Want to compete in Trained Figure - need diet advice!

Hi All 
 (posted this in the nutrition section, but then saw there was a ladies section- yay!)
I was wondering if anyone could share their diet, or a recommend  good diet for someone who is hoping to compete in the Trained FIgure catergory next year?
 
Im hoping to compete next year, and have changed from a veggie diet to eating meat because i really want to try my hardest to do well! I just dont know how much carb im supposed to have and all that.
I weigh 8st 12, and am about 5 ft 5.
 
This is my current diet...
 
8am - 5 egg whites
9am - 60g porridge with 1% fat milk
11am - Cup of tea, protein bar or low fat cottage cheese with pineapple, plus 10 nuts
1:00 - Either eggs on bagel (2eggs plus extra egg whites) or chicken and pasta, or chicken curry and brown rice. (all home made)
4:00 - banana or apple, plus cottage cheese if i hvent had it in the morning, or tin of tuna, or .. what else could i have?? I also have another 10 nuts
PRE TRAINING - protein shake
AFTER TRAINING - protein shake
Dinner abut 8:30 - homemade dinner   - so tonight for example. beef stew - lots of veg. i try to avoid carbs in the evening.
Before bed - 5 egg whites
 
There are days when i'll have 'treats' but above is the normal ideal 'clean' day!
Any feedback or guidance would be amazing.
 
Training wise, i do a 5 day split, plus Body Balance, Yoga and Pump classes.
Again - thoughts on that would be great too.
Also going to start taking some amino acids. Wasn't sure if there are any other natural supplements that would help?
 
Any advice would be such a help
 
Thank you x

jenabenabowden


I weigh 8st 12, and am about 5 ft 5.

This is my current diet...

8am - 5 egg whites
9am - 60g porridge with 1% fat milk
11am - Cup of tea, protein bar or low fat cottage cheese with pineapple, plus 10 nuts
1:00 - Either eggs on bagel (2eggs plus extra egg whites) or chicken and pasta, or chicken curry and brown rice. (all home made)
4:00 - banana or apple, plus cottage cheese if i hvent had it in the morning, or tin of tuna, or .. what else could i have?? I also have another 10 nuts
PRE TRAINING - protein shake
AFTER TRAINING - protein shake
Dinner abut 8:30 - homemade dinner   - so tonight for example. beef stew - lots of veg. i try to avoid carbs in the evening.
Before bed - 5 egg whites

There are days when i'll have 'treats' but above is the normal ideal 'clean' day!
Any feedback or guidance would be amazing.

I have a few questions before I give any opinions:

• What's the reasoning behind having your protein at 8am and your Oats at 9am? 
• Check your protein bar - a lot have fats in them, meaning you wouldn't necessarily need nuts too in this meal.
• How much Chicken, Pasta/Brown Rice in the next meal? You have good fats from your eggs, but do you not have any fats if you're just having chicken and pasta/rice?
• Your protein shake pre-training - does it contain carbs?
• "         "          "        post-training - "      "   "         "
• You have no carbs in your evening meal after your workout? Is that right?
• Lastly, are you seeking to lose weight or build muscle in your run up to a competition? Or both even!

Oh, and welcome! I always get those bits the wrong way round!!!! 

Thanks for the reply flick
 
okay answers below....
 
- I have my eggs when i'm getting read to leave the house and then eat my oats at work when i get to my desk. Do you think it would be best to have them at the same time?
- Protein bar - the ones i have are about 4g saturated fat. do you think thats ok? i try and only have them abou 3 times a week. and view it as a better option than a normal chocolate bar. Would you advise to use these? or only have as treats perhaps?
- lunch meal - it would be about 60g chicken and 80g carbs. Today i had eggs and a brown bagel. Do i need to have fats in all meals?
- protein shake  - i just have a Impact Whey Protein shake from My Protein. Im not sure if it contains carbs? (gosh what a newbie i am!)
- evening meal - no carbs yes. I had it drilled in to me that carbs at night time are bad. Is this not correct?
 
At the moment i dont want to lose weight as such. I'm hoping to compete with NPA which i think is October time. Therefore, should i be concentrating on building muscle and 'bulking up'?
 
I really want to speak to someone that's 'been there done that'/ My aunts sister is Bev Hahn, so i did contact her, but i think she's too busy to take time to talk to me. Which is a real shame, as i have so much to learn!
 
thank you for taking time out to reply x

jenabenabowden


Thanks for the reply flick

okay answers below....

- I have my eggs when i'm getting read to leave the house and then eat my oats at work when i get to my desk. Do you think it would be best to have them at the same time?
I would preferably have them the same time, only because your body is recovering from a fasted sleep for 8 hours, so you want to get in carbs and protein as early as possible to break the fast. 
- Protein bar - the ones i have are about 4g saturated fat. do you think thats ok? i try and only have them abou 3 times a week. and view it as a better option than a normal chocolate bar. Would you advise to use these? or only have as treats perhaps?
Nothing wrong with a protein bar whilst you're trying to build muscle. As you said, your comp's October time so nothing to worry about here. When dieting, you could factor in a protein bar if you wanted but there are also probably better food sources out there.
- lunch meal - it would be about 60g chicken and 80g carbs. Today i had eggs and a brown bagel. Do i need to have fats in all meals?
80g carbs as in dried rice/pasta weight? Or as in there are 80g carbs in your pasta and rice? You don't need to have fats in all meals no but when dieting (again not to worry about now) it's easier if you do food swaps, that they have the same macronutrient value or else when you're needing to change things up you'll struggle to know what you've eaten - does that make sense?
- protein shake  - i just have a Impact Whey Protein shake from My Protein. Im not sure if it contains carbs? (gosh what a newbie i am!)
I've just bought Impact Whey myself! Good choice! No it doesn't contain carbs. So, for your pre-workout meal, you'll need some carbs for energy from oats/rice/bread/pasta/banana; and then in your post-workout shake you'll need some fast-releasing carbs from maltodextrin/glucose etc. Whilst you're trying to build muscle, I would also have some carbs in your solid food meal. Your metabolism is raised after a workout and you need to replenish glycogen stores to help your muscles recover and grow. 
- evening meal - no carbs yes. I had it drilled in to me that carbs at night time are bad. Is this not correct?
See above, carbs are not 'bad' at any time of day. You just have to consider when your body will use them that's all. If you workout in the evening, then I see no harm in carbs in evening. You may want to reconsider this when dieting, but personally, I keep them in.
At the moment i dont want to lose weight as such. I'm hoping to compete with NPA which i think is October time. Therefore, should i be concentrating on building muscle and 'bulking up'?

I really want to speak to someone that's 'been there done that'/ My aunts sister is Bev Hahn, so i did contact her, but i think she's too busy to take time to talk to me. Which is a real shame, as i have so much to learn!

thank you for taking time out to reply x

I hope that's not too much to take on board :-) If I've said anything that's confused you, just shout won't you?
I've competed with the NPA myself  Nice to see you being so sensible and taking a full year to plan instead of jumping on in there. Good luck.

Hi Jenna and welcome
 
I haven't anything to add to Flick's excellent advice (and I'm a newbie myself anyway so better to listen to her!) However I did want to ask if you're the Jenna who wrote on the NPA's FB wall - you're in Oxfordshire? Depending on where you are, it's possible we live near to each other and I'm always happy to chat over coffee. If you want to , feel free to ping me a message here.
 
Good luck and enjoy, it looks like you're off to a great start. Hopefully I'll meet you backstage at an NPA show next year!  

NicChip


Hi Jenna and welcome

I haven't anything to add to Flick's excellent advice (and I'm a newbie myself anyway so better to listen to her!) However I did want to ask if you're the Jenna who wrote on the NPA's FB wall - you're in Oxfordshire? Depending on where you are, it's possible we live near to each other and I'm always happy to chat over coffee. If you want to , feel free to ping me a message here.

Good luck and enjoy, it looks like you're off to a great start. Hopefully I'll meet you backstage at an NPA show next year!  

Hi Nicola
Thank you for the warm welcome!
Yes, that was me on the NPA FB page! Where abouts do you live? I live in Banbury. I would love to meet for a coffee, or if you wanted to come to the private gym i go to and train together? It would be great to meet someone who's competed and get some real 'been there done that' advice! And you've done amazingly! I was there at the NPA finals-  you were in the Physique weren't you? There were some great bodies up there and you did great! You must have been very pleased 
 
Thanks again

Flick - going to digest your message and reply properly tonight.
Thank you! x

Welcome to MT ! Excellent advice from Flick

Competing is fantastic ! ... get yourself a journal started and we'll all help yu
 
Good luck x

Thanks Jenna, yes I am a Physique competitor and was indeed at the NPA Finals. Thanks for the kind words.
 
Banbury - you're a bit far from me - I'm near Wokingham so not far from the Oxfordshire border. I travel around a bit though so if I'm ever up round your way I'll ping you a message! Happy to help if I can (although I can't comment much about the specifics of Figure). Training together sounds fab!

Welcome to MT

flick161

jenabenabowden


Thanks for the reply flick

- lunch meal - it would be about 60g chicken and 80g carbs. Today i had eggs and a brown bagel. Do i need to have fats in all meals?
80g carbs as in dried rice/pasta weight? Or as in there are 80g carbs in your pasta and rice? You don't need to have fats in all meals no but when dieting (again not to worry about now) it's easier if you do food swaps, that they have the same macronutrient value or else when you're needing to change things up you'll struggle to know what you've eaten - does that make sense? I guess i need to be more exact here. I weight my carbs sometimes, and know that its a chicken breast in my curry or whatever i have, but you're right - my intake will be different when i swap foods and have egg and bagel. i guess i need to be more consistent so i know that i'm getting my daily intake of protein and that its high enough, and still a reasonable amount of carbs and fats etc to give me the energy to work and train!
- protein shake  - i just have a Impact Whey Protein shake from My Protein. Im not sure if it contains carbs? (gosh what a newbie i am!)
I've just bought Impact Whey myself! Good choice! No it doesn't contain carbs. So, for your pre-workout meal, you'll need some carbs for energy from oats/rice/bread/pasta/banana; and then in your post-workout shake you'll need some fast-releasing carbs from maltodextrin/glucose etc. Whilst you're trying to build muscle, I would also have some carbs in your solid food meal. Your metabolism is raised after a workout and you need to replenish glycogen stores to help your muscles recover and grow.  I've taken this onboard and have now introduced a scoop of maltodextrin into my post-workout shake. Thank you :) Also, what do you think about amino acid supplements taken before and after training? I know they are the building blocks of muscle! Thats right isnt it?
- evening meal - no carbs yes. I had it drilled in to me that carbs at night time are bad. Is this not correct?
See above, carbs are not 'bad' at any time of day. You just have to consider when your body will use them that's all. If you workout in the evening, then I see no harm in carbs in evening. You may want to reconsider this when dieting, but personally, I keep them in. Okay. thank you!

I hope that's not too much to take on board :-) If I've said anything that's confused you, just shout won't you?
I've competed with the NPA myself  Nice to see you being so sensible and taking a full year to plan instead of jumping on in there. Good luck.

Been reading a lot on this MT. it's so useful! Does anyone know of a PT in the Oxfordshire area that would be able to advise me on my training and posing etc etc? I know it's a long way off yet, but wanted to be able to practice the moves and see how my muscles (what few i have!) improve as my training goes on.
 
Also, do you know of any seminars/workshops for this type of thing? i saw that alot of you went to one in Eccles this year. Sounds like it was really beneficial!
 
Thanks again for your help x

Hi Kitty and Welshy! 
 
Thank you for the welcome! Looking forward to learning and improving lots! x

Hey Jena,
saw you on the other forum I go apart from this one - you should be able to find someone there based in Oxfordshire I'd imagine!
BNBF posing clubs are in Hertfordshire (which unfortunately is quite a way from you, but you're always welcome!)
As for Amino's, personally, I don't take them, but yes, you're right the are the building blocks  If were going to take them, I'd do so post-workout. Others will be able to give you their views on these I'm sure 

There is BodyBionic Gym - about an hour away in Berkshire. Don't know anywhere nearer though I'm afraid :-(
 
A Figure girl called Hollie trains there, and Nick Openshaw who runs the gym is a lovely guy, and bodybuilding competitor 

is that 'natural muscle.co.uk' ?
I've just joined there last night. trying to get focused!
 
Someone mentioned Heather Smith in Rugby on the NPA FB page.
There seem to be so few where i live
I would DEF love to travel for the BNBF posing clubs - would def be worth while! Do you know when they are scheduled?
 
I've been reading your blog, and kels and Welshys. Very inspiring and so helpful!  Sounds like competing is a complete rollar coaster ride! and even off-season food wise is a battle with the mind! So much to look forward to!

I use Aminos when dieting. I take them both before and after training.

Hi!
If we stay in the UK, I could be up for meeting at BodyBionic sometime, s'only an hour down the M4 from me xx

I saw that about Heather. A great competitor, and also an excellent trainer, so I've heard  Very approachable.
 
Competing is a roller-coaster. I'm pretty much ok with off-seasons (or else I wouldn't take full year's off every other year!) but  during comp season I'm a nightmare! Ask any of this lot!
 
If you join Unofficial BNBF Group on FB, you'll find dates of posing clubs there - none til the New year now I suspect, most have just finished competing and are enjoying their grub 

Thank hififi. If you do fancy meeting at that gym to train and talk competing that would be great :)

Hmm Flick, I can't seem to find the BNBF fscebook page? Will have another search now.

Feeling really positive today! ESP with all the help and advice from you ladies!
Started my amino acids and did a really good back and calves sesh at the gym tonight. My trainer filmed my back on one of the machines and compared it to a film 6 months ago. I was sooo chugged with the improvement! I didn't realise how far I'd come in 6 months. And that was being a veggie! Now I eat meat and my
Protein is up to 190g per day it can only get better surely! And I've only been training individually muscles for about 2 months.

Feeling really happy :) feel like I'm on the right path!!

Oo I think I feel a blog coming on maybe!

X