Erika had already been competing for awhile, but struggled with removing cellulite off her legs. It was one of the things the judges docked her for on stage. So, it became our focal point.
I have had her do a pretty complex program, but until recently, her calories have stayed fairly high. We were able to keep her metabolism burning hot using techniques like circuits, high carb days, and cheat meals.
Part of the problem with diets is you either stay low calorie, or you start moderately low and slowly lower calories every 2-3 weeks. The problem is your thyroid deregulates per the amount of food you eat. Thus, the less you eat, the slower your metabolism gets.
With a properly structured carb cycle, you can avoid hitting plateaus.
People also underestimate the value of fasted cardio. Once we implemented that 2 weeks ago, the fat began to fly off of Erika's legs. The fact is, regardless of how your body works, when you are competing, you want any advantage you can get.
I see a lot of fitness influencer's rip on fasted cardio, saying it's not scientific and blah blah blah, but really I think they are just justifying not waking up early (I can't blame them for that honestly). You can science away hard activities all you want, but at the end of the day, bodybuilders have been doing this stuff for the last century and it works.
That brings me to my last comment.
It is a cool thing for people to say they want to get ripped. Everybody wants to look good. As humans, we are naturally a little narcissistic, so we can't help ourselves. However, as humans, we are also pleasure addicts. Thus, it is hard for most of us to override our cravings for instant gratification in pursuit of long term goals.
If you are shooting to be shredded, the answer to your fat loss strategy is not to find a program you can stick to. The answer is to change how you think, so you can stick to your program.
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