My High Carb Pre-contest Diet!

DerekBodybuilding, Nutrition

It has now been one month since our trip to Seattle for my last contest – time flies! I wrote a review of my experience competing for Vegan Bodybuilding and Fitness, so if you haven’t read it yet check it out here! I mentioned in an earlier post before the NANBF Contest that I went through my entire contest prep on a high carb diet (very unorthodox for bodybuilding!) and after several requests I’ve decided to post my pre-contest food journal, so here it is!

 Derek’s July 2011 Nutrition Journal

I keep an ongoing journal to track what I eat on daily basis, so to give a good pre-contest glimpse here I posted my journal from July 1st to July 29th, the day before my NANBF contest. This covers all my dietary modifications (or lack thereof, for my experiment) as the show approached so you can see how my total caloric intake changes, as well as my daily composition of macro-nutrients (carbohydrates/protein/fat). As I mentioned before I did not reduce carbs (gasp!) getting ready for this contest. Since a plant-base diet is so fundamentally different from the typical animal-protein based bodybuilding diet, I wanted to test whether or not I could get my bodyfat below 5% eating lots of whole plant foods that are naturally high in carbohydrates the way I normally do. I actually got my bodyfat down to 4%, and if you haven’t seen the pictures, check them out on our Facebook album here! I was really excited with the conditioning I competed with and even happier that I was able to do it on an easy and balanced diet! Here are some changes I did make to get into shape:

  • In addition to my weight training I did 20-30 minutes of cardio twice per day, before breakfast and before dinner when my stomach was emptiest
  • I reduced my total daily calories from around 4500 to around 3500, though it varied day to day
  • I reduced my percent calories from fat from 20% to 15% or less.
  • I eliminated any heinous cheat foods like desserts, though Marcella and I still ate out about twice per week at our favorite healthy restaurants
Some major things I noticed on this diet were that I had no problem shedding bodyfat, I had tons of energy the whole time (whereas reducing carbohydrates makes you feel terrible), and I was able to eat a wide variety of foods without stressing or having horrible cravings! It was a win-win-win and I will definitely be using a similar strategy in the future. The one improvement on my contest prep I’d like to make is looking ‘fuller’ which is bodybuilding lingo for bigger but no less defined. This is normally achieved through carbohydrate and water manipulation, so I will still adjust these factors in the future to see if I can improve my methods. All things considered this was an extremely enlightening experiment that reiterated how powerful plant-based nutrition is!
You may also notice when looking through my nutrition journal that my protein supplement of choice was Sunwarrior raw brown rice protein. This protein was introduced to me by Robert Cheeke of Vegan Bodybuilding and I love it! In fact, thanks to guidance from Robert I was able to connect with Sunwarrior and have now joined their team of expert athletes who include such stars as Rich Roll and Nathane Jackson! This is a huge honor and I look forward to spreading the word about the benefits of plant-based protein with this awesome team! Take a look at my athlete bio on the Sunwarrior site!
Last but not least in our news, my client Todd Berry will be competing in his first bodybuilding contest next Saturday! You may remember from an earlier post that Todd won this years’ Gold’s Gym 12 week challenge here in Richmond with the help of plant-based nutrition. He has since taken his training to the next level and will be stepping onstage in ripped condition as yet another example of what you can do on a plant-based diet. I can’t wait!!
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17 thoughts on “My High Carb Pre-contest Diet!”

  2. you have no idea how exciting it is to know you did it on a high carb diet. i was about to give up my goal of getting to a single-digit bf percentage just because i love fruit too much to cut it out of my diet (as well as other high carb foods). it’s really refreshing and inspiring to see it is not absolutely necessary to bring your carb intake down so low. thank you for sharing this. by the way, i had a look at your nutritional journal and i see you put it all in terms of “portions”. how much is one portion?

  5. Sorry, there is one other thing I have to ask. Is it possible to buy NitroFusion in a store or do I have to order it online?

      1. That’s awesome thanks for sharing! I’d like to know, as far as NitroFusion goes, would Vega have the same profile as NitroFusion?

        1. I actually have been using Sunwarrior raw brown rice protein this year. It’s brown rice that has the amino acid profile similar to mother’s milk, so Sunwarrior also has that benefit, plus being raw it is minimally processed and much more nutritious. I noticed a difference in how I felt as soon as I switched! Nitrofusion worked great for me for a long time, but it aso has 400mg of sodium per scoop, and that quickly adds up! We will have a link to Sunwarrior products from this site soon, so you can always check back here if you want to try them!

          1. Sounds good to me, thanks! I actually ordered the NitroFusion from Bodybuilding.com so I’ll see what results I can get with that. I’ve been using Vega for a while now and have noticed good results so if Sunwarrior’s anything like that I will definitely give it a try.

  7. So you don’t supplement? You should write a book, haha. Cause I am one vegetarian that’s a bit too soft.

    1. I usually take a pre-workout supplement like Superpump before weight training, and I take Sunwarrior brown rice protein post workout and throughout the day. I really like these products, but a solid whole-foods based meal plan is what will determine your results. I actually switched to Sunwarrior for that reason because it is raw (uncooked, minimally processed) and much more nutritious than a typical protein powder. Thank you for your support, if you set your mind to it and work hard you’ll get where you want to be!

  8. Your conditioning different from magazines like Flex. I mean compared to guys doing Pro bodybuilding shows, is that because they use some sort of drug or something? Is it even possible for guys to get that much muscularity naturally?

    I am talking about guys like Kai Greene, and Phil Heathe, or Dexter Jackson….

    1. Yes, the IFBB pro’s use many drugs to get both huge and ripped. There are some natural pros with outstanding conditioning, but it is much rarer. The level of muscularity you see in IFBB pros (such as being 5’7″ and 260lbs with 3% bodyfat) is not possible naturally.

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