53 Year Old Contest Prep Full Day of Eating & Exercise 4 Weeks Out

I do get a lot of people asking me to show them what a full day of eating looks like and also what I do in terms of activity like workouts and cardio leading up to a show. We are one day away from being 4 weeks out and for the last 6 weeks or so I have been sticking to this relatively same program of around 2000 calories of food each day with at least 1500 calories of exercise which generally includes around 1+ hour of weight training 6 days per week with at least 6 miles of walking each day.

On my one non day of weight training I try to get a little more activity in if I can like a mike ride or something but I do need that one day off from weight training for sure to give my body a chance to rest.

In terms of macros my diet is low carb with higher protein and a bit more fat than most people eat during contest prep which does mean it is hard to get all my protein in since fats take away from other macro calories. That said I generally get between 150-200 grams of protein in each day, with a little over 100 grams of carbs and a little under 100 grams of fats. It does range a somewhat each day.

During this video I record a short clip each time I do some exercise or eat something so you ca get a get the full picture of what I am doing in terms of diet and exercise leading up to a show. I do change things as I need to but at this point I most likely will continue exactly what I am doing to the 2 weeks out point and then reassess where I am at and where I need to be. If all goes well I will be 99% ready for my show and will be able to cruise the last 2 weeks with a little more food then I usually allow myself.

Road to the Vancouver Fall Classic 6 Weeks Out Posing

My last posing checkin for the Vancouver Fall Classic was 4 weeks ago and so it has been a while and I was hoping to see some visible changes. I feel like there are some changes but sometimes it does not translate to video as well... But I for sure notice the fat is slowly coming off my trouble areas (stomach & lower back) and I am down 4 pounds from a month ago sitting right around 201 pounds versus just over 205 in my last Update Posing video.

My InBody Body Composition Scale also is telling me I am down around 2% body fat (9.8%) which is again around 4 pounds of fat so this means I did not lose any muscle at this point even with the fairly hard calorie deficit over the last 4 weeks. In comparison the InBody Scale at the gym said I was 9.1% Body fat.

I need to for sure get down to 195 pounds and maybe even a bit more so that is around a pound per week which should be fairly easy to do, this will get me in the 6% body fat range which on my scale may even be less since it seems to be a bit higher than the Pro InBody Scale I use at the gym. So I may even be in the 8% body fat ranges right now!

The plan for the next two week is to stay on my same diet plan of 2000 calories per day with around a 1500 calorie deficit each day, this again is to ensure I lose at least a pound per week of fat. At 4 weeks out I will reassess and figure out if I need to stay at 2000 calories per day, go up a bit or maybe even drop calories if need be. What ever I have to do is what I will do, hunger is not important, energy a bit more important so I hope that stays good... 

Road to the Vancouver Fall Classic 6 Weeks Out Update

We are almost 6 Weeks Out now to the Vancouver Fall Classic and it's time for another update video. This video will not have any posing in it, that video will follow in a couple of days when I am within a day or two of being 6 weeks out.

I kind of missed my 8 Week Out Video but it was intentional, I just didn't feel like there was anything to really show everyone, I have been on track for the most part with my training, activity and eating, but at least visually not much had really changed. I am hoping this 6 Week Out Posing Update video will show some significant improvements over the 10 Weeks Out Video.

I have been working very hard and even dropped my calories a bit more down to 2000 per day for the last 4 weeks to make sure I stay on track and don't have too much work to do all at the end, that can really such!

In terms of my daily calorie deficit I should be close to 1500 most days with maybe a closer to 1000 on the weekends. I am achieving this by walking 5 to 6 miles per day which burns around 700-800 calories at my body weight of just over 200 pounds and I also weight train for at least an hour per day generally burning about 500 calories. I also burn an additional 200-300 calorie  from NEAT activity through the day for a total of around 1500 calories burned via activity. When you add in my BMR of around 2000 calories this gives me a total calorie burn of right around 3500 calories each day.

With 2000 calories eaten and 3500 burned this puts me in a 1500 calorie defect and should allow me to lose around 2-3 pounds per week but it is not always as simple as that... As I get older my body does not respond as quickly for sure and I do have to work harder than before but I am up for it!

Generally I am feeling pretty good, my energy is good most of the time and I am not overly hungry because I have made my body use to not eating much the early part of the day and expecting more food in the evening so I don't go to bed feeling hungry. I also eat a bit more fat than most people in a contest prep and this helps me feel less hungry, this does come at a light cost to protein intake which I have to be careful to get enough of each day when only eating 2000 calories of total food.

Well stay posted for my 6 Weeks Out Posing Video where I hope to show everyone what 4 weeks of pushing hard can achieve.

Road to the Vancouver Fall Classic 10 Weeks Out

Here we are three weeks later form my 3 month out to the Vancouver Fall Classic Update Video and I have been doing everything for the most part in my game plan. Interestingly I feel like I look a bit worse in this now three weeks later video but there are some possible reason for it and at this point I am not too worried as I feel my next update video in 2 to 3 weeks will be more of an indicator of where I am at in this prep.

It's hard to shoot a video a few weeks apart and really know what's going on as there are so many possible things going on with your body, in one video I could be super dry and holding very little water and in the next I could of had too much salt the day before making me puffy and watery looking which I think is what happened in this latest update video. At this point in the game holding water really doesn't matter, in fact you don't want to be too dry! Unfortunately it doesn't make for an impressive update video where people will be shocked and amazed at the progress I have made in a few weeks time.

All I can say is my strength is up and my weight generally speaking is where I want it to be (when not holding water). My diet and training have been on point and with some small adjustments I still feel like I have the potential to bring my best overall size and conditioning to the stage for this show. Only time will tell but I can promise I will do my best to get there! 

Road to the Vancouver Fall Classic 3 Months Out

I did mention a while back that I had plans for a show in the fall and so it begins or I should say it has already begun since I have been consistently training with this goal in mind since April doing my best to stay fairly lean while adding some extra muscle before the really hard prep begins. The show I am doing is called the Vancouver Fall Classic and it looks like Popeye's is the main sponsor with many other sponsors coming to the table so I expect it to be a really good show with a decent turn out. I will be entering Open Physique and perhaps a Masters Class of some sort. Classic Physique I am not sure about but I will consider it as I get closer to the show and see how I am looking, specifically if my legs are up to the challenge.

I am currently sitting at around 205 pounds and would say I am around 11-12% body fat so I need to lose around 10 pounds of fat and would like to be come in right around 195+ pounds before I carb up and fill back in for contest day.

Over the next month my focus will be to slightly cut fat with around a 500 calorie deficit per day which should put me on track to losing around 3-4 pounds of fat for the month, I hope to add an additional 2-3 pounds of muscle so my weight should not change all that much during the next month of prep.

Heading into 2 months out the plans will be to cut a bit harder while maintaining the muscle I have gained, maybe even gaining a pound or two if I'm lucky. I will be in closer to a 1000 calorie deficit during this time which should lead to around a 6-8 pounds of fat loss but everything will be adjusted based on how I look and how I feel.

The final month before the show will be all about getting every last bit of fat off of me which means around a 1500 calorie defect which in order to achieve means with a BMR of around 2100 I need to do at least 1500 calories of exercise each day while eating around 2000 calorie of food. I have done this many times and for me this works. With this calorie deficit I can lose as much as 3 pounds of fat per week but anyone that has done this before will understand that your body does not always cooperate and your metabolism can crash.

Well that's the plan for now but it can change at anytime depending on how I look and feel along the way.