By IFBB Pro Josh Wade
118 MD musculardevelopment.com July 2019
Presented by
ALLMAX
®Nutrition
Staying In Shape
During Off-Season
I’ve seen your off -season pictures and you stay in good
shape. How do you transition from prep to off -season?
This is a great question and one I feel is very important,
especially for new competitors. Aft er 12 to 16 weeks of hardcore
dieting, your metabolism and insulin sensitivity are primed
to build muscle following a competition, but it will also refi ll
and even build new fat cells if you start stuffi ng your face with
crap, especially high saturated fat content crap! The biggest
mistake people make is that aft er months of consistent
feedings every three hours or so to get their metabolism and
fat burning fi ring, suddenly their structure goes out the window
and they start eating haphazardly with no set meal timing
schedule anymore. This will slow down the metabolism and
leads to faster fat gain.
There’s nothing wrong with having some food that you have
been craving post competition, but remember it’s the building
season (not week), so you don’t have to have everything you’ve
been craving for the last four months in a few days or even two
weeks aft er the show. What I do is have a cheat meal the night
of the show and always a good breakfast the next morning
(whatever I want), then I incorporate clean meals back every
three hours to keep my metabolism fi ring and burn off some
of the junk I ate aft er the show. Then every couple of days,
when I want to, I’ll have another cheat meal. The biggest trick
is making sure you keep eating the clean meals with the dirty
meals to keep metabolism fi ring. Don’t abandon clean eating
or have an entire cheat “day.” This will keep fat gain down and
help you process the nutrients needed to build muscle aft er a
show and not just get fat like so many competitors do!
In simple terms, for the fi rst couple of weeks aft er a show
I keep my baseline diet about the same as it was about three
to four weeks out from the show to accommodate some of the
cheat meals without spilling over. Then as I get tired of the
cheat meals and feel satisfi ed, I will slowly increase carbs to
stay full and start slowly putt ing on clean weight. Then once
I feel I’ve reached my carb threshold, meaning my muscle
glycogen storage tanks are full and I’m no longer gaining
weight, that’s when I will add good healthy fats to increase
calories like avocado, mixed nuts, or olive oil. The whole thing
is you have to do the same thing every day and take notes
to be able to track results through scale weight and visually
assess yourself as well to see when changes need to be
made, one way or another!
Bott om line: Have some discipline post show to make sure
you don’t undo all your hard work in a few short weeks and
you will greatly benefi t the next time you prep for a show!
Remember there is no need to put on a bunch of weight that
you will have to diet off. As long as you are in a calorie surplus
you will build muscle mass. Just because you add a lot
more calories doesn’t mean you will build muscle any faster!
Implement this as a lifesty le and it will become second nature.“ Have some discipline post show to make
sure you don’t undo all your hard work in a
few short weeks. There is no need to put on a
bunch of weight that you will have to diet off.”