Dieting for my next show

[CFranzen1]

Hello everyone,

Okay, here's my problem. I am having a hard time understanding pre-contest diets especially what's been going on with me. I have been feeling pretty satisfied with eating only two meals a day and can't seem to eat every meal or at least finish them. I know that your stomach shrinks (please correct me if I am wrong), but I know that I should be eating more. What gives! Try to eat more often but it's just not happening. I look at the food and just push it away. I'm just not hungry! However, the price being paid is the lack of energy and strength in the gym. I do take supplements, multi-vitamin, fish oils, fat burner, and digestive enzymes and protein shake (only in the morning). I use to eat 5-6 meals a day but can only eat 2 meals now.

How do I fix this? I have done my first show in June and everything went fine with the diet and exercise, but now...well, it's just odd.

Any advice would help. Thanks

[twinnett]

Are you sure you're not overtraining? That could lead to a loss of hunger...how is water? What are you eating at your two meals? What are you doing in the gym? Is the fat burner an appetite suppressant?

[MsFit]

It could be that you need to train your body to eat more. You can do that by scheduling yourself to eat small meals thoughout the day. Take what you are normally eating and make it into 3 meals and build up from there. Do you have any idea of how many calories you eat a day? Here's a contest prep ebook The Competitive Edge, but you really need to increase the number of meals you eat a day for your first step.

[iNatalia]

Originally Posted by twinnett

Is there a fat burner or an appetite suppressant you are taking?

That would be my 1st question to you, too. If you've been eating under your maintenance for a while your body might have gone into survival mode. The truth is with your hight and weight you should be eating a lot more than you are eating now. Like Ms. Fit said, you gotta make yourself eat now. A little increase in cals at a time. Extremely low cal diets mess with your metabolism seriously.

[CFranzen1]

I don't think I am overtraining. I was doing cardio 7 times a week but I dropped down to 3 times a week. Weight training was 4 times a week but that has dropped down to 2 times a week.

Water intake is about 3 liters a day, but it was a little over a gallon a day.

I am taking Lipo 6X as a fat burner, but am out of it for now.

When I was eating 5-6 small meals, I averaged about 1700 kcal. a day. I really don't know what my caloric intake is now. The two meals I have is oatmeal, protein shake and coffee in the morning and dinner is 5oz. chicken breast with a sweet potato and garden salad.....that's pretty much it. Sometimes I could get in a bagel in the middle of my day, but I rarely want it and don't really finish it.

Should I do more at the gym to build an appetite again?

I think I could just start eating more salads throughout the day, could that help?