Food isn’t the enemy!
It all just comes down to calories in < calories out. Don’t be stupid with your calorie deficit. If you try to survive on 700kcal a day you will just be exhausted and get a foggy brain. You’ll probably also find you bloat up.
Don’t focus on the scales or being a certain weight. Take progress photos and focus on how you look not what you weigh. A number on the scales won’t tell you if you’re losing fat or not…I’ll explain in a minute, keep reading.
If it sounds like it’s going to be an easy quick fix to help you lose weight it’s either not going to work or it’s not going to be healthy for you. Or both! Skinny teas etc just make you poop a lot and empty you out giving a false sense of weight loss!
Carbs don’t make you fat! They’re just a food source and if you don’t eat so many that it puts you in a calorie surplus, you’re good. Trust me!
Eat the chocolate! Don’t restrict yourself from eating things you enjoy. As I said it’s about the calories not the types of food. Someone lost weight only eating Twinkies because they were in a calorie deficit!! Obviously not the best way to keep healthy to but you get the point. If you restrict yourself from the things you enjoy all that happens is you end up having a mad binge and undoing all your hard work! It’s about having something that’s sustainable forever not just for a few weeks into pageant prep!
Protein pancakes, protein flapjacks, protein bars are great for hitting your protein target if you need to, but unless you’re after my spot on the weightlifting stage you don’t need to waste calories on things that realistically don’t taste as nice as actual pancakes, flapjacks etc. Just eat the tastier version! A lot of shop bought protein bars have twice as many calories as a chocolate bar of the same size. So you might think you’re choosing a “healthier” option but it could actually be negatively affecting your goals.
Don’t fear the weights area!
If you want to build that booty, tighten the arms up, build the abs, you need to get lifting the weights not just running on a treadmill or using a booty band!
Get a good coach that’s going to help you and teach you to do compound weight movements properly like squats, deadlifts etc. These movements are awesome full body movements which means you train everything all at once and can spend less time in the gym and more time in the studio practicing that walk!
Lifting weights means your body burns calories for longer because muscles require more energy to work and your body has to use energy to help them recover after a training session.
Muscle weighs more than fat so going back to that earlier point about the scales, if you start hitting the gym you might actually find that your weight has gone up but you’ll probably find your body fat has gone down!
If you’re 5’10” your “ideal healthy weight” (whatever that is) isn’t going to be the same as someone who is 5’3”! You are taller so you have more bone mass and naturally will have more muscle mass to cover that bone area and will therefore be heavier.
There’s more to winning a pageant AND LIFE than how much you weigh or how much body fat you have! Enjoy life and be healthy. Health is more than physical, it’s mental and social too! So if you’re being restrictive and it’s affecting your social life (not going out to eat with friends) and mental health (because you’re not enjoying things that you enjoy) then it’s not making you healthier overall!
Sarah Davies has previously held titles such as Miss Intercontinental England 2018 and International Ms Great Britain 2020 and recently represented Great Britain at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics in weightlifting where she placed fifth in the Women's 64kg division.
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