THIS IS WHAT IT TAKES THURSDAY for today's highlight on Monica.
I like to occasionally highlight exactly what some clients have had to do in order to achieve their results. I think that many, especially new competitors, don't really have a good perspective on exactly how much work goes into achieving a stage-ready physique. As we come up on our fall shows, I'll highlight a little of what each client's prep has been like as well as their stats to help give you an idea of the real work it takes and the variation for every unique client.
This isn't to say that EVERY client will have to eat this few calories or will get to eat this MANY calories (yes, some simply have to go lower while others can eat much more). Also not to say that every client will have to do THIS much cardio or may have to do much more. Every client is unique.
Monica's stats:
- First-time competitor
- Age: 29
- Height: 5'2.75"
- Mother of 2 yo
- Job: Active/on feet 5-6 hrs per day
- Starting weight: 130
- Starting cals: 1700 – 1900
- Current cals: 1200 on average including lower rest days and a refeed day each week
- Dieting history: None (not a chronic dieter)
- Cardio history: Very little to none prior to prep
- Current cardio: 135 min total interval and steady state
- Training: 4-5 days per week
Monica has lost nearly 20 lbs in as many weeks. We have very gradually reduced calories weekly (sometimes only 50 cals or so) and very gradually increased her cardio with a mixture of interval and SS. She had the freedom to choose when and how much cardio she would do. Some sessions were 10 min and some were longer. She has been 100% on point with her flexible dieting protocol and meticulously tracked her food from day 1. Her consistency and progress even allowed for us to give her a week-long diet break bringing cals up around 1600 daily while on vacation in August.
I credit much of Monica’s success to the following key things:
- Consistency in her nutrition, training, cardio, meal prep, work schedule, etc. Everything is planned out in advance, leaving no room for excuses or errors.
- She was tracking her nutrition for over a year before starting her prep which allowed us to have an accurate depiction of where she was starting from
- She had been weight training for several years prior to starting her prep; which allowed her to have enough muscle to show appropriately when the body fat came off
- She had literally never dieted or restricted calories unnecessarily before starting prep; which allowed her body to be very responsive since she had little to no metabolic adaptation from years of dieting
- She has an active job, helping her with NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) or the calories you burn in daily living outside of the gym; this allows her to burn more calories outside of gym activities that require recovery.
Every once in a while, I’m surprised by a client and Monica is one of them. When I first saw her pics in her initial application to work with me, I wasn’t REALLY sure what she would look like in the end or what her progress would be like. I was pleasantly surprised by everything about her, and especially for our end result (to be seen in 2 weeks). She progressed so quickly, we decided to move her show date/s up nearly a month. We’re two weeks out from show #1 (OCB Chesapeake Classic) and 6 weeks out from show #2 (OCB Franco Classic). Stay tuned for even more exciting transformation pics to come!