Critique of my prep for a bikini competition

Question

I am a 22 year old female, current weight 138lbs, goal weight 120lbs. Current body fat 30%, goal body fat ~15-18%. I am entering a bikini fitness competition in July, so I have around 22 weeks left. I have been weightlifting for over 2 years so have quite well-developed muscles but have a lot of fat to lose. My goal is to maintain existing muscle mass, develop more mass in glutes/hamstrings/rear delts while shredding a ton of fat. My max deadlift 100kg, squat 77.5kg, bench 40kg, press 25kg. I know that I can definitely improve these numbers but have recently taken 3 months off the gym before starting prep.

I have been prepping for 2 weeks now and below is my exercise and nutrition routine. I would be grateful if anyone could critique it and suggest changes and improvements.

Daily calories: 1600 99g carb (keeping it low as I'm sensitive to carbs and feel sluggish) 159g protein 62g fat

Food sources:

chicken, beef, oily fish, broccoli, green beans, asparagus, green leafy veg, blueberries, cauliflower, sweet potato, quinoa, brown rice, almonds, eggs, cottage cheese, cheese, almond flour, banana, protein shake, coconut oil, butter, flaxseed oil, coconut milk, flaxseed, hempseed, chia seeds, other nuts and seeds, Greek yogurt, almond butter, peanut butter

Supplements: psyllium husk, magnesium

Eating 6x a day

I lift 5 times a week in the evenings with 1 rest day and 1 active rest day (yoga/walking/circuit class).

I do HIIT hill sprints on 3 days of my 5 days of lifting. This consists of 5min warmup and cooldown walking on an incline and 5 rounds of 30sec sprint and 1.30min walking. Aiming to increase this to 10 rounds as my fitness increases.

Monday - Back. Deadlifts, rows, one arm DB rows, lat pulldowns, standing cable lat pressdown + hill sprints

Tuesday - Quads and glutes. Squats, leg press, walking lunges, bulgarian split squats. Abs. Hanging leg raises, mason twists, cable crunches, plank.

Wednesday - Shoulders and arms. Standing barbell shoulder press, bicep curl Arnold press, delt flys, front raises, lateral raises, hammer curl, chinups, rope pulldowns, bent over tricep kickback, dips. Followed by hill sprints

Thursday - chest and abs. Bench press, incline fly, pressups. Hanging leg raises, mason twists, cable crunches, plank.

Friday - hamstrings and glutes. Romanian deadlifts, hip extensions, glute bridges, good mornings, cable kickbacks + hill sprints

Saturday - active recovery

Sunday - rest

I do 4 sets with 10-12 reps with around 60s rest in between.

I need to get more sleep, currently average 7:20h a night. I have a desk job from 9am - 6pm but I walk 20min each way to work.

So far I have lost around 4lbs but this is probably just from increasing my water intake to ~4litres a day.

What do you think? Is this a reasonable regimen?

Answer 1

You are worth your name. Your regime looks pretty strong, but you could try a few things to make it more effective.

Firstly, as you said yourself, try to get more sleep. Rest is critical if you are working out this hard. I had significant results when I started sleeping for almost 9 hours.

Secondly, your diet looks pretty good,but you could try a few things

1. Reducing your caloric deficit even more, by a few hundred calories. This is a sure way to lose weight, when you feel you are stuck
2. Carbohydrate cycling. It is a little bit on the side of bro science, but I have done it, and it does work for me,it might not work for you, who knows. The link I provided is an example. There are many different plans for this. Find the one that works for you.
3. Carbohydrate backloading. Also a bit on the side of bro science, but also works, for me. Check it out, try, you might like this.
4. Intermittent fasting. This is more like a life style, which I personally love. I combine this with Carb backloading to get some nice results. It also makes my life a lot easier since I wake up at 7 am. to start getting ready for work, and thus not really feeling like preparing breakfast. Using this I lost 1 kg per week, while I was still building more lean mass(Was measuring). Add some green tea to the diet in the mornings and in the evenings and it will be perfect. (Green tea, and black coffee won't break the fasted state)

Try some of those things. Number 4 would definitely help you. Combine it with the others and I am sure you will reach your goals.

To be honest, 4 liters a day seems a bit much, but I might be wrong. I personally drink 3 liters a day and I weight 92 kg. This article even states that women should drink a bit less than men. But at the end of the day, it is your choice.

Good luck