How to eat healthy POST contest???

[jimb0_12]

Hi there,

My gf and I are both competing on Oct 16. I've been dieting for 17 weeks already, and her 11. This morning when we spoke to our nutritionist he was telling us how bad it can be to binge post contest. Obviously, we know its bad and we aren't going to over do it, especially since we have a photoshoot the next morning, but I would definitely like to go out and have some wings and fries after the contest.

However, he was telling us that it is extremely important to stay focused on the diet immediately after the contest and get back in to things. He scared us both a little when he said that if you binge and balloon after the contest, you'll never be able to have your metabolism, etc, running at the same efficiency again.

This has left a lot of grey areas for both of us and we're a little concerned. I guess what I'm looking for is for people with post contest experience to give some kind of guide line for the safest, healthiest way to eat post contest. We'd like to have our freedom back (lol) a little, but we're both committed to eating relatively clean.

What is everyones experience on this??? We're both first time competitors, so we've never gone through this before!!! Any help is greatly apperciated!!!

Thanks!!!

[Milone79]

Hi there,

My gf and I are both competing on Oct 16. I've been dieting for 17 weeks already, and her 11. This morning when we spoke to our nutritionist he was telling us how bad it can be to binge post contest. Obviously, we know its bad and we aren't going to over do it, especially since we have a photoshoot the next morning, but I would definitely like to go out and have some wings and fries after the contest.

However, he was telling us that it is extremely important to stay focused on the diet immediately after the contest and get back in to things. He scared us both a little when he said that if you binge and balloon after the contest, you'll never be able to have your metabolism, etc, running at the same efficiency again.

This has left a lot of grey areas for both of us and we're a little concerned. I guess what I'm looking for is for people with post contest experience to give some kind of guide line for the safest, healthiest way to eat post contest. We'd like to have our freedom back (lol) a little, but we're both committed to eating relatively clean.

What is everyones experience on this??? We're both first time competitors, so we've never gone through this before!!! Any help is greatly apperciated!!!

Thanks!!!

Best advice I can give is to just take it slow post contest..have your day or 2 of "going a little nuts" then get back on track after that and eat like you are used to...slowly increase carbs/calories over time maybe 200-300 calories a day above what you were eating pre-contest each week. I went a little too crazy after my last cut and ballooned up over 10 pounds in 5 days...I was so bloated and watery that my skin hurt...not worth it in the end trust me.

[db2012]

Best advice I can give is to just take it slow post contest..have your day or 2 of "going a little nuts" then get back on track after that and eat like you are used to...slowly increase carbs/calories over time maybe 200-300 calories a day above what you were eating pre-contest each week. I went a little too crazy after my last cut and ballooned up over 10 pounds in 5 days...I was so bloated and watery that my skin hurt...not worth it in the end trust me.

If you had a goal to get into the hospital post contest as bad as your goal to win the show, you could win it with ease with the proper knowledge and diet ;)

Basically you can go into a super compensation mode post contest after the diet and really gain a lot of weight. skipping to the chase the best way to control this is by keeping sodium low, h20 high, and foods fairly clean. Follow those 3 rules and you should be worry free.

As far as the initial cheat post contest, go ahead and reward yourself (esp if you do well!)
But understand you cannot maintain that state of no rules and still maintain low bodyfat. You need to limit your actions if you don't want to rebound hard from the diet.

[ChristianBBer]

How does your metabolism get screwed up if you binge ? I'm just curious as to the physiological side of it....

[bigsd67]

Echoing the others...post contest cheat meal followed by a day of not really caring what I ate and a lot. I did gain 15 lbs over that two days (157 to 179), but then after getting back down to contest numbers the rest of the week (starting that Tuesday) lost 12 of the lbs.

After that I slowly ramped up cals while having a cheat meal on Saturdays and that helped limit the fat gain. I also hit they gym HARD after my cheat days.

[Barn01]

How does your metabolism get screwed up if you binge ? I'm just curious as to the physiological side of it....

As far as I know it doesn't get screwed up at all. It ramps up pretty fast after binging. The body is pretty damn smart and it will heat up once it senses the extra cal intake and try to burn it off to bring you back down to your homeostasis point of BF. The problem is that it can only burn off so much on it's own so once you exceed that amount the rest is basically going to get stored as fat. That's why I say have your cheats but keep them modest and you won't have to worry.

[DanTheManB]

As far as I know it doesn't get screwed up at all. It ramps up pretty fast after binging. The body is pretty damn smart and it will heat up once it senses the extra cal intake and try to burn it off to bring you back down to your homeostasis point of BF. The problem is that it can only burn off so much on it's own so once you exceed that amount the rest is basically going to get stored as fat. That's why I say have your cheats but keep them modest and you won't have to worry.

eat enough clean food and u wont have issues with cheats post show. dead serious

[Withoutreason]

eat enough clean food and u wont have issues with cheats post show. dead serious

i'll be doing this for my next comp, cheers dan

I think this is where I went wrong, during my time binging I didn't even crave clean food, thinking about clean food didn't even make me hungry

[DanTheManB]

i'll be doing this for my next comp, cheers dan

I think this is where I went wrong, during my time binging I didn't even crave clean food, thinking about clean food didn't even make me hungry

its more dense. will fill u up better and longer

[Barn01]

eat enough clean food and u wont have issues with cheats post show. dead serious

I never said otherwise. I did the clean food thing after all my last 3 shows because I wanted to say lean for fitness model shoots. I could eat almost as much as I wanted and I always held a lean ripped look ... mind you I think it was a little too lean. Hell you saw me a month or two after competing and I was only 7lbs over stage weight. Fatheads was my cheat and I didn't even finish the chips haha ... that's what I meant about the cheats here and there.

[DanTheManB]

I never said otherwise. I did the clean food thing after all my last 3 shows because I wanted to say lean for fitness model shoots. I could eat almost as much as I wanted and I always held a lean ripped look ... mind you I think it was a little too lean. Hell you saw me a month or two after competing and I was only 7lbs over stage weight. Fatheads was my cheat and I didn't even finish the chips haha ... that's what I meant about the cheats here and there.

yea dude i agree 100%