REVERSE DIETING INTO SHOWs

If you’re on prep and are roughly about two weeks out or so, you’ll no doubt be ready. It’s at this point you’ll have finished the fat loss phase of prep and will begin the ‘reverse’. If you’ve competed multiple times before you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about however if you’re competing for the first time you might be unsure of what that means.

Therefore the purpose of this article is to explain the reverse dieting process going into a show, give reasoning to why it’s necessary to bring the best look to stage and discuss the challenges you might face.

Reminder of high days

If you’ve been prepped correctly, you’ll no doubt have been strategically running high days every 10-14 days or there abouts. The sole purposes of those high days are to wipe away fatigue and lower the levels of cortisol in the body. In laymen’s terms, cortisol is the enemy of fat loss and if its levels are chronically high your body will become less efficient and mobilising fat (fat burning).  

Your high days will have typically been anywhere from 24-72 hours and in that time you’ll have strategically increased your carbohydrate and fats intake. In doing so you’ll have lowered levels of cortisol and washed away fatigue by reducing steps/cardio. Once you’ve done those high days you typically get straight back to digging and find you hit a new low on the scales very shortly after as well as being visually tighter.

Why am I telling you this? Because it’s with that same logic as to why we would ‘reverse’ you going into your show.

the reverse process

If we were to use a bikini girl as an example, towards the end of the fat loss phase in prep they might be doing 60 minutes of cardio a day, eating 1200kcals on a training day, 1000kcals on a non-training day and doing 15-20k steps. Once all the fat is off it makes no sense to continue doing this as if they were to get any leaner it might be detrimental to the final look.

Lets say you’ve got to that point of running high days again, you’re around two weeks out but you’re ready. After you’ve run those high days, you would likely return to an adjusted baseline diet and less cardio/steps. What would that look like?

You may increase food to 1400kcals on a training day and 1200kcals on a non-training day and reduce cardio down to 20-30 minutes. That cardio may also change from high intensity interval training to low intensity steady state, and you may move away from the stair master and instead do the cross trainer. These changes don’t put you into a surplus, not at all, you are still in a huge calorie deficit but what they will do is reduce fatigue, inflammation and keep cortisol levels lower.

As a result of making those changes you may find that your weight drops to a new low, and you may get a touch leaner. This is something that must be monitored closely and you’ll no doubt be checking in with your coach every day, or every other day at this point. Amendments can be made almost daily, with small increases to food and a reduction to cardio/steps implemented when necessary. You should also typically find cardio is zero for peak week, or very little. Each day your physique will get fresher and fresher, putting you in a superb position to load going into the show and present your best look on stage. It is very clear when you see a tired physique on stage so please ensure you’re reversing out going into your show.

The mental battle

One of the hardest things you’ll find at this stage is the battle going on in your mind. The entire prep all you’ve done is push for more conditioning: you’ve wanted to eat less and move more. Then suddenly you aren’t pushing and if anything, feel like you’re slacking off, when you aren’t, it just feels that way! There are a few reasons as to why you’ll struggle; one might be that others around you aren’t following a similar trend. What I encourage you to do is focus on your own journey as other individuals may not be ready or are coached differently.

The reverse also intensifies how close you are to the show. It is easy to fall into the trap of wishing days away and filling your day with tasks to make time move quicker. I’d encourage to you to remember that with each day that passes on this planet is a day you don’t get back, so live in the moment, and not for the future.

But my last piece of advice to keep you in check is to be content knowing that the hard work is done. Getting all the fat off was what you needed to do so you are competitive on stage, it’s then up to your coach to get you over the line. An analogy I like to use to describe the reverse is that it’s like a plane approaching the runway, having completed the journey, all that’s left to do is land the plane. Why does that relate to the reverse? As the plane approaches the runway it slows down to ensure a perfect landing. As an athlete stepping on stage, you have taken all the fat off and now have to apply the brakes on to ‘land’ perfectly.

In summary, by the time you get to two weeks out you should be ready. It’s at that point you’ll begin to slowly taper expenditure and up your daily food intake. As you do so the physique will get fresher and fresher helping you bring your best look to the stage. It’s is often harder than the fat loss phase but is without a doubt necessary to ‘land the plane’.

Vaughan Wilson Bsc Hons