Contest Prep Update

Hey guys! I haven’t updated this for awhile but I just wanted to give you a run through of what I’ve been doing since the last time I wrote on here. My diet has been pretty good overall. It still doesn’t really feel like I’m dieting. Some days are better than others. My macros have switched around quite a bit the last few weeks too. I went from 250 grams of protein to 275 and then went up from there to 300 grams along with 300 grams of carbs and 60-65 grams of fat. My high days are still 500 grams of carbs. Some days I couldn’t get that much protein in because of my hectic work schedule so I ended up switching my protein to 250 grams and my carbs up to 350 grams a day. Still at two higher days of 500 grams of carbs. I’m eating a lot but it seems as I get deeper into the diet, 350 grams of carbs doesn’t seem like much. I’m still only doing 2 cardio sessions a week. My progress has slowed down significantly because I’m coming in too fast. Two weeks ago I was body fat tested on the calipers at 6.8% which is by far the leanest I’ve been this far out. My weight has bounced around between 181 and 183 the last few weeks but I broke into the 180 mark last week. I’ll definitely be a lot fuller this time around and no doubt I’ll be heavier on stage (I’m hoping). I’m happy overall with my progress. Below are some pics I snapped last night and a posing video that I did. It got cut off because my memory card ran out but it’s enough to give you an idea on how I’m looking. If anyone is doing the July NPC show this year, please chime in. I’d like to see who I’m up against

http://www.tylersnutritiontraining.com

10 Weeks Into Contest Prep

Hey everyone! I just wanted to update my prep. I’ve gone through 10 weeks of dieting so far and it’s honestly hasn’t really felt like a diet. I’m eating so much food and I love it! Plus I’m losing too! I’m eating 250 grams of protein, 300 grams of carbs, and 60-65 grams of fat a day and eating two higher carb days of 500 grams. I’m still only doing two sessions of cardio a week only for 30 minutes tops! I’m not doing hours on end of cardio especially if you start your prep early enough you don’t need to. I just wanted to throw some pics up to show my progress. Let me know what you guys think!

www.tylersnutritiontraining.com

How Long Should One Diet For a Competition?

This is a topic of discussion that always seems to be overlooked when someone wants to diet for a bodybuilding, figure, or even a bikini competition. How long should I diet for? Some people will say, “I’ll only diet for 12 weeks because I don’t want to lose any muscle mass.” And some just have no clue how long and what it takes to get to the level that they need to win. It all depends on how much you weigh in the off season and what your body fat percentage is compared to your previous contest. But if it’s your first time around doing a show, you don’t really know how you’ll end up or what weight you’ll be at until you get close to show day. You can guess but there’s no real definite answer to the question. There’s no real laid out time frame for that criteria but it’s just common sense. You should allow yourself plenty of time to diet so that you can fine tune things when it gets closer to show time. Just think about it, if you say you’re dieting for let’s say 12 weeks. Unless you’ve dieting before it’s hard for someone to get a diet down immediately and stick to it 100% right off the bat. Things will come up and you’ll be tempted to cheat this one last time During the dieting process you have no clue what will come up. Something could happen in the family or friend and you’d have to make adjustments. If you allow yourself enough time you’d be able to get away with a little bit of cheating to an extent. It just depends how much and how close you are to show day. Also you have to take away the last week for filling out. You shouldn’t diet all the way until show day. If you’re still trying to pick off some fat the last week then maybe you aren’t as ready as you would like. I love it when people always tell me, “man I was holding way too much water the day of my show.” Sorry to break it to you but that wasn’t water you were holding, that was fat my friend. Unless you were absolutely shredded weeks ago (I mean shredded like hamstrings were popping like no tomorrow) and then you messed up your peak week by cutting water and sodium then it’s more likely still fat hanging around. Cutting water and sodium is another issue that I can discuss at another time. This is a picture of me with over a gallon of water in me on stage in the morning show. Tell me if I’m holding too much water. I didn’t think so. 

For my clients I always try and make their diet a little more enjoyable. They can eat foods that they thought they couldn’t eat because they’ve been corrupted by “bro science” and don’t like to go outside the box. Right now I’m eating a ton of food for my contest prep and it all started with a good off season. I didn’t gain a ton of weight because most of that is just fat anyway. Off season dieting is also another topic of discussion in the future, but the point is to allow yourself enough time to diet for a competition so that you’re not crash dieting to get lean. That just leads to disaster, muscle loss, and looking flat on stage. Another thing is don’t go by the scale for your stage weight. If you start out your diet with a lot of fat and you’re 210, don’t say that you just want to be a heavy weight or a light heavy. If you’re not conditioned enough then what’s the point. Remember this, the leaner you are the bigger you look on stage- hard and full! Don’t buy into being a certain weight on stage because it doesn’t matter if you’re a heavy weight or a light weight to win an overall. You have to beat everyone in all the classes combined! This is me at 169 and I felt like a 7th grade cross country runner almost the whole prep, but towards the end I felt really good and it was because I allowed myself enough time to diet properly.

Let me help you with your next prep and bring you to the next level! Team TNT!

www.tylersnutritiontraining.com

TNT Results From the ABA Copper Classic

Last night TNT came out with some great results! Mike Marconi and Mike Newhard have been working extremely hard for the last several months to come in the way that they did. Mike Marconi came into the show looking the best he’s ever looked and weighing the lightest in his contest career. He didn’t look 148 pounds on stage either! He ended up taking 1st in the bantam weight class! Mike filled out quite nicely during peak week as well. I’m looking forward to working with Mike with his future shows. Here’s a couple of pictures of Mike last night.

Mike Newhard was the other member of TNT that had another great show! This was his second show ever after competing in the NPC show two weeks ago. This time around he looked better than two weeks ago. He came in fuller and harder and was still the same weight as the NPC show. He took 1st in his novice class along with winning the overall in the novice and getting 3rd in a tough open middleweight class. He also took home the best poser award with his routine to Brittany Spears. Also above are some pictures of Mike last night.

I’m really proud of these two and the efforts that they put into this. They represented well and I’m looking forward to improving their physique each show that we do!

www.tylersnutritiontraining.com

Updated Contest Progress!

Hey everyone! I haven’t written in this in a long time and I’m long overdue. I’m on my 8th week of dieting and it’s been a fun ride! I weighed in this morning at 183.8 and I’m down almost 12 pounds. I really don’t feel like I’m dieting and I’m not really craving any bad food. I’m at the point to where if I eat something bad it will just make me feel miserable. I’m eating a lot of the foods that I like. I’m not doing any stupid bro science diet out there. I’m not eating just fish and broccoli and I’m not cutting out dairy either. I’m not starving myself. My higher days are now about 3700 calories too. I’m eating “normal” foods but I’m just counting all of the macros down the the T in everything that I eat. In the last two weeks I’ve had to increase my food twice. Two weeks ago I increased my protein up 25 grams and last week I increased my two high carb days by 50 grams of carbs. I’m also only doing about two sessions of 30 minutes of low intensity cardio a week and that increased this week as well. This is another myth that you have to do hours of cardio in order for you to get lean. Remember that doing more isn’t always better in my opinion. You can actually sometimes hinder your progress by doing too much. People that diet for contests need to try and allow themselves enough time to let their diet work. You shouldn’t crash your metabolism and make yourself miserable right off the bat otherwise it’s going to be a long battle the whole prep. I’m fortunate enough that I can pack in this kind of caloric range and still lose and get leaner each week. But for the people that don’t know their metabolism should become more self aware of how their body responds to certain foods and make adjustments accordingly. Prepping for contests is a challenge but it’s always good having someone look over your prep so that you don’t second guess yourself. Below are some pics that I took tonight. Let me know what you guys think!

Please email me for your nutritional needs so I can help you reach your goals today!

info@tylersnutritiontraining.com

www.tylersnutritiontraining.com

TNT Is Expanding!

I’m pleased and excited to announce that beginning in April I’ll finally be able to train local clients one on one in a studio setting. I’ll be doing the training in a brand new studio with all brand new equipment at Underground Fitness in north Phoenix by Cave Creek Rd and 7th st. We’ll have a variety of classes as well as personal training sessions. The last year I’ve been doing all of my training online so it’s been hard to give that personal attention that the client needs. I’d rather have that one on one atmosphere so that I can see their progress better. I will still offer online training but most importantly I’ll still be doing most of my nutrition consulting online. The studio will just be for the personal training sessions. The nutrition consulting will be outside of that.  So if anyone is wanting to get into the best shape of their life give me a call at 480-388-5162 or email me at tyler@tylersnutritiontraining.com and let’s set up an appointment!

www.tylersnutritiontraining.com

TNT’s First Show of the Season!

March 12th was the first day to kick off the season of competing. We had two guys that did very well in huge classes and both took home some hardware! The NPC show was the biggest show in Arizona. It had 263 competitors in this show! This was a lot of fun for me and as well for the guys that were in it.  The two guys were Mike Newhard and Terrance Harris. Mike has been with me for six months now and we took his progress very slowly without taking much muscle off of him. This being his first show, I wanted to make sure that we had enough time to fine tune things if need be. He did great! He’s busted his butt since day one and has been on point and it showed! He took 5th in the Novice Lightweight class and 5th in the Open Middleweight class with 19 competitors. This was a show for Mike to get ready for the Copper Classic in two weeks. He’s definitely ready for the Copper Classic!

This was Terrance’s first show and he did pretty well first the first time out there too. He started his diet about six weeks ago and was pretty aggressive with the progress. He took first in the  Open Lightweight class! He came a long way from when we started because he had to learn how to pose in such a short period of time and he got it down quickly while maintaining the diet. He will be doing future show as well but it’s undecided when. Here are a couple of pictures backstage from last night. I couldn’t get any good stage pictures but I will in the near future.