The Untold Truths At Six Weeks Out
THE UNTOLD TRUTH AT SIX WEEKS OUT
If you’re going through prep for the first time, you will experience a roller-coaster of emotions and feelings that you didn’t know were part of the process when you first started dieting. It is around the six-week out marker that you are going to notice how much of a struggle it is and it’s at this point, if you aren’t aware of what’s coming, you might want to pull out or struggle with adherence.
Therefore the purpose of this article is to explain how you may feel around the six week out marker if you are prepping for the first time. The aim is not to scare you away, but instead to allow you to prepare for what’s coming and how to ensure you make it to show day.
ENERGY LEVELS AND MOOD
Your friends may have told you how low on energy you’ll be at this point, but you maybe didn’t realise quite how low they meant! It’s at this point where across the day the only time you’ll feel like you have energy is when you train. Out with that you won’t have the energy, want or desire to do anything. So much so that you could be bursting to go to the toilet but convince yourself the bathroom is too far away to get up so you inevitably wait until you are bursting before you finally go. If you’re reading this and you’re of sound mind, that sounds silly, but in truth it is the reality.
If you asked someone to sum up how they feel at six weeks out, they’d tell you “I’m f**ked”. With that in mind, it’s no wonder that one’s mood can drastically change. Don’t be surprised if at this point you are very quiet, aren’t up for a laugh and perhaps aren’t as caring around your loved ones as you once were. Whether you know it or not, you simply just don’t have any excess energy to give to be put into talking, having banter or being intimate with your partner. My wife often describes me a ‘shadow’ of my normal self when I get to six weeks out and that “the lights are on, but no one’s home”.
Of course, this can be incredibly difficult and stressful for your spouse or partner but if you make them aware of how you’re feeling and help them to understand they will be more supportive. One of the biggest pieces of advice I can give you would be to not take your emotions and frustrations out on those closest to you. The leaner you get, the more agitated you will become and your patience for anything out with your prep wears thin. It then becomes easy to take of those frustrations out on loved ones but before you do, stop for a moment, and think, would you act this way towards them if you weren’t dieting? If the answer is no, then stop, take a breath, and think before you speak/act.
PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL FATIGUE
From a training perspective you will certainly not be hitting PBs at this point however you should be able to maintain your strength for a long time on prep. There will come a time though, around the six week out marker, where you have to drop the load. This can be mentally challenging for you if you follow a progressive overload model, but what you must bear in mind is that the goal during prep is to get lean, not to add muscle. It does suck the joy out of training a little, which can be frustrating, however it does have a means to an end. Your legs will feel like lead, your body will feel beat up and fragile and you will crave energy. However, if you’re feeling like that, it means your almost ready and you must endure to take the rest of the body fat off!
Due to your resting heart rate being slow, because of how cardiovascular fit you are, you might find that if you stand up too quickly, you feel extremely dizzy and lightheaded. This is down to the sudden change in blood pressure and is one of those things that people don’t tell you is a common occurrence during prep. You may find it extremely difficult to concentrate on anything for more than a few moments. Many will typically describe this as ‘brain fog’ by which you simply become forgetful and very slow at any daily tasks out with your training and cardio.
Prep is an emotional roller-coaster, particularly the closer you get to your show. You may find yourself crying on the bathroom floor one minute and then the next minute flexing in the mirror thinking you look the business. You will be plagued with self-doubt which intensifies with each passing day and worry that you aren’t lean enough, big enough or good enough to compete. It’ll be the best you’ve ever looked in your life, but at times the least confident. However, if you’ve got a good coach you’ll be bang on the criteria and do well!
FOOD FOCUS AND SLEEP
If this is your first-time dieting, food focus can be extremely high by which everything you do in your day revolves around your next meal. You’ll no doubt find yourself filling your day with tasks for time to go by to get to your next meal, and that is completely normal at this stage. There are a couple things you might be doing: scrolling Instagram and looking at cakes, burgers, and everything else in between and writing a list of all the things you want to eat once prep is done. If you are doing either one of those please stop as you are setting yourself up for failure post prep and encouraging a poor relationship with food.
Lastly, your sleep quality and duration will take a nosedive. You might find it easy to get to sleep but it’s staying asleep that’s the issue. Waking up multiple times throughout the night and struggling to get back over is very common. You will also wake up early (crica 5-6am) and be unable to have a long lie.
Having read all the above, you might be thinking to yourself, is it all worth it? My answer to you would be, yes. I can unequivocally say that it’ll all be worth it when it’s all said and done. For everything you’ve read in this article there are ways of managing things as best as you can and finding solutions, it all comes down to having a great coach to guide you along the way.
In summary, competition prep becomes extremely challenging around the six week out marker. You will have low energy levels and not much desire to do anything out with your training/cardio. You will experience a change in mood, a great deal of physical and mental fatigue and of brain fog. Food focus will increase, and sleep quality duration will decrease. When it’s all said and done, it’s worth it.
Vaughan Wilson Bsc Hons