Calories and Cardio

Wow! 3 weeks out already. Weighed in this week at 114 and 10.7% bodyfat. That's right where I need to be. In fact, I have never been ready for a show this for out. I usually come in right at the last minute. I will just try to coast in from here. Goal is to lose very little muscle and if my bodyfat does not change in the next two weeks that will be OK too. The week of the show I will probably drop another percent. I do not want to look too "skinny" or lean. I have more muscle this time and honestly just appear "fitter" this time around. Is that a word?

Anyway, someone asked me about my caloric intake. Believe it or not I have been taking in 2000 calories from about 6 weeks out and back. I was decreased to 1700 for a couple of weeks and then at 4 weeks out and continuing now, I am on 1650 calories a day. My breakdown is 60/30/10 carbs/protein/fat. Even on the 2000 calories I was losing fat. I was also gaining muscle. There is a saying that you have to eat in order to get lean...that means eating "clean" of course. You must journal your food or have a printed out meal plan when doing something like this. You think you are taking enough calories in but your not...or you think you are staying within your caloric range but you are greatly over consuming calories. You can't be for sure if you are not doing one or the other. It is science. I can figure out mathematically how many calories it takes to maintain my weight of 114. Guess what? Your trainer can also figure out how many calories it takes to maintain your 190lbs. So you might as well be truthful about it. You deserve to be honest to yourself. It's the only way you will change your eating habits.

I was also asked about cardio and whether or not I do any. Honestly, this time I have done no cardio at all in order to get where I am. Typically within the 6-week mark I will start doing 15 minutes of moderate cardio after each weight lifting session. This time however, since I have already reached my goal, there is no reason to do this. You should be able to, with proper diet and intense weight lifting sessions, reach your goal without cardio. I know I can hear it now..."What about your heart"? If you are working out hard in the gym, then your heart is being exercised. I realize I can't go run 5 miles without getting winded...but I'm not training for a marathon either.

If you have never read my blog about cardio vs. weight training you may want to do so to get a better of idea of how I fit cardio into my plan. Just go into my archives and check it out.

Next blog: How much can you bench? Updated photos to come.

Your suit is fine....No it isn't

Since I recently met with the woman who is making my suit I thought it would be appropriate to talk about what is and is not "suitable" for competition. Well, your guess is as good as mine. I have talked with several people, including the woman making my suit, and there is some confusion at the amateur level about what is and is not acceptable. My seamstress has had to redo several suits at the last minute because judges are throwing them out at weigh in. Can you imagine? Spending all that money only to have no suit for the competition. Well it's happening quite a bit apparently. One judge was asked about this and this was her response. It seems to depend on the head judge. So and So (I won't mention any names to protect the innocent) is more conservative and so and so lets just about anything go. But what are we supposed to do then? Well, I guess this brings me back to a previous blog I wrote regarding knowing who your head judge is. I would not hesitate if I had any doubt, to email the head judge a picture and get his/her feedback. Just don't alter the suit if you get the Ok...you are just asking for it to be thrown out. The NPC rules state the back has to cover 50% of the glutes. Bet you didn't know that. Especially since you have never seen 50% of the glutes covered since I competed in 2010. LOL That year I was told my suit needed to be smaller by one judge...the judge who tends to throw out more suits today. LOL Times change. My suits are less conservative today than when I started, but still more conservative than others today. I do not want to have to purchase an extra suit, so I am going to make sure I don't walk that line.

I have posted some progress pictures. My bodyfat is the same but my weight is down. This is not good. This means I have lost some muscle. Frustrating to say the least. But I just tweak things a bit and keep going.

6 weeks out!

So here I am at 6 weeks out. My water retention is better but I could tell some difference in the pictures. Not as good as I had hoped but not bad either. I met with the lady making my suit today. I know exactly what fabric I want. I just hope they make it in the color I am going with this year. While I am focusing on this show, I am already looking towards the Junior Nationals. I will try to get my flight booked and make hotel reservations soon. I will get quotes this week on my t-shirts. I have narrowed it down to a couple of different sayings but need to get that finalized as well. Six weeks out means workouts have to be even more focused than before. I throw in extra lunges and step-ups to lift that booty and I always LOAD IT UP! No time for slacking now. I'm just getting started.