After quite a bit of trial and error in my quest to become a physique competitor, I made the decision about a month ago to “go it alone” – be my own coach, trainer, and nutritionist along the 16-week journey to the stage. Now, when I say “go it alone”, I don’t mean completely alone. I have an incredible support system of friends and family around me to inspire and motivate me as well as friends in the fitness and nutrition community who provide excellent advice and guidance along the way. But, I am not paying a trainer, coach, or nutritionist to create my diet and workout plans. I am doing my own research, studying and learning from the pros out there who share content (some free, some with a price tag), and ultimately drawing my own conclusions about how to do my prep my way. The conclusion I have drawn, following my experience at Paleo Fx 2016, is that my way means the primal/paleo/ancestral way – surprise surprise!
Seriously though, as I waded through the information available on competition prep, I was left a bit underwhelmed by the concepts most prevalent in the competitive physique community that made me question whether I really wanted to go the “conventional” route and ultimately led me to seek out another way (the primal way!). Don’t get me wrong, you can get the “bikini body” by doing all the conventional prep techniques. But, in my opinion, those techniques are not optimal for overall health and wellness in the long term. Here’s a few examples of what I didn’t like about the traditional way of prepping and why I decided to make the switch to the “Keto” way.
THE CONVENTIONAL WAY
Protein dominance. Most conventional prep plans for bikini competitors have you eating 40-50% of calories from protein. It is very difficult to get that amount of protein in a day with real food. This is why so many competitors seem to be dependent on protein supplements: multiple protein shakes &/or bars daily, of which, most all on the market include artificial sweeteners and other additives. This is not ideal for optimal health and performance, in my humble opinion. But then again, I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that most competitors don’t care much about performance and optimal health – only aesthetics. And don’t get me started on the digestive distress and gastrointestinal discomfort you experience on all that protein, especially with protein shakes! (Trust me, it would be TMI.)
Low low low fat. The diet generally calls for 20% or less of your calories to come from fat. Very little to NO cooking oils, which meant my beloved coconut and olive oil was out and had to be replaced with (gag!) spray oils, which you cannot find without harmful additives (even the organic ones). No more bacon, avocado, canned (full-fat) coconut milk, etc. And I had to measure out my olive oil for salads – 1 teaspoon is all I was allowed. As you can imagine, this means most of my meals were not satiating nor flavorful – basically, unenjoyable. Food becomes a tool for creating the body you want and if you love to cook and enjoy delicious, satisfying meals (as I do), this robs you of your joy for food! And do I even need to mention my ethnicity? Telling an Italian/Greek girl she can’t use olive oil is sacrilegious!!
Extensive use of supplements. Beyond just the protein powders, additional use of supplements is extreme. Many bikini competitors use fat burners, diuretics, and many other supplements I could not pronounce, let alone understand what was in them and what they would do to my health long term. This supplementation is expensive and replaces real nutritious food with chemicals to make your body do what it would be doing naturally if you fed it well (insane, right?). This is likely necessary for competitors because they limit their foods to pretty much chicken, egg whites, protein shakes, and rice for 12-16 weeks. Yuck. No thanks.
6-7 meals per day to regulate blood sugar. A few reasons I don’t like the 6-7 meals per day: (1) It can get expensive, especially with all the protein; (2) Meal prep is exhausting; (3) Your whole day becomes about food (your workday is constantly interrupted and it is just difficult to structure your day with that many feedings); and finally (5) You’re constantly hungry! Many times, I would get hungry immediately after eating while also experiencing gastrointestinal discomfort, which made me not want to eat any more and made it difficult to push through workouts.
Peak week techniques. I have not yet experienced a conventional “peak week”, but from what I have read, I have no interest in doing it the conventional way, including dehydration, low carb coupled with low fat diet which makes you moody, irritable, and exhausted.
VS. THE “KETO” WAY…
Moderate protein. No more digestive distress! Less expensive & more nutritious because you can select real food, high-fat, protein sources in their natural state (i.e. bone-in, skin-on, etc.)
High fat! Yay! Food tastes good again! You get to eat all those yummy, satiating good fats – coconut, olive oil, avocado, butter or ghee, bacon! No more dry chicken, plain egg whites and bland steamed broccoli.
Minimal supplements. The key supplements for a Keto diet are nutritional vitamins and minerals – no fat burners, excessive use of protein powders/bars with sweeteners and flavoring added, no anti-bloat pills to reduce water weight (Keto naturally causes your water weight to reduce), no pre-workout BCAA’s, etc. So much more affordable!
Fewer meals daily because (a) the increased dietary fat keeps you satiated for longer periods of time and (b) without consuming carbs, there is no insulin spikes so no need for frequent meals to regulate blood sugar because it is already regulated as your body burns fat for fuel.
No crazy peak week tricks and no horrible side effects. Peak week tricks should not be needed on Keto because your body is naturally expelling water with the lack of carbs (this is why many body builders cut carbs a couple weeks out from a contest, which is horrible for your health when you are already on a low fat diet. Eating low fat AND low carb for long periods of time causes depression, mood swings, lethargy, etc. and should not be done for more than a week or two at a time.
SO, HERE WE GO…
I began keto adaptation last week, working toward getting my body into a state of ketosis so that it will burn fat instead of glucose for energy, and I am now on day 5 of adaptation. I am beginning to experience fewer side effects, so it seems to successful thus far.
MY MACROS:
I have been aiming to keep my macros as close to the following as possible to allow for optimal adaptation, while still keeping enough protein in my diet to feed my muscles while not being converted to glycogen:
P – 60-90g (15-20%) – aiming for .8g – 1g of protein per lb. of lean body mass (LBM)
C – <50 (<10%) – shooting for less than 30g of “net” carbs, meaning total carbs minus fiber
F – 100+ (70-75%) – filling in the remainder of my calories to satiety
My calories for this phase (in phase 2 of prep, at 12 weeks out) is between 1,400-1,600 per day, with an expected total expenditure of 2,000-2,500 per day from regular daily activity plus my workouts. So, remaining in a caloric deficit to drop 1-2 lbs of fat weekly. Which reminds me, the other beautiful benefit of ketosis is that it is muscle-sparing, so it naturally keeps your muscle mass while helping you drop body fat! And since I spent time over the last year building muscle, I definitely do not need to build, but maintain.
Going to have my body composition analysis done tomorrow to get an in-depth understanding of where I am, and will get updates each month leading to my competition. I haven’t selected a show yet, but aiming for the end of August. Stay tuned for posts about Keto adaptation, workouts, daily meals with recipes, and physique progress!
Oh, and if you know anyone who has successfully used ketosis to prep for a bikini comp, please feel free to hit me up – I would LOVE to connect and learn about their process.
Let the keto cutting begin!!
~ Natalie