You’re a fitness enthusiast about to enter your first competition. You’ve talked to other competitors, read about contest preparation, studied the diets of the champions, and read all the magazines for all the tricks and tips from the professionals.  You decide that you are excited and want to compete.  Your ready to go.. You find someone to help guide you and depend on their knowledge to get you through your first preparation.  You decide, you are going to do everything you can and listen to whatever your trainer/coach tells you and go for it!! You are so excited… And so it begins… You have your new shoes and cute outfit and are excited to begin your preparation and also excited for what the journey will bring.  Your Water intake is up, protein is the staple of your diet, carbs are fairly low, you weigh out all your food, prepare all your meals, your waking up at the butt crack of dawn, you are training hard 5 days a week and cardio starts at once a day and before you know it you are doing cardio 2 times a day and spending 3 hours, minimum, at the gym.  You are doing everything right and  and you’ve clocked so many miles at the gym you’re thinking about buying your own treadmill and maybe investing into a few new pair of shoes!!   You are checking in, weekly, with your coach, and you are exhausted as the weeks go on but you are still motivated and driven by the changes you are making in your body and the adrenaline you are feeling when you are pushing through those training and cardio sessions.  You feel so good, at the end of the day, no matter how challenging it is.  You are consumed with everything contest related from magazines to internet articles, emersing yourself in the life because you are on cloud nine.  All you can think about is the final product you will bring to the stage and how well you will do.    You learn all there is to know about posing, tanning, and walking on stage, your confidence is high and you feel ready to take the show!  You pay your entry fee and membership fee and have your travel plans all in line.  Your ready to go with your bags packed and your mind is firmly focused on walking on stage and taking home a trophy!
But have you thought about after the show?  Has your coach started talking to you about what you are going to do or what your future plans are when you are not eating, breathing, drinking, sleeping competing?? Probably not!!! This is the scary part that most trainers/coaches/nutritionists do not include in their programs!  You have battled through all the prep but the biggest battle and challenge has yet to come and you have had no guidance on what to do, who to talk to, what direction to take, what to eat, how to train… You are absolutely lost and feel like you are in a maze and can’t find your way out!  No one has prepared you or even warned you about post contest!?   Are you prepared for what happens after the contest?  Have you even thought about it?  Think about it, your whole world, for the past 8-20 weeks has been show, competing, eating, working out, cardio, structure, structure, structure… then you wake up the day after the show and it is ALL OVER.  You do not have to wake up at 4 a.m. for cardio or eat a certain breakfast… what do you do???
There is the part of the competition that many people do not discuss and this is what drives people down the road of post-contest rebound or blues…. Familiar with the term “yo-yo” dieting? It is a scary point to think about what will happen when you stop eating the contest diet and back to normal food or living a normal/realistic life!  It is only realistic that you can not obtain a low body fat and  highly restrictive diet, that it takes to compete, all year long, much less for the rest of your life!  Strict competition diets and training programs work, even for non-competitors. But the extreme results can’t — and shouldn’t — last forever. Anyone who is considering entering a competition should be prepared to deal with the physical and, more importantly, the emotional and mental impact of returning to a more normal eating program.  If you ask any competitor who has been through a prep, they can relate and would give you the same advice!
The goal of pre-contest dieting is to lose as much fat as possible, and in order for most competitors to achieve this, most have to go on a highly restricted eating and exercise plan that starts 8 to 20 weeks before the competition. As the macro nutrient balance shifts toward high protein, moderate carbs and low fat, the competitor’s body begins to shed both fat and water. As the intensity of the pre-contest diet increases, the competitor’s mind is full of a list of foods that she can’t wait to eat when the show is over. It is only natural that you want what you can’t have and those “no” foods become something people dream about, literally.  Haven’t you heard about a competitors favorite tv channel being the Food Network?!  They sit and just dream of all the foods they can’t have to the point of almost insanity!  Most athletes want to celebrate, or simply reward months of sacrifice with a feast right after the competition.  Not only do they allow them the self induced feeling of it being okay to idulge, you hear most people telling you, “you have worked so hard,  you deserve it, go for it, enjoy yourself”.  Some will take their indulgence a step further and immediately follow an off season diet. This type of competitor may also stop taking the fat burners that helped her get through her twice daily cardio workouts, cut back on the cardio or stop altogether, and decrease the intensity of her weight training sessions. Such an abrupt change in eating patterns and workout schedules will shock the body and cause a rebound effect. While on a calorie restricted diet, a competitor’s body tends to go into a starvation-survival mode, which then causes her metabolism to slow down. When she starts to eat a few more calories, her body will quickly and easily store them as fat, stocking up for the next famine. Within a couple of days, her hard, lean appearance will smooth out, mostly from water being pulled into the muscles when glycogen enters the body. After even one week of less controlled eating and drastic reductions in her training intensity, she will regain body fat. This is the very same yo-yo effect that plagues many conventional dieters.  Is this what you want and are you aware of this part of the competition…?
Although the physical effects of diet rebounding could be harmful if taken to the extreme, perhaps the more significant impact is the mental struggles. To a competitor, this kind of rebound can be emotionally devastating. She may only rebound to half as much body fat as she started with, but to someone who has been in the single digits, that small increase may feel like not only like you failed but you feel gigantic!! You feel so fat and as if you just dieted for so long, worked so hard and now are back to square one (if you are lucky) and possibly even worse than before you started, in such a short period of time!  One day, you are onstage presenting your perfectly sculpted and lean physique and hard work.  You subject herself to the judgment of a panel of strangers, and shortly after, you are feeling  fat, bloated, and self-conscious. The form fitting clothing that you bought during your prep no longer fit and your six pack is gone.  You feel so embarrassed by the sudden change in your body and  weight gain.  think about it… When you started your diet at 22% body fat and get to 15%, you’re on top of the world and couldn’t feel better. As your body fat drops from from 15% to 12%, you feel like wearing a bathing suit all day and then when you get to 6%, you can’t believe that you’ve reached the best condition of your life and it is the best feeling ever!   But once you begin to rebound, you feel as fat at 10% as you did at 20%.  Isn’t it crazy how your perspective of yourself and what is “in shape” drastically changes!
The problem isn’t that the willpower is lost or control is gone but  the standards you place on yoruself are unrealistic!  Rebounding is the reality. It is normal. In fact, it is a mistake to believe that one can achieve and sustain a sharp, competition look year-round. It may help to know that most of photos that fill the pages of health and fitness magazines are taken at competition time, and are not a true showing of how even champion competitors look in the off-season. Competition shape is unnatural and unrealistic!
For some people, the only way to stray away from a rebound and a sense of failure is to begin another competition diet. They don’t know what to do without that show goal in mind.  They forget how to life a normal life and be lanaced with the right food, nutrition and training!  The problem is, at one time winning, placing or simply entering a contest was the goal and suddenly physical perfection becomes a goal!
Unfortunately, for women, there are health risks associated with having too little body fat. Some of these risks include hypothermia, vitamin toxicity, cessation of the menstrual cycle, and osteoporosis. Female athlete should carry enough body fat to maintain her menstrual cycle. We have to remember that without our health we have nothing!! You have to remember how you felt at 15% body fat!! Remember you felt amazing, before you dropped to 12 and lower…. You can still look good at a higher percentage and remember compared to the average woman, that is still LOW!
How do you avoid this mental and emotional part of the competition and learn to live a more realistic, accepting view of your body and life???  First, you need to realize that 10% or 12% or 15% body fat is totally acceptable, especially since you felt good about yourself when you first got there on the way down to your competition shape.  Take a moment to remember yourself at that percentage and how good you felt!
An athlete must go into a competition knowing that she is trying to achieve a TEMPORARY AND UNNATURAL  condition of leanness, and accept that her body fat will return to a more natural level. With this in mind, she can prepare for a smooth transition, extending the discipline she’s gained from dieting and training for competition into a healthy program that she can maintain for life.
To maintain your physique after a competition, you have to follow the a few rules
– remember your metabolism: base your diet on small, frequent meals, still eating every 2-3 hours with clean wholesome, balanced foods
-consume adequate protein to maintain muscle mass (ideal for metabolism)
-play with your carbohydrate and fat calories to meet your specific needs
-play with your ratios to find out what works for YOU
-maintain clean, wholesome foods 80% of the time and allow for moderate refuel meals
-slowly add back in fruits, lactose, and the wholesome foods you didn’t eat while in prep.
-tapper out carbs later in the day….
Even if your intentions are to stay lean after a contest, when you start eating more normally, you will still be hungry because your metabolism is revved up.  Keep your metabolism up by continuing to eat your meals but just be smart about what foods to eat and how much.  For example, if you ate eggs and oats for breakfast every morning, continue with your egg whites and oatmeal but add some berries or a few nuts.  Have a plan for when you are done competing.  Not only a plan for what you will re shift your attention and energy but a plan for what you will do with your diet and food choices.   For example, when the competition is over, celebrate and eat whatever you want that night and for brunch the next day. But on Monday, resume your clean eating, except for a “refuel meal” once per week.  You may also decide that you are going to tapper back, not completely eliminate, your cardio to 5x/week of 45 minutes.
If it took you 12 weeks to get into contest shape, it is understandable that it does take time for you to get back into the normalcy of life, both physically, emotionally and mentally but just know that there are people who understand and can help you through the transition.  It is normal to allow at least 8 weeks to return to a good state of mind and a program that you can maintain for life, slowly adding back small portions of “normal” food. When I say “normal”, I am talking about good foods, just more of them.  I am not talking about “normal” to the mass majority of our country!  Normal to me is whole grain breads, fruits, nuts and nut butters, more complex carbs, etc but not fried greasy fast foods!! As long as you stay with your healthy foods and continue on some sort of structured healthy diet, you will be just fine.  Just take notes on the aftermath and be prepared with what you will do, post contest!  If you even think about after the show, you are already ahead of 99% of competitors!
Continue with your cardio and weight training, and healthy nutritional choices.  Stay around people that are a positive influence and who understand you. Understand the difference between contest shape and healthy balanced living and strive to stay within 7-12 lbs. of your competition weight, depending on your physique.
Remember that you are a champion and strive for that perfect balance!
“Success is believing in yourself, finding balance and inspiring others!” -G. Aliotti