Thinking about competing or wanting to lose weight but unsure of the best way to start? You’re in the right place! In this blog, you’ll learn how FMG competition diet and training programs can be customized to fit your unique body type and starting point. We create an inclusive environment that welcomes clients of all shapes and sizes. We’ll outline the tailored strategies designed specifically for you, ensuring you know what to expect. Your journey is unique, and our goal is to help you create a plan that supports your fitness objectives!
Scenario 1: Initial Weight Loss Cut, Maintenance Phase, and Final FMG Competition Diet Cut
This plan is designed for those looking to lose a noticeable amount of weight—about 15-20 pounds for shorter to average-height individuals and 25 pounds or more for taller individuals. Many clients find themselves in this situation.
Phase 1: Initial Cut to Shed Excess Weight
When a client has a significant amount of weight to lose, the first step is typically to reduce body fat before moving into a building phase or taking a short break before the final FMG competition diet cut. This approach has several benefits:
- Increased Motivation: Shedding some body fat tends to boost motivation and build momentum for continued progress.
- No Excess Body Fat Needed for Muscle Growth: You don’t need to carry extra body fat to build muscle. By losing weight first, we can better assess how new muscle is developing, making it easier to identify areas to emphasize or tone down for a balanced physique.
- Improved Gym Performance: Losing excess weight leads to better endurance and a greater range of motion during key exercises. Many individuals already have a high amount of lean body mass, so there's no rush to prioritize muscle building. Once leaner, it might become clear that some areas need toning instead.
- Understanding Caloric Deficits: This initial cut also offers insight into how you respond to being in a caloric deficit, which will be valuable when preparing for the final cut and estimating its duration.
- Minimizing Muscle Loss: Starting the final cut with less weight to lose means you're less likely to lose muscle during this phase. This is particularly important for natural competitors, who are the focus of our coaching.
Phase 2: Transition to Maintenance Calories for Building and Refining Key Areas
- Shift to Maintenance Calories: Once you're closer to your ideal stage weight, move to maintenance calories to build key areas like the glutes and hamstrings.
- Maintain and Scale Back: Focus on maintaining well-developed areas and scaling back any overdeveloped parts.
- Body Recovery: This phase allows your body to recover from a caloric deficit, improving metabolism and hormone levels, which is crucial for a successful final cut.
- Weight Management: Aim to limit weight gain to no more than 1 pound per month, as gaining more often means adding unwanted body fat.
- Avoid Excess Fat Gain: Excess body fat complicates the final cut and increases the risk of muscle loss. Focus on lean building to effectively prepare for your final cut.
Phase 3: Final Cut and Picking a Show (If Competing)
Once you have built a solid base of muscle and addressed any overdeveloped areas, it’s time to begin the final cutting phase of your FMG competition diet.
- For Non-Competitors: The goal is to reach a sustainable level of leanness, which may mean losing another 5-10 pounds from where you ended in Phase 2.
- For Competitors: You’ll continue cutting until you are stage-ready. Throughout this process, the focus is on retaining as much muscle as possible. This means keeping heavy weight training in your routine for areas that need to be built or maintained.
Many coaches mistakenly switch to all circuit training during this phase, thinking it’s the best way to increase the caloric deficit and “tone” up. However, this is a big mistake. Maintaining heavy training is essential for preserving muscle. If you do incorporate circuit training, ensure you also include strength training for your high-priority areas, either right before the circuit or on separate days.
For new competitors, it’s often best to stay in Phase 3 long enough to get close to being stage-ready before selecting a show date. You may have a tentative show date in mind, but the commitment should come only when you're nearly ready. This approach ensures you are at your best on stage.
This is why, in many large competition teams, you might see multiple competitors at a show, but some may not look quite ready. With us, you can be confident that you’ll never find yourself in that situation!
Scenario 2: Recomp
Who This Is For: This approach is perfect for those who don’t have much fat to lose or a lot of muscle to gain. While it would be great to give a specific body fat percentage range, body fat testing isn't as accurate as people often think, and aesthetics can't really be measured precisely. Instead, we rely on visual assessments to track your progress!
Recomp is all about improving your body composition—losing fat and building muscle at the same time. This requires precision with your FMG competition diet. You’ll need to hit that “sweet spot” where you’re eating just enough to build muscle but not so much that you stop losing fat.
The scale might not move much, depending on how much fat you need to lose and how much muscle you want to gain, but you should notice changes in the mirror. If you’re competing, you’ll likely still need a short final cut to get stage-ready.
Scenario 3: Lean Build, Then Cut
Who This Is For: This approach is ideal for those who need to focus on building muscle but don’t have much fat to lose. You’re likely already close to your ideal stage weight, or possibly even below it. In cases where you’re underweight, you’ll still need to cut after building muscle, as even a lean build can result in some fat gain. A lean build is a balanced approach, faster than a recomp but not as aggressive as a bulk (we don’t do bulks!). For those who are underweight, especially in extreme cases like anorexia, gaining a little body fat may even be necessary to get stage-ready.
We start with a lean build, focusing on adding muscle while keeping fat gain to a minimum. During this phase, the goal is to build up key areas like glutes or shoulders, maintain areas that are already well-balanced, and reduce any overdeveloped parts. Once you’ve built the foundation of muscle you need, we move into the cutting phase of your FMG competition diet.
The cutting process is the same as described in Phase 3 of Scenario 1. Essentially, Scenario 3 is like Scenario 1, but without the initial fat loss phase (Phase 1). You go straight from building muscle into the final cut, preparing for the stage.
Scenario 4: Straight to Cutting until Show Day
Who This Is For: This method is ideal for those who already have the muscle foundation in place but just need to cut body fat. It’s most common for girls who have competed within the past year or have maintained a similar physique.
If you already have the muscle structure in place and just need to shed some fat, the focus will be on cutting all the way to show day. This is often the case for those who competed recently or maintained a competition-ready look within the past year. With this approach, we already know what we’re working with and can dive straight into the cutting phase of the FMG competition diet.
For those who may have lost some muscle during their off-season or time away from competing, the good news is that "muscle memory" allows you to regain muscle even while in a caloric deficit. Occasionally, a Scenario 1 client ends up in this situation, where after an initial cut, they’re looking so well-prepared that we can continue cutting straight through or take a short break before the final cut.
This approach can also work if you need to lose muscle, as much of it will naturally shed towards the end of the cut when your body becomes lean enough.
WHAT WE DON’T DO
Bulk Then Cut
We never bulk up our clients! The idea that bulking is necessary to build muscle is outdated. While some may think it helps, it often results in excessive fat gain that requires intense cutting later on. Instead, we focus on maintaining a healthy body fat and weight all year.
This approach makes it much easier to manage your progress without having to go through long, difficult cuts, allowing you to maintain muscle and reach your goals more effectively.
Hard Cut/Crash Dieting
We never use extreme low-calorie diets or crash dieting. While some competitors may try this method, it often leads to muscle loss and increases the risk of gaining weight back after the competition.
If you’d like a personalized assessment, please fill out the application below and let’s get on a call together! We’ll give you guidance on the best approach for you and an estimate of how long it might take to get fully prepared. We also apply these strategies for non-competitors, helping you achieve a sustainable level of leanness.
Want to learn more about fitness, nutrition and overall health? Join us now at Team Dynasty!
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE
