The Goal
To slowly work my way down to a consistent 138lb training weight and be as lean and strong as possible.
Starting point
143lbs
Chest 38.5in
Waist 31in
Hips 38in
Progress
139.8lbs actual weight/140.7 average weight from this week
Chest 36.5in
Waist 29in
Hips 37in
Macros
120g protein
200g carbs
60g fat
Last year I was the leanest I have ever been. I dieted down to 136lbs for a few competitions (132lbs after a water cut). The first two times I had a six pack for the three weeks prior to the meet and felt pretty good. The third meet I wasn’t as lean but made it into my weight class ok enough.
I was following a diet template that had me so hungry I was grumpy most of the time and needed a disgusting refeed every weekend (Like the 12 hour eat until you want to puke kind of refeed). After every competition I would fall off the wagon and eat everything that I deprived myself of before. I’d be off the diet wagon until I felt a sense of urgency leading into a meet which was usually about 4-6 weeks out. Now while I was off the diet wagon, I wouldn’t weigh over 142lbs, so I wasn’t too far off, but still not fueling myself correctly, and leaving myself peaking on too big of a caloric deficit.
This spring I, like many others was inspired by the vertical diet, and felt amazing for about the first week, but after that was tired all the time, bloated, and mentally up and down. As soon as I switched from eating only beef to subbing more chicken in, I started feeling much better, a lesson learnt, but I was stuck too heavy for a water cut before a meet and had to compete at 148 because of it.
I knew something needed to change after the stress of moving across the country and finals left me even more bloated. I wanted something to put my energy into. I decided to hire a diet company to help me stay accountable, and learn to keep my nutrition in check whether I’m in the off season, or getting ready for a competition. I’m about three weeks in and already noticing some pretty significant body composition changes, while eating more food than I was before. This has me feeling really good mentally. I can already see my work paying off, and while I still have plenty more work to get where I want to be, I have confidence that I can get there. The biggest difference from what I was doing before is that instead of having my calories being so low I need massive refeeds, my daily calories are higher with no refeeds. I’ve been learning to track while going out to dinner with friends, which is a learning experience for me. Learning to manage my daily calories while still enjoying eating is keeping me much more sane, and is something I can see myself doing longer term, which is the goal.