Avoiding Weight Gain After Prep: Relentless Pursuit

Written by IFBB Pro Josh Wade

18 July 2022

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Relentless Pursuit

By IFBB Pro Josh Wade

Presented by Allmax Nutrition

Avoiding Weight Gain After Prep

Q: I’m prepping for my first show but I’m already thinking of building more muscle after the show; how do you transition from prep to off-season?

A: This is a great question and one I feel is very important, especially for new competitors. After 12 to 16 weeks of hardcore dieting, if you dieted properly and didn’t crash-diet then your metabolism and insulin sensitivity are primed to build following a competition. But with your fat cells depleted they will also want to refill and even build new fat cells if you start stuffing your face with crap, especially high saturated fat content crap! The biggest mistake people make is after months of consistent feedings every three hours or so to get their metabolism and fat burning firing, then their meal structure goes out the window and they start eating haphazardly which slows down the metabolism and leads to faster fat gain. There’s nothing wrong with having some food post-competition that you have been craving; but remember it’s the building season (not week), so you don’t have to have everything you’ve been craving in a few days or even weeks after 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 firing and burn off some of the junk I ate after the show. Then every couple of days I’ll have another cheat meal. The biggest trick is making sure you keep eating the clean meals with the dirty meals to keep your metabolism firing. Don’t abandon clean eating or have a cheat “day.” This will keep fat gain down and help you process the nutrients needed to build muscle after a show and not just fat!

‘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 benefit come next time you prep for a show!’

In simple terms, for the first couple of weeks after a show I keep my baseline diet about the same as it is 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 satisfied, I will slowly increase carbs to stay full and start slowly putting 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, is when I will add good healthy fats to increase calories: foods 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 to see when changes need to be made, one way or another.

Bottom 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 benefit come 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. So long as you are in a calorie surplus you will build. And just because you add a lot more calories doesn’t mean you will build any faster! Implement this as a lifestyle and it will become second nature!

Benefits of Intra-Workout Nutrition

Q: How does your supplementation change from off-season to pre-contest? Do you change products at different times or just the amounts used?

A: I’m a big intra-workout nutrition advocate and I believe there’s tremendous benefit to drinking BCAAs, L-glutamine, creatine, vasodilators and for me lots of carbs during workouts as I’ve talked about before. I’m sponsored by Allmax Nutrition and they make every product I need, so I’m blessed to have them all at my disposal. During my workout I use a 45-ounce shaker cup with two scoops of Aminocore (16 grams of BCAAs), 10 grams of Glutamine, 5 grams of creatine, and most of the time for me I use two scoops of Carbion (100 grams of carbs) except on shoulder or arm day where I only use 1 scoop (50 grams of carbs) as they are smaller muscle groups.

I always use these same dosages except at times in prep when fat might not be coming off as fast. I might reduce my intra-workout carbs to 50 grams instead of 100 grams, but I always try to keep them up as much as possible to make sure my workouts are productive, energetic and powerful so I’m always building muscle during weight training and using cardio and diet for fat loss. Also, for recovery year-round my go-to post-workout is two scoops of Isoflex protein powder. In the off-season I’ll add another scoop of Carbion (50 grams of carbs) to it for extra glycogen replenishment that I might not do during prep unless I feel I’m getting a little flatter than I should be at that point.

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‘I’m a big intra-workout nutrition advocate and I believe there’s tremendous benefit to drinking BCAAs, L-glutamine, creatine, vasodilators and for me lots of carbs during workouts.’

I use Impact Igniter as my pre-workout year-round but when body fat levels get low and carbs are reduced from meals, it’s that much more important to me to help push me through my workouts with the stimulants in it and also the cognitive effects from the lion’s mane mushroom and the Alpha-GPC. Give it a try and I promise you won’t be disappointed!

ALLMAX is now selling directly to the consumer. Go to store.allmaxnutrition.com and use code JOSHWADE15 for 15% off.

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Strengthening the Immune System

With the COVID-19 situation, I’ve been getting a lot of inquiries as to which supplements can strengthen the immune system and help prevent infection. These are the supplements that I take every day year-round for immune system function and antioxidants, but they are even more beneficial at times of stress or sickness.

Allmax Immune-Boosting Stack

Glutamine: 10g 3x day, upon rising, post-workout and before bed.

R+ALA: 2 caps (300mg) with first and last meal.

CytoGreens: 1 scoop upon rising.

Vitastack: 1 multipack with first meal.

Omega 3: 2g with first and last meal.

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Website: www.teamwadefitness.com

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