Calorie Deficits for Bikini Prep
This post is part of The Ultimate Bikini Prep Guide – check out the full guide for more!
Ok, pre-contest cutting time – here we go. If you’ve skipped everything before this and are getting started here, well – bad bodybuilder. Very bad. Scroll back up and take your time!
Seriously though, this is where everyone wants to jump to but there is SO MUCH MORE to bodybuilding than just leaning out. If you’re new and came straight to this section, seriously go back and read the other section first.
With that disclaimer/lecture over, let’s talk conceptually about deficits, how to approach them, and some of the strategies around manipulating them.
The Size of Your Deficit Is a Strategic Decision AND a Math Problem
If you want to lean out (reduce body fat), you need to be in a caloric deficit. If you’re the one person on the planet who is the exception to that, congratulations – write a book and make your millions. I hear a lot of people say “I’m leaning out even though I’m not in a deficit” which simply means they ARE in one, it just doesn’t feel like it or based on the numbers doesn’t seem like they should be.
The results dictate whether or not you’re in a deficit, not a calculator.
The first question is “how big?” – do you go hard and aim for a huge deficit or be very conservative and go for a small one?
As a coach this is a question I wrestle with for every person because the answer isn’t universal. Some people tolerate larger deficits better than other people. The response can be positive or negative in both physical and psychological terms, and as a coach I have to consider all of these and figure out what’s going to be the first for each person.
A more aggressive approach can yield a nice productive start to a cutting phase, but isn’t typically sustainable and usually requires a lot more hand-holding and micromanaging through to keep it effective. As a coach this is fine, if you’re trying to manage it yourself it gives you MANY more signals to watch for and interpret and can become very tricky.
Too conservative and you risk running out of time and not being lean enough on show day.
A good middle of the road approach relies on math to know WHERE you need to end up (in terms of weight) and then the smallest deficit to maintain a rate of loss that’ll get you there at the right time. Simple, right?
Why Starting Too Aggressive Is the Most Common Mistake
If you tank your calories and start with a mountain of cardio early on, you’ve basically painted yourself into a corner by removing levers you’ll need to pull later. The concept of “minimum effective dose” from medicine carries over here. Don’t’ take morphine for your headache when 200mg of Ibuprofen can do the trick.
Don’t program a 1000 calorie deficit when a 500 calorie deficit will hit your targeted rate of loss. The body will likely adapt to that big deficit faster than you think, which is going to force corrective action sooner and, as mentioned already, you’ve pulled a lot of the levers you have at your disposal (calorie drops, cardio increases) already so there’s left room left to maneuver.
Also with larger deficits come decreased training performance which can mean a greater risk of losing muscle – something we desperately want to avoid.
Start small and take it slow – this is always going to be the smartest approach. It’s just the “small” and “slow” are relative from person to person.
Ready more about how the body’s metabolism adapts during prep here:
What “Aggressive Enough But Conservative Enough” Actually Looks Like
If you’re losing pounds per week, that’s not usually a good thing unless you have a LOT of pounds to lose and are set up in such a way that those drops are expected and warranted. If you need to drop 60 pounds during prep, drop 30 of them first and THEN consider a break before prep. Get to a good starting point before you actually start prep in earnest. Having a more narrow target to aim for increases your chance of success.
The actual rate of loss you can expect to see will vary wildly from one individual to the next. Generally speaking, 1-2lbs per week is doable for most people without being overly exposed to risk of tissue loss.
In addition to watching the numbers and of course your photos, monitor your training performance. That’s going to be your most useful metric to determine if your “results producing deficit” is too big. If that performance is suffering, it’s likely some of your “scale success” is coming at the expense of muscle tissue and you should feel comfortable backing off a bit.
Hunger, energy and mood are also valuable indicators but as a coach I’m rarely ever going to make moves based on this. You’re supposed to be hungry, low energy, and irritable during prep to some extent – typically these are things we’re going to try and address and deal with through other means.
Adjusting the Deficit Over Time
I often tell people when they start a cut that if they could see at 16 weeks out what their diet would look like at 3 weeks out, they’d probably shit their pants.
But by the time you’re 3 weeks out, you’re locked in and ready for whatever. At that point, you probably NEED whatever that deficit looks like – and you didn’t need it at the start. It’s supposed to change (and likely increase) over time. That’s normal and a sign that your body is doing what we expect it to do under these circumstances.
When considering what decisions to make, you look at longer term trends and not just individual data points. In Bikini Blueprint, I have a self check-in tool where you self-rate in several areas and, along with a weight trend, shows you how those areas trend over 8 and 20 week periods so you can easily spot your strengths and weaknesses and plan around them, It’s a really easy way at a glance to tell what’s working and what needs attention.
Keep in mind that diet and cardio work together to create your deficit – cardio can and should be modulated over time as well. Check the following link for details on adjusting your cardio strategy too:
COMING SOON
Don’t make big changes based on a bad scale week. First, evaluate why it was a bad week. Was it poorly executed? If so, FIX THAT FIRST, don’t make changes. Evaluate the ‘why’ of everything beyond your data points and beyond the trends also.
What the Deficit Should Never Cost You
Bodybuilding is all about muscle retention. If you set yourself up to lose muscle during a pre just to get lean, you’ve lost the plot. Unless you’re way cooler than me (to be clear, this is not only possible but likely) and have muscle to spare (who does?), this is non-negotiable.
Training performance can and likely will drop over time, but it shouldn’t fall off a cliff. That’s a sign to re-evaluate some things.
“Prep brain” and general brain fog is expected but you have to maintain normal function for your day job/etc – if your prep causes you to get fired, well – you needed to have scaled things back a little sooner. Don’t be a hero or a martyr for a plastic trophy.
Keep in mind that a show is PART of your life, it’s not your entire life. There needs to be a modicum of balance present still, it can’t be “prep at any costs” because in reality some of those costs are 100% not worth it. If you alienate your family, lose your job, etc – even winning a show isn’t worth that cost.
Find the balance – but don’t be afraid to push and challenge yourself at the same time. Be realistic about where you are. Self-awareness and self-evaluation are keys here.
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