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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I recently achieved a personal goal to compete in a fitness competition.

I did not win.

But I got to the competition level as I set my goal.

It was an intense experience and my journey was full of supportive people and competition.

I am a pretty normal person that took about 2 years to get this level and coming down is hard.  The new friends at this level are saying 2-3 weeks off; keep diet stable and enjoy food, then 2-3 weeks to pivot back to training diet.

[b]A competition diet is absolutely insane I have learned.  I did it for 2 weeks.  It was insane.  You are basically dehydrated and just enough food to keep your heart pumping. [/b]

A training diet is your standard high protein low carb thing.

My question is h[b]ow did those that went through hard core training balance a return to normal life[/b]?  I achieved my goal, this body is literally unsustainable for any human other than short intervals.  What is your balance and thresholds for how far you let your body go from (a loser like me - not elite) competition worthy to just content?[/quote]

If you're talking about what to do after a bodybuilding competition, I've seen many people fail at this. There are many (ex) fitness influencers who have competed and gain like 20 to 50 pounds post competition within just one or two months - a weight they were not at prior to competing. And some of these influencers didn't even get very lean to begin with (did not win in their class).

My understanding is that these people did not understand how to decrease your hunger levels back to normal post-competition. You should look up guidance (there are some from reputable coaches on YouTube) on what to do post-prep. Last time I looked into this, you can "reverse diet," which is slowly raising calories back to maintenance (adding 100 calories per week). I believe someone named Dr. Norton talks about this approach. This is very difficult mentally as your body wants to eat like 5000 calories post-competition, not 1200 + 100 calories, so your mental suffering will be prolonged . However, you will have less fat gain at the end.

Another method is to just allow your body to eat whatever it wants whenever it wants so your body can have normal hunger cues again ASAP. I'm forgetting what this is called, but a YouTube influencer named Stephanie Buttermore chose this approach.

I think there's another video made about this by 3dmj [a channel of 4 bodybuilding coaches]. I can't quite recall what they recommended but it was different than the two approaches above.

Personally, I have not competed in a bodybuilding competition but I am pretty lean and have maintained it for the past 4-5 months or so (visible 3 to 4 pack on a woman). I chose the "reverse dieting" approach and am currently on a "slow bulk" in which I eat 100 calories more than my maintenance. The "reverse dieting" wasn't too bad for me mentally as I would look forward to being able to eat more calories in the upcoming weeks.

Hope this helps![/quote]

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