hey y’all,
i’m pretty new to t-mag, and there seems to be some knowledgiable people in the t-forums, so i think this would be the best place to find the info that i seek. here goes. is it possible to go from 7%-3% bf in three weeks? and if so,how? i am competing in my first physique competition on may 3rd, i started preparing 16 weeks out, i have just three weeks left and my bf% seems to be stuck at 7. can someone suggest a program/diet that might help get me there in time. extreme and radical suggestions are welcome. keep in mind that it is a natural competition, and i will be tested for a variaty of things.
just 4% to go…if any one can help me, you all can…if not, i guess there is no hope.
here are my stats
age: 25
height: 5’8"
weight: 165lbs
body fat: 7%
neck: 15.5"
chest: 43"
shoulders: 49"
waist: 28"
arms: 16"
forearms: 13"
thighs: 24"
calves: 16"
I think you can do it but you need to take one day and eat carbs if you have not been doing that. This is to trick your body into loosing weight. I’m assuming you are on a very low fat/carb diet. Then the next day eat nothing but chicken breasts and egg whites and continue this until the day of competition. Restrict your calories to 1450 a day do 20 minutes of cardio a day, lift heavy this will force your body keep lean muscle mass. Pose, pose, pose. Drink lots of water to flush fat and supplement fiber before bed. On the day of competition eat some sugary carbs even sugar candy is good. Have a glass of wine an hour before the show it will make you more vascular. You must be very strict with your diet. You will probably feel light headed at times and you lifting weight will drop dramatically, just lift as heavy as possible. Drink at least 1 gallon of water a day. Take melatonin at night to help you sleep. I hope this helps
The body will do crazy things to prevent you from going that low in BF%. Even the Olympia competitors would be hard pressed to reach those levels with all the drugs they are using, a natural competitor would not see it happen. Many BF% tests, especially once a person gets to the 5-7bf% level, can easily be skewed therefore getting an accurate measure at either extreme of leaness/fatness becomes ever more difficult and less accurate. A person who gets a 3% reading, might actually be 5%. The total skinfold is so low at that point that even a very experienced measurer will be off most of the time. I can’t speak for hydrostatic measuring as most people don’t have access to this.
yes i am on a low fat/carb diet, however my daily caloric intake is around 2000…considering that my maintainance daily cal. is 3000-3500, 1450/day seems a little bit extreme…but, i did say radical or extreme. your advice seems to be based on the same principles as in the “cheaters diet”…good looking out Machine,thanks…so now i have a plan of attack. mdragon, can you suggest a good way to shed water pre-contest?
thanks again guys, i’ll be sure to post some pics after i win this thing.
dogchild, you say 5%, i say 3%…i can compromise at 4%.
yes i am on a low fat/carb diet, however my daily caloric intake is around 2000…considering that my maintainance daily cal. is 3000-3500, 1450/day seems a little bit extreme…but, i did say radical or extreme. your advice seems to be based on the same principles as in the “cheaters diet”…good looking out Machine,thanks…so now i have a plan of attack. mdragon, can you suggest a good way to shed water pre-contest?
thanks again guys, i’ll be sure to post some pics after i win this thing.
dogchild, you say 5%, i say 3%…i can compromise at 4%.
You do realize that at even at 5 percent, you can look better than many who claim/have lower percentages if you know your body in terms of prep (water manipulation, carb loading, etc etc).
I would say that your goal is not realistic considering you’ve been at it for a while, but if you do things right, a two percent drop could be attainable in your alloted time.
Also, what method are you using to test your bodyfat? Something I’ve learned is that the margin of error on a lot of these methods can be greater than many realize. Case in point…Jackson Pollock 3-site. A common method, but when I used it, it showed me at eight percent bodyfat a few weeks back. Upon taking some pictures, however, it became obvious to me that this was not an accurate measurement (around 11 percent was more like it). I did use the Lange calipers too…not the cheap plastic models.
i have only been cutting for the past 5 weeks, not the entire 16 weeks, the rest of the time was spent on mass building and symetry. when i started my cutting phase i was @ 180lbs./10%, as my metabolizm is on the higher side, i find it hard to maintain a body weight of more than 150lbs./7%. so, it was a task to get up to that weight(no, i did not gain 30lbs all in three months)and then maintaining as much lean muscle mass as possible. fortunitly for me, because of my frame and build, my 165lbs. looks more like 175lbs. yes, you know, you are right, someone @ 5% can look alot beter than someone who claims to be lower, and even @ 7% i look pretty damn good, but i just want to be sure to go in as shredded as possible, so there will be no question as to who the winner is. to measure my body fat i’ve done both skin fold and bio-electric, which uses reactence/impedence to measure bone density, body fat, muscle mass, and water. the result was 6%.
by the way if you have any suggestions for pre-contest water shed, i would appreciate it.
i can put some pics up, but i don’t have a digi-cam or scanner, so it may take a day or two. however, to give you an idea of what i look like until then, take a look at Reverse’s pic under “my pic” in the photo category (if you haven’t already.) we have very similar builds and definatly the same amount of definition.
bro, my advice to you is to find a pre contest guy in your area fast. Truth be told, there is alot of knowledge here, but I don’t know if any of us have any interest in competing…therefore we really don’t know much about the final 3 weeks of contest prep. Going from 12 to 7 percent, yes…7 to 3…get a guru. There just isn’t a big margin for error. So find a guy in your area that does this, its easy just go to any big gym and ask at the front desk they’ll be able to help. Even if he can’t get you to 3 %, he’ll make you look a hell of a lot better than we could without even seeing you.
FormelyJohn I have competed before and so has a couple of people in this forum. Like Patricia for example and I know a couple others out there have knowledge about competing such as Thunder.
Ture that most people will not ever venture into a bodybuilding show in this forum but it doesn’t mean that all of us haven’t been in a show or has competed before or even is doing future shows. I believe even Patricia is competing in the TEAM UNIVERSE this year am I correct or incorrect Patricia.
I myself maybe doing for my last show the MuscleMaina in November of 2004.
way ahead of you bro. i have already spoken with two seasoned competitors and picked up a few pointers and set up a game plan for the next few weeks, and i have to tell you that their advice was not much different than the advice i got here, both in the forum and PM…you are right though, with the time i have left there is no margin for error. so, posting my question in T-forums was my way of covering all the bases. i have been browsing through the forums for quite sometime now, and yes there are some competitors here. i knew that this would be a good place to get some advice…“advice”…sight unseen (me), or at the very least get directed to a T-mag article that might suit my needs…seeing as how it was a T-mag article (The Growth Surge Project I, II, & III) that got this 5’8" hardgainer to 180lbs/10% in the first place. sure, you can get a better assessment in person, but don’t discount the info you can pickup in the T-forums. i may be new to competition and competition prep, but i am not new to training as i am both a Lifestyle manager, Personal trainer, and nutritionist…there is definatly some good information here.
good luck in the MuscleMania 2004 show, if you decide to do it. the show i am doing on may 3rd in Toronto, the FAME Championships, is a division of MuscleMania.
fitone, I know there are some competitors here, but the majority are not. Thats why I made the recommendation to get help from someone that specializes in that. You would know that especially the last 2 weeks before a comp little things become crucial, like sodium and water intake…its just best that you have someone actually seeing you in person that risking your who contest prep.
just to let you’ll know,incase you didn’t already, that "cheaters diet " is fantastic…gave me just the boost i needed and the percentage is dropping again. last read this morning was 5%bf with minimal lose in lean about a lb. or two…going to do a hydrostatic test next wednesday. this should give a very accurate reading…may just make that super-low, super-ripped percentage after all.
still working on getting those pics up…thanks again.
well it is three days unitl my show, and as of this morning at 8am i am down to 4%bf (bioelectric testing). so a total decrease of 3% in 2 1/2 weeks, pretty good ay. i’ll be sure to post pics from the show. thanks again for all the advice.
follow the supplement recomendations at the end of the Meltdown III article. Also I recomend cutting back on fibrous vegetables, bagged chicken, and eggs the last three days; don’t know why but this was recomended a while back to me and it tightens me up proper. Cut water intake in half three days out, then one day out cut it in half again. Sodium should be kept low; also have a good carb up meal about 3-4 hours prior to the contest.
This works for me but for each his own.
