how to not lose muscle while cutting

Posted by: Jo

Hi there,

I desperately need some advice. I have my first womens figure competition coming up in less than a week. I started dieting at around 12 weeks out from comp date and at around 8 weeks out I started a Ketogenic diet as directed by a diet coach. I've been in a constant state of ketosis for about 5 weeks now and have stripped myself down to 4% body fat. My concern is that I know that my body is just breaking down my muscle for fuel and I'm getting smaller and already loosing some definition in my abs. I had planned to start my carb depletion tomorrow but I'm worried that I really won't have anything for my body to feed off and it will just eat away all my hard work. I'm a personal trainer with 3 kids and am really busy at the moment so having plenty of rest time isn't an option. I was thinking of maybe having a large refeed tonight just to give my body something to feed off for the last 5 days. I have peaked early and now I'm just looking depleted. If it helps I'll write out my current diet and then my planned carb depletion diet.

Current diet -
Meal 1) Glutamine and BCAA
Meal 2) 100g Chicken breast, 2 eggs, tomato, shallot, mushroom, spinach omelette with pepper
Meal 3) Just before training - 60g Oats, protein powder and cinnamon
Post workout - 100% whey protein powder, bcaa, glutamine, dextrose.
Meal 4) 100g turkey mince, lettuce, shallot, cauliflower, beans, broccoli, sugar snap peas, tomato, cucumber, 1 tab avocado and mustard seeds.
Meal 5) 100g Tuna springwater, cabbage, shallot, beans, eggplant, 1 tab avocado zucchini, cauliflower with vinegar
Meal 6) 100g chicken breast, cabbage, onion, eggplant, beans, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, mushroom, ginger, garlic, chilli stir fry
Meal 7) Same as either meal 4 or 5.

3 ltrs water a day.
Trained daily, whole body. Light wight, lots of reps.

Depletion diet
Meal 1) Glutamine and BCAA
Meal 2) 100g Chicken breast, lettuce, cucumber, zucchini, beans, 1 tab avocado.
Meal 3) 100g Turkey mince, cabbage, cucumber, beans, zucchini, 1 tab avocado.
Meal 4) Same as either 2 or 3
Meal 5) Same as 2 or 3
Meal 6) Same as 2 or 3
Meal 7) Same as 2 or 3

No protein powder and only really light training in the first 3 days.
5 - 6 lts water a day

Thanks heaps

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