Cutting Dairy, Fruit, and Fat Out of Your Figure Contest Prep Diet?
Your figure contest prep diet is 95% of your success. The majority of the information I write about is figure contest prep. Some of the articles I write are inspired from the many e-mails I receive. The most popular question are on certain concerns regarding particular figure contest prep diet techniques.
If you have ever wondered if you should cut dairy, fruit, and fat from your figure diet, I urge you to read this article and get the inside information and facts and the true figure contest prep diet secrets.
So, there’s no need in you being left astray due to bad information circulating around the Internet.
E-Mail I Received:
“Hi Karen, I have a question about my diet I was hoping you could help me with. I was told to cut all dairy from my diet 6 weeks out because it causes you to hold water and prevents you from getting lean because of sugar and sodium in it. I was told that as you draw nearer to figure contest prep that you should cut out fruit and even fat. Six weeks is half my dieting time. I can’t even have cottage cheese or an apple? Thank you so much for your time and all you do – Name Withheld for publication purposes.”
Wow, so your “trainer” doesn’t want you having ANY dairy, fruit, or fat for 6 weeks, the most critical weeks? My first suggestion would be to hunt for a new trainer! Removing any macronutrient, such as fat, from your figure contest prep diet is a surefire way to kill your metabolism and setting you up for metabolic downgrade post-comp.
So the big question is, should you cut dairy, fruit, and fat from your figure contest prep diet? Let’s cover each aspect, their importance and any pitfalls.
Figure Contest Prep Dairy (What About Vegetarians?)
Let’s get some facts straight first. Dairy doesn’t prevent you from getting lean due to sugar or sodium. For many vegetarian figure competitors, dairy is the staple of their diet!
Let’s take a look at cottage cheese, a high-protein dairy item in some vegetarian figure contest prep diet plans.
Breaking It Down…
Honestly, the biggest difference between the 1% and 2% cottage cheese is 20 calories, which is a couple of minutes on the treadmill to burn off those calories. The difference in the macronutrients between ALL three is so miniscule that it doesn’t even matter! You’re honestly better off with the regular or 2% cottage cheese if you had to choose.
Now, as far as the regular cottage cheese, 5 grams of fat for a serving is not that bad! You get about 4 grams of fat in about a 4 oz breast of chicken and 6 grams of fat in one egg yolk.
Ideally, your fat percentage for figure contest prep diet should be anywhere from 30-45%. So, 5 grams of fat from cottage cheese is not going to set you back, especially if you are a vegetarian.
As for the sodium, this is probably not a product I would recommend peak week for several reasons. (That’s information I save for my personal clients.) You don’t need to restrict your sodium intake until the last few days before your competition though, not the entire week.
Dairy products such as cottage cheese do not cause you to hold water (because you will not include it during peak week) and they don’t prevent you from getting lean. There are other reasons you may want to limit dairy close to a contest, but these are NOT the reasons.
Cut Fruit 6 Weeks Out (Find Out The Truth)
Is cutting fruit 6 weeks out from your contest really necessary? Cut all fruit and eat only blueberries or grapefruit? If you want the honest figure contest prep diet secrets, read on…
There’s so much mismatched information out there. The problem is people sort of steal information and when they try to incorporate it they don’t understand what applies or even how to apply it.
Fruit is part of the carb family. Carbs are a macronutrient, meaning that you need them in a certain amount each day to function, especially during contest prep. Fruit is natural and it contains fructose. What some figure coaches are unaware of is the difference in sugars and they group them all together and label them all as bad.
Here’s the Deal
When it comes to fat loss you want to control your insulin spikes and you do that through controlling your carbs. Fructose (the sugar found in natural fruit) Does Not cause a spike in the insulin because it is broken down in the liver, not the stomach. It is the processed sugar that causes you to get fat and prevents you from getting lean. I don’t care what the glycemic index reads, the sugar in natural fruit does not break down in the stomach and therefore no massive amount insulin is released into the bloodstream.
The GI chart is designed as sort of a tool. Think of a baby with a walker. A baby uses a walker to learn how to walk. Eventually the baby learns how to maneuver his or her feet and eventually doesn’t need the walker any more. You have to know how to work around the generics to get to the real stuff. Perhaps your figure coach is still learning to walk.
There may be a time you need to limit or omit fruit, but not 6-8 weeks out if you are making sufficient changes in your body transformation.
Don’t Eat Fat 6 Weeks Out? (O-M-G)
So, removal of fat 6 weeks out is the most puzzling part. I have no idea why a figure coach would have you cut the fat from your diet. Fat is a MACRONUTRIENT.
A macronutrient an element needed in fairly large amounts by living organisms. That’s YOU! Do NOT cut fat from your diet; not 12 weeks out, not 8 weeks out, not 6 weeks out, not 4 weeks out, not even peak week. This is a big HUGE red flag!!
If you cut fat from your diet you will have a cascading event of multiple problems starting with dry skin and leading to hair loss. Having fat in your diet is not just important, it’s CRITICAL!
The big fat benefits your trainer doesn’t know about; fat:
- Builds and supports brain cells
- Contributes to your immune system
- Aids your nervous system
- Regulates your body temperature
- Helps with absorbing and transporting vitamins and minerals
- Nourishes your metabolism
- Influences hormone productions
- Aids in fat loss
I mean really, cut fat out for 6 weeks and you’ll lose out big time, and it won’t be body fat you are losing. To cut dairy, fruit and fat from your figure diet may help under certain circumstances, but certainly not too soon, and definitely not if you are leaning up and transforming.
How To Diet To Lose Fat
To lose fat during your figure contest prep you need to diet. You need to eat in such a way that you keep your muscle and burn off the excess body fat. This can be done without cutting out necessary food groups.
The trick is in knowing WHAT to eat, WHEN to eat, and WHAT to group it with to entice your body to have certain chemical reactions that cause muscle retention and fat burning. You can do it safely with the right figure contest prep secrets. See below to get my FREE Contest Prep Crash Course…
