I lost 10 kilos during my first prep, but a lot was muscle mass, here’s what I am doing different this prep to maintain and build some
I did my first prep like most athletes do, reduced calorie intake by 500 to begin with, some days up to 800 because I added tons of cardio, added a few refeeds and later on began a carb cycling strategy. I was lean and looked shredded up on stage, nothing wrong with it but I realised that I must’ve lost a lot of muscle mass. That’s the whole point of going up on stage is to show the muscle we work hard for. 10 kilos is quite a lot when you only began at 65 kilos, instead of going blindly by the numbers on the scale I decided to do it proper from the start with body scans. I weigh 65-66 again today, and I have just over 10 kilos of fat.
Based on that information and the the knowledge I have today about how metabolism, protein turnover and muscle breakdown works I can conclude that a lot of the weight lost was muscle mass (plus I had really good glute tie ins in the beginning that just poof disappeared during my prep)
Few days out last prep
I lost 10 kilos and in conclusion a lot of that was muscle mass, because I was rather lean already before I began prep and I had more glute tie ins at in the beginning.
So here’s what I am doing different to maintain (probably even build some) muscle mass:
No 1: I am not doing fasted cardio. I am not doing cardio at all to be fair, because I burn enough calories as is at work, but even if I wasn’t I would not do any fasted cardio. If I were to do cardio I would do so after a workout and take some amino acids before. Fasted cardio burns just as many calories as non fasted, and you can’t control if those calories that are required will be taken from fat or muscle tissue, most likely a bit of both. Also, it’s not worth the extra effort of waking up in the morning, going an extra trip to the gym to burn the same amount of calories you’d burn if you were to do it after your workout.
No 2: I am taking creatine. I didn’t take creatine last prep because I was afraid of the water retention. I realised it’s nothing to be afraid of, a little water retention isn’t going to blow me up like a balloon forever, the shreds will shine through eventually. The benefits from creatine is just too good to skip for such a silly thing. Even if it’s just mental that I get stronger, it’s worth it in the end because that extra strength will ensure I push my workouts harder each time and keep progressing even with the decrease in caloric energy.
No 3: I am not using the scale. I checked the scale every single day last year, every morning before putting clothes on. It was fun because it kept going down, but if I would have known a lot of it was muscle mass I would have been petrified. I’m going by body scans this time, I did one just before and I’ll do one a few weeks in to see how the progress is progressing. I’v been stepping on the scale a few times and I have seen difference in the mirror, clothing tightness over all, but the scale just aint moving that much. Just like before when I lost weight but gained 3 kilo muscle.
You see even at 17.9 percent body fat only 11.8 kilo is fat mass, so if I were to lose 10 kilos like last time there would not any fat left and in bikini fitness I a not meant to look that shredded when I step up on stage. I’m pretty sure I lost a lot of muscle mass because of the meal planning, start of prep was normal with same meals every day at the same hour every day. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good for maintaining and half way through switched to car cycling which would have been good if done in a better way.
No 4: I am planning my meals not by how many calories I burn per day, but how many I will burn in the next 3 hours. Surprise surprise but you burn more calories when you move end especially when you workout so you need a little extra if you want to keep intensity up. I don’t add extra calories to my total daily limit, I simply take from other meals where they are not as useful. Since I burn more at work and less when I’m just sitting at home I have planned my meals accordingly. I’m adding a bit extra to pre-workout, post workout & before I go to sleep. Why when I sleep? Because if there’s any time of the day I’d be in a rested state enough to build muscle it is while sleeping.
No 5: Not afraid of fat. I was so proud of my 30g of daily fat towards the end of my prep, but little did I know that it was probably detrimental to my muscles and gains. Fat is needed for normal hormone production and you need anabolic hormones (not steroids, you have anabolic hormones in your body naturally) to maintain and grow muscle mass. Serotonin, dopamine, endorphines they are all also hormones synthesised in your body, they’re probably the only thing keeping you from throwing yourself off a bridge when prep gets too deep. Many non-fatty food such as oats even contains a bit of fat and it’s a healthy fat. My fat sources are oats, peanut butter, chicken and olive oil. Some days I’m at 43 gram and others can be 49 gram, keeping it around 20% of my daily intake, I keep it low purely to keep carbohydrates high.
No 6: No low or zero carb days. I can’t do a day with workout and or work without getting my carbohydrates, I could do on a total rest day, but I don’t have any of those. I have one day off from gym, but I still go to work and I have two days off from work and still go to the gym those day. So I need my carbohydrates. My last prep contained zero carb days when I was carb cycling and I still went to the gym on those day. I don’t even want to know how bad that was for my muscle mass. Carbohydrates are energy and stored as extra energy in muscles as glycogen, when those stores are low we need energy from somewhere else, fat is harder to extract energy from in short amount of time and when intensity increases, but muscle mass is quite easy to liquify.
No 7: No artificial sweeteners or fructose. I can’t remember if I had all these bloating issues during my last prep, but one thing is for sure I am intolerant to fructose and some FODMAPS. Fructose is the sugar in fruit and they are a FODMAP, it’s fermentable carbohydrate chains that cause IBS issues in the digestive tract, I’ll go more into detail in a different blog post. Artificial sweetners like sucralose is a FODMAP and almost everything contains sucralose, all commercial protein powders with flavouring. Aspartame is ok, but just to be safe I cut out all artificial sweeteners. You know how prep is quite limited as is, well this is another level of depressing, but I’ve learned to love it and have found a few meals that work for me and I do actually enjoy. (What I eat in a day is coming up soon, be patient)
This prep is completely different also because I am not a sit at home online coach in Marbella anymore, the only physical activity I did was gym and walking to/from. I have a full time job in a warehouse, I burn up to 4000 calories per day.
So I don’t even bother about my 10.000 steps.
Burning these extra calories per day both makes it easier and harder. I can eat more, but since I can’t trust the apple watch I will never be sure exactly how how many calories I burn and thus it’s hard to estimate a good deficit. I tried eating 1700 calories a while, like last prep and that was death of me. It’s positive in the way that I can eat more calories and increase carbohydrates around workout to keep intensity up and grow some muscle..but I don’t wanna risk having the limit too high and not lose enough fat in time for the comp.
I am trusting the process 🏆