CHAPTER 57

Pre-contest Eating

“I’m amazed that almost everyone thinks there is some kind of trick to getting ripped and dry. Diet is the most important aspect of contest training, even up to the day of the show. All this carb-up, sodium-loading, diuretic, insulin-taking crap is a sure way to screw up four to five months of contest prep.”

– King Kamali, MuscleMag International columnist, offering his opinion on the most important factor for success in contest preparation.

If they’re honest, most bodybuilders will probably tell you that pre-contest dieting is just about the hardest part of preparing for a bodybuilding contest. And this goes double for drug-free bodybuilders. A bodybuilder who is huge in the off-season might turn up onstage looking like a scrawnier version of his former self. Not exactly what you want on contest day. Those 30 or 40 pounds of muscle that took years to obtain were gone within a matter of a few months.

The problem is not so much their muscles as their brains – and I’m not talking about intelligence here. The trouble is, your brain uses only carbohydrate as a source of energy, and your body will do just about everything in its power to protect the brain. When blood sugar levels fall very low, the body thinks it’s entering a period of starvation. As a form of defense, it begins releasing stress hormones, including cortisol. Cortisol is a catabolic hormone that breaks muscle protein down into carbohydrate to give the brain its energy source. The end result is muscle wasting. Don't despair, however, as a combination of smart dieting and daily data collecting will have you looking both big and ripped on contest day.

“I love and hate bodybuilding at the same time. While I love lifting heavy weight and eating huge quantities of foods, I dread dieting like the plague. Anything that helps me survive the torture of dieting is always welcome.”

– Gustavo Badell, top IFBB pro

YOUR PRE-CONTEST PREPARATION KIT

To really get organized and serious about pre-contest dieting you should put together a little kit. Take an hour or two and pick up the following:

• Weight scales
• Notebook
• Measuring tape
• Food scale
• Food nutrition guide (you can also use some of the online sites such as www.nutritiondata.com)
• Mirror
• Skinfold calipers

Start your pre-contest dieting at least three to four months before the contest. Yes, you read correctly – three to four months. Most bodybuilders underestimate how much fat they need to lose to end up in decent contest shape. They also fail to realize that you can’t do it in one or two months by following a crash diet. A crash diet is the surest way to cause that muscle loss I was just discussing.

One of the first things you should do is get an accurate assessment of your body composition – particularly bodyfat percentage. Get it measured at the gym, a local university (medical school or exercise physiology department), or at a hospital. An even easier method would be to use one of those bodyfat measuring machines that you simply stand on or hold on to with your hands – if you can find an accurate one. They operate by sending a very small electrical current through your body. The speed it takes the current to travel through your body determines how much body fat you have. There was a time when you’d need to spend thousands of dollars for an accurate bodyfat machine but no longer. Those cheap Wal-Mart versions are nearly as accurate as the more expensive units. In fact many of the newer digital scales have a bodyfat percentage analyzer built in. Do keep in mind though that these are still not totally accurate, and that many do not work for athletes. Do your homework.

You should aim to carry about five percent body fat by contest time. Once you know your body fat percentage, you can calculate how much fat you have to lose. Let’s say you weigh 200 pounds, carrying 20 percent body fat. If we multiply your weight by the percentage, or 200 X 0.20, we see that you have 40 pounds of fat spread over your body. If you want to get down to 5 percent body fat, you would need to lose 15 percent, or 30 pounds of fat.

Pre-contest dieting is a highly calculated and planned program that should start at least three months before a contest.
Photo of Craig Richardson by Jason Breeze

LOSING FAT WITHOUT LOSING MUSCLE

“It is a well-known fact that the body tends to hoard fat during periods of starvation, and extended pre-contest dieting is viewed by the body as starvation. As a result the body will naturally prefer to cannibalize muscle tissue while sparing survival fat stores.”

– Ron Clark, president of the National Federation of Professional Trainers, offering his views on extended pre-contest dieting.

For many years weight-loss experts have used the “bucket” theory: Calories in, calories out. Bodybuilders have never followed this method of fat loss. As always seems to happen, competitive bodybuilders learn what works and what doesn’t in regards to building muscle and losing fat light years before everyone else. The scientists are now agreeing with what bodybuilders have said for years: one calorie is not the same as the next.

The first step to pre-contest clean eating is to cut out all junk food and avoid processed foods.
Photo of Benais Begovic by Robert Reiff

Your first step in getting ripped is figuring out how long you need to diet for. Two to three pounds a week is about the fastest rate that will allow you to both lose fat and keep your muscle. That got you thinking, didn’t it? If you have 30 pounds to lose that means you are dieting for anywhere from 10 to 15 weeks. Given the fact that you will likely see a plateau during that time you should probably give yourself a little more time rather than less.

WHAT TO EAT

Now you have to take a good look at what you’ve been eating. Have you been eating clean? Do you know what clean eating is? Well, you’ve got to figure it out, start doing it, and as the next 12 or so weeks go by you’re going to have to get stricter and stricter with it.

Start by cutting out all junk. No more chocolates, candies, cakes, creams, sauces, fried food, cookies, soda, pizza, burgers or beer … in fact, no alcohol at all. Really! You also have to avoid white flour, cheese, sugar and any processed foods. Since you should be eating to feed your muscles in the off-season, this should not be a big stretch for you.

That’s the first step. Plus, you have to make sure you eat every two to three hours. But you should be pretty used to that already.

As the each week passes you will have to cut down more and more on such foods as starchy carbs, fruits, nuts and milk products. By the last week or two you will be eating almost nothing but lean meat, protein powder and green leafy vegetables. This is not easy, and it’s where your resolve will be tested more than at any other time.

“I guess I’ve become known for showing up at every contest as one of the most, if not the most shredded bodybuilder onstage. It’s one thing to be huge, but if you’re not ripped you might as well take a lawn chair with you to the contest.”

– Art Dilkes, IFBB pro, affectionately known as “Mr. Ripped” in bodybuilding circles

CARBOHYDRATE LOADING

When you start attending bodybuilding contests on a regular basis you’ll notice that some competitors look small and flat at the prejudging, but full and vascular at the evening show. Others look pathetic for the full contest day but would easily win the overall on Sunday or Monday. This even happens at the pro level, and you’ll hear such explanations as: “I missed my peak” or “I left it too late” at the Sunday or Monday photo shoot when they’re displaying the physique they should have brought to the show on Saturday.

So what is it that explains the dramatic change in a bodybuilder’s physique in as little as 12 or 24 hours? The biological explanation lies with a unique interplay between water and glycogen (stored carbohydrate). By first depleting and then ingesting (called “loading”) carbohydrates, bodybuilders can show up on contest day as big as a house and ripped to shreds. But if they miss the timing just slightly, they’ll appear small, flat and smooth. It’s that simple and here’s how it works:

The stored form of sugar is called glycogen – each gram of which holds three to four grams of water. Competitive bodybuilders make use of this fact by depleting their carbohydrate levels starting about a week before the contest. They also restrict their water intake. After a couple of days of depleting (usually Sunday to Tuesday), they then switch to a carb-loading phase (usually Wednesday to Friday evening) to greatly increase glycogen levels. In fact, muscles will store more glycogen after a period of depletion than under normal circumstances. In addition, because each gram of glycogen is capable of holding three to four grams of water, the muscles start drawing water from under the skin. The end result is muscles filled with glycogen and therefore much larger and fuller. And because that glycogen draws water from under the skin, the individual’s vascularity will be that much more visible and pronounced. The whole process can take as little as 8 hours or as long as 72. This is why bodybuilders who look flat and smooth at the prejudging can look so much fuller and harder at the evening show. And the reason so many bodybuilders look so good the day after the contest is that traditionally there is a post-show pig-out. Most promoters rent a nightclub or restaurant, and after a couple of months of strict precontest eating most bodybuilders let loose in an orgy of nutritional debauchery. The next morning they wake up fully glycogen loaded and hard as nails. Of course, by then it’s too late. But this gets back to what I said earlier about keeping notes. If you keep detailed notes about what you eat and how you look you’ll know how far in advance to start your preparations for the next contest. If you looked your best at the evening show, then start your loading a half-day earlier next time. If you’re in top form on Sunday, then shift everything forward a full day for future contests. A Friday peak means you’ll need to start things a day later next year.

Of course there is a limit to how much glycogen the muscles can hold, and once they are saturated excess glycogen may be stored in the body’s tissues. This can lead to a buildup of water under the skin, which leads to that dreaded “smooth” or “holding water” look. The worst scenario is appearing smooth at the prejudging and then arriving rock hard for the evening show. All the posing during the prejudging under the hot lights sweats out the excess water, allowing the person’s true muscularity to show through. The problem is that the effect won’t be seen until the evening show. And since most of the placings are decided at the prejudging, the competitor won’t place as high as he could have. This puzzles the audience, as they can’t understand how the best-looking physique didn’t win. Those who had attended the prejudging would realize what had happened.

You can read every bodybuilder’s advice about timing and dieting, but the truth is there’s only one person who can determine how your body will respond to a given set of circumstances and that’s you. But you will have to experiment to find out. You may need as little as 12 hours to fully carb-load or it may take three or four days. The odds are good to excellent that you won’t nail it the first time. But when you do the results are worth it and undeniable.

WATER RETENTION

It only makes sense to follow the topic of carb-loading with that of water retention, as they are related. You probably understand that, all other things being equal, the bodybuilder who is the hardest and with the most defined muscles will more than likely win. Two variables control how hard a physique will look: fat and water. Keeping bodyfat levels low takes a year-round approach in combination with some strict precontest dieting, and come contest week there’s not much you can do to alter your fat level. It’s work with what you got.

When it comes to water retention, however, you can make drastic changes in the days leading up to the contest. As discussed, you can use carb loading to fill up your muscles and make your skin look paper thin. Another strategy employed by competitive bodybuilders is to reduce salt intake. Salt causes the body to retain water. That’s one of the reasons salt tablets are included in survival kits. Water conservation may be vital in the desert or the frozen tundra, but not when standing on a bodybuilding stage. Unfortunately, salt (sodium) is added to most foods. This is especially true of tinned food. As soon as you start your pre-contest diet, start eliminating most if not all tinned food.

Another strategy is to slowly start restricting your fluid intake in the weeks before the contest. For obvious reasons you shouldn’t cut out water entirely, but don’t make a practice of consuming great quantities. If possible, try to drink distilled water (normally available in grocery stores), as it has all the sodium removed.

Given the amount of salt and water lost in sweat, it wouldn’t hurt to add in a few extra sessions of light cardio in the weeks leading up to a contest. You’ll probably be doing the cardio as part of your fat-loss strategy anyway, but now’s the time to be extra diligent.

CHEMICAL HINDRANCE

As some drugs are notorious for causing water retention, check with your doctor or pharmacist if you are using any medication. Obviously, if it’s a drug for a serious medical problem then you’re going to need to keep taking it, but if it’s something that you can discontinue for a few weeks or even months, then give it some serious consideration. Some drugs such as anabolic steroids (discussed in much more detail later in the book) and cortisone cause the body to conserve large amounts of water. Even many over-the-counter painkillers can cause water retention. If you have any doubt as to a particular drug’s water retaining effects consult someone.

CHEMICAL ASSISTANCE?

I’d be negligent if I left the topic of water retention without discussing the pharmaceutical approach to shedding water. Just as some athletes turn to chemicals to build muscle and lose fat, many do the same to get rid of water. There are two approaches to shedding water by chemical means – natural and drug. Natural means using a mild herbal product such as dandelion root to help the body increase water excretion or decrease water conservation. While most of these natural means are safe, they are generally not very effective either. This tends to be a hit-or-miss approach.

The drug route is the most effective way to shed water – it also the most dangerous and could kill you. In fact, diuretics are thought to have been at least part of the reason for one pro bodybuilder’s death. Most diuretics are water-shedding drugs that work by interfering with aldosterone – the body’s primary water-conserving hormone. The bodybuilders who use diuretics usually take them in the days before a show to drop the extra water.

The problem is not so much the water loss as the electrolytes that go with it. Electrolytes are electrically charged substances called ions, that control the body’s various electrochemical systems including muscle contraction, nerve signal conduction, and heartbeat. It’s quite common for diuretic-using bodybuilders to experience muscle cramping during a contest – particularly as they’re posing. This is not fatal, but it’s very painful. It also won’t win you any extra votes from the judges. The real problem is the risk of heart arrhythmia (irregular heart beat) or even heart attack. Your heart is under the control of such electrolytes as sodium, calcium and potassium, and interfering with their levels could easily put you in the emergency room or morgue. In 1992 one of the top pro bodybuilders in the world – Mohammad Benaziza, died of a massive heart attack just after winning the Belgian Grand Prix. His death was believed to be directly related to the diuretics he used before the contest to shed water. It was ironic having a bodybuilder who supposedly epitomized health and fitness dropping dead of a heart attack just hours after being proclaimed a champion.

While Benaziza is the most famous bodybuilder to have died from using diuretics, others have come close, and muscle cramping is common at pro events. My advice is to stay away from diuretic drugs and rely on natural means to shed water.

Photo of Mohammed Benaziza by Garry Bartlett