Hey guys, so i'm super late doing this log but it's better late than never I suppose.
So to tell you guys a little bit about myself. I last competed as a teen in 2016 which was my first and only competitive season, the main reason behind competing that year was to try bodybuilding out and to see if there was a place for me, originally I wasn't looking to place just to see if I enjoyed the process of being a competitive bodybuilder. Admittedly I did better than expected and became the UKDFBA UK teen champion and then place 2nd at the WNBF worlds in LA, I also won the NAC open British as a Junior. I loved every second of that season and promised myself I would be back for a Junior British and World title.
Fast forward to now I have spent the last three years contributing every meal and training session towards that goal. My lined up shows for this year are: BNBF Midlands (25th Aug) UKDFBA Northern (8th Sep) and the national titles for both federations following, if all goes well a Worlds show too.
My competition prep started on 4th March, so i'm currently over 9 weeks deep with 16 more weeks until my first competition. My starting weight was 207lbs and my starting Macros were: (TD) C:700 F:60 P:225 (NTD) C:400 F:100 P:200. Currently I'm around about 194lbs and my current macros are: (TD) C:400 F:55 P:225 (NTD) C:275 F:79 P:225, and those numbers have been the same for the past 5 weeks after trying to distinguish a deficit that'll give me a good rate of loss for a few weeks prior. Current steps throughout prep has been 10k, and my cardio throughout prep has been 30 mins MISS twice a week with 15mg yohimbine prior to each cardio session.
So far prep has been pretty easy as expected. The initial few weeks were mainly creating a prep routine for me to get into with things such as steps, sleep, eating times, training times and getting into the habits of the actual prep itself. I find getting into good habits early on is the easiest way to get myself into my 'prep bubble'. I'm really enjoying the process atm, and I look forward to keeping you all updated on the process :)
Just to bring you guys up to speed with how things have gone the past few weeks.
The BNBF finals has been ticked off, I came third in a very stacked line up. Apparently the best junior line up they had, so i'm happy... ish, we always want that first place.
Here are the show day videos for anyone interested:
https://youtu.be/faZhYgzqMCg
https://youtu.be/XPvBPilXkMw
Here's how the peak went:
Usually we've dug for half the week then started to fill up, but my body went very flat and a little faded from digging in the start of the peak week. I believe this was a warning that the body does not want to dig anymore, which is common for someone dieting for as long I have, on top of this i was feeling very fatigued and food focused. We managed to restore the physique via loading moderately throughout the week (roughly 450 carbs a day) and reducing expenditure, as my physique improved so did fatigue and food focus.
The feedback:
I got told on the day of the show I looked considerably better in the evening show with a little bit more food in me, therefor a little bit more fullness. The day after I looked even better. What we've taken from this for the next show is we could potentially start filling up earlier by either an additional day of loading or wake up earlier on the day to start eating, or both.
The approach between shows:
Due to how my physique responded to digging by getting flat and faded, it was decided that the smartest approach was reverse into the next show. So we've taken out cardio to reduce expenditure and macros have been C:325 F:50 P:225 to up food. The physique has gotten a little tighter whilst not getting too flat which puts us in a great position to load this week following up to the UKDFBA UK finals