I’m certain you’ve heard the phrase “there is more than one way to skin a cat”. Dieting a client for a show is no different. There is more than one way to dial in a client to peak conditioning. The diet strategies we employ do not normally include higher fat food sources such as nuts, avocados, salmon, etc. Nuts are too high in fat for our typical style of dieting. You will not lose weight consuming food choices that have calories high in fat when employing this approach. The confusion with nuts is that they contain “healthy fats”. These types of fats are good for your skin, hair, brain and central nervous system but if consumed in excess will prevent you from dropping weight with our standard dieting philosophies. Healthy fats are only required in small amounts but the media has the general public convinced that healthy fats must consumed in abundance. This is incorrect and will not help a physique athlete achieve extreme levels of conditioning. We have opted to use high fat diets (where some nuts may be permitted) such as a ketogenic-style diet but this is determined on an individual basis. Nut options are also added to a client’s diet in their Progress Season and we’ve include nut butter in our Mutant Mass Bar Recipe. Some clients actually do better with fats in their diet when cutting up – everyone is different and we pride ourselves in creating individual programs for each client and adjusting the plan based on their feedback and look. The majority of clients dieting for show can normally start with a small amount of nut butter but tend to do better without this food choice as the show gets closer. Furthermore, some clients who are genetically blessed with fast metabolisms and certain lean bikini athletes who are in good condition when they start a cutting phase would be considered examples of an exception to this rule.
We do tend to include nut butters in our clients progress season programs but opt for actual nuts for dieting clients if we choose to use this option.