The Best Diets for Contest Prep

Dieting is the most important aspect of contest prep. No amount of muscle can hide the fat of a competitor who did not choose and follow the right nutrition plan. Winning or losing a show comes down to a competitor’s ability to stick to the plan.

The Best Diet is the Plan You stick With

Before getting to the discussion about the best diets for a bodybuilder, bikini competitor, or other division in the sport, let’s talk about diet adherence.

An average plan that is correctly followed will always be better than the best diet plan that is inconsistently executed. When choosing the best diet for contest prep you need to find out enough about the diet to decide if it will fit with your lifestyle.

Fundamentals On How to Diet for a Competition

There are certain aspects of contest prep that everyone will need to follow when getting ready for a show. While they may not be necessary for general fat loss, we require these fundamentals to reach the low body fat percentages worthy of a bodybuilding stage.

Calorie Intake: Being consistent with the total calories consumed is how to make sure that you are sticking to any contest prep plan.

Caloric Deficit: There is no way to get shredded without going into a calorie deficit. Any pre contest diet plan is going to recommend that you consume fewer calories than you burn. A contest prep coach will help you decide how low of a deficit you need to be in.

Carbohydrate intake: Almost no contest prep plans will recommend a free for all with your carb intake. Each unique plan will have a different carbohydrate use strategy, but at some point they all require tracking.

Calorie adjustments: As your body composition changes, so will your calorie intake. A contest prep diet will continuously adjust with your body. Some may be at specific times, while others may adjust when progress stops. Unless you have out of this world genetics, expect your calories to adjust.

Competition Prep Diets

The following list of diet plans is what you will see the top contest prep coaches use for their diets. However, this is a broad category list and there are plenty of variables for each of the diet strategies recommended.

IIFYM Contest Prep Meal Plan

Called the “lazy approach” to contest prep is the “If it fits your macro’s” diet plan. What this diet plan entails is sticking to macronutrient ratio but being flexible with the carbohydrate, protein, and fat food types that are consumed.

The IIFYM diet allows you to choose the food types you want. You can eat high fat and carb sources such as ice cream every night of the week. There is no definition of quality on this type of diet. A whey protein shake would have the same level of acceptance as an incomplete protein source. The decision is yours to make.

Some coaches allow this type of diet for the beginning and middle parts of the contest prep. At some point the plan will shift to specific macro tracking. The lazy approach when reaching lower body fat percentages could lead to a reduction in muscle mass and fat accumulation.

Carbohydrate Tapering Contest Prep Meal Plan

This diet closely resembles the zone diet with a balanced nutrition ratio of protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Over time, they slowly replace the carbohydrates with additional protein. In the last stages of a contest prep this becomes a low carbohydrate, modest fat, and high protein diet.

This type of bodybuilding diet plan has worked for many years and helped thousands of competitors take the title. During the initial phase, the body weight drops at a consistent pace. However, as the diet continues, many will experience energy dips that make contest prep a grueling and almost unbearable process.

The concern with this program is that it eventually slows our metabolism and forces us to either perform more cardio or pull out more calories. Either option risks increased amino acid catabolism (wasting of muscle tissue). Muscle wasting can still occur even with a high protein intake as the body will need the amino acids for other bodily processes.

A contest prep coach who has success with this type of program is one who closely monitors the progress of their clients. They can manipulate carbohydrate and fat amounts as well as timing to prevent this from happening.

Ketogenic Contest Meal Plan

Initially popularized as a contest prep plan by bodybuilding champion and nutrition expert Dave Palumbo, this diet helped competitors feel better through the process. His plans keep hormone levels high, and the brain fueled for the many weeks of competition prep.

Most understand the general requirements for a ketogenic diet, but this form of keto allows for a greater protein intake. Since the body is breaking down muscle and in a caloric deficit, the body needs more protein to help maintain lean body mass while losing body fat.

Most ketogenic contest prep plans are actually a version of cyclical ketosis. Cyclical ketosis is when you are going in and out of ketosis depending on the time of the day and amount of carbohydrates and protein consumed.

Higher protein intake is not enough to contribute to cyclical ketosis. The athlete who performs high-intensity strength training greatly depletes glucose stores through exercise. This type of weight training mitigates the insulin response created from high protein intake. Where cyclical ketosis is created is with the general recommendation of a re-feed day. This cheat meal is a way to increase the hormones that slow down our metabolism.

Carb Cycling Contest Meal Plan

Cycling carbohydrates is a more recent trend in contest prep. Using this type of competition diet strategy is considered to be the best at retaining lean muscle. In the early stages, you may even experience some muscle growth. This diet will also help prevent your body from adapting to the diet, causing a plateau in fat loss.

Carb cycling plans include high carb, moderate carb, and low carbohydrate days. Each day is specifically structured based on your training schedule to give you the energy you need when you need it.

Cycling carbs can also help to maintain adequate levels of the hormones leptin and ghrelin.

Leptin: When leptin is low, the metabolism will have a self-regulation effect. At some point this becomes a concern for the competitor. Consuming moderate and high carb days helps to prevent this from happening.

Ghrelin: Being hungry while dieting makes contest prep significantly harder to see through. Moderate and higher carb days help to control ghrelin, which is the hormone that tells us we are hungry.

The carb cycling diet is perhaps the most comprehensive of the plans mentioned as it requires different calories and macronutrients for different days of the week. This could be a challenge for the beginning bodybuilder, bikini, wellness, or physique competitor. However, you must willing to do whatever it takes if you want to become a champion.

Choosing the Best Contest Prep Diet For You

With all the different nutritional strategies mentioned, it is important to remember that you have a unique body, lifestyle, and opinions. These are all important considerations when deciding what is the best contest prep diet for you.

Choosing a plan that you cannot cannot follow or just flat out hate is going to lead to failure. Either you will fall off the plan and show up to the contest out of shape or fall off and not show up at all. Either way, you lose your motivation and desire to compete in the future.

Creating Your Own Contest Prep Diet

It may seem like a good idea to find a pre-built plan and follow it with modifications based on an interpretation of what is best for you. This is rarely a good idea. Contest prep dieting takes a toll on your mind and body. Holding yourself accountable and having to figure out the adjustments needed could be the tipping point that causes you to throw in the towel. Every top level competitor has a team around them that plays a role in helping them look their best. You are no different.

Choosing a Contest Prep Diet Coach

If you know which nutrition strategy is going to be the best fit for you, seek a coach that recommends the same type of plan. If you do not know which plan to follow then seek a contest prep coach that is reputable and will be there to guide you along the way. A good coach will take your body type, lifestyle, and opinions into consideration when creating your diet plan.

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