetables, rolled oats, brown rice, buckwheat and other natural carbohydrate sources.
These rules are old news, of course. They are tried and tested, and they work. But when your goals change, you’re dreaming of visible abs and you want to lower your body fat percentage, you also need to adjust your approach to training and nutrition. Here are eight ideas that could help you get into very good competition shape.
Lift heavy in the gym…
Forget about taking it easy with the weights. Switching to higher-rep sets and lighter weights while dieting is a disaster. Heavy weights are what give your body a reason to hold on to its existing muscle mass. If you stop lifting substantial weights when you start dieting, you signal to your body that it no longer needs the muscle mass you’ve built, which takes a considerable amount of energy to maintain.
Even when dieting or preparing for a competition, follow exactly the same weight-training principles you use when eating more freely between competitions. Don’t assume that preparing for a competition requires some different “miracle program” or a completely different set of principles.
There is no “miracle diet”…
One of the most common questions is: “What’s the best or most suitable diet for lowering body fat percentage or getting into shape?” The reality is that there isn’t one. You need to respond to the feedback your body gives you when you make a change. There is no “best diet,” but there is a best or most effective approach for you personally. Start with simple changes and adjust them according to how your body responds.
If dieting gets tough, try carbohydrate cycling. Introduce days with low, moderate and high carbohydrate intakes.
Go easy on the cardio…
Yes, ease up. Many people don’t want to accept that cardio needs to be introduced carefully. When you’re dieting, nutrition is still far more important than cardio. Get your diet right first. Once it has been working consistently for a while, gradually add cardio. Do it slowly, in a controlled way and in moderation. Remember that your body is already under stress from the deficit created by restricting your food intake alone. In that state, excessive, uncontrolled amounts of cardio are exceptionally good at stripping away hard-earned, quality muscle mass.
From time to time, try high-intensity interval training (HIIT) in place of prolonged cardio at a low heart rate.
Don’t rush your weight loss…
Yes, you read that correctly. The best way to get truly lean is to spread your diet over a longer period and lose up to 0.5 kg per week. Of course, if you’re carrying a very large amount of body fat, you can lose weight from fat at a considerably faster rate. But as your body fat percentage becomes more moderate, your weekly weight loss should also become more controlled and gradual. Too large a deficit and rapid weight loss will take a lot of muscle along with the fat.
Weight loss is usually greater during the first couple of weeks. Don’t rush into making changes and adjusting your diet; give your body time to adapt. The effects of changes to your previous nutrition or training routine may not show up immediately and often take time.
Your abs are always there; your diet is what reveals them…
Training your abs is certainly not a bad thing in itself, but if you think doing hundreds of sit-ups will somehow make your six-pack more visible, you’re mistaken. It will, of course, improve muscle tone somewhat, but abdominal exercises do not reduce fat around your stomach. Keep your ab training sensible: around 2 – 3 times a week, with a reasonable amount of work.
Use added resistance for your abdominal exercises as well as your body weight. Adding weight to sit-ups and other abdominal exercises makes your abs “thicker” and helps them grow.
Learn to “cheat”…
Did you know that a strict diet actually includes planned “cheating”? That’s right. Prolonged calorie restriction lowers leptin levels. Leptin is a hormone that helps keep your metabolic rate up and promotes fat mobilization. Occasional cheat meals, or even a cheat day once a week, help prevent leptin levels from falling too low and promote the production of this hormone. This in turn speeds up your metabolism, which is necessary to make body fat readily available for energy.
Keep things simple. Try a one-hour cheat window. Each week of your diet, choose one hour when you eat freely and have more or less whatever you fancy.
Try to be realistic when estimating your body fat percentage…
Most people tend to underestimate their body fat percentage, often by quite a lot. An inaccurate assessment of your body composition can lead to considerable disappointment and frustration later, when your diet fails to deliver the results you expected and drags on and on. The world’s best natural bodybuilders and fitness athletes have generally been measured as having a fat-free body mass of 77 – 81 kg. If, for example, you weigh 109 – 110 kg and a body fat measuring device gives you a reading of 18, it is unrealistic and naive to believe that your body fat percentage really is 18%. The more realistically you assess your current condition and starting point, the better you can plan the timing of your upcoming diet and understand what it will involve.
Forget online calculators and estimates of body fat percentage based on body weight. In everyday settings, you will get a much better result by measuring (assessing) skinfold thickness with calipers.
Drink water…
This may seem like familiar, obvious advice to many, but for plenty of people it is still new and its importance is underestimated. Quite a few athletes, including bodybuilders and powerlifters, drink too little water each day. Research findings suggest that simply keeping your body adequately hydrated throughout the day can increase your metabolic rate by 30%. The study in question specifically used cold water. Drinking too little water slows the fat-burning process. Don’t get too fixated on how much you drink; just drink.
If you want to monitor your daily water intake, a shaker bottle is a great way to do it. The measurement markings on the bottle let you see exactly how much water you drink at a time.
The original article can be found here.
Author: Janar Rückenberg (translation)
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