Bodybuilding Contest Diet

My personal Bodybuilding competition diet plan

 

I have tried a variety of different Bodybuilding contest diets out there so I know the key is to experiment and find one that works with your body.  However, no matter what plan you choose it is important, whether you are doing a precontest diet or any diet plan, that you understand your body is going to try and maintain homeostasis (balance). Simply put, if you just lower your calories to lose weight, your body over time will make adjustments to your current caloric intake level. If you are doing a Bodybuilding competition diet or any diet plan and focus solely on the amount of calories you consume, your body will slow down your metabolism to adjust to the current caloric levels.

To get around this problem I recommend that people add a cheat meal, or sometimes a cheat day, to their diet program.  However, competition diets are a little more complicated and I do not recommended a traditional cheat meal during a precontest diet. What I do recommend, and use for myself, is a modified cheat day. A modified cheat day is one where instead of eating anything you want you just simply double your carbohydrate intake. I’ll add two of these cheat days to my normal precontest diet and as I get closer to the show I will reduce the cheat day to only once a week.

Throughout the precontest season I have several different phases to my diet. For the first few weeks I did not add a cheat meal to this diet.  It was this diet that I learned the importance of the cheat meal which will be documented in the later phases.

Each competition diet phase will be on its own page with an explanation.  We will begin with Phase One below:

Phase One: 16 - 14 weeks out from the competition

My water intake at this point was one gallon and a pint a day.  I would sometimes substitute water with Crystal Light to add a little variety and flavor to the diet.  I also used the following condiments on my food:

  Click here to move on to phase two