How Long Your Prep Should Really Be
This post is part of The Ultimate Bikini Prep Guide – check out the full guide for more!
I won’t lie, I love numbers too. How long is prep? What will my stage weight be? How many calories will I be eating?
The true answer sounds like a dodge but it’s the truth: we’ll know when we know.
The single most common thing I hear from potential clients is that they’re looking for something custom, that’s built for them. Often times these same people want fixed timelines and boilerplate phases to their prep.
That’s not how custom, individualized coaching works. So let’s dig in.
What Actually Determines How Long Your Prep Takes
In a word: visuals. In 2 words, visuals and math. Let’s discuss.
Starting body composition
This is the big one. There’s a certain look that’s appropriate for 20 weeks out. 12 weeks out. Six weeks out. We need to match your look with that visual expectation.
If you’re 20 weeks out but you look 12 weeks out? No need to be in prep yet? Seven days go by, now you’re 19 weeks out but had a bad week on the diet and look 13 weeks out. Still not time, but closer.
That’s the game we play when figuring out when to jump in. Also if someone needs 15 weeks to prep (example), starting prep at 17 weeks out to have some wiggle room is a smart move.
If you’ve done a show before, you know your prior stage weight and should have a target in mind for stage weight this time around, which will also influence this based on expected rate of loss (which we also have from the prior show) so some question marks get filled in automatically.
How your body responds to a deficit
Tied into the last point, if you know you can steadily drop 2-2.5lbs/wk and not lose muscle, that changes the calculus on things.
If dropping 0.5lbs/wk is hard work, that requires more time and is also a sign that staying tighter in the off-season to stay a bit closer to stage weight is the smart move.
How clean your build phase was
This means 2 things realistically: how much weight you have to drop (as previously discussed) but also how far out of the routine you might be. If your off-season got really sloppy, we might need a couple extra weeks just to get a proper routine dialed back in and to get some momentum going again.
Life stress and schedule stability
As discussed in other posts, having managing stress and higher life stability is key to a smooth prep. If this isn’t you, tack on some extra time as “just in case” weeks.
Experience level and prep history
This is why prepping for your first show is SO hard – so many unknowns, including just having no clue what your body is going to do in prep. With clients, every first prep is eye-opening for me as a coach. You find people that don’t sleep well in a deficit. Who have a high carb day and either stress out or feel worse. Digestive issues abound. Mental and body image challenges surface.
Having done a show before not only gives you numerical data to use as a reference but insights into what facets of prep are the most challenging.
For a long time I only did 16 week preps for myself. Then in 2024 I tried a 24 week prep because I wanted extra time and to be a little less chaotic – and it worked really well! I’d have loved to come in a touch leaner but prep overall was pretty chill and doable – I definitely found I have a preference for taking a longer prep and that’s a great lesson to learn.
Why Cookie-Cutter Timelines Fail (and Who They Fail Most)
When looking to hire a coach, ask how they structure their prep phases. If the answer is pretty much anything other than what I described above, you’re talking with a coach who is formulaic and template driven. While this isn’t inherently AWFUL (though it ain’t great), it does suggest to me that this coach may not know what to do when things start happening outside the realm of expected responses – which is almost always going to happen. What’s the plan then?
I certainly don’t subscribe to any theory that says “oh at 12 weeks out we do THIS…” because it assumes that everyone is having a similar experience at 12 weeks out, which isn’t how the universe operates.
As a coach, we need to coach the person in front of us each week. I always start with a fresh look: if this person was showing up in my inbox today for the first time, do they look on track? There are some gut level decisions that need to be answered THERE before moving. Then we look at data over the last 1-4 weeks to identify trends, compare photos, and look at qualitative feedback as well.
If this LOOK great but FEEL like ass, we still have problems to fix.
What “Ready to Start Cutting” Actually Looks Like
We’ve already talked about how lean you should before starting prep. You can read that here:
Ultimately it’s about the math and visuals, as previously stated.
There’s certainly a mental readiness component to this as well. When in doubt, check out the Readiness Quiz I have that you can grab for free right here and get some personalized guidance on YOUR overall readiness:
How I Assess a New Client’s Timeline
First we have to have a conversation on expectations. Are they looking to compete by a certain time, and what their goals are for that show? This is to answer the question of “what year will you compete in?” as this tells us if a sooner show makes sense or if we need to look at evaluating options 1-2 years down the road.
Beyond that, if they’ve competed before I’ll want their prior stage weight and photos. I’ll make a judgment call on what their ideal stage weight should have been, then evaluate the time between whenever that was an now. How much muscle was put on? Enough to impact that estimated stage weight value?
For a first time competitor, it’s a bit of a crapshoot/guess based on visuals and height, but I’m aiming for a very rough guess at a stage weight. I do NOT use this as a target weight, just to help set expectations on how long the cut has been.
If we’ve gone through a shorter fat loss phase or mini-cut, I’ll use data from that to help set expectations for prep as well.
So What’s a Realistic Range?
I’ve had clients do a full prep in as little as 8 weeks (very rare) and as long as 26 (also rare, though not quite as uncommon as shorter ones).
The shorter preps are either for someone who had done a show not too long before prior and was still in decent shape, OR some people just naturally walk around on the leaner side all the time.
Generally 14-20 weeks will work well for most people, as a starting point.
The Most Expensive Mistake: Rushing the Timeline
I talk about write about this at length every chance I get, but rushing prep is the easiest mistake to make and the easiest one to avoid also.
Absolutely check out the readiness planning quiz I have for free if you’re looking for any guidance on your own upcoming prep!
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