and now your co-workers are bringing in treats for you because they know you do not have a show “ coming up .”
What will you do from this point on ?
Post show is oftentimes much harder than prep for many people .
After a prep , our body and mind are fatigued from so many months of dieting . Our body is in a state where it wants to gain body fat because body fat from a survival point of view is important . Keep in mind , your body does not care about looking aesthetic and ripped , it cares about being able to survive times of famine .
I can tell you one thing though , the worst thing you can absolutely do is completely come off your meal plan and stop doing cardio while eating whatever you want .
There are rarely absolutes in this sport , but approaching the post show phase without a plan I can guarantee you is a bad idea .
Now , what are the options you have post show apart from giving into every craving and becoming lazy ?
You can take the approach of getting back to your offseason weight as soon as possible . Many believe that to grow you have to eat as much as you can tolerate in regards to getting food down . These people often eat whole “ bodybuilding ” foods most of the time but there are cheats and treats a lot of the time . After a few weeks , the person is at their offseason weight and continues to push further into the offseason .
Who can benefit from this approach ?
I find that this approach works okay for the person who has better than average genetics and puts on muscle easily without gaining too much body fat . The person who is already a very experienced trainee that has figured out exactly what works for their physique training wise and is using extra supplements . Something that must be carefully monitored is health though as it can be skewed with the rapid weight gain and amount of lower quality calories .
You can take the approach of slowly reverse dieting and after a small post show increase of 2-3 % of your bodyweight , you aim to gain no more than . 5 % of your body weight week by week . Dietary discipline is very similar to prep and there is very rarely off-track meals or treats .
Who can benefit from this approach ?
This approach works very well for the majority of people , especially those who are looking to minimize fat gain and optimize health . This approach can be challenging for the person who is not an experienced dieter but the good news is that this can be improved through practice .
You can take the approach of having an initial increase in weight after the first week post show . Here the person goes right into a decent caloric surplus and although there is structure to the meal plan , they will have extra calories here and there based off how progress is going . This person is not afraid of a bit of fat gain but they also do not take the approach of the “ see-food ” diet .
Who can benefit from this approach ?
This approach works well for the