Nino’s Mission

Nino’s Pre-Contest Diet

November 14th, 2006

Many of my fellow bodybuilders realize that nutrition is the most important part of your bodybuilding regime in order to win a competition.

I usually start my diet 12 weeks out from a contest, and let me tell you, they are longest 12 weeks of my life! I will start with eating five small meals throughout the day, one meal about every three hours.  I live with my Italian mom who loves to make homemade pasta, bread and all kinds of other dishes that are tempting and delicious… but which I can’t have before a competition.

While I watch the rest of my family eat all the good Italian stuff, a lot of people ask me how I stay on my diet. My answer is simple: DETERMINATION! I am determined to be in the best shape I can be on contest day, so I never make excuses like, “The food was there in my house, so I had to eat it”… or, “I don’t want to upset my mother by not eating what she cooks!”

For the first 8 weeks, I will keep my carb intake at about 200 grams, the protein at about 200 grams and the fat intake is about 35-40 grams. If you’re doing the math, you may realize that this is not a lot of calories - in fact, this adds up to a little under 2,000 per day - it’s not a lot of food. But keep in mind, my body weight is only about 135-140 lbs off season and 130 pounds on the day of the contest, so my calorie needs are a bit lower than some other bodybuilders who weigh more than me. Everything is relative.

Three  times a week I will carb load to about 300 grams (which adds another 400 calories to my diet on those high carb days), and I keep my water intake to 2 gallons in a day. I eat complex carbs such as brown rice, sweet potatoes, plain oatmeal and broccoli.

My protein food sources are chicken, fish and  eggs whites. I don’t eat much fat, except the fat that’s already in my chicken breast, etc., but I do eat some natural peanut butter for fats.

At 8 weeks out, I will cut down my carbs to about 175 grams and that’s when my family knows to avoid me, LOL!  The diet is so strict at this point, I’m usually not a very happy person, it has to be done. No matter how it affects my mood, there is NO looking back at this stage in the contest prep period.

At 4-6 weeks out I’m getting down to the nuts and bolts of my diet. My carbs are down to 100 grams and this is where my HEART and WILL are put to the TEST!

Ten days out I start carb depletion. For six days I will drink up to 3 gallons of water and eat almost nothing but protein! In this time, I’m doing cardio twice a day, running on the treadmill 45 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes at night. At this point I’m ready to drop to the ground, but I know GOD will give me his STRENGTH to make it through this!

Four days before the BIG DAY, I carb load to about 300 grams and let me tell you - eating those carbs feels like HEAVEN at that point because my body is STARVING FOR CARBS!! The BAD NEWS is I also start DEHYDRATION PROCESS cutting down my water down the last couple days and only having SIPS on contest day!

That’s my contest prep, in a nutshell. So, the next time you’re tempted go for that extra slice of pizza that you know you’re not supposed to have, just think of Nino, eating broccoli and chicken and egg whites, while surrounded by sumptuous, tempting, home-made Italian food and ask YOURSELF WHAT’S MY EXCUSE? I know one thing “I MAKE NONE FOR MYSELF SO WHY SHOULD YOU?

Entry Filed under: Nutrition & Diet