Road to the IFBB Diamond Cup - 2 Days Out

2 more days till Contest Day where I hope to smash the IFBB Diamond Cup stage in both Masters Physique and Masters Classic Physique!

To be honest, today I was a bit concerned that I would have trouble getting my calories burned for the day since I was not doing a weight training workout where I generally burn close to 1000 calories. Because of this I set a slightly lower goal of around 1500 calories which I thought was fair enough.

To help boast my burned calories for the I decided that when it was time to take my son to his Math session, we would bike it down rather than drive. The round trip for me ended up being almost 12 miles and I ended up burning just over 800 calories riding my bike today! That combined with 17,000 step (5.65 miles) of walking and some posing (33 minutes) added up to just over 2100 calories burned for the day.

Now my food intake at 2700 calories was higher than earlier this week because I am carbing up and it just has to be that way to get in the needed carbs but I still figure I was in a calorie deficit of around 1500 for the day, not bad and perhaps close to another half a pound of fat scrubbed off, it all adds up and helps the finished product. My food macros for those that are interested in that sort of thing where 171 grams protein, 425 grams carbs and 50 grams of fats.

I hope I can get in as much activity tomorrow as I did today since my food and carb intake is going to even be higher...

Road to the IFBB Diamond Cup - 3 Days Out

Day 3 this week of my big calorie deficit and my last weight training workout completed before my showing at the IFBB Diamond Cup Vancouver! Things kind of get better from this point on. I get to eat a bit more food including carbs, no more weight training to do but I still need to be active and burn calories to make up for the extra food I will be eating while I carb up.

Today's Calories where around 2300 with a little over 300 grams of carbs, just under 200 grams of protein and around 35 grams of fats. Tomorrow carbs go up to around 400 grams and on Friday I will hit 500 grams of carbs. Protein will come way down to offset total calories eaten a bit.

In terms of activity I walked over 26,000 steps today totaling around 8.5 miles traveled, total activity was 5.5 hours with over an hour of weight training today, total calories burned where just over 2000 most of which was form walking. I did wear my 5 pounds ankle weights today which did help me burn a few more calories walking...

I am for sure leaning up, will it be enough? I sure hope so because it has been a lot of hard work!

Road to the IFBB Diamond Cup - 4 Days Out

4 Days Out to the IFBB Elite Diamond Cup in Vancouver BC and another successful day in the books! 1900 calories eaten and 1900 calories burned which leaves me well over a 2000 calorie deficit which is my goal for the day.

Only one more workout day to go and my plan is to simply get a nice overall upper body workout and finish up with some posing and then treadmill and or elliptical to up my calories burned just a bit. Of course I'll add in some more walking to try and get my calorie burn as close to 2000 calories for the day...

Back to today, I walked just over 6 miles with 20,000+ steps made which took about 2.5 hours. I also did a 2.5 hour legs and arms workout with some posing at the end. Food macros for the day where around 300 protein, 100 carbs and 35 fats.

Tomorrow I start to bring some more carbs in at dinner time to around 300 grams worth for the day, I am going to enjoy them for sure :)

Road to the IFBB Diamond Cup - 5 Days Out

It's been a little bit since I posted an update on what's happening with my "Road to the IFBB Diamond Cup". I've just been working hard and trying to keep on track and really just needed a little bit of time to myself. Well now I hope to post daily until show day starting at 5 days out.

Today was day 1 of this week Monday where I need to cut real hard and be in a big calorie deficit to lose that last couple of pounds of fat that will tighten up things even more. I really only have three days left to do this since starting Wednesday night I start carbing up and on both Thursday and Friday I will not be weight training which makes burning calories much harder...

Today went pretty well but I did find it hard to burn calories since my body has become super efficient and the slow down in my metabolism from the hard cutting has caused my blood pressure and heart rate to drop a lot. This drop means it takes a lot more work to burn the same amount of calories.

In summary for the day I ate about 1900 calories and burned the same amount in activity (25,000 steps, 3 hours of walking for a total of 8 miles and 2 hours of weight training). This means I was in about a 2200-2400 calorie defect for the day.

My food Macros for the 1900 calories where just over 300 grams of protein, around 100 grams of carbs and only 35 grams of fats.

Tomorrow my goal will be to repeat these results...

GetFitOver40 Update Video IFBB Diamond Cup is a Go!

It is official, I have paid my money to the various organizations and I am now registered to compete in the IFBB Elite Diamond Cup on August 11th 2018 which is in just over two weeks time now...

I will be competing in Masters Physique and Classic Physique which by the way for this show do give out pro cards to the respective overall winners in their categories :)

The plan is to go into this show more conditioned than I have ever been leaving no doubt in my mind that I can be my best ever for it even nearing in on 50 years old now. I am not even worried how much I weigh, the goal is to be paper thin and not holding any water this time. My health is back to normal now and my body is working much better. I even did a rather carb heavy refeed last weekend that was nearing on 100 grams of carbs for the weekend and did not hold much water at all on the following Monday, by Tuesday I was right back to normal which is how it should be. Stomach bloat is gone and overall I feel so much better :)

The next 2 plus weeks are to dial in my conditioning beyond anything I have ever accomplished so that when I step on stage there will be nobody with more shreds than me, even if they out size me all the judges eyes will be on me. That's how you win a show!

Wish me luck as this is not going to be easy and there will be days where all I will be able to think about is a muffin or fritter or hamburger or pizza... the list goes on and on...